Digital meets Culture

OPF webinar, 14 June 2016, 14:30 CEST

Pre Commercial Procurement for the long-term Preservation of Digital Cultural Heritage

Outline

Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) is a competition-like method designed to steer the development of innovative solutions towards concrete public sector needs. These solutions are developed by external suppliers that are awarded a contract through a phased open procurement process. In the last years, the PCP instrument is becoming more and more popular within the public sector and the European Union increased support for groups of public procurers working together on joint PCPs under Horizon 2020.

PREFORMA is a PCP project co-funded by the European Commission under its FP7-ICT Programme to work on one of the main challenges that memory institutions are facing nowadays: the long-term preservation of digital data. In particular, the project offers memory institutions an open source conformance checker that controls if a file complies with the standard specifications and with the acceptance criteria of the institutions, thus giving them full control of the process of conformity testing of files to be created, migrated and ingested into archives. This software development is carried out in a collaborative environment with memory institutions and experts. Aim of the webinar is to present the first results of the project and to invite the wider digital preservation community – open source community, developers, standardization bodies and memory institutions – to participate in this process.

For more information about the PREFORMA project visit: www.preforma-project.eu

Presentations

Background and context, Börje Justrell (PREFORMA Project Coordinator): download PDF
The PCP/PPI instrument and how it is implemented in PREFORMA, Antonella Fresa (PREFORMA Technical Coordinator): download PDF
The PREFORMA Challenge, Bert Lemmens (Responsible of the Requirements Phase in PREFORMA): download PDF
How to contribute and next appointments, Claudio Prandoni (PREFORMA Communication Coordinator): download PDF

Video Recording

http://www.preforma-project.eu/opf-webinar.html

The report looks back on the activities and achievements undertaken by the Foundation over the past two years.

Open Preservation Foundation publishes Annual Report

The 2014-2016 Annual Report has been published by Open Preservation Foundation.

The Open Preservation Foundation sustains technology and knowledge for the long-term management of digital cultural heritage. The report looks back on the activities and achievements undertaken by the Foundation over the past two years. Highlights include:

Launch of strategic plan 2015-18, new name, brand and website
New membership and software supporter model
Technology: stewardship and sustainability
Knowledge: webinars and interest groups
New Alliances and community contributions
Project summaries
An introduction to the year ahead

veraPDF, one of the three open source projects funded in the framework in PREFORMA, is considered “a crucial technical success by providing the definitive implementation of a PDF/A validation tool, which was released in version 0.14 earlier this year. Such a tool is eagerly awaited by organisations around the world and will certainly have a huge impact in the preservation community and beyond. The project also supports important on-going collaboration with the PDF Association.” (Ross King, Austrian Institute of Technology, Chair of the Board of Directors of OPF).

The report is freely available HERE.

New York City (USA), 14-15 November 2016

Museum Next conference in NYC

MuseumNext is a global conference on the future of museums. Since 2009 it has acted as a platform for showcasing best practice today to shine a light on the museum of tomorrow.

MuseumNext NYC will take place on 14-15 November 2016 with two days of curated presentations on the theme of Transformation.

This conference will bring together the disrupters and the change-makers, focusing on those who are transforming museums through action rather than theory.

The call for papers was open until the end of June.

Themes:

Transforming Lives – How can museums have a positive social impact on the communities that they serve, changing lives, improving cities and acting as catalysts for change.
Transforming Practices – How is best practice evolving to better meet the needs of a rapidly changing world, we are interested in examples of innovative practice from across the museum.
Transforming Places – How are museums transforming their spaces to meet the needs of their audiences and how are they working with their audiences and external experts to achieve this.

Conference website: http://www.museumnext.com/conference/museum_conference_usa/

Limassol (Cyprus), 31 October - 5 November 2016; extended deadline for submission: 30 July 2016

EuroMed 2016: Call for Papers

A successful decade of European – Mediterranean Conferences on Cultural Heritage Documentation, Preservation and Protection (EuroMed): 2006 – 2016

You are kindly invited to submit a paper to the EuroMed 2016 conference which will provide an opportunity to exchange research results, opinions, experiences and proposals on the best practice and hi-tech tools from Information and Communications Technology to document, preserve, manage and communicate Cultural Heritage (CH). This event will be supported by a scientific committee which consists of almost 100 renowned professionals in the area of CH for a blind peer review of all submitted papers.

www.euromed2016.eu

NEW Call for papers and submission: http://www.euromed2016.eu/index.php/paper-submission

Or download it HERE in PDF

EXTENDED DEADLINE: 30th JULY

The 6th EuroMed2016 brings together researchers, policy makers, professionals and practitioners to explore some of the more pressing issues concerning cultural heritage today. In particular, the main goal of the conference is to focus on interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research on tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage, the use of cutting edge technologies for the protection, restoration, preservation, massive digitalization, documentation and presentation of the CH content. At the same time, the event is intended to cover topics of research ready for exploitation, demonstrating the acceptability of new sustainable approaches and new technologies by the user community, SME’s, owners, managers and conservators of cultural patrimony.

