Moving from experiment to reality: choices for cultural heritage institutions and their government

Abstract

At many recent museum conferences, participants have demonstrated exciting projects presenting cultural heritage knowledge in digital form, whether as online resources or fixed support products such as CD‐ROMs. Presentations have outlined the technical challenges which participants have resolved and have explored the specific content which has been assembled but it is striking to note how few speakers address either the business issues involved in the decisions to create such resources or audience response to the products. If it is true, however, as the Director of Editorial and Commercial Services for the Réunion des Musées Nationaux in France, Jean‐François Chougnet, has observed, that we are at the point of moving from the experimental phase to an ongoing reality, then in the very near future we will need to grapple with the economics of this new cultural industry and with the underlying business dynamics.

Citation

Elliot Sherwood, L. (1998), "Moving from experiment to reality: choices for cultural heritage institutions and their government", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 50 No. 2, pp. 37-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb051481