I've refreshed the documentation at http://digin.arizona.edu/lectures/omeka.pdf to reflect the new 1.1 release as well as providing instructional installation support for Sun VirtualBox in addition to the VMWare virtualization applications. VirtualBox is free open source and is available for Win, Mac and Linux desktops (see http://www.virtualbox.org).
The new documentation is considerably simplifed,and also contains links to youtube videos showing the installation of both Ubuntu 9.10 server and also Omeka 1.1 using the VirtualBox platform.
I've elected not to try to make a downloadable VM available, primarily because as the videos demonstrate, installation is very simple, and one can run the install in less time than it would take to download a pre-configured VM.
Although targeted at a VM install of Omeka on Ubuntu for demo/checkout/sandbox purposes, the basic steps also mirror what the installation would look like on a production Ubuntu host. One would only need to additionally configure mail services and apply appropriate firewall settings for a public site.
The updates have replaced the original documentation, so links on the Omeka site should just point to the new doc.
The documentation is released under Creative Commons; duplication and redistribution (unmodified) is permitted.
Feedback and suggestions are appreciated; reply back here or contact me directly at bfulton@email.arizona.edu.
And thanks to IMLS, who has assisted with our Digital Information Management certificate program as well as the Omeka Team's efforts.
Bruce Fulton, Digital Project Librarian
University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science.