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Digital Culture: The Changing Dynamics
organizations (NGOs) but there is very little or no information on governing and
managing cultural networks and portals or their connection to cultural policy
developments and provisions. They are left to their own modus operandi without any
rules they should follow. If we take a look at the Internet as a working space, it also
follows the same principle: there are no regulatory rules “entrepreneurs” should
follow; it serves as a working tool but without any editorial policy. Research into the
systems of management and governance that are most commonly found in cultural
networks and portals is, therefore, dependent on data collection by
surveys/questionnaires and comparative analysis of cultural policy provisions for
new technologies rather than being based on a theoretical framework.
In order to collect data that would serve as a basis for analysis of the governing and
management of cultural organizations operating in the virtual sphere, we conducted
research based on questionnaires. They were sent to 41 email addresses of cultural
portals and network representatives who participated in the Culture.mondo Round
Table entitled “New Era of Cooperation” in Dubrovnik, October 2006. Additionally,
questionnaires were disseminated among cultural network and portal representatives
who attended the cultural networks gathering at the World Culture Forum in Rio de
Janeiro, November 2006, and 17 replies were collected in total by 2007.
The research aims to identify existing models and practices so as to give
indications on the positioning of cultural networks and portals within the framework
of cultural policies.
This is to investigate whether the organizations whose activities are based in the
virtual space (cultural networks and portals) and are involved in the same field (e.g.
cultural development, intercultural communication) actually operate in a similar way
regardless of the respective social/national contexts, especially in regard to the
structures of governance and management. The questions were set so as to identify
only the key features which would give a brief outline of surveyed organizations:
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• organization name
• founding body and year of foundation
• type of organization (non-profit, non-governmental, public
institution/state-owned, manufacturing, etc.)
• brief description of the organization
• scope/area of activities
• governance structure (brief description)
• management structure (brief description)
• organizational decision-making procedures (brief description)