Cultural services and markets: the challenge

Abstract This document is to be considered the second half of the pre- vious paper entitled „Cultural services and markets: related professional profiles“ included in the booklet entitled „Kultur: Neue Jobs und Arbeitsformen durch Informations – und Kom- munikationstechnologien“. To synthesize the scenario „the re- gional and local Cultural Heritage (to be defined in a broad sense, from museums to regional gastronomy and folklore) is one of Europe’s greatest economic assets, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and other advanced technologies can considerably increase the possibility of its exploitation. Nevertheless this potentiality 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 beneficiari- es.“ Preface There is a close link between content and „technology“ as well as between „technology“ and communication. Mankind through the centuries has produced an even increasing amount of content in different formats, with different techni- ques and technologies. Some portions of such content must survive and reach future generation as our legacy, major part of content, if kept alive, is addressed to natural obsolescence and will disappear. Formats, techniques and technologies may differ very much both from „culture“ to „culture“ and from time to time. Oral tradition is still alive as a major tool in order to preserve and communicate content in several different areas of the world. Performing arts and rituals are the backbone of many different cultures as well as signs, symbols, ideograms and alphabets are common tools for writing and printing in major part of the world. Print was one of the last true revolutions in content manage- ment a true milestone. Nowadays we are facing a potential new revolution thanks to the „digital age“. Digital communica- tion is the most recent ring in a long chain, starting from non verbal communication and gesture, over languages, signs and writing, through print, broadcasting and other media and for- mats. The extension of the concept of cultural heritage of various na- ture, including „intangible“ heritage, the relationship between their conservation and the relative fruition issues new challen- ges for technology such as the combined utilisation of various online resources, the creation of supranational and multilingu- al dictionaries and thesauri, the creation and tuning of a new generation of communication „objects“ and tools designed in order to better fit with different cultural models and content. The rapid obsolescence of technologies furthermore imposes the attention to data storage. However, the aspects, which most involve the online user, are both interface and easy ac- cess to different subjects and contents. In such a context the focus of this paper is the challenge related to cultural services and markets, we will consider opportunities and threats due to the implementation of the so called e-society & k-society and the increasing gap between on & off-line people.