The digital preservation community is a connected and collaborative one. I first heard about the Europe-based PREFORMA project last summer at a Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative meeting when we were discussing the Digital File Formats for Videotape Reformatting comparison matrix. My interest was piqued because I heard about their incorporation of FFV1 and Matroska, both included in our matrix but not yet well adopted within the federal community. I was drawn first to PREFORMA’s format standardization efforts – Disclosure and Adoption are two of the sustainability factors we use to evaluate digital formats on the Sustainability of Digital Formats website – but the wider goals of the project are equally interesting.
In this interview, I was excited to learn more about the PREFORMA project from MediaConch’s Project Manager Dave Rice and Archivist Ashley Blewer.
Erwin Verbruggen from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision presented PREFORMA at the EBU Open Source Meetup at IBC 2015 in Amsterdam.
The presentation, which is available for download here, focused on the media conformance checking of AV files.
MediaConch, the conformance checker for AV files that is developed by MediaArea in the framework of PREFORMA, was also presented at the Conference. The presentation is available here.
Just like last year, the Open Source Meetup at IBC featured a series of 5 minutes lightning talks on open source projects and use cases from the broadcast domain, covering topics on production, contribution and distribution, such as: graphics and video play-out, audio & video encoding, transcoding in the cloud, DAB+ radio broadcasting, …. for further information visit the Conference website.
Internet Festival 2015 took place on 8-11 October, as every year in Pisa. One of the most important European events dedicated to the digital world, IF is an unmissable date to understand what the technological innovation can represent for the future of Italy and the Italians.
The meeting provideed a programme packed with appointments and hundreds of guests. Spaceis the topic of this edition 2015: how it, and the perception of it, has changed in time.
The Web changes the space. Which becomes multidimensional due to cultural, economic, social and political dynamics, upset by digitisation and constantly mutating.
The web’s geographies help “designing/imagining the world” and “governing” the world’s complexity through innovation, which balances two different needs: understanding and planning. If geography means “drawing the world”, then its coordinates are routes using new reference points to move within the digital ecosystem. Modern explorers follow routes that run along inclines and directions driving the development of the relations and information flow.
Hacking the [Dancing] Body is the great hack event of the Europeana Space Dance pilot, taking place in Prague on 20-21 November 2015 and preceded by the pre-event on 24th October.
The Europeana Space project is organising an exciting event about the use and re-use of cultural digital content, in particular dance. Participants will form teams and during two days of focused and intensive collaboration, with assistance from the hackathon ambassadors (experts in programming, BCI technologies, motion-tracking, and cultural heritage), explore new creative ideas, design and develop prototypes.
The Prague Dance Hackathon focuses on the re-use of cultural heritage materials in live performance, cross-media storytelling, motion tracking and transformation of data, brain/computer interfaces in performance. We encourage participants to combine different aspects of these elements to create something truly new and unique that will shake up the market!
Hackathon topics:
Dance (patterns in body movements)
State of mind (patterns in brain signals)
Cultural Heritage Content (patterns in history of art)
Moreover they can transform data from motion capture device into visual; prepare multi-media project, as a presentation of their own stage-design or choreography; remix, implement, transpose digital data from Europeana cultural repositories to inspire and create new performances; transform the data from EEG of dancer during the performance into the visual design (brain-computer interface application).
An international jury will reward the three best teams with a trip to London for an intensive a Business Model Workshop, where the team with the strongest concept and business model after the Workshop will win a 3-month intensive incubation package to deliver their ideas on the real market.
“Before the Tempest” imagines what life was like on the island for Miranda and Prospero as a prequel to Shakespeare’s classic tale of love, magic and bad weather.
The play is the result of this year’s Hidden Spire, which brings together a team of professional artists to make a show from scratch alongside people who are homeless. They have been writing, devising, designing and building over 14 months to create what promises to be an extraordinary moment of live theatre with a striking set. A work of art in itself.
It’s about isolation and belonging, despair and forgiveness. It’s about wanting to fit in and being different. It’s about growing up. And it’s about birds.
There will be a Q & A after the performance on Thursday 17 Sept.
What is Hidden Spire?
A partnership between Arts at the Old Fire Station and Crisis Skylight Oxford, Hidden Spire brings professional artists and Crisis clients together to create a performance using music, dance, theatre, visual artsand more.
The two groups work together every step of the way: everything from set design, script-writing and front-of-house is done as a collaboration between the artists and Crisis clients. Hidden Spire isn’t just a production, it’s a process: it demonstrates the value and potential of having a public arts centre and resources for homeless people in the same building. Most importantly, it shows that excellent art and inclusive art can be the same thing.
