The use and value of the web 2.0 for participatory University Museums

IntroductionThanks to their peculiar identities linked to the specific disciplines which determined their creation, University Museums offer an interesting experience to reflect on the role that the community of museum professionals and experts can engage within the production of cultural content - in particular through the use of databases of their collections - to activate social tools, and to design interfaces for contents typical of applications offered by the Web 2.0.ObjectivesThis new set of standards and services - which is very easy and intuitive as well as free to produce – can be a useful tool to provide and share online text content, photographs, audio-visual, constructed and manipulated by museum professionals also in collaboration with the users, in order to give a wider visibility and diffusion to University Museums heritage.The use of web 2.0 tools, which allow the direct intervention of users in creating and sharing content, promotes the participation of publics and a fluid approach to University Museum information, which means a greater openness and sharing in order to spread the knowledge.Moreover, web 2.0 tools activate pathways of social learning, there the flow of knowledge is not unidirectional but in all possible direction, according to a knowledge conception which is not hierarchical but rather democratic.ConclusionMy paper will present results and new proposals issued from the international seminar and round table of Italian Rector Delegates for University Museums, which I have been organising and will take place on June 10th 2011 at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, in order to reflect on the use and the value of new web 2.0 technologies within University Museums