Digital meets Culture

To define best practices for text digitisation and long term preservation.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between DCH-RP and SUCCEED projects for the promotion and presentation of the respective results and for the organisation of joint events and other activities, focusing in particular on the definition of best practices for text digitisation and long term preservation.

DCH-RP (Digital Cultural Heritage Roadmap for Preservation) is a Coordination Action supported by the European Commission under the FP7 e-Infrastructure Capacities Programme, to design a Roadmap for the implementation of a federated e-Infrastructure for preservation of DCH content. The Roadmap will be supplemented by practical tools for decision makers and validated through a range of proofs of concept, where cultural institutions and e-Infrastructure providers work together on concrete experiments.

SUCCEED (Support Action Centre of Competence in Digitisation) is a support action funded by the European Union that promotes the take up and validation of research results in mass digitisation with focus on the textual content. Succeed aims to improve the availability of tools and resources, fosters the transfer of knowledge, the creation of research consortia and explores the role of emerging business models, funding opportunities and public-private partnerships to improve large-scale text digitisation techniques. The action will be implemented through the Impact Centre of Competence in Digitisation, an output of the IMPACT FP7-project which gathers and exposes digitisation tools and resources. The Centre will sustain the actions beyond Succeed since a legal entity will be substantiated and a roadmap for its long-term sustainability will be defined during the action.

To promote the use and quality check of common standards for text digitisation and long term preservation.

MoU between PREFORMA and SUCCEED

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between PREFORMA and SUCCEED projects for the promotion and presentation of the respective results and for the organisation of joint events and other activities, focusing in particular on the use and quality check of common standards for text digitisation and long term preservation.

PREFORMA (www.preforma-project.eu) is a Pre-Commercial Procurement project co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of the FP7 ICT Programme with the aim to address the challenge of implementing good quality standardised file formats for preserving data content in the long term and to give memory institutions full control of the process of the conformity tests of files to be ingested into archives.

SUCCEED (Support Action Centre of Competence in Digitisation, http://succeed-project.eu) is a support action funded by the European Union that promotes the take up and validation of research results in mass digitisation with focus on the textual content. Succeed aims to improve the availability of tools and resources, fosters the transfer of knowledge, the creation of research consortia and explores the role of emerging business models, funding opportunities and public-private partnerships to improve large-scale text digitisation techniques. The action will be implemented through the Impact Centre of Competence in Digitisation, an output of the IMPACT FP7-project which gathers and exposes digitisation tools and resources. The Centre will sustain the actions beyond Succeed since a legal entity will be substantiated and a roadmap for its long-term sustainability will be defined during the action.

Paris, 28 November 2014

Succeed in digitisation. Spreading excellence

The Succeed project is organising at Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) the conference “Succeed in digitisation. Spreading excellence”, to be held on November 28th, 2014.

Succeed is an EU funded project that promotes the take-up and validation of tools and resources for mass digitisation.

The conference schedule will focus on the following blocks based on the main outcomes of Succeed:

Libraries’ experiences in the take-up of tools.
Results on competitions.
Roadmap for the future of digitisation in Europe.
Interoperability of tools for text digitisation.
Recommendations on formats, standards and licensing schemes related to digitisation.
Panel discussions on digital humanities / digital conservation

The attendance to the conference is free, but registration is required. To register, please follow this link.

For further information, please visit http://succeed-project.eu/succeed-digitisation

Muscat, Oman, 10-11 December 2014

e-AGE 2014 Intercontinental Connectivity of the Pan Arab Network

Under the Patronage of His Highness Sayyid Taimur Bin As’ad Al Said, the Arab States Research and Education Network – ASREN, announced its fourth annual event “4th International Platform on Integrating Arab e-Infrastructure in a Global Environment – e-AGE 2014” taking place on 10-11 December 2014 in Muscat, Oman. The platform was hosted by The Research Council (TRC) of Oman.

What is e-AGE all about?

Integrating Arab e-infrastructure in a Global Environment, e-AGE, is an annual international event organized by the Arab States Research and Education Network, ASREN. e-AGE is in line with ASREN’s major objectives related to creating awareness, promoting R&E collaboration and joint activities and establishing human networks in order to facilitate collaboration and cooperation among researchers and academicians in the Arab region and the rest of the world.

In e-AGE 2014, the main theme was “Intercontinental Connectivity of the Pan Arab Network”. ASREN started concrete steps towards interconnecting researchers and academics across the Arab States by launching its first PoP in London Telicity and working with its partners on new PoPs in UAE, Egypt and the Maghreb region. ASREN is also supporting the development of NRENs in some Arab countries. ASREN aims to give special attention and more focus on users and how the e-Infrastructure can support their needs in terms of services and applications. More sessions are dedicated to the users to present their research and education activities and then to identify how these users can be better served by NRENs.