The Event includes the following Workshops – Open to all participants:

The 2nd International Workshop on ICT for the Preservation and Transmission of Intangible Cultural Heritage,
The 3rd International Workshop on 3D Research Challenges in Cultural Heritage,
The 1st International Workshop on Virtual Reality, Gamification and Cultural Heritage
Information and Communication Technologies for Cultural Heritage Applications (InCuTe4CH)
Re-Thinking Management and Valorization of Middle East Cultural Heritage in the Post-War period: Where Disasters Turns to Opportunity, Development and Growth

The new resource was presented at Alcantara International Festival of Performative Arts.

Transmedia Knowledge-Base for Performing Arts, official launch in Lisbon

The Knowledge-Base for performing arts (TKB) is a dynamic and open-ended resource to support the creation and documentation of contemporary performances in the format of a digital “archive of processes”.

It has been recently presented at the important Alkantara International Festival of Performative Arts.

The aim is to gradually compile in an interactive “Transmedia Knowledge-Base” the newest creations of national and international choreographers, directors and performers. It was created for all artists interested in sharing their creative processes, working methods or finished pieces in the performing arts field.

In the Knowledge-Base each artist can upload multimedia materials in an autonomous and self-curatorial way and also chose how they want to appear connected with other artists by indexing tags to their own material.

TKB is coordinated by Carla Fernandes and is hosted by FCSH at NOVA, with the collaboration of FCT-UNL and was funded by Fundação da Ciência e Tecnologia.

Carla Fernandes and FCSH are also partners of the Europeana Space project with the Dance Pilot.

http://www.alkantarafestival.pt/en/meeting-point/knowledge-base-for-performing-arts/

Paris (France), 28th June 2016

Heritage content: how to address the new digital challenges?

Digital content is in no comparison stronger to analog when it comes to reaching wider grounds and larger audiences. Come and discover how new digitization techniques improve the original works preservation and distribution.

Experts from FeniXX, BnF (French National Library), EDRLab and Jouve will share useful insights from their ongoing projects.

Introduction:
- Mr Bruno Delorme – VP international organizations – Jouve

Unavailable Books of the XXth century: how to combine mass digitalization with high quality achievement?
- Mr Regis Habert – Director – FeniXX

The « unavailable books of the XXth century » is the largest worldwide project of mass digitization of books in a structured format (XML – ePub).
FeniXX is the company created by the French publishers to operate the project; its objective is to digitize 200.000 books over a nine year period.
The presentation will address how FeniXX and its digitization partner Jouve have managed the numerous challenges encountered while setting up the project. It will also describe the methods and processes applied to ensure that the quality level required for this production will be reached.

Accessibility, Format Adoption, Epub Format: Pragmatic accessibility in digital publishing
- Mr Daniel Weck – Software Engineer – Affiliations: EDRLab – DAISY – Readium

The EPUB3 format is an industry standard for digital publications. There are still interoperability challenges, and the accessibility bar must be raised. In addition to “good practice” content production guidelines, a formal definition of a11y conformance is emerging, alongside recommended authoring techniques, as well as software validation tools. Mainstream reading systems are improving too. Is the dream of an inclusive publishing ecosystem being realized?

Ebook collections of the 19th century
- Caroline Kageneck – Corporate accounts – BnF Partenariats

Two exemples of ongoing services (internet websites) for the Libraries to give their Patrons access to selected parts of the BnF collections:
– Bnfcollection ebooks (key point) and music
– Retronews (Heritage Press Collections)

Keys to a better access to content
- Etienne Vazolerretto – Product Director – Jouve

Key Metrics and facts to help size projects and find the best approach allying quality and productivity for digitization programs. Also, answers on colorimetry, image optimisation techniques and the best methods for efficiently searchable content.
We will end with a networking session.

