Digital meets Culture

Barcelona: agreed the initial RICHES taxonomy

An intense linguistic reflection work

On 13th May i2CAT Foundation, in collaboration with the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC), organised the first RICHES open to all activity in Barcelona.

The workshop brought together representatives of the RICHES project, academics and students from the UIC, representatives of the Network of Common Interest affiliated in the project and several external experts. This activity focused on building the project’s foundation and establishing an initial agreement of basic definitions and frameworks which will delineate RICHES’ fields of research and further study on the context of change and the role of Cultural Heritage (CH) in the economic and social development in Europe.

More than 50 participants had registered to be part in the several discussion sessions proposed in the workshop’s programme in order to discuss the taxonomy that will represent the common ground of understanding and research of the project.

Although it is impossible to capture the full extent of discussions and perspectives, all the Workshop’s presentations and discussions served to analyse in depth all the topics that RICHES is addressing and proved to be extremely insightful and beneficial both to the attendees and the project’s representatives and researchers.

The final discussion

The workshop opened with the welcome speeches of Sergi Fernandez, Head of the Audiovisual Unit of i2CAT, and Teresa Vallès, Dean at the UIC’s Faculty of Humanities; Prof. Neil Forbes of Coventry University, RICHES Coordinator, introduced the project’s framework to the audiences. After a coffee break offered by the University, the participants divided in different groups, each one referring to one of the specific panels that structured the research activity:

Discussion session 1 – General common terms related to Cultural Heritage/Digital Cultural Heritage – chaired by Neil Forbes of Coventry University (UK). This global and common field of definitions provides the basis to identify the existing practices in the domain of ICT for digital CH;
Discussion session 2 – Understanding the context of change for tangible and intangible CH – chaired by Laura Van Broekhoven of Leiden’s National Museum of Ethnology (NL). How digital practices are transforming the traditional CH practices of cultural institutions;
Discussion session 3 – Digital copyrights framework – chaired by Charlotte Waelde of Exeter University (UK). Copyrights laws developed in the analogue era are now causing challenges in the era of the digital;
Discussion session 4 – Visualisation and Interaction.
Digital presentation and output – chaired by Monika Hagedorn-Saupe of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (DE). Understanding the new technologies and the changes in the process of distribution, circulation, creation and sharing of CH and the practices in which CH is revaluated and reinvigorated;
Discussion session 5 – Digital Cultural Heritage – chaired by Bahadir Aydinonat of the Turkiye Cumhuryieti ve Turizm Bakanligi (TR). E-books, online catalogues, digital libraries, metadata records and their means in order to respond to current and new users demands;
Discussion session 6 – Role of CH in European social development – chaired by Dick Van Dijk of WAAG Society (NL). New directions for digital CH in order to contribute to social cohesion, inclusion and represent multicultural practices;
Discussion session 7 – Impact of CH on European economic development -chaired by Antonella Fresa of Promoter Srl (IT). Defining the many factors and “actors” that constitute the changing context of CH in the economic field and its impact on employment, new economic strategies and alliances in the EU.

The panel sessions carried on the discussion on the various terms definitions for the all morning. In the afternoon, all the group participants brought back together and the chairmen/chairwomen shared their agreed definitions with the public during a final discussion, in order to validate them.

The audience had a lively participation and made several suggestions that will be taken into consideration in order to further elaborate and agree on a Taxonomy of Terms and Definitions which will support the project’s research in the future.

The RICHES Partners’s social dinner

The analysis of different prospective scenarios on the context of change in which European CH is transmitted, its implications for future CH practices and the frameworks that will be put in place – from cultural, legal, financial, educational, technical perspectives – rendered valuable information for future progress in the design of the roadmap for Cultural Heritage practices in the digital age within the project.

In addition to the workshop’s celebration, the RICHES Consortium Partners joined for internal Plenary Meeting, one day before and after the workshop in order to discuss the work so far undergone, value the workshop’s results and plan their future research and management activities.

