Digital meets Culture

Connecting generations and sharing memories with digitised contents

MemorySharing tells the History through your stories

MemorySharing is a project which aims to create a new way for increasing the value of a community’s memories and private documents, by combining web technologies, scientific accuracy and creative approach in the multimedia sharing/telling of contents. Main objective is to connect generations, comparing and transferring knowledge, dynamically and funnily strengthening the shared memory, actively engaging aged and young people. Basically, MemorySharing wants to match with History starting from documents and individual and family testimonies, believing that such micro-historical, fragmented and scattered material can constitute (once suitably reconstructed as a puzzle) an unconventional collective heritage, important for retracing the history of communities, cities and nations. The main phases of the project are four:

1) Citizenry mobilisation – through web, institutions, local media, events, meetings: people are invited to share their photos, letters, diaries, super8s and heirlooms. Their material is an important piece of the collective history, to be digitised and used as source of events and tales;

2) Material collection – through web portals, social networks and physical spaces (libraries, schools, associations and local newspapers. The material is collected, digitised and showed via itinerant video-boxes;

3) Material sharing – the material is catalogued and inserted in open web networks (Historypin, Xdams, Europeana…), free and dynamic;

4) Storytelling, exhibitions, events – the collected material is given a narrative and captivating form: documentary-films, multiscreen films, itinerant films, multimedia tours, multimedia exhibitions, photography contests, readings and theatre performances, web-docs (non-linear interactive telling), e-books, paper volumes.

MemorySharing is a project by the cultural association Acquario della Memoria (Aquarium of Memory), whose essential objective is to experiment effective and innovative ways of transmitting the value of past’s memories, in particular to the young generations. According to such view, Acquario della Memoria believes audio-visual and interactive technologies can contribute to keep up, in a modern and engaging way, the ancient oral methods of transferring knowledge and cultural identity. Documents and testimonies collection, creation of an open and dynamic multimedia archive, realisation of educational workshops, films, documentaries, video-installations, exhibitions and interactive museums are the basic activities of the association.

Download MemorySharing’s abstract

Download the article A year of MemorySharing by Lorenzo Garzella, president of Acquario della Memoria (published on a Italian newspaper, Italian language)

For more information visit MemorySharing’s web-page and Acquario della Memoria’s website

The principles produced by Digisam aim to support strategic decisions and to help coordinate digital information efficiently.

Guidelines for digitization and data preservation

Digisam is an organization established by Swedish Government to coordinate the continued development work on digitisation issues, and it is settled as a department of the National Archives in Sweden.

The main task of Digisam is promoting the achievement of the objectives of the Swedish national strategy for digitisation, but among its activities one key focus is on international dissemination. For this reason, an english version of the Digisam’s blog is available and an appropriate work for translating documents and guidelines in English is carried on.

The latest release in English is about guiding principles for working with digital cultural heritage and for enabling effective cooperation regarding digitisation and its related processes.

The principles are available here: http://digisam.se/index.php/hem/entry/digisam-s-guiding-principles-now-translated-into-english

Photo: Young woman steering a yacht under sail. Harold Nossiter/Harold Nossiter Junior. 1920’s/1930’s. Australian National Maritime’s Museum. No known copyright restrictions.

Brussels, 20 - 21 November 2014

Media & Learning 2014 conference

Media & Learning 2014 is dedicated to the latest developments, services and uses of media in education and training. Aimed at both policy makers and practitioners, the purpose of this annual event, organized by the Flemish Ministry of Education, is to identify policies and initiatives that promote digital and media competence at all levels of education and training as well as to promote best-practice in the take-up and application of media in education and training.

Themes of discussion:

the urgency of embedding digital and media literacy skills amongst the European workforce
how best to convince stakeholders about the importance of embedding digital and media skills amongst learning professionals and learners at all levels of education and training

Official website with programme and speakers: http://www.media-and-learning.eu/home

A mobile application discovers the hidden ancient city

The Invisible Serdica under Sofia

By Dr Rosen Petkov
President of the Student Computer Art Society (SCAS)

Invisible Serdica is a mobile app that reveals objects of historical significance in the ancient city of Serdica, situated at the present location of the Bulgarian capital (Sofia). This tool enables you to get a realistic insight into some of the places, now hidden under the ground, emphasises on some of the unknown cultural aspects related to them by granting access to the especially edited multimedia tales and legends, curious stories and bibliographic data to various sources found in the NALIS Union Catalogue (NALIS UC). In this way, the historical significance of the object is revealed together with its relation to emblematic figures and events.

