ABSTRACT
The first aim of this book is to provide a panorama of leading developments in the field of culture and information and communications technologies (ICT) at the beginning of the new millennium. The second is to show how these constitute a genuine international movement, since although the original basic technology is largely US in origin, its application, further development and refinement is widely diffused with other regions, especially Europe. Increasingly, China, Japan and Russia, for example, are also taking leading roles, due to their rich storehouses of cultural heritage – museums, libraries, archives, archaeological sites and other resources – as well as contemporary cultural creators, including the performing arts. The third is to indicate how the cultural sector itself is becoming recognized as an inspiring technology driver – not just a passive recipient area for the products and services of technological progress. The final key objective is to encourage the growing international cooperation in the intersection of culture and technology, which has been ‘pushed’ by the European Commission (EC) from the late 1980s. The EC’s R&D policies have firmly encouraged cross-border projects across the European Union and other participant countries: since the mid-1990s, broader partnership projects have been fostered, beginning with Canada. National, regional and local governments as well as major charitable organizations and international organizations such as UNESCO and the World Bank have also played an increasingly important role.