For more information visit the RICHES website

RICHES on Twitter: #richesEU

RICHES on YouTube: www.youtube.com/richesEU

over 5.400 visitors enjoyed the masterpieces of early photography selected by the archives of EuropeanaPhotography project

All Our Yesterdays, a huge success for the photographic exhibition!

The EuropeanaPhotography exhibition that was held in Pisa between 11 April and 2 June 2014 was a great success. The format of the exhibition, arranged by responsible partner Promoter at the premises of the Museum of Graphics, captured a genuine interest of the public: over 5.400 visitors came to Palazzo Lanfranchi to enjoy the masterpieces of early photography selected by the archives of EuropeanaPhotography project, and to discover through the lens of the first photographers how life was in Europe before WW1. Next to the photos, original vintage photographic equipment items show how the art of photography and techniques rapidly evolved in a very short period of time.

the Night of the Museums at Palazzo Lanfranchi

The flux of visitors at Palazzo Lanfranchi was more or less continuous since the opening (11^th April), but a boom of visits was registered on the 17^th May during the European Night of the Museums. In this occasion the exhibition was open till midnight and almost 800 visitors crowded the vintage rooms of the palace where the photographs are hosted, in a truly charming environment.

The contemporary twist of the exhibition, which is based on the most advanced technologies of digitization and print, and which features also a free App for a virtual tour of the rooms, enhances the astonishing quality and value (both cultural and artistic) of the photographic masterpieces that the 19 partners of the project chose as “best of their bests”.

During the Night of the Museums, countless visitors with their inseparable smartphones took their own museumselfies, to converge in the European digital event Kaleidoscope: a digital wall showing the selfies of the visitors in the participant Museums all over Europe.

Very young students enjoy the photos of All Our Yesterdays

The Pisa exhibition was also a great moment for education and social inclusion: in facts, students and children have been participating in laboratories and guided tours to discover the Europe of their grand-grandfathers. Moreover, visits of the exhibition was organized by the project “Segni fra le mani” of the University of Pisa. This project involves old people suffering the Alzheimer disease, and utilizes art, music and other creative activities to stimulate communication and help delaying the progress of the disease.

During the exhibition, a digitization station operated by photographic professionals allowed the visitors to digitize their own family photos, in order to contribute to the digital preservation of the memory and local cultural heritage.

A new exhibition will be organized in Pisa in December 2014 to show these photos and share them with the whole citizenship.

The digitization station, operated by Rudy Pessina

At the same time, All Our Yesterdays will be travelling through Europe: after the Pisa event, the exhibition is coming to Belgium, hosted by project coordinator KU Leuven.

For those who cannot visit the exhibition in physical, a virtual exhibition is also available on line (and in the AppStore) in the website www.earlyphotography.eu

[VIDEO: ALL OUR YESTERDAYS – Presentation and Interviews (Italian Language)]

[Show as slideshow]

On 20 May 2014, Federculture begun the new training cycle

FEDERCULTURE 2014: new courses started

FEDERCULTURE (Italian federation of companies and corporations for the management of culture, tourism, sport and free-time) restarts its training project. On the 20^th of May 2014, in Rome, was held the first course of a cycle devoted to deepening several aspects of the cultural services management: fundraising techniques, information day about the next EU announcements for culture, fiscal issues of sponsorship, new frontiers of cultural marketing.

The seminars are addressed to managers, officers and operators of public administrations and firms, public/private institutions, companies and associations, professionals and entrepreneurs working in the field of the culture, sport and free-time services.

The meetings are a useful opportunity for keeping constantly updated about the most innovative tools of the sector and are conceived to foster the interaction between instructors and participants in the courses.

The contents of the lessons will be constantly supported by the presentation of practical experiences in order to facilitate the knowledge transfer.

FEDERCULTURE association represents the most important cultural companies of Italy, many of which are excellences at a European level. Federculture supports the role played by the enterprise for the management of cultural heritage and activities, as progress factor of the sector.