Every object is represented by several sections – History, Legends, Multimedia, From the Books and NALIS catalogue – and by pictures, video, music and 3D models (under Multimedia). The good news is that the app is freely downloadable (from both the App Store and Google Play) and automatically installable. Once you start it, it locates where you are and shows the objects around (either hidden or visible only in part). Besides, you may choose between the English or Bulgarian interface. What makes it different from similar applications is that it directs the user – through library catalogues and namely the NALIS UC – to written sources (books, primary sources, photographs, graphic materials etc.) and shows some of the well-known architectural monuments from a different perspective – the interesting stories behind them.

Even though still in progress (just 8 objects are in) the application is already functioning. So far available are: 1. The Amphitheatre, 2. St. Sofia Basilica, 3. St. George Rotunda and its neighbourhood, 4. The Main Street (Largo), 5. The tombs under the yellow pavement, 6. The tomb under Gurko Street, 7. St. Petka Samardzhijska (of the Saddlers) Church and 8. The Western Gate.

For more information you may check both at the project’s website and its facebook profile. The initiative is sponsored by the America for Bulgaria Foundation and the development itself has been undertaken by the Student Computer Art Society in partnership with the NALIS Foundation. The Museum of Sofia has also contributed with information to some of the digital objects created.

Download Rosen Petkov’s full article – PDF

Visit NALIS’ website and its Catalogue!

Pisa, 4-5 December 2014

RICHES Conference
“CH: Recalibrating Relationships”

On 4-5 December 2014, RICHES’ First International Conference will be held in Pisa, at the Museum of Graphics of Palazzo Lanfranchi. The conference, patronised by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, Tuscany Region, Municipality of Pisa, University of Pisa and Fondazione Sistema Toscana (Tuscany System Foundation), is organised by Promoter Srl, RICHES’ Italian Partner as well as Communication & Dissemination Manager of the project.

RICHES (Renewal, Innovation and Change: Heritage and European Society) is a “Social-Sciences and the Humanities” research project funded by the EU Commission within the 7^th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. It is a project about change: about the decentring of culture away from institutional structures towards the individual and about the questions which the advent of digital technologies are posing in relation to how we understand, collect and make available Europe’s cultural heritage (CH).

The project’s main objective is therefore reducing the distance between people and culture, recalibrating the relationship between heritage professionals and heritage users: such recalibration process will maximise cultural creativity and ensure that the whole European community can benefit from the social and business potential of Cultural Heritage.

The topic of Pisa’s International Conference CH: Recalibrating Relationships, as stated by the title, is perfectly inserted in this framework.

During the two-day event, the 10 project’s partners (Coventry University from UK, Hansestadt Rostock from Germany, Stichting Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde from The Netherlands, WAAG Society from The Netherlands, the University of Exeter from UK, Promoter Srl from Italy, Fundacio’ i2CAT from Spain, Syddansk Universitet from Denmark, Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz from Germany, Turkiye Cumhuriyeti Kultur ve Turizm Bakanligi from Turkey) will present the project’s outcomes and illustrate the progress and advances made by the research. Well-known experts, from Europe and outside Europe, will intervene as speakers. Among them:

Neil Forbes (Historian – Coventry University, UK)
Xiao Chun Situ (Artist and reporter – Beijing Youth Daily, China)
Bill Thompson (Media and technology expert – BBC, UK)

The participants will be moreover involved in a pleasant socio-cultural activity: a visit to the exhibition devoted to Italian artist and draftsman Tullio Pericoli, organised in the same venue as the conference.

Before the conference beginning, the RICHES consortium will come together for an internal plenary meeting, in order to discuss the work until then carried out and plan the future activities.

Registration to the conference is open! Don’t forget to register within the 2nd of December 2014 by completing the following form:

Event Registration Online for RICHES International Conference 4-5 December 2014 powered by Eventbrite

For more information visit the conference’s website

Download the conference programme – PDF

View the article published by Net4Society for announcing the RICHES conference!

RICHES on Twitter! #richesEU

RICHES on YouTube: www.youtube.com/richesEU

Creative, Digital and IT Open Studios 2014

Wired Sussex at #BDF14

For the last (full) week of September, 22^nd – 26^th, at Brighton Digital Festival, Wired Sussex will be coordinating Creative, Digital & IT Open Studios, an event which provides an opportunity for local businesses to lift the curtain on what goes on behind the scenes in the sector.