Topics of interest

Research collaboration in energy, environment, health, climate, water, agriculture, biology, economy, medicine and other pressing global issues and problems.
Perspectives on NRENs, including challenges, operation, sustainability, funding, governance, business models, security and services.
Access to research and education resources, repositories, libraries and contents, clouds, grids and HPCs.
Connectivity options including technologies, services, cables, circuits and equipment.
Internet developments and impact on R&E networks.
e-Services like e-Science, e-Government, e-Libraries, e-Learning, e-*…
Virtual Research Environments, Science Gateways, Federation of Identities, eduroam, eduGAIN …

Events and Activities

ASREN is becoming more visible and more active in the region and beyond. It has developed a new shareholder scheme with more Arab NRENs joining as well as more supporting organizations. Following on the success of e-AGE in 2011, 2012 and 2013, e-AGE 2014 included events, workshops, meetings centered on the following themes:

The 7th Event on Euro-Mediterranean e-Infrastructure
The 4th annual meeting of ASREN
AROQA 6th Annual Conference
EUMEDCONENCT3 Meeting
Technical Workshops on R&E networking (to be announced)

Moreover special sessions were dedicated to specific domains, mainly focusing on experiences in connectivity and e-Infrastructure, applications and services in variety of scientific domains and case studies with impact indicators and measures. It is also important to show how research infrastructure created benefits to communities and collaboration. It is still critical to show how research connectivity can promote collaboration and innovation. Different discussions were stimulated during e-AGE to drive outcomes and concrete results on practical steps towards developing a regional e-Infrastructure.

Venue

Grand Hyatt Hotel, Muscat, Oman

Important dates

1st October: Submission Deadline (Papers, Posters and Presentations)
15th October: Acceptance Notification
27th November: Final Pdf posters, Word papers and Presentations slides
4th December: Registration Deadline
10th-11th December: e-AGE 2014

Registration fees

Speakers: Free
Papers Authors: 50 Euro
ASREN Members: 150 Euro
ASREN non-members: 250 Euro

Further information

Conference official website:

http://asrenorg.net/eage2014/

Papers and Poster submission:

Salem Al-Agtash, alagtash@asrenorg.net, Mobile: +962 77-720-1998
Federico Ruggieri, federico.ruggieri@roma3.infn.it, Mobile: +390 65-733-7232

Proposals, Presentations and Program:

Yousef Torman, torman@asrenorg.net, Mobile: +962 77-990-7900

Registration, Payment, Reservations and Others:

Ola Samara, osamara@ASRENOrg.net, Mobile: +962 78-868-6802

Coventry (UK), 5-7 September 2014

Ludi Lunt now open for Applications

We are preparing for a very 21^st Century event to be held at the Lunt Roman Fort in Coventry, aimed at helping to breathe new life into the historic Fort – and applications are now open for people to get involved in a unique weekend of creativity, invention and fun.

Ludi Lunt (roughly translated from Latin: ‘public games at the Lunt’) will run from 6pm on Fri 5^th September 2014 to 4pm on Sunday 7^th September, and is a hackathon-style event. The event aims to bring together creative people from around the UK to devise ways to improve the visitor experience, reveal more of the site’s fascinating past and breathe new life into this cultural gem, helping to re-establish the Lunt as a major Roman visitor attraction.

Ludi Lunt is being organised by staff from the Lunt and its management team, who are working with a diverse group of local historians and hackathon experts to put this very special event together. They are now looking to recruit people with a range of skills to take part in the event, including historians, artists and illustrators, technologists, engineers, hackers, gamers, app-makers and coders, writers, performers, designers, social media whizzes, educational professionals and craftspeople, students – as well as anyone who feels that they have ideas to contribute to a weekend of innovation and creativity.

In return for your efforts, you will have the unique opportunity to spend a weekend with other creative people at this amazing location, including camping, eating and working in the grounds of the Lunt. There will also be prizes for the best ideas generated over the course of the weekend, as well as the opportunity to be involved in the implementation of selected projects.

There is no charge for you to be involved in the Ludi Lunt hackathon and applications are open now. Subscribe here!

For more information visit http://www.ludilunt.co.uk/

EU projects panel workshop at congress Euromed 2014 (Limassol, Cyprus, 3 November 2014)

A strategy for cultural heritage in the new digital age.

A panel workshop to disseminate the latest achievements and to foster collaboration in the digital cultural heritage sector was organized by Promoter Srl on Novermber 3rd, 2014 in the framework of the important congress Euromed 2014.