For more invormation:

visit http://www.federculture.it/formazione-federculture-2014/

download the course programme (Italian language)

RICHES on Twitter: #richesEU

RICHES on YouTube: www.youtube.com/richesEU

In Antwerp, an important conference focused on the changing dynamics between creative industries, knowledge institutions and urban policy

3rd International Research Conference on the Cultural and Creative Industries

The conference is organized by Antwerp Management School, the University of Antwerp and HKU University of the Arts (Utrecht). This conference taps in to the changing dynamics between creative industries, knowledge institutions and urban policy. Moreover, this scientific conference is addressing various sectors of the arts and cultural industries (performing arts and festivals, heritage, museums and visual arts, film production and distribution, book publishing, recording, broadcasting, audio-visual media and multimedia, design).

Targeting academics, researchers, cultural managers, artists, policy makers, students and also the wider public, this moment is an excellent opportunity to meet and exchange with other CCI stakeholders and expand professional networks.

On Thursday May 22, Edna Dos Santos, R.C. Kloosterman and Dany Jacobs share their ideas in key note speeches. In the afternoon, we host several paper sessions, in which academics present recent research insights. They present their research activities and research articles as well as theoretical/conceptual papers that engage with pertinent questions and issues in depth from a pedagogical, sociological, cultural, political, economic, philosophical and/or ethical standpoint reporting on case studies or developments within our three conference topics.

On Thursday evening we launch the second book in the Series Pioneering Minds, ‘Beyond Frames The Cultural and Creative Industries and their links with Entrepreneurial Spirit, Urban Environment and Knowledge Institutions’, festively in Designcenter De Winkelhaak.

On Friday May 23, we have more room for paper sessions. Furthermore, Paul Rutten, Isabelle De Voldere and Eric Hitters present ongoing research projects. Afterwards time is reserved for reflection and debate. Round table discussion sessions with all participants are held to reflect on the research agenda in the Cultural and Creative Industries. We conclude with a debate where we link academic insights back to practice. Pascal Cools (Flanders DC), Dirk Diels (City of Antwerp), Valerie Frissen (Click.nl) and Gerard Marlet (Atlas voor Gemeenten) are attending to the panel.

Download the programme (PDF, 1.83 Mb)

Webpage: www.conferencecci.eu

This conference is a cooperation between the University of Antwerp, the Antwerp Management School and the HKU (Utrecht) and can count on the support of Flanders DC, City of Antwerp and ENCATC, the leading European network on cultural management and cultural policy education.

Report of the session organised by the project in Helsinki

Networking session at the EGI CF 2014

The networking session organised by PREFORMA in the frame of the EGI Community Forum in Helsinki presented to the interested audience the new opportunities offered by the pre-commercial-procurement launched by PREFORMA.

The aim of the call for tender, which will be published by the end of May, is the development and deployment an open source software licensed reference implementation for file format standards aimed for any memory institution (or other organisation with a preservation task) wishing to check conformance with a specific standard. This reference implementation will consist of a set of modular tools, which will be validated against specific implementations of specifications of standards relevant to the PREFORMA project and used by the European memory institutions for preserving their different kind of data objects. In order to demonstrate effectiveness (and refine) these tools, they will be developed in an iterative process with multiple releases and with a number of experiments with ‘real’ data sets (files) from memory institutions during each iteration. Media types covered by the tender are: documents, images, audio-visual records.

Here below are the presentations that were delivered during the session:

PREFORMA networking session: topics, open issues & new challenges when moving from traditional to digital curatorship (download PDF)
Introduction to the PCP Procedure (Borje Justrell, Riksarkivet, download PDF)
How to participate to the tender (Antonella Fresa, Promoter Srl, download PDF)
The implementation phases: design, prototyping and testing (Peter Pharow, Fraunhofer, download PDF)
Open source projects (Bjorn Lundell, University of Skovde, download PDF)
Challenge brief (Bert Lemmens, Packed, download PDF)

For more details about the PREFORMA call for tender please visit the Information Day webpage on our blog, which contains the full version fo the presentations mentioned above, the video recordings of the whole event and other useful material.

