Starting from ICOM definition of “Museum”, V-MUST is currently trying to define a “Virtual Museum”. The discussion is leading to obtain an essential and generic definition of a virtual museum, enriched with the specific definitions and uses of the term in the different domains (ICT, heritage, etc.). We report here the evolving definition of the term.

[Virtual Museum ver 1.1] A Virtual Museum is a digital creation organized on a permanent or temporal basis in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, in a digital way, the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment. It uses various forms of interactivity and immersion, for the purpose of education, research, enjoyment and enhancement of visitor experience.

[Virtual Museum ver 1.2] A Virtual museum is a digital creation accessible by a public, focused on tangible or intangible heritage. It uses various forms of interactivity and immersion, for the purpose of education, research, enjoyment, enhancement of visitor experience

[Virtual Museum ver 1.3] A Virtual museum is a communication product accessible by a public, focused on tangible or intangible heritage. It uses various forms of interactivity and immersion, for the purpose of education, research, enjoyment, enhancement of visitor experience. In Digital Heritage it is mainly intended as a Digital creation

[Virtual Museum ver 1.4] A Virtual museum is a communication product made accessible by an institution to the public that is focused on tangible or intangible heritage. It typically uses interactivity and immersion for the purpose of education, research, enjoyment, and enhancement of visitor experience. Virtual Museums are usually, but not exclusively delivered electronically when they are denoted as online museums, hypermuseum, digital museum, cybermuseums or web museums.