EU projects, organizations and professional operating in this field were invited to participate in the discussion.

Title of the session: The Digitization Age: Mass Culture is Quality Culture. Challenges for cultural heritage and society

The amount of digitized cultural heritage in Europe continues to grow: the digitization activities have a positive impact on the society, by making the cultural heritage more accessible for the citizens, and by generating benefits to the content owners. Several questions arise about digitized cultural heritage: how can digital cultural data be re-used at best, what is the impact on society, and how to preserve it in the long term? This panel discussion will try to answer these questions, and to present the latest EU projects that wish to identify a strategy for the cultural heritage in the new digital age.

The project that particpated to the workshop are both advanced projects such as ITN-DCH, Europeana Photography and Preforma, and newly launched projects as Europeana Space, RICHES, and the brand new Civic Epistemologies (kick-off meeting on 1st September 2014).

[Show as slideshow]

Starting from digitization, which produced such a big amount of cultural data, there are different areas of impact: to use such digitized materials, the e-infrastructures and preservation standards are needed, mostly for allowing to manage and search digital cultural objects and metadata, in terms of creative re-use and scientific research.

An analysis about the impact of digital cultural heritage on the society at large is necessary to understand how the society itself is changing, and how the role of citizens, who become an active part in the science and humanities, is crucial to guarantee a real development and participation in the research and educational fields.

A creative re-use of digital cultural content and repositories can also act as a leverage to unlock the business potential of European cultural heritage, generating benefits for companies and creating new job opportunities.

For more information:

Article “The Digitization Age: Mass Culture is Quality Culture. Challenges for cultural heritage and society.”, by Valentina Bachi, Antonella Fresa, Claudia Pierotti, Claudio Prandoni, Promoter srl (PDF, 1.2 Mb)

AGENDA Panel Workshop – The Digitization Age Mass Culture is Quality Culture

Workshop announce

Congress website with more photos of the Euromed 2014 congress

Venice, 16 - 17 October 2014

Europeana Space Opening Conference

A rich program of speakers and creative sessions to build bridges between Cultural Institutions and Creative Industry.

Digital Cultural Content Re-imagined: New Avenues for the Economy and Society.

The Opening Conference of Europeana Space is a great event held in Venice on 16-17 October 2014, in the beautiful locations of Ca’ Foscari University.

It is becoming extremely relevant that these two sectors, the Cultural Institutions and the Creative Industry, are more and more encouraged to get in connection, in order to unlock the business potential of digital cultural heritage.

Europeana Space project, including representatives of both sectors, intends not only to demonstrate that this connection is a win-win opportunity, but will also support its initiation and long-term viability by creating an open, fertile enviroment where the digital cultural content can be re-used in innovative creative applications and products.

Conference page:

http://veniceconference2014.europeana-space.eu

Conference Objectives:

spreading the message that cultural heritage is a living process and is vital for the health of society and the growing economy
presentation of market analysis and business models for reuse of digital objects / promote discussion on economic sustainability of cultural assets
involve players in discussion on how digital cultural content can be re-used
awareness-raising and public engagement in the Europeana Space project: set problems and show in which way the project is addressing them

Why in Venice / Ca’ Foscari University

Italy as unique repository of cultural heritage with huge potential for valorization
Venice meeting East and West, land and water, history and future
Ca’ Foscari University merging economics & management with humanistic knowledge

just inaugurated an important new section of the Museum, provided with the most advanced digital media

German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin: New permanent Exhibition

On July 1 2014, the Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel opened the new permanent exhibition “Resistance against National Socialism” in the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin. The entire social breadth and ideological diversity of the fight against the National Socialist dictatorship is are documented in 18 topic areas. The barrier-free permanent exhibition is accompanied by a wide range of media and materials, along with an audio guide in seven languages and a video guide in German Sign Language.

Our Europeana Space partner Museumsmedien produced the extensive digital media offers for the exhibition.

Links:

Federal Chancellor : http://www.bundeskanzlerin.de/Content/DE/Artikel/2014/07/2014-07-01-gedenken-widerstand-bkin.html

The German Resistance Memorial Center: http://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/home/

[Show as slideshow]

Deeper information to the topic of the exhibition

The German Resistance Memorial Center is located in the historical site of the attempted coup d’état of July 20, 1944, in the former headquarters of the Army High Command. Here, starting in 1942, several officers close to Friedrich Olbricht prepared the coup.

After Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg’s attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler in the Führer’s headquarters in East Prussia, Operation Valkyrie was set into action here in the Bendler Block in the afternoon of July 20, 1944.

