The use of Web 2.0 tools by Italian contemporary art museums

The economic crisis of recent years has significantly affected cultural institutions which, because of cuts in public and private funding, do not have the funds needed to plan communication operations via traditional media. Hence, institutions must try to find alternative ways to communicate effectively, and at low cost. In this context, the innovations introduced by Web 2.0 and social networking seem to respond to this new demand. This paper presents the analysis of an Italian association of museums of contemporary art (AMACI) with the aim of assessing whether cultural institutions are able to fully make use of the potential of Web 2.0 tools, and what the advantages and disadvantages for their activities are.