New report compares digital capabilities of cultural institutions

A new report by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) compares countries on digital capabilities of cultural institutions, highlighting a digital divide between those in the developed and developing world, caused by differences in funding, lack of internet access, and skills. Institutions are adept at using websites and social media, but many fall short on providing digital access to archives and in creating educational initiatives. Fears that would reduce visitor numbers are shown to be unfounded.

Institutions in the US and the UK have done the most to digitise the cultural experience, according to a new report released today by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). A new age of culture: The digitisation of arts and heritage, commissioned by Google, is based on a scorecard that examines digitisation efforts at 243 museums, heritage sites and other cultural venues in 22 countries across the globe. Countries are scored across five categories: websites, social media presence, interactive experience capacity, digital access to archives, and digital education initiatives. The scorecard categorises the countries into advanced, progressing, emerging and nascent based on their performance.

Cultural institutions have been largely successful in developing functional and informative websites, with all countries save for one— Indonesia — scoring in the top category. Social media and digital access to archives are proving more difficult for institutions to manage, as are digital education initiatives, where only one country — the UK — scores in the top category.

Digital education is one area where institutions show a large gap in terms of meeting their audience’s needs. In a survey of consumers on their cultural consumption habits, conducted as part of the research, 46% of respondents said that they currently use digital tools to educate their children or other family and friends and another 37% said they planned to start doing so. The report concludes that broader digitisation must occur first before institutions can build or adopt more specific tools for education.

The survey also found that rather than decreasing physical visits to museums, heritage sites and other cultural venues, digitisation is increasing engagement, with 52% of consumers surveyed refuting the notion that they attend fewer exhibitions or events because of digital access.

Chris Clague, the editor of the report, said, “Cultural digitisation creates wide-ranging benefits for both institutions and the general public. It is becoming more important to the preservation of important cultural artefacts, particularly those that are under threat from environmental destruction and war. For the public, it provides access to art and heritage that might not have been possible otherwise, either due to distance, cost or other factors.”

About The Cultural Digitisation Scorecard

The Cultural Digitisation Scorecard includes five categories: website assessment, social media presence, interactive experience capacity, digital access to archives, and digital education initiatives. Each category score is the average of the scores received by the institutions selected to represent each of the 22 countries covered by the scorecard.

The countries covered by the scorecard were selected to capture a range of geographic and economic circumstances. The countries included (in alphabetical order) are: Argentina, Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, the UK and the US.

Interactive visualisation of the scorecard data is available at newageofculture.eiu.com.