Vladimir SKOK, Culture.ca Gateway, Canadian Cultural Observatory / Culturescope.ca

Alfonso CASTELLANOS RIBOT, Sistema de Informacion Cultural, Portal e-Cultura

Cultural Information Systems Workshop

Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago

March 2006

• cultural portals have exploded in virtual global space• little is known about these new public venues and their:

– management practices– implications on cultural policy

• first international online survey (March 2005)– 370 identified / 80 responses – collected basic evidence and analysis

• results explored by newly created informal network of cultural portal authorities at its first international Roundtable Event (June 2005, at Expo2005, Aichi, Japan)

• 20 participating portals in Aichi, including UNESCO

Recent phenomenon

The objectives of the survey ?• Inform other portals about the Culture.mondo concept;• Gather basic management and cultural policy-based information on

the state of cultural portal development around the world;• Compare situations and discover similar challenges;• Identify trends in cultural portal development;• Highlight examples of good practice, and• Set the stage for the future development of the Culture.mondo

network.

4 themes of discussionPartnerships in portal development and management Governance Marketing and audience needs Content and its management

Before the Round table : An innovative international survey!

Culture.mondo Round table - Aichi, Japan• Who? : More than 20 cultural portals

Culture.fr (France)Cultnat.org (Egypt)ecultura.gob.mx (Mexico)Cult.bg (Bulgaria)Culturalprofiles.org.uk (United Kingdom)Portail en développement (New-Zealand)Culture.ca (Canada)Portail en développement (Morocco)24hourmuseum.org.uk (United Kingdom)Cibernetica.cl (Chile)Portal.unesco.org/digiarts (UNESCO)In development (Taïwan)Ocpa.irmo.hr (Africa)Asef.org (Singapour)Collectionsaustralia.net (Australia)Ilam.org (Costa Rica)Culturenet Sweden (Sweden)Cultuurweb.be (Belgium)

http://www.culture.mondo.org/

Rewarding discussions…

Round table 1 : Survey results and analysis • Analytical summary realized by Decima

research• Results available on www.culturemondo.org

51%

18%31%

National CulturalPortalSpecializedThematic PortalObservatory onCultural Policy

www.culture.ca

www.ecultura.gob.mx

www.cpanda.org

www.culturescope.ca

http://sic.conaculta.gob.mx

• national cultural portals largest group surveyed and report the highest % of public sector funding

• cultural observatories are the smallest surveyed• all three have specific and different target audiences• the greatest range in scale is with thematic portals• all groups indicated a keen interest in partnership

development• most are non-profit (27%)or government (46%)• commercial partnerships are not frequent (28%)• outreach and audience development is a significant goal

– however, marketing budgets are low. • Exists a 4th type of portal: supra-national portals

Notable similarities and differences in the 3 portal

groups

A new era of cooperation …Round table 2 : Partnerships

• Partnerships are the key to successful cultural portals

• “A new era of cooperation”: new models are emerging (EU MICHAEL, partnerships between users and creators like www.cult.bg does in Bulgaria)

• Cross-departmental partnerships, content and marketing partnerships, etc.

• Additional layers of partners have been developed out of the portals themselves as new networks emerged

Dynamic governance for dynamic portals

Round table 3 : Governance• Every situation is unique but much can be

learned from the individual experiences• Governance should evolve within a continuum

from governmental to private non-profit• Who leads : especially when it comes to

cultural policies• Partnerships and governance• Combining employees and volunteers• The important role of advisory committees

www.kultur.nu

www.cubarte.cult.cu

16%

3%

9%

27%

46%Not-for-profit

Governmental

Non-governmental

For profit

Other

No54%

Yes46%

What is the status of your portal?

Does your organization have a direct relationship to the government?

Portal status and government relationship

Please indicate the breakdown of your portal's turnover in 2004

From Public Sector55%

From Sponsors5%

Other12%

Combined sources

26%

Funding

Authenticity, reliability, currency, credibility,

completeness…Round table 4 : Content and its

management • Calendar of events (60%), content (50%), on-

line ticket sales• Centre for centralized and decentralized

information• Less then 30% of cultural portals currently

have interactive features• 100% of the national cultural portals update

their content at least once a week compare to 76% of thematic portals and even less of observatories.

Editorial strategy

Who produces the main bulk of the content – is it

central or decentral?

How can external contributors upload or add content to your

portal?

63%

39%

47%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Webform

Databaseexchange

Other

Both50%

Central28%

Decentral22%

Marketing is essential but funds are scarce…

Roundtable 5 : Marketing and audience needs• In a crowded internet space, marketing is a MUST • primary audiences:

– 80% National cultural portals = general public– 76% Thematic portals = cultural experts– 100% Observatories = cultural experts

• focus more on cultural rather than tourism objectives

• audience development and outreach is a preoccupation

• % of budget dedicated to marketing is 2.5 – 7.5%

Marketing and audience needs

• Need to elaborate specific tools and particular approach

• On-line marketing through other cultural organizations is desirable

• Use public surveys results• It is mandatory to be able to measure the

success obtained

• less obvious, especially for non-profit portals

• major cultural policy themes:– participation– access– civic engagement– cultural diversity

• new EU initiative, michael-culture.org, announced April 2005

Cultural policy phenomenon

http://www.culturemondo.org/