Commentary : the advent of digital technologies and the idea of community

As far as debates go, there are few so salient in the field of heritage studies as those surrounding the idea of ‘community’. This concept has enjoyed a long career within the wider social sciences, and is certainly one that seems sure to be transformed with the advent of new digital technologies and recent opportunities for online social networking. In this Commentary, I want to argue for why an overarching rethink of the term ‘community’ in connection with the Internet is important. This, in part, has been triggered by the 2003 adoption of the Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage at the 32nd General Conference of UNESCO, which marks the significant development of national and international interest around issues of ‘digital’ or ‘virtual’ heritage. My interest, however, has been piqued by more than these emerging policy interests; entire processes of cultural production and consumption are mediated more and more often by online technologies (Featherstone 2000). As such, clear links among community formation, identity and heritage are becoming increasingly visible, particularly with the advent of Web 2.0 interactivity, and the Internet is therefore something that could well play a central and dynamic role in popular and academic arenas. Yet, despite the seemingly omnipresent nature of the Internet in contemporary society, its adoption and reflection within heritage and museological methodologies remain partial and limited. Nor is it something that seems to be winning any ground. As such, while we have an emerging cultural space for new types of community formation, along with the use of digital technology in archives, the emergence of virtual museums and art galleries, and digitised collections by heritage institutions (Champion and Dave 2007; Karp 2004; Parry 2005), there is still a noticeable hesitancy in the heritage literature to actively incorporate the Internet into its remit.