Off-site digital mediation includes a wide range of features that can be used to address diverse target groups, both the already existing beneficiaries of the museum offer and new prospective users, people who are not interested or do not have the means of attending cultural events, exhibitions, etc.
First of all it refers to the online presence of the cultural organizations which want their content to be reachable by as many individuals as possible, wherever they are and whatever their skills may be.
Therefore the institutional website is of utmost importance. It needs to be structured to allow a smooth communication of information, in a process that mixes text, photographs, videos, podcasts, publications or even MOOCs. It is an open gate, an invitation to reach the real physical site, the museum itself, for a most authentic experience.
Still, financial, social and medical reasons might prevent the digital surfer from arriving onsite and enjoy the exhibits or the heritage site itself. Moreover, the more equipped the website is with cultural resources, the better.
The digital mediation apps, whose availability needs to be announced in a visible spot on the institutional website, contribute to a wide extent to the accurate presentation of the museum collections to remote users.
Whenever possible, the use of collaborative tools will consolidate the relation between the cultural organization and the community. The building of digital archives on topics of interest for the local people is a way of increasing awareness of institutional actions and reaching out to more end-users. When inviting someone to share digital content, and particularly when allowing platform uploading rights, very clear instructions need to be provided regarding the parameters that must be complied with for content validation.
Digital galleries of the museum collections can also be used during the outreach actions, a measure performed by many, if not all, cultural organisations in order to enlarge their pool of visitors.
Off-site digital mediation refers also to the promotion of the cultural offer by means of electronic billboards that can be found in multiple locations particularly in the cityscapes and less in rural environments. Screens mounted in shopping malls, airports, public transport are mostly used for advertising purposes and cultural marketing has its voice as well.
To conclude, the benefits of off-site mediation include:
- Ease of communication by means of online tools, such as website and social media channels
- Increased visibility and addressability when the mediation takes place trough touchscreens, multimedia tables/ kiosks, or other devices in the open, in partners’ venues; other examples are the screens in public transport
- Wider reach in the case of digital collections, particularly for persons belonging to the non-public