LIMITED SEAT AVAILABLE, REGISTER NOW.

June 28th 2016, from 2pm to 5 pm.

At the French National Library: BnF, Room “le Belvédère” – Tour des Lois, Quai François Mauriac, 75013 Paris.

Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, 26–28 September 2016

Call for Papers open for DIPP2016

The Sixth International Conference on Digital Presentation and Preservation of Cultural and Scientific Heritage–DiPP2016 is organised under the UNESCO patronage and aims at presenting innovative results, research projects and applications in the field of digitisation, documentation, archiving, representation and preservation of global and national tangible and intangible cultural and scientific heritage.

Authors are invited to submit original, unpublished research and project papers that are not (and will not be) simultaneously under consideration for publication elsewhere. General areas of interests include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

Digital libraries, e-archives, repositories, virtual museums, e-exhibitions and encyclopaedias of cultural heritage
Virtual reconstructions and interactive multimedia solutions for museums, theatres, concert halls, exhibitions, etc.
Restoration and preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage
Acceleration and facilitation of the sharing and exchange of research data
Issues of the protection of intellectual property: determination, accreditation and management of rights to digital content
Documentation, visualisation and interaction in museums and archives
e-Infrastructures and open access to digitised cultural and scientific heritage
Aggregators for transfer of digitised wealth within the European and global digital environment
Semantic processing of cultural heritage knowledge. Techniques for extracting digital data and knowledge
Use, efficiency and design of interfaces for applications in cultural heritage. Multilingualism
Interactive systems in cultural and creative industries. Social games. Digital storytelling in cultural heritage
Educational applications of digital libraries with cultural and scientific content
Digitalisation of cultural heritage and economics of cultural tourism

Paper types: full papers (8-10 pages); short papers (6 pages) and project papers (6 pages)

All research papers must be written in English and follow the formatting guidelines of Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). Authors should clearly indicate the topic/s and the type of the contribution. All papers are peer-reviewed by at least two members of the programme committee. All submissions are reviewed on the basis of relevance, originality, significance, soundness, and clarity. At least one author should attend the conference to present the paper.

Demos, demonstrations and exhibitions: Memory institutions (e.g., libraries, museums, galleries, archives), research institutions and universities are invited to demonstrate their digital content management systems, digital archives, libraries and repositories preserving national cultural and scientific heritage.

Important dates:

DiPP2016 conference: September 26–28, 2016

Deadline for papers submission: July 5, 2016

For more information contact dipp2016@math.bas.bg or visit http:/dipp2016.math.bas.bg.

Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, 26–28 September 2016

DiPP2016 Conference

The main focus of International Conference Digital Presentation and Preservation of Cultural and Scientific Heritage DiPP2016 is to provide open access to digitised cultural heritage and to set up sustainable policies for its continuous digital preservation and conservation. The priority area is the digital presentation and preservation of cultural and historical objects under conditions of risk. The forum will demonstrate innovative technologies and prototypes, including digital repositories, digital archives, virtual museums and digital libraries, which result from established practices and achievements in the field. Representatives of a number of public and specialised libraries, museums, galleries, archives, centres, both national and foreign research institutions and universities will be invited to participate and exchange experiences, ideas, knowledge and best practices of the field.

There will be also Workshop on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Data, which will primarily focus on the following activities: Open Access indicators; disseminate partners’ best practices; discuss research problems in the field; discuss the possibilities of establishing a network of open-access repositories; contribute to the problems of the harmonization of national legislation and practices; and discuss the possibilities of developing training courses for creators and managers of scientific digital repositories to ensure interoperability.

DiPP2016 conference: September 26–28, 2016

Principal organiser: Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113, Sofia, 8, Acad. G. Bonchev Str., website: http://www.math.bas.bg, phone +359 2 870 1072, fax +359 2 971 3649, e-mail: director@math.bas.bg

Co-organisers: Veliko Tarnovo Municipality, Regional Museum of History, P. R. Slaveykov Regional Public Library, Veliko Tarnovo, St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Turnovo

Hosts of the event: Regional Museum of History and P. R. Slaveykov Regional Public Library, Veliko Tarnovo

For more information contact dipp2016@math.bas.bg or visit http://dipp2016.math.bas.bg.

available open access at Springer, the book makes a creative addition to the debates surrounding the cultural heritage domain.

