INTEGRATING HIGH QUALITY DIGITAL SCIENCE POPULARIZATION RESOURCES IN THE SOCIETY TO ESTABLISH THE SHARED PLATFORM OF NATIONAL SCIENCE POPULARIZATION RESOURCES – THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MUSEUM OF CHINA

The project of the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China is constructed by the China Association for Science and Technology, Ministry of Education and Chinese Academy of Sciences, of which the objective is to integrate the high quality digital science popularization resources in China to construct an Internet-based national science popularization resources sharing platform. This project complies with the objective requirement of Internet-based science popularization in China that has groundbreaking significance. The construction at Stage I includes the construction of Museum A (museum), Museum B (experiencing museum), Museum C (resources museum), and an information service platform. During construction the project has been faced with many problems, such as how to integrate numerous science popularization resources for sharing and how to realize the function of science experiencing of the digital science & technology museum to attract the public. These problems will be explored and resolved in practice. The units participated in this project will, by combining the requirement for science popularization at the grass roots level, aggressively launch the application and extended service of this project.


PROJECT BACKGROUND
China has attached great importance to the popularization of science and improvement of its citizens' scientific knowledge to boost the overall development of the economy, society, and population and to lay down a foundation of human resources for upgrading independent innovation ability and comprehensive national power, constructing an affluent society, and achieving the strategic objective at the third step of the modernization drive.(2006-2010-2020)" that established an objective that will greatly improve the education, promotion and popularization of science and technology and the quality of national science.

On
On September 14th, 2006, the National Scientific Quality Office issued a notification regarding forwarding of the "Executive Plan of Resource Exploitation of Science Popularization and Sharing Project" (Quan, Ke, Zhu, Ban, & Fa, 2006), which clearly sets forth "by taking the Digital Science and Technology Museum of China as priority, to construct information resources sharing and a communication platform for science popularization and to explore effective modes for the product resources of science popularization for serving the public."

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT CONSTRUCTION (I) It complies with the objective requirement of Internet-based science popularization in China
Along with social development, more and more information resources, especially resources regarding public interest and scientific education, are accessible to the public internationally on the Internet.Integrating, processing, and converting the existing public scientific and technical information resources into information for science popularization that can be understood by the masses and can be used by public science educators and shared via Internet is becoming an international development trend.Entertainment and interactive science popularization information is popular with the public and has significant long term potential.Taking a broad view of the development trend of Internet-based science popularization in some developed countries, the mixture of on-line scientific experiments, detailed explanations or scientific cartoons, and even games have Data Science Journal, Volume 6, Supplement, 19 August 2007 replaced the traditional pattern of spreading information of science popularization websites that was welcomed by cyber-citizens.We should take advantage of new developments of this era by using the features of modern networks as a new type of media and utilizing the technologies of online games, virtual museums, virtual interactive exhibitions, and virtual scientific experimentvisualization to develop an Internet-based science popularization form which will be appreciated by the public.1. Monotonous Manifestation.At present, the manifestation of science popularization websites and columns in China is monotonous, with a lack of entertainment quality and interaction.The contents of these websites are mainly text and pictures, and they ignore the more vivid and interesting multimedia manifestations such as audio, video, and games.

Shortage of information content and inconvenient retrieval.
There are no mature websites of Internet-based science popularization in China at present, and the available websites are inconvenient for public retrieval.Public science educators are frequently discouraged when searching for materials for creating works or developing products of science popularization.

