New technologies for sustaining value creation and innovation within museums

Museums as cultural heritage organizations information based and knowledge oriented moving from being custodial and collection-driven institution to becoming audience and information-driven institutions and developing the potential offered by virtual interactive technologies and environments have the opportunity to promote value co-creation opening up to audience as active participant in the definition of cultural contents emphasizing the interaction and communication between museum and users for building a museum participatory and learning oriented rediscovering and enhancing the educational mission. Museums as memory institutions contribute to create value embracing technology and designing virtual environments for involving audience to take part in the cultural production for sustaining knowledge sharing and creation, learning and educational opportunities. This study aims at explaining how museums as educational institutions information-based, knowledge and learning oriented are embracing Internet and interactive technologies to promote value co-creation and innovation opening up to participation of audience on cultural heritage. This study is based on archival and qualitative data drawn by literature review on the advent and potential of Internet and virtual-interactive technologies within museums.