How would it seem to you to have a collection of press cuttings on your desk every morning with all the stories from newspapers all over the world that contained the combination of words “museums-catalonia” or “archaeology-epipalaeolithic” or the cultural section from 6 newspapers and magazines? Well, that is exactly what RSS does. If you want to know how it works technically then you can look at Wikipedia, but in plain language the process is as follows. From the broadcaster's point of view: we imagine that our museum website has a news section and that today you are updating it. If you use RSS, as well as the news appearing in the usual section, a version will be automatically generated with the same text but encoded in RSS format and hidden behind a button like the one in the photo. From the receiver's point of view: if I am interested in getting news from 18 museums, I will have subscribed to their RSS feed by clicking on these buttons and, from that moment on, my Internet home page (Google, My Yahoo, Netvibes, etc.) will have a collection of new updates from those 18 museums, all together, organised and updated every minute, every hour, every day. I don't have to consult 18 different websites; I can see everything on one site, which excludes anything that isn't new. I can also subscribe to searches for specific words in blogs. If, for example, I search for mNACTEC on Google Blog Search I'll know that these blogs mention me: Artneutre, Fcaf, Estètica de la Imatge, Barcelona Photobloggers, Calceu-vos, Habitaçao Social-Urbanismo, etc. Every time that someone else in the world starts talking about me, I'll know about it instantly. And when someone uploads a video about the museum on YouTube I'll also know about it. If the museum website has RSS, each time that news is uploaded, it'll get to my subscribers immediately, without me having to do anything, without sending a single email. My blog has RSS (as almost all of them do). What about your website?

In recent years the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been spectacular, above all in relation to the exploration of new channels of communication with society. Museums have evolved jointly with them in order to adapt products to their own specific needs. In this context, the new mNACTEC portal, which is designed as a reference point for the public in relation to industrial, scientific and technological heritage, could no longer be regarded as a simple information space. Rather, it had to be a meeting point and a space for an open, lively exchange of views.
Exploiting the participatory and interactive potential of ICT to the maximum advantage is the aim of a lot of research. It is not about “uploading” the museum to the web, but about developing specific programmes that complement the services it offers. With the new portal, virtual visits, for example, allow the contents of an exhibition to be widened and could be a useful resource prior to a visit; the forum, in the teachers' area, makes it possible to share educational experiences productively; and the digital newsletter offers current information about the museums, heritage and research.
The inclusion of the latest advances in ICT also favours more effective information distribution. Having at its disposal a tailor-made contents manager, information on cultural projects at the museums in the mNACTEC Regional System is updated dynamically and efficiently and, at the same time, its subscribers can be automatically informed of anything new (through the syndication of RSS contents, without sending a single email) becoming, in the process, a key tool for retaining public loyalty.