Readability indices Ratio(%)
Websites that can be retrieved by multiple-approaches such as assortment, theme and keyword 27.9 Websites that provide help information such as instruction, introduction, and website map 16.4 Websites from which information can be printed or downloaded 83.6  To construct a science and technology museum on a large scale and level requires ten of millions or even hundreds of millions of RMB.However, the economic development of China has restricted the money available for this type of construction.The quantity of visitors to a Digital Science & Technology Museum of China, however, may be ten or even hundred times greater than those of a physical science and technology museum.
Visitors to a digital science and technology museum will bring a much greater investment return.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE AND CONSTRUCTION CONTENT
The construction of the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China will take three years.When finished, it will establish an information service platform and database; integrate science popularization products and information resources needed to launch an Internet-based science popularization and sharing platform, and digitalize the available social science popularization resources, thus enabling the public, especially adolescents, to increase their ability to master and command scientific knowledge and the scientific method on the virtual environment of the Internet.It will also satisfy the requirements of the developers and creators of science popularization works at the grass root level to share science popularization resource information; and improve the national scientific and cultural quality.and expression of the virtual museum and the virtual experience museum should not be overly scientific in order to avoid difficulty for the public during use.For example, there is a virtual museum of ancient machinery introducing an ancient water conduit.The public does not want to know how to assemble the conduit or the unfamiliar names of the parts but to learn how it runs and the theory involved in its operation.Thus designers need to compile excellent scripts from the viewpoint of the user to spread the scientific knowledge contained in the museum.Therefore, to provide expertise to the public, the digital science and technology museum should consider the knowledge structure and knowledge requirements of non-professional people in order to select the necessary knowledge and to get rid of the traditional "preaching" pattern.Meanwhile, the relevance between each knowledge point and the corresponding science and technology field should be emphasized to inspire the interest of the public in science.

Resolving the discrepancy between digital virtual scene and real experience.
The online science experience is different from visiting a real science and technology museum.The participant cannot be in a real situation and cannot have physical contact with real exhibitions.Also the experimental objects cannot have direct chemical and physical variation; this can only be displayed virtually by the computer in a visual mode.
Therefore, except for selecting suitable material for online display, the construction of an experiential project of digital science and technology should use novel and scientific creativeness in a virtual reality display to achieve online and offline interaction to enable the participator to feel the real experience of a science and technology museum.
To sum up, the issues occurring during project construction should be constantly explored and reviewed in the participator may establish his own virtual laboratory and scientific experiment works online and be a constructor of a virtual exhibition of science experiencing.

PROJECT PROSPECTS
As December, 2005, the project of the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China was approved and started.The Digital Science & Technology Museum of China is one of the 43 sub-projects of 6 platforms of the required construction projects for national science and technology.It is the only project dedicated to public science and technology education for the whole society.The construction of the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China is funded by national finance, the China Association for Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The objective is to integrate national high-quality digital science resources to construct an Internet-based national science resources-sharing platform.
July 3rd, 2004, the General Office of State Council forwarded "The National Program for Sci-Tech Basic Conditions Platform Construction during the Year of 2004-2010" of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Finance and announced that the construction of the foundation of national science and technology was started.In January 2006, in his address to the National Science Conference, President Hu Jintao set forth the program "to strengthen the construction of basic foundations platform of science and technology and to reinforce the guidance and coordination on the establishment of significant technical standards."In February 2006, part nine of the "National Long-and Medium-term Program of Sci-Tech Development Planning" regarding "science and technology input and basic conditions platform of science and technology" presented a description of the basic foundations platform of science and technology: "supported by the technology of information and network, etc, it consists of research and experimental bases, large-scale scientific facilities and instruments, scientific data and information, and natural science and technology resources, which are a support system serving for technological innovation of whole society through effective configuration and sharing."On February 6, 2006, the State Council issued the "Program of National Scientific Quality Action Plan Union of Internet-based Science Popularization under the Internet Society of China performed an "Inquiry and Study of the Present Internet-based Science Popularization in China" in 2005.Based on the data collected, analyzed, and studied for 408 websites and columns of science popularization, it raised several issues concerning the present Internet-based science popularization in China:

