Validation of a Business Model for Cultural Heritage Institutions

Abstract

The paper proposes a business model for the efficiency optimization of the interaction between all actors involved in cultural heritage sector, such as galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM). The validation of the business model is subject of analyses and implementations in a real environment made by different cultural institutions. The implementation of virtual exhibitions on mobile devices is described and analyzed as a key factor for increasing the cultural heritage visibility. New perspectives on the development of virtual exhibitions for mobile devices are considered. A study on the number of visitors of cultural institutions is carried out and ways to increase the number of visitors are described.Keywords: Cultural Heritage, Virtual Exhibitions, Business Model, Mobile Applications, Validation1 IntroductionAs previous presented in [1], we are living in the era of the internet and mobile technologies, where information can be accessible at a touch/click distance and the most important is that the access can be anytime and from anywhere. Mobile technologies have evolved at exponential rate in the last years and the evolution will continue. The rapid change of mobile devices in hardware and software have made possible the replacement of old computers and laptops with smart phones and tablets when discussing about internet surfing, email checking and so on [2].Young people represent the majority of mobile device users, having grown up with these gadgets and being familiar with their use. A big issue of the anytime-anywhere access to information of young people is that they want to discover everything online, they have no time to go to libraries to read classic books, they are not willing to visit museums and art galleries to explore exhibitions of paintings, sculptures and so on. Thus, their knowledge of culture, literature and history is not as rich as schools and universities expected them to have.In order to aid the young generation and to increase the visibility and number of visitors, libraries and museums have decided to present their exhibitions and collections online. The idea of virtual exhibitions implementation on mobile devices, as native mobile applications, is accepted by many museums and libraries that already have digitized material available online. A virtual exhibition goes beyond digitizing a collection which is primarily meant for preservation [3]. Digital exhibitions need digital storytelling, which is one way for cultural heritage institutions to give new meaning to an object and to create a captivating story around it. The real exhibitions can serve as the starting point for digital storytelling applications. Digitized objects that will be embedded in a storytelling application must be chosen with care, because not all objects in an exhibition are suitable for a digital storytelling project [4].The potential offered by mobile technologies and the increased number of mobile devices processing multimedia content, both offline and online, facilitate the implementation of virtual exhibitions on mobile devices [5]. In [6] and [7], a cybernetic model for computerization of the cultural heritage is proposed in order to study the relationship between the organizations involved.Over the past two decades, the technological development, such as innovative hardware and software, information retrieval channels, mobile devices, had a great economic and social impact on our lives. They have radically changed the way we find and receive our information and, most importantly, the way how we communicate [5].As considered in [8], the cultural heritage represent a significant power for the current century in Europe. The cultural heritage is the heart of what it means to be European and it is now discovered by both governmental institutions and citizens as a solution of improving economic performance and people's lives.The current paper is an extended version of the work presented at the 14th International Conference on Informatics in Economy, IE 2015, 30 April - 03 May 2015, Bucharest, Romania [1]. …