The coup attempt by civilian and military circles failed. That very same night, Ludwig Beck, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim, Werner von Haeften (pron. Haften) and Friedrich Olbricht were shot dead.

Since 1953 a memorial in the inner courtyard has commemorated those events. In 1980 the commemorative courtyard was given its current form.

Nowadays the German Resistance Memorial Center doesn’t commemorate only the coup attempt of July 20th, 1944, but also many people and groups that resisted National Socialist injustice. The exhibition shows the entire breadth and diversity of opposition to the regime and reveals the different traditions, motives, aims and situations that enabled and influenced resistance to National Socialism between 1933 and 1945.

In 1933, most Germans welcomed the new rulers and their policies. Only a minority reacting to the violation of human rights and destruction of democracy put up resistance. Those people used the scope for manoeuvre that exists, even in a dictatorship, for compassion and political activity. Resistance became a clear part of the process of contending with National Socialism and its crimes.

By presenting what happened to individuals and the how resistance networks emerged, as well as the motivations and campaigns of the various resistance groups, we show the many and varied dimensions of the struggle against the Nazi dictatorship.

Vienna, 7-11 July 2014

Digital Preservation Advanced Practitioner Course 2014

After the success of last year’s workshop, we are delighted to announce the return of this training event organised by APARSEN and presented in collaboration with TIMBUS.

This week-long event in Vienna, will bring together practitioners and researchers at the leading edge of digital preservation. The training will aim to cover issues across the digital preservation lifecycle by addressing topics within four main themes: identifying the key issues of digital preservation, understanding the value of digital data, managing and preserving your data and establishing trustworthy repositories. The training will be presented as a mix of presentations, practical exercises and group discussion.

The course is the second iteration of what will become a yearly event to be presented from 2015 by the Virtual Centre of Excellence developed out of APARSEN. It will bring together those at the forefront of digital preservation research and training, and it is intended for managers and staff already working in digital preservation. It assumes a working knowledge of existing standards like the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) as well as an understanding of how issues of preservation apply to their own institution.

Target Audience:

This training event is aimed primarily at:

Records managers and information officers in organisations that rely on long-lived data;
Data managers, librarians, curators and archivists in all institutions;
Innovators and researchers in information technology and computing science.

Feedback from 2013 Participants:

My knowledge has deepened and I have a greater awareness about digital preservation policies and topics […] I wish this course could have been longer!

[…] have a much better understanding of all different issues associated with DP. Also got some good solutions to take back to try and implement.

Great to have so many experts from so many projects across Europe talking about cutting edge/latest developments. Also really good to network with other people on the course and share experiences with each other. Very well organised!

Registration and programme:

Course fees are 250€ for 5 days, and this includes lunch and refreshments but not accommodation.

Registration is open until 17:00 (GMT) on 3^rd July via the APARSEN website where the full programme can also be found: http://bit.ly/1gWdQzs

http://www.alliancepermanentaccess.org/index.php/training/aparsen-training-schedule/advanced-practitioner-course-2014/

A delegation represented the project at the Anthropology and Photography Conference in London in May 2014

Some of our yesterdays: Europeana Photography @ British Library

by Sofie Taes, KU Leuven

From 29 to 31 May 2014, a small delegation of the Europeana Photography-consortium represented the project at the Anthropology and Photography Conference at the British Museum’s Clore Centre, London. Organized by the Royal Anthropological Institute and the British Museum, this gathering of professionals from either the artistic/creative field or the academic world, offered the opportunity to anyone active at the crossroads of both disciplines to showcase an oeuvre or project to the conference attendants.

Next to the promotion of our project from the broadest possible perspective, encompassing demonstrations of Europeana-searches online and introductions of partner institutions and collections involved, two focal points were chosen for this dissemination event.

Firstly, as the initial stance of EuropeanaPhotography’s exhibition All Our Yesterdays (Pisa, 12 April – 2 June) was to close only a few days later, the accent was not so much on present as on future activities: the upcoming Belgian production of the expo (Leuven, 30 January – 30 March 2015), as well as its flexible, transferable and transformable concept – intended to attract the attention of possible future host institutions.

Secondly, this participation in the conference exhibit was directed towards attracting interested / interesting partners or associates to join the future platform that is crystallizing from the current project consortium as we speak!

I shared the impression of my fellow exhibitors, John Balean (TopFoto) and Nacha Van Steen (KMKG), that attending this event was well worth the effort: our booth attracted the attention of a good number of visitors, most of whom were not yet acquainted with Europeana nor EuropeanaPhotography, but often surprised and inspired by the great opportunities for research and re-use (especially in an educational and editorial context) offered by our collections as represented in the database.