Cultural services and markets: related professional profiles

Abstract The regional and local cultural heritage (defi ned in a broad sense, from museums to regional gastronomy and folklore) is one of Europe’s greatest economic assets. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and other advanced technologies can considerably increase the possibility of its exploitation. Nevertheless, this potential is very far from being fully exploited. Up to now, experiences of use of ICT in cultural heritage sectors too often failed in providing valuable economic results due to a number of problems, and generated disappointment among the potential players and benefi ciaries. Foreword The last couple of years have not been an easy period of time for the ICT industry. After a decade of strong growth, for the fi rst time, the sector has experienced severe slowdown and stagnation, resulting from an exceptional combination of adverse factors, including a global economic slowdown after September eleven, uncertainty in the fi nancial markets that followed the market slump of blue chips and over-investment. Nevertheless, the ICT usage both by enterprises and SOHO has still increased. European enterprises have reached a maturity level in terms of their basic ICT infrastructure and their connectivity to the Internet. According to the most recent statistical data from Eurostat, 95 % of companies in the member states use computers and more than 80 % have access to the web. These are average fi gures and local rates are even higher. In some countries, as well as for larger enterprises everywhere, the saturation level (almost 100 %) has been practically reached. Looking at the scenario from a different viewpoint, a revolution resulting from a set of converging technologies has just begun. If we consider previous innovations they took some years to reach the people: seventy years for printing, fi fty for commercial fl ights and telephone, thirty years for Internet, fi fteen years for PCs. Speaking about the use of different media we are probably in the „middle ages“ of such a way of communication, – we are still looking for a proper MM format 1. We probably do not know completely which will be the „fi nal“ result of such a path but we know we are experimenting with a deep transformation due to the convergence of goals and technologies in the fi elds of communication, information technology and entertainment. First, we faced the merge of IT and TLC then ICT merged with entertainment. As usual in such technological trends, even on the occasion of fake revolutions 2, at the beginning we overestimate technology and underestimate potential infl uences and transformations in culture and society, pointing towards stars with a fi nger we are still looking at the fi nger. As a consequence, the general view is limited to a short term perspective with untimely or limited applications and effects. Just take into consideration the revolution due to the invention of the transistor, one of the most relevant and pervasive technologies of the last century. This was originally developed and patented as a device to fi ght deafness. Wireless communication was developed in order to link ships crossing the oceans but a bug in the technology did not allow private communication at least for military purposes. The bug we now call broadcasting was the origin of radio-television services. Proceedings pubblicati anche su Web http://www.hmg.polimi.it/events/CHNH/CHNH03/default.htm