Hidden Spire features as part of the Art In Crisis festival, a national programme of events and workshops aimed at foregrounding homelessness and the arts.
The arts are for everyone. Everyone has potential. Come and join Hidden Spire for “Before The Tempest” to see a truly unique and extraordinary moment of live theatre.
Hidden Spire was case study of EU project Civic Epistemologies, committed to examining how community groups of citizens engage with cultural heritage and participate in the generation and reuse of cultural heritage by using digital technologies. Homeless or vulnerably housed people tend not to identify as “citizens”, but the activities subject of Civic Epistemologies’ case study demonstrate the value of the work carried out by the Hidden Spire partners in transitioning the participants to citizenship, through gaining skills that enhance these people’s employability and contribution to society.
Digital Meets Culture, official media partner of the event, presents the E-Space creative marketing workshop “Digital Culture, Social Media and Innovation for the Cultural Heritage”
The cultural sector has always been facing the great challenge of building its audience, but the digital shift changed radically how cultural heritage is made, disseminated, distributed, accessed, consumed and monetised. One of the most important revolutions is that the visitors’ role changed dramatically, shifting from passive observers to active participants and contents producers.
This workshop, taking place in Pisa’s Scuola Normale Superiore on 9 October 2015, will explore different ways of communicating cultural contents with the use of new media and will show how a greater audience can be reached by combining the power of social media and storytelling.
Piazza dei Cavalieri, Pisa
The event, hosted by Fondazione Sistema Toscana in cooperation with Invasioni Digitali, is being held in the framework of the Internet Festival.
Participation is free of charge but subject to online registration. For registering click here.
Participants shall have at least one active social media profile. After the plenary presentations, they will be divided in groups. Each group will be assigned a tutor and a specific theme to develop. Groups will leave the building and collect materials (pictures, videos…) with their smartphones around the city. Groups will then have time to elaborate their contents before they present them to the audience.
B.Y.O.D.! – You’ll be using mainly your smartphones and computer (for post production). We’ll provide tables, chairs and plugs.
During the hands on and co-creation session there will be a free refreshment corner available for participants with coffee, drinks and sandwiches.
There’s only one week left to submit your idea for a workshop, ignite talk, chef’s table, poster or improvisation session for DISH2015.
DISH is the biennial conference about digital strategies for heritage. This year’s theme is Money and Power.
Call for Proposals
Are you an expert in user engagement with digital heritage? Do you care about the role of digital heritage in the public domain? Are you convinced that “open” means “more impact”? Do you have a cunning business plan with digital heritage? Then submit a proposal for a table session, a workshop, a poster session or an ignite talk!
all projects funded to support the common European data space for cultural heritage gathered in Brussels for a day of presentations, discussions and synergies
EUreka3D-XR was invited at the cluster event organized by HaDEA the European Health and Digital Executive Agency in Brussels on 24 September 2025. The meeting was organized as a working session to present the project and its progress in support … Continue reading →
Upcoming appointment: October 8th, Museo della Grafica (Pisa) at 4PM
On the 19th of September, the UNFRAMED – Towards a New Reality exhibition was successfully opened at the Palazzo del Parlascio in Pisa, with the capability of uniting culture, research, and tourism. The vernissage was followed on the 24th by a … Continue reading →
Collaboration agreement has started between SECreTour and GAL Elimos in October 2025
The SECreTour Network is growing! GAL Elimos (Gruppo di Azione Locale Elimos) is a Local Action Group based in Calatafimi Segesta, in the Trapani area (Sicily). Its mission is to foster local development and innovation through EU-funded rural development programs, … Continue reading →
Lugano, 23-24-25 October 2025 (also available online access)
Beyond Borders is an initiative of the SECreTOUR project, made of three appointments on 23-24-25 October 2025, aiming to explore opportunities, initatives and experiences about sustainable cultural tourism, in the light of challenges and opportunities posed by cross-border actions. … Continue reading →
The new campaign led by Europeana aims at supporting EU Member States in 3D digitisation, preservation and reuse
Building on the momentum of Twin it! 3D for Europe’s Culture (June 2023 – June 2024), the Europeana Initiative and the European Commission launched Twin it! Part II campaign to run during the Polish, Danish and Cypriot Rotating Presidencies of the Council … Continue reading →
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Hacking the [Dancing] Body is the great hack event of the 
