The Republic of Korea ICHpedia wiki and the creation of a new web-based community of practice through online participatory methodologies

This article aims at introducing the classification established by Korea’s ICHpedia for users involved in the inventorying of intangible cultural heritage through the use of Web 2.0 instruments. The analysis moves from the definition of community developed since the adoption of the UNESCO 2003 Convention, and traces the recent shift from object-oriented to person-oriented safeguarding of cultural heritage, in order to understand what changes from the cyberspace are taking place and influencing the field of intangible heritage. The new concept of “heritage of all” is closely connected with collective intelligence theories from the Nineties’. Moving from this theoretical background I try to postulate the necessity of a new shift in the definition of community, which has been strongly influenced by information and communication technologies (ICTs), which provides the cultural heritage sector with new networks of people involved in the identification of ICH elements.