3.
Joint construction and sharing mechanisms have not yet been formed.Having been in development for over 10 years, the number of websites and columns of science popularization in China is considerable, but most of them have little influence and have insufficient information with repetitious content, having failed to realize the joint construction and mechanism for sharing resources.It can been seen that it is necessary to integrate the existing digital science popularization resources in China by unified planning and sharing service and to exert an even greater effort for Internet-based science popularization Data Science Journal, Volume 6, Supplement, 19 August 2007 to serve the society more widely and efficiently.The construction of the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China complies with the objective requirement of Internet-based science popularization and provides resolution for the issues mentioned above.(II) The construction of the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China has groundbreaking significance The Digital Science & Technology Museum of China is an achievement of comprehensive cooperation by scientific, technological, and educational circles in the field of Internet-based science popularization, which for the first time have centralized different advantages of science popularization of the China Association for Science and Technology, the scientific education of the Ministry of Education, and the scientific research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The construction of the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China will have groundbreaking significance.It will give full play to the social benefits of scientific and technical information sharing of existing scientific and technical information resources.It will allow the public to acquire authoritative, reliable and large amounts of scientific and technical information.It will provide a convenient and highly-efficient resource service for the creation and development of science popularization works and products and boost science popularization.It will develop scientific and vigorous Internet-based science popularization forms and content, which reflect the advantage of modern network techniques.And it will enhance the position of digital science popularization in China in the corresponding international fields.1.It meets the requirement of the vast mass, especially adolescents, to surf Internet.The cyber-citizens in The number of Internet users in China has reached 100 million, and the Internet has become an important media influence on social life.The cyber-citizens in China mainly are adolescents who are the important target group of science popularization in China.The existing Internet-based science popularization, however, has failed to satisfy the requirement of the masses, especially the adolescents, no matter the information content or the manifestation.The entertainment on the Internet to which adolescents are addicted is full of pornography, violence, pseudoscience, and other harmful contents; instead of these, what we need is healthy and interesting Internet-based science popularization.2.It meets the requirements of science popularization institutions and science and technology workers.The popularization of science in China has been troubled for a long time by insufficient information resources.It has been difficult for developers and institutions to acquire required materials, resulting in insufficient and low quality product creation and poor development for science popularization.The works and products for science popularization already developed and produced by science popularization institutions have failed to form attractive resources and failed to reach society.The value of these science popularization resources is far from being fully achieved.The exhibitions and propaganda material of science popularization locations and facilities are stale and minimal.3.It meets the requirement of the construction of a science and technology museum.According to an investigation by the Chinese Association of Natural Science Museum in 2004, among 260 or so museums in China's mainland, only 50 have permanent exhibitions and only 30 meet the construction standards of a science and technology museum.Looking at the ratio between the quantity of science and technology museums and gross population, Mainland China is equivalent to 1/12 of America, 1/9 of Britain, 1/24 of Japan, and 1/20 of Taiwan; concerning the ratio of visitors of science and technology museums to gross population, Mainland China is equivalent to 1/33 of America, 1/11 of Britain, and 1/25 of Japan and Taiwan respectively.Data ScienceJournal, Volume 6, Supplement, 19 August 2007

Figure 3 .Figure 4 .
Figures 1. and 2. The virtual museum has adopted a virtual floor structure.Dynamic hinge action can be made by pointing to each floor with a mouse to show what it contains.

Figures 5 .Figure 8 .
Figures 5. and 6.The Internet science popularization column has adopted an airflow design and honeycomb background that can reflect the diversity and precision of science and technology.

Figure 9 .Figure 10 .
Figure 9.The scientific experiencing museum of exploration on the giant panda

Figure 11 .Figure 13 .
Figure 11.Book format reflecting the nine categories of science popularization resource databases

Figure 14 .
Figure 14.Welcoming page of the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China

Figure 15 .
Figure 15.Homepage of the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China performance of interactive services between the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China and the public with the goal of continuous improvement in project applications.The Digital Science & Technology Museum of China will develop a virtual exhibition of science for participators to experience the designing, fabrication, development, and experimentation of science to enhance the degree of participation of the public.Each the major social force of science popularization, the China Association for Science and Technology together with the Ministry of Education and Chinese Academy of Sciences will implement experimental project applications by the end of 2006, close to the formal opening of the main system, and guide the project construction according to users' requirements and opinions by combining all science popularization services nationally.The construction achievement of the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China will be a simplified Chinese edition and will be issued to the public over the Internet.However, there are quite a number of villagers and inhabitants in western China who cannot learn about science and technology, experience scientific and technological achievements, and enjoy the dynamic convenient service of the Internet age in real time because of the restrictions of family economy or local social development.It can be seen that the performance of the achievement of the Digital Science & Technology Museum of China will be restricted by objective conditions,such as the coverage of computer networks and personal economic status.Meanwhile, the use of the simplified Chinese edition will restrict communication with other countries and its application in minority areas.Among Data ScienceJournal, Volume 6, Supplement, 19 August 2007

Table 1 .
The Manifestation of Websites and Columns of Science Popularization in China Effective audio, video, Flash and other multimedia documents 29.5Other forms, by which knowledge can be attained and games can be participated in interactively through programs or other technical supports 19.8

Table 3 .
Reference table of the quantity of science and technology museums and visitors of America, Britain,