Washington - The Smithsonian Institution has launched the website for its new National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is seeking user-generated content including essays, recorded oral histories and eventually video, the Associated Press reported.

The organization used $1 million in hardware, software and services donated by IBM to create the site; the physical museum is slated to open in 2015 on the National Mall in Washington.

"You've got the sort of historical materials on major people and major moments linked directly to the kind of bottom-up recollections of common folk," John Tolva, IBM's senior manager for cultural programs, told AP.

"You can link, visually depict, how your memory relates to the other kind of grand narratives of African American history -- the narratives of civil rights, Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois."

"The culture of the African American experience ... is too important to wait five or 10 years until the building is open," added Lonnie Bunch, the museum's founding director.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/yohjfl (AP)

http://nmaahc.si.edu