Cultural Heritage in a Changing World – the RICHES book

Developed within the RICHES project about the context of change of our society and cultural heritage, the book “Cultural Heritage in a Changing World” addresses several core topics, through essays of important experts, adding to the debates surrounding the cultural heritage domain.

The Book is divided into four interrelated sections: Context of Change; Mediated and Unmediated Heritage; Co-creation and Living Heritage for Social Cohesion; and Identity and Belonging.

The Introduction and the whole editorial process have been curated by RICHES partners Karol Jan Borowiecki (University of Southern Denmark), Neil Forbes (Coventry University) and Antonella Fresa (Promoter SRL).

List of chapters:
Context of Change

Cultures and Technology: An Analysis of Some of the Changes in Progress—Digital, Global and Local Culture, by Mariella Combi
Interdisciplinary Collaborations in the Creation of Digital Dance and Performance: A Critical Examination, by Sarah Whatley and Amalia G. Sabiescu
Sound Archives Accessibility, by Silvia Calamai, Veronique Ginouvès and Pier Marco Bertinetto
Technology and Public Access to Cultural Heritage: The Italian Experience on ICT for Public Historical Archives, by Calogero Guccio, Marco Ferdinando Martorana, Isidoro Mazza and Ilde Rizzo
Copyright, Cultural Heritage and Photography: A Gordian Knot?, by Frederik Truyen and Charlotte Waelde

Mediated and Unmediated Heritage

A Case Study of an Inclusive Museum: The National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari Becomes “Liquid”, by Anna Maria Marras, Maria Gerolama Messina, Donatella Mureddu and Elena Romoli
The Museum as Information Space: Metadata and Documentation, by Trilce Navarrete and John Mackenzie Owen
The Museum of Gamers: Unmediated Cultural Heritage Through Gaming, by Serdar Aydin and Marc Aurel Schnabel

Co-creation and Living Heritage for Social Cohesion

Change of Museums by Change of Perspective: Reflecting Experiences of Museum Development in the Context of “EuroVision—Museums Exhibiting Europe” (EU Culture Programme), by Susanne Schilling
Technologies Lead to Adaptability and Lifelong Engagement with Culture Throughout the Cloud, by Silvia de los Rios Perez, Maria Fernanda Cabrera-Umpierrez and Maria Teresa Arredondo
The Place of Urban Cultural Heritage Festivals: The Case of London’s Notting Hill Carnival, by Ernest Taylor and Moya Kneafsey
Tools You Can Trust? Co-design in Community Heritage Work, by Simon Popple and Daniel H. Mutibwa
Crowdsourcing Culture: Challenges to Change, by Dora Constantinidis

Identity

The Spanish Republican Exile: Identity, Belonging and Memory in the Digital World, by Lidia Bocanegra Barbecho and Maurizio Toscano
Growing Up in the ‘Digital’ Age: Chinese Traditional Culture Is Coming Back in Digital Era, by Situ Xiaochun

Further, a chapter about Riches and the Riches Taxonomy conclude the book.

Civic Epistemologies and Riches signed on November 2015 the Berlin Charter, a set of principles for encouraging and supporting citizens’ engagement in cultural heritage and humanities research in the digital age.

The Book is downloadable for free here.

Cluj-Napoca (Romania), 8-14 September 2016

4th International Festival of NanoArt

The 4th International Festival of NanoArt was be hosted in Cluj-Napoca, Romania by Babes-Bolyai University between September 8 – 14, 2016 in parallel with the 11th International Conference On Physics Of Advanced Materials (ICPAM-11). The artworks were shown in the Hall of Transilvania Philharmonic Cluj-Napoca. The exhibition is curated by artist and scientist Cris Orfescu, founder of NanoArt 21 and artist Mirela Suchea, PhD, researcher in the field of nanostructured materials synthesis. The previous editions of the festival were held in Finland, Germany, and Romania.

Joe Nalven: The Fruit that the Snake gave to Eve in Eden-nanoart

NanoArt is a complex artistic-scientific process that comprises three major components:

1. creation of the nanosculpture (sculpture at atomic and molecular levels, by manipulating atoms and molecules using chemical reactions and physical processes) or discovery of the nanolandscape (natural nanostructures, mostly biological);

2. visualization of the nanostructure (which is facilitated by the use of advanced microscopes) and image capture;

3. artistic interpretation of the scientific images using different artistic techniques in order to convert these images in pieces of artwork to be showcased for large audiences and to educate the public with creative images that are appealing and acceptable.