Digital meets Culture

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.

For more information:

http://www.magazine.unibo.it/calendario/2014/pensiero_e_progetto

download the programme

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London, 29 May and 5 June 2014

Capturing the intangible

Capturing the Intangible was a two-part event taking place at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, in London, on the 29th May and 5th June 2014, at 6-8pm.

A unique panel of speakers attended each evening. The panel consisted of four speakers and the evening begun with each speaker taking approximately ten minutes to introducing their relevant area of expertise in relation to the evening’s theme. A discussion session followed, including the opportunity for members of the audience to put questions to the panel.

The theme of the 29th May was The Heritage of Performance and Performance of Heritage.

A recent shift can be identified in the wider field of heritage discourse, which challenges materialist approaches to heritage and re-conceptualises heritage as a cultural process. No longer universally accepted as being inherently contained within the physical and tangible fabric of historic sites, buildings and objects, heritage is now being re-defined as the practice and discourse which take place at sites and with objects. Some might even suggest that all ‘heritage’ is, in fact, intangible.

One of the topical discussion areas which have emerged from this relatively new debate centres on performance – and performativity – in heritage:

Heritage wasn’t only about the past – though it was that too – it also wasn’t just about material things – though it was that as well – heritage was a process of engagement, an act of communication and an act of making meaning in and for the present
(Smith, Laurajane (2006) The Uses of Heritage, Oxon, Routledