I really like this site for its comprehensiveness and for the purpose it is serving in bringing Tanzania and Wasukuma to the world. Great job.

Id be interested in the audience and purposes of the Sukuma Museum as a museum online. The purpose, as it exists, seems to be to represent online the actual 3-D museum--and the culture that it, in turn, represents--for those who arent likely to make it to Mwanza/Shinyanga.

1. How is the site projected to its potentially bery large world-wide audience: has it been registered on search engines; is it simply listed on photo-net (for which one has to do search, since it was not apparent on the site map); or have any publicity e-mailings gone out to museums, art sites, etc? I found it on a page of a site that I now maintain ( http://wsi.cso.uiuc.edu/CAS on the page http://wsi.cso.uiuc.edu/CAS/art.html ) but I am not sure how I would have accessed or found the site otherwise.

I am generally curious about the goals of the virtual museum as distinct from the literal museum in Kisesa. Is there any specific Web audience in mind, e.g., art or anthro students? Is the purpose at core to exposure for the museum, or to teach about Sukuma cultureor is it equally both of these?

Tutaonana, Mwenzako, Nicolas Cook Center for African Studies-UIUC

-- Nicolas Cook (nt-cook@uiuc.edu), December 09, 1998