eCulture

The world wide web offers cultural institutions such as museums and theatres the opportunity to generate interest about what they have to offer. At present, the Dutch display only a modest interest in arts and culture on the web. One reason for this may be that there is as yet simply too little information available on cultural websites. How much information is actually provided in this way?

This study presents a systematic overview of the information available on the websites of Dutch museums and theatres in the early months of 2002. Visitors to these sites are approached in two ways: firstly, as potential visitors to the museums or theatres in question, and secondly, purely as virtual visitors. The differences between large and small museums are reflected in the type and amount of information presented on the sites, contradicting the frequently cited idea that the Internet will lead to a democratisation of the information supply.