There lots of benefits to getting involved. As well as being a unique chance for the public, students, graduates and peers to see your business, the week provides:

an amazing source of exposure and advertisement (not only will you be on Wired Sussex’ website, but also Brighton Digital Festival’s website, all of Wired Sussex’ printed media and shared via Wired Sussex’ social media)

a great way to make contacts within the creative industry, to share knowledge and ideas

an opportunity to collaborate with others

a way to meet new friends in the sector

Events can range from intimate to large-scale and can have any objective you’d like.

Last year they had some fantastic events take place, with 25 companies taking part and around 300 attendees.

Wired Sussex is a Brighton-based membership organisation for companies and freelancers operating in the digital, media and technology sector in Sussex, UK. Its goal is to support the (2500+) members in their quest to deliver innovation, creativity and growth and to enhance the reputation of this fast-growing regional cluster on the international stage.

Wired Sussex IT Open Studios

Brighton Digital Festival is a community-driven grassroots festival celebrating digital arts and culture. Held throughout September (1^st – 28^th) in Brighton UK, BDF supports an expansive and diverse programme of events, exhibitions and conferences that are developed independently by organisers. It provides an exciting platform for a community led programme produced by a network of organisations from the arts and digital communities, alongside individuals who are passionate about digital culture.

Such open programme model has allowed the Brighton Digital Festival to showcase the richness and variety of what goes on across the City and beyond. The model also enables the festival programme to exist at a scale that would be otherwise impossible.

In 2013, the Brighton Digital Festival drew an audience of over 41,000 people to 175 events held throughout September. The organisers are set to deliver another great festival programme for 2014 and are keen to continue growing the BDF community.

For more information visit BDF’s website and Wired Sussex’ website

If you’d like to get involved or you have any questions, please email events@wiredsussex.com

For the long-term preservation of audiovisual content.

MoU between PREFORMA and DAVID

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between PREFORMA and DAVID 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 long term preservation of audiovisual content.

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.

DAVID (www.david-preservation.eu) is a Specific Targeted Research Project co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of the FP7 ICT Programme (Grant Agreement 600827) with the aim to research how to keep audiovisual content (video) usable in the face of adversity: format obsolescence, media degradation, and failures in the very people, processes and systems designed to keep digital video content safe. DAVID analyzes the origin of potential damage and its consequences on the usability of video content; it detects and restores existing damage and develops strategies for avoiding future damage in a way that balances long-term costs, risks of loss, and content quality.

Look at the impact digital technology is having in the classroom

How technology is reshaping learning and teaching?

iPads in the classroom – Photo by John Lewis

Once there were notebooks, pens and colouring pencils; now books and pencils are joined – and often replaced – by laptops and tablets. Nowadays the children entering school are fully fledged digital natives.

According to Ofcom’s recent researches, six-year-olds have the same understanding of communications technology as 45-year-olds and 14- and 15-year-olds are the most tech-savvy in the UK; over four in 10 households now have a tablet, meaning that children are becoming computer-literate before (in many cases long before: we think about techno-babies, who are able to handle iPads and smartphones before they are able to speek) they’ve even started primary school.

Unsurprisingly, technology is playing an increasingly central role in the classroom.

Technology reporter at the Daily Telegraph Sophie Curtis, who recently took part in an interactive experiment run by Argos and Intel (which involved sitting through two English lessons: one held the old way, without any kind of technology, and the second with all the latest digital gadgets), writes:

the first involved reading a scene from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, listening to the teacher talk through the themes and then writing my own analysis with pen and paper. The second involved watching a series of video clips depicting differing interpretations of the balcony scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, using the internet to research the themes and then typing my own interpretation on a laptop.

While the first lesson required intense and sustained concentration, the second was undeniably more compelling. I’m not sure I learnt any more about Romeo and Juliet than I did about Macbeth, but at no point during the second lesson did I find my mind wandering, which is half the battle teachers fight every day.

John Lewis conducted a similar experiment, using iPads and an interactive smartboard to teach a maths lesson. A series of web-enabled apps were used to teach the class about the area and volume of shapes, allowing them to rotate digital 3D models on their screens and divide them into blocks.

As a pupil, I was also able to take part in quizzes and submit my answers digitally. The teacher was then able to pull up individual pupils’ answers on the smartboard and show them to the rest of the class.

Anyone who has been through a more traditional education system may find these techniques gimmicky, but many teachers now claim that flashy multimedia lessons are the only way to engage children whose ability to absorb information has been shaped by continuous exposure to technology from a young age.

Using technology in an educational environment not only better reflects children’s life outside the classroom, but also allows them to hone their digital skills in a way that will continue to be valuable throughout their adult life.

“The use of mobile digital technologies in the classroom might be largely unfamiliar to parents, but the benefits can be huge,” said Drew Buddie, senior vice chair at Naace, the association for the UK’s education technology community.

