Knowledge-based society and innovation in the new cultural spacesan approach from the digitised museums

Laburpena

The present thesis addresses the study of the implementation of web technologies by museum and the use of these resources by final virtual visitors. The introduction of technologies in daily life and the irruption of the Knowledge Society have transformed most of the processes of society, the ones referring to citizens¿ participation and consumption patterns of contents on the web, among others. This impact has been reflected in different social activity ambits and, particularly, concerning culture, from the viewpoint of the cultural policies important adjustments have been identified that seek giving answer to current needs. Unable to deal with the whole spectrum of transformations, this thesis focuses on the impact on the cultural sector and, more specifically, on museums. Cultural sector, as a whole, faces the challenge of readapting its structures and functioning schemes to the new technologically-mediated situation. In this sense, museums have recently been extensively digitizing and making their cultural contents available on the Internet. According to literature, the philosophy of communication of museums influences the way contents are presented to the final users. However, there is no holistic understanding of the adoption and impact of technology in the cultural realm, on cultural and museum digital contents. Within this generic framework, the present thesis tackles the issue from a double interrelated perspective. On the one hand, the first part of the research makes an exhaustive analysis of websites of museums from Germany, Greece, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States of America present on the Virtual Library of Museums directory of ICOM. This analysis consists of the identification of the general features and sections available on the digital collection of each website. After the examination of all these websites, a clustering process has been performed to determine whether there are different archetypical models of communication of cultural digital contents by museum and if they respond to the theoretical models proposed by literature. On the other hand, museums make their contents available so that virtual visitors can access them for diverse purposes. Consequently, the behaviour of the visitors within the web environment of museums is central for the understanding of the current situation. In this sense, the research has dealt with the topic from a twofold perspective. First of all, users of a website have been considered globally, in order to identify general patterns of use. For this part of the thesis the weblogs from the Benaki Museum (Greece), the Diocesan and Regional Museum of Lleida (Spain) and the Pitt Rivers Museum (United Kingdom) have been used. This analysis has identified different general models of use of the websites as a whole by virtual visitors. Additionally, this thesis has also examined them from an individual perspective to identify potential generic models of users. For this part of the research the individual weblogs of the users of the database section of the website of the Pitt Rivers Museum have been used. This part of the thesis has identified some generic models of virtual users of the database section, based on their behaviour and utilization of the resources. Results obtained from the research suggest that there are some generic models of both web philosophy of communication and implementation of web technologies by museums, as well as of behaviour of users on these technological environments. Finally, arising from these results, the thesis highlights some further implications for future researches and technological implementations with cultural contents, including design and planning of cultural policies. The thesis brings in some insight on the new role of the cultural endeavour in the Knowledge Society and provides some answers for the global complex phenomenon of use of web technologies with cultural contents by cultural institutions and virtual visitors, in particular.