After the session, the representatives of PREFORMA reached CSC – IT Center for Science for a meeting with people involved with the Finnish Digital Library, to present the project and to discuss about how PREFORMA can help to improve the digital preservation service of the National Digital Library and of other Finnish memory institutions.

For further information on the PREFORMA project visit the PREFORMA Website and the PREFORMA Blog.

http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/PREFORMA_D2.2_Tender-Specifications_v2.1.pdf

D2.2 Tender Specifications

Deliverable 2.2 presents the tender requirements and assessment procedures that have been in included in the Call for Tender of the PREFORMA Pre-Commercial Procurement. This deliverable compiles the content from the following tender documents:

the Challenge Brief, which sets forth the overall challenge for long term preservation of digital files to be addressed by the PREFORMA Research & Development activities, i.e. empowering memory institutions to gain control over the technical properties of preservation files by developing an open-source conformance checker and establishing a healthy ecosystem around an open source ‘reference’ implementation.

the Exclusion Criteria from the Invitation to Tender, which covers the tender criteria for avoiding the selection of technology providers that have been sentenced or are subject to a judicial procedure involving fraud, corruption, money laundering or organised crime.

the Minimum Requirements from the Invitation to Tender, which covers the tender criteria for ensuring the services offered are meeting the core objectives defined in the PREFORMA Challenge Brief and that these services are compliant with the definition of Research & Development services defined by the EU public Procurement directive 2004/18/EC, as well as the Swedish national requirements concerning safety, ethics, and healthcare regulation.

the Assessment of Tenders from the Invitation to Tender, which presents the formal procedure for evaluating the received tenders and selecting the technology providers.
the Question and Answers Document, which contains the most common PCP-related questions that tenderers should read before filling out the Tender Form.

By compiling these five sections in one deliverable, PREFORMA aims to provide:

a clear description of the research and development component of the PREFORMA PCP and the relation between the PREFORMA challenge and the PREFORMA tender
the scope and a detailed description of the challenge that the PREFORMA PCP addresses, and
a transparent and comprehensive overview of the criteria used for selecting technology providers that can participate in the research and development activities.

Want to learn more about SCAPE?

SCAPE Project Demo & Information Days Agenda

The SCAPE project invites you to a demo day where you can meet some of the SCAPE developers in their own environment. The developers will show you how you can benefit from the project results by integrating tools and services developed in SCAPE in your own preservation environment.

The Internet Memory Foundation
4 July, 13.30 – 16.30
Paris

This event will:

Introduce the SCAPE project and its outcomes
Present the Internet Memory infrastructure and the SCAPE platform, demonstrating the benefits of such infrastructure when dealing with large amount of data
Demonstrate Pagelyzer, a tool allowing visual Quality Assurance for web archives

The British Library
14 July, 09.30 – 13.00
London

This event will:

Give an overview of the SCAPE Project and its architecture
Show how Hadoop is used for large scale processing
Demonstrate use of the DRMLint tool (detection of DRM in PDFs and EPUBs)
Demonstrate use of Jpylyzer and Schematron tools for validating JPEG2000 files
Use of Nanite and C3PO in characterisation

To see the agendas and find out how to register, please visit: http://wiki.opf-labs.org/display/SP/Planned+Events

Please email the contact persons mentioned, if you would like to attend one of the events.

Looking forward to seeing you!

On behalf of the SCAPE Demo Team,

Jette Junge
Statsbiblioteket, Denmark

Berlin, 26-27 April - 5-6 July 2014

The Berlin Culture Hackathon: COD1NG DA V1NC1

The new perspectives arising from the making available cultural heritage for the digital space: Following the motto “Let them play with your toys!” (John Pugh, National Archives UK), the Culture Hackathon organizers aim at identifying in the context of the “Coding da Vinci” competition, what happens when cultural institutions start discussing and exchanging ideas with the developer community, the designer community, and the gaming community. The purpose has been to make the digital heritage available in a creative way. On the basis of open cultural data, prototypical applications shall arise in a common dialogue with cultural institutions and participants from all over Germany. The results will be awarded in the context of the competition. The organizers and participants have identified four basic challenges to address:

(1) MASH IT: The acquisition of knowledge and new insights by linking different data sets: The organizers provide 15 cultural datasets. They offer the API of the DDB. They bring forward the API Wikipedia. And they do have Open Street Map on board. The participants are now challenged to find their own way to deal with the available information and tools.

