近年來有愈來愈多世界各地的博物館，運用Web2.0社會媒體，重新反思與大眾之間的溝通模式。Web2.0以線上社群為概念，鼓勵經驗分享和協同創作，運用得宜者，不單能讓觀眾將博物館的文物知識，轉化成為個人化的日常絮語，也能為館舍本身的學術內涵，注入多樣化的地方故事及不同族群的生活記憶。 本研究旨在分析博物館運用線上社群的相關策略。援引個案研究法，立意取樣4所位於倫敦的博物館，展開為期12個月的參與式觀察。資料蒐集包含網路與實體；前者以虛擬民族誌作為方法論，針對4起個案從事每日的線上田野駐紮，持續記錄其演化脈絡中的社群動態及成員對話；後者進行各個案實體博物館之親訪，並訪談主事者以瞭解館舍在社群運用上的理念籌劃及幕後難題。 用以檢視個案發展的學理框架為「實踐社群」理論，以之剖析各個案的發展策略，及不同博物館在社群經營上的歧異性。同時，從博物館溝通觀點，審視各個案在意義建構、觀眾研究、虛實循環三大實務層面上的體現。研究發現運用線上社群之成功奏效與否，取決於博物館能否由下而上納入草根群眾的智慧。研究結果並以本論文最佳的實踐社群個案為範例，提煉出一套啟迪性原則，以供有心發展線上社群的博物館之參考。

Online applications associated with the Web 2.0 have in recent years become part of mainstream museum practice, allowing a far more user-centered approach to communication with the general public. As a key concept of this approach, the online community, through social media, has increasingly been adopted by museums with the aim of facilitating interactive dialogues and collaborative participation. In the field of museum education, creating online communities signifies that people are provided with a platform through which they can be engaged in knowledge production together with the museum, resulting in the fostering of loyalties and a high level of visitor involvement. This study investigates strategies for creating online communities in the context of museum education. The author carried out four case studies of online communities of museums in London and participatory observation over a period of 12 months. Data collection comprised both online and on-site undertakings. With the former, the author recorded a series of field notes from the four community sites on a daily basis using virtual ethnography as a methodology. With the latter, the author visited the gallery spaces of the four museums to take part in related programs and exhibitions, and organized interviews with the community coordinators of the four cases. The theoretical framework applied to examine the four cases in this study is Community of Practice (CoP), a social theory of learning. Comparisons of the cases were carried out based on CoP’s three fundamental elements and seven design principles. The results showed how their conformity with this framework reflects and impacts on the overall performance of the online communities. An analysis followed from the perspective of museum education, to present how each case, as a community of practice, embodies the practical aspects of meaning construction, audience research, and connection between online and on-site activities. This paper concludes with the best example of CoP, from which a scheme of feasible strategies that can be used by museums and cultural institutions is formulated.