“It’s not about just shifting traditional lessons onto screens; it’s about allowing pupils to make use of their devices to truly enhance their learning while giving teachers better ways to track individual achievement and personalise lessons.”

Read Sophie Curtis’ article on The Telegraph

Exploring data infrastructures for Horizon2020 and beyond

EUDAT News bullettin – July & August 2014

Exploring data infrastructures for Horizon2020 and beyond: book your place at the third EUDAT conference

Places are fast being booked up for the third EUDAT conference, taking place on 24-25 September in Amsterdam. Highlights of the conference programme, whose theme is Bringing data infrastructures to Horizon2020, include David Rosenthal of the LOCKSS programme at Stanford University discussing the implications of digital preservation and a workshop hosted by the European Ontology Network. Attendees will have the chance to find out about how the exis ting suite of EUDAT services can meet their requirements for data preservation and sharing, as well as learning about new services under development. We’ll also be discussing how to meet sustainability challenges for data and related infrastructure with different research communities. Insight on the European Commission’s plans for data infrastructures in Horizon2020 will be given by Carl-Christian Buhr, Member of the Cabinet of Ms Neelie Kroes, Vice-President for Digital Agenda, European Commission, Digital Agenda.

In a recent interview with International Science Grid This Week, Per Oster, Director of Research Infrastructures at the IT Center for Science (CSC) in Finland, the EUDAT project coordinator, highlights: “These events are vital for building a community and establishing trust with and between stakeholders. It’s at these events that we can meet researchers and find out what their needs are. This is, of course, vital in enabling us to create services that really support researchers in the most efficient way possible.”

Co-located with the RDA 4th Plenary, the EUDAT conference offers the ideal opportunity to show your work in data infrastructures to an active, interested audience of professionals in the field. The networking cocktail on the evening of 24 September will welcome participants from all the other RDA Plenary co-located events taking place in Amsterdam, offering an audience of over 350 data practitioners. Can you afford not to be present? Submit your poster proposal via the EUDAT website today.

Don’t miss out – secure your place by registering on the EUDAT website now!

EUDAT data-infrastructure training at ISC Big Data 2014

On 30 September 2014, EUDAT is running a training course in the beautiful town of Heidelberg, co-located with ISC Big Data 2014. The course will introduce some of the fundamentals of data infrastructures, including best practices for data sharing, as well as the technologies, techniques and tools that can be used to make the most of your data and that of others. We will then cover EUDAT’s services in greater detail, describing what they do, w ho they are for and how they can be used. Among other things, we will discuss persistent identifiers, metadata, moving data, data access and integration and what you need to know both to make your data reusable and to reuse other people’s data. Attendance at ISC Big Data 2014 is not required in order to participate in this training session, but EUDAT has a limited number of reduced-rate passes available for anyone wishing to attend the conference. For further information, and to book your place, visit the EUDAT website.

An autumn of open data and supercomputing

EUDAT is also going to be present at some of the key events on the open data and high-performance computing calendar in autumn, so don’t miss your chance to come and discuss EUDAT services with us. First up is the Digital Preservation Sustainability on the EU Policy Level workshop at the Digital Libraries 2014 conference in London on 8 September. Next, Kimmo Koski, Managing Director at EUDAT coordinator CSC- IT Center for Sc ience Ltd, will present the project at Open Finland 2014 in Helsinki on 15 September. And finally, we’ll be showcasing the project at SC14, the annual supercomputing conference, which this year takes place in New Orleans from 16-21 November. We look forward to seeing you there!

Rome, 1-2 September 2014

CIVIC EPISTEMOLOGIES project starts

On the first two days of September, the premises of the Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico will host the CIVIC EPISTEMOLOGIES Kick-off Meeting, which brought together 12 cultural institutions and archives, universities, research centres and innovative SMEs from all over Europe.

The CIVIC EPISTEMOLOGIES project is about the participation of citizens in research on cultural heritage and humanities. The project will last 16 months and it has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration.

The project aims to develop and validate a Roadmap for the use of e-Infrastructures to support the participation of European citizens in research on cultural heritage and digital humanities. Critically, the Roadmap will offer support for improved social cohesion arising from the sharing of knowledge and understanding of Europe’s citizens common and individual cultures.

The project, started on August 2014, is coordinating by Mauro Fazio for the Italian Ministry for the Economic Development while the Technical Coordinator is Antonella Fresa, Director of PROMOTER.

More information for the project are available on the project official website: www.civic-epistemologies.eu.

More information about the kick-off meeting are available here.