Challenge 1: What … are you doing with it? Mash it! Examples: Linked Open Data, Data Analysis, Mash-up, Establish an appropriate context

(2) MOVE IT: Allow more participation in culture and break down respective barriers: The curator selected items and work results. The museum guide shows the highlights of the collection. The audio guide provides music. And the audience usually looks and listens.

Challenge 2: Carry us an offer. Move it! Examples: User Experience, Augmented Reality, Social Media

(3) DISCOVER IT: Playful learning or assigning, cultural knowledge provision in a clear and comprehensive manner: Books are available in the library. Files and folders are in the archive. Paintings and sculptures are found in museums and galleries. There are different objects and a variety of respective approaches.

Challenge 3: How can you combine these objects together so that everyone can get access to them? Discover it! Examples: Guides, EduGames, Locate and Situate in Time and Space

(4) IMPROVE IT: Getting the collections of institutions offered and displayed in a more beautiful way or allowing to make better use of their – met and fulfil them a wish. Some memory institutions archive films, others preserve music or collect plants. Everything has to do with anything.

Challenge 4: How can you take a fresh look at stocks? How can we enrich the collections to the world’s knowledge? How should the tool box ¬ ¬ a culture device look like today? Improve it! Examples: Build Scrapers, Improve Data Quality, Tagging, Geo-Location

For further information visit codingdavinci.de.

http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/PREFORMA_D2.1_Overall-Roadmap_v2.5.pdf

D2.1 Overall Roadmap

PREFORMA (PREservation FORMAts for culture information/e-archives) is a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) project co-funded by the European Commission under its FP7-ICT Programme. The main objective of the project is to give memory institutions full control of the process for testing the conformity of files to be ingested into their archives.

This shall be obtained by developing a set of tools which will enable the testing process to happen within an iteration that is under full control of the memory institutions. Research and development will be done by suppliers selected in a procurement process that follows the rules for tenders in public sector.

This deliverable provides an overall roadmap for the preparation of the request for tender and the selection of the technology suppliers that will be invited to take part in the project. It offers and overview of the legal and operational procedures and describes the process for gathering, analysing and defining the functional and technical specifications to be used in the Invitation to Tender. Furthermore, it gives guidelines for the tender procedure.

A separate section concludes with a general review of the main results in this deliverable.

University of Bologna, 27 May 2014

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman

On the 27^th of May 2014, at Cappella Farnese of Palazzo d’Accursio, in Bologna, Electrical Engineer and Cognitive Psychologist Donald Norman presented his book The Design of Everyday Things, extended version of the initial edition The Psychology of Everyday Things (Italian title La caffettiera del masochista – il design degli oggetti quotidiani).

The event was organised by the University of Bologna, Degree Course in Design and Industrial Product, and was part of an open-to-all meeting cycle devoted to investigating the meaning of the surrounding things, the future preview, the sense of the human-centred design. The meeting cycle programme was the following:

14 March 2014, “Things between nature and artifice” – Italian Philosopher Remo Bodei talks with Andrea Borsari, Associate Professor of Architecture at Bologna’s University
2 May 2014, “Preview and building of the futures” – Professor of Social Prevision and Science Philosophy at Trento’s University Roberto Poli talks with Flaviano Celaschi, Professor of Design and Industrial Product at Bologna’s University
27 May 2014, “The design of Everyday Things” – Donald Norman talks with Sebastiano Bagnara, Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the Architecture Faculty of University of Sassari.

The meetings with the three international scholars were devoted to strengthening the technical and cultural competences of the young contemporary designers; the initiative was patronised by University of Bologna, Bologna Municipality, ADI (Association for Industrial Design), Urban Center Bologna (communication centre of Bologna city) and Italian publishing house Giunti Editore.