In a world where traditional barriers between brands and consumers are rapidly being broken down, this provides a great opportunity for museums to engage on a very individual level. Expectations of users can now be realised far more effectively with advances in technology and we are seeing this particularly on the web.

The emergence of platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, bebo, Second Life and the advances of web 2.0 has enabled a new degree of personalisation. Culture institutions are now using these platforms to reach new audiences that want huge flexibility in the way they badge themselves. The BALTIC has 614 fans; the V&A has 429 (with the unofficial page charting 519). The open source nature of Facebook applications has led to the creation of ArtShare by the Brooklyn Museum, allowing users to display up to 438 artworks from the collections of Tate, the Met, NY on their Facebook profile page. 174 artists have now also adopted the technology to share their work with Facebook users.

On the mobile technology front, initiatives such as Start Mobile set up by START SOMA, the San Francisco gallery for emerging artists it features art for download by hundreds of artists and positions itself as a counterpoint to the banal and contrived images that come as standard with handsets. Manufacturers and service providers have recognised that the next step is to make the user co-creator or commentator on the cultural product. For example Sony have developed the World View mobile photography contest that attracted 70,000 entrants in 2007 and earlier this year, Nokia launched the N82 using a spoof ‘Position Art’ campaign that tracked users movements by GPS to create some of the worlds largest artworks. Nokia is also encouraging people to demonstrate their mobile creativity by the co-creation of a new short film under the Nokia Productions banner that will draw on the work of multiple entrants whose content will be drawn together by the celebrated director Spike Lee.

Advances in resolution and screen quality should only accelerate these trends not to mention the increasing photographic and film capabilities of newer devices. Photoblogging, Flashart and are maturing to a point where mobile artists and commentators are emerging with there own communities such as mobART and moblog, the revolution in mobile technology.

Even the merchandisers are getting in on the act. The Tate shop has 1643 friends (at the last count) including Banksy, i-D magazine, Maggi Hambling and someone called Moomin. By the way, she is female, Aries, 101 years old and has her own blog! It’s not just restricted to institutions either, the anonymous street artist, Invader, who specialises in urban invasions has created a merchandise line that includes a pair of trainers which fans can use to join in what he call a ‘reality game’ as the images below demonstrate. This form of user participation and self-branding can also be seen in his Flickr group where people document his invasion projects in cities including London, Paris, Newcastle, LA and Barcelona. By analysing these examples we can see that self-branding or identification for these individuals means consuming an idea and philosophy as well as the culture product. Many brands want consumers to get beyond the company logo and buy into their ideals and the culture industry is no different. It will be interesting as culture becomes more and more mainstream what impact this will have. The phenomenal recent success of First Emperor at the British Museum which set a new attendence cord paid for a paid for exhibition, and the subsequent breaking of this by Tutenkhamen at the O2 means our industry is now big business and over-exposure could also be counterproductive if it conflicts with the core brand values of the institution that consumers wish to identify with.