The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has opened virtually online – eight years before it opens physically on the National Mall in Washington DC, US in 2015.

The new website has been designed with IBM using social networking technologies to encourage collaboration between the Smithsonian’s newest museum and the public, to help gather materials and accounts which will build the museum’s collections.

Visitors to the site can upload their own memories, either as text, an image or a sound recording, and a navigational online map shows how these memories all link together and fit in with the museum’s content of people, places, issues and events.

“IBM's partnership with the National Museum of African American History and Culture will help create a new type of facility - one that is not only being built for visitors, but being created by visitors,” said Samuel J Palmisano, chairman and chief executive officer of IBM and a member of the museum's Advisory Council.

“Technology is allowing people to be this important museum's first curators."

Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the museum, added: "The Smithsonian is honoured to work with IBM to create this virtual platform for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

"This initiative allows us to share the rich culture, preserve the important history and make the African-American past available to millions globally. Because of this partnership, we can build a new community of supporters and enrich the educational resources of children in America and around the world."

The website was unveiled to the public during guided sessions at the Annual Legislative Conference hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation at the Washington Convention Center. Details: www.nmaahc.si.edu

Photograph: The National Museum of African American History and Culture's deputy director Kinshasha Holman Conwill and director Lonnie G. Bunch stand in front of the location of the new museum. The Monument site was selected as the location for the museum on 30 January 2006.

Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution