TIC
 

Mobile communication and cultural heritage:
New opportunities, new challenges

Dr. Santos M. Mateos
Professor and researcher at the Universitat de Vic
Coordinator of the Masters Programme in Communication and Cultural Heritage


Multimedia guides and visitors with sensory impairments
One of the many virtues of multimedia guides—the natural replacement of the traditional audio guides—is the range of applications they feature for sensory-impaired visitors, specifically hearing impaired individuals. If these members of the visiting public experienced barriers to heritage, this new system of mediation offers a two-fold access to content: Through subtitles, or better yet, taking a guided tour accompanied by a video recording of a sign language guide. In 2003, the Tate Modern in London was pioneer in this field and was the first to offer this type of service: the British Sign Language Tour as part of its Multimedia Tour Programme.

 

Podcasting: User capture and loyalty programmes
Podcasts represent a different type of mobile communication within reach of museums. Small audio or video files that can be used by museums to publicise and disseminate news via Internet, which users can then view or listen to on their mobile terminals. In this sense, these informational “pills” are an excellent way to capture new users and build existing user loyalty, as they are sent by way of a subscription; users receive news from the institution immediately and in an appealing manner, and an online community is created. In 2005, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art was pioneer in the creation and dissemination of podcasts, which gave users the opportunity to watch or listen to interviews with artists, curators and other visitors to the museum. Currently, the “virtual” museum with the widest and most notable range of podcasts is the Tate Modern.

 

 

 

santos.mateos@uvic.cat

 

Faced with countless examples of their usefulness, we cannot deny that mobile devices are a new form of communication especially suited to the field of cultural heritage. But if we talk about this new option for communication between heritage resources and their potential users, we should consider the following three factors: content, accessibility and democratisation.

As in any other form of cultural mediation, content must be of primordial concern. Depending on each case, we must adapt the content to the technical particularities and consumer demands that characterise the mobile devices, and we should always understand how to extract the many potentialities that digital communication offers. All the while building pertinent and complimentary content “pills” based on A+B+C+D=E for cultural dissemination: Attractive+Brief+Clear+Direct=Effective. We all know that good content is the key to emotional and cognitive access to all that cultural goods can offer.
But it's not just an excellent tool for cultural dissemination; it is increasingly being seen as playing an important role in external communication between equipment and heritage elements. Looking into the near future, it is clear that the techniques and instruments traditionally used to capture new users or to maintain contact with them, such as conventional publicity, press advertising or direct marketing and mailings must adapt to the immediacy and ubiquity of mobile communication.
In short, a challenge that must be faced if we really want to “socialise” our cultural heritage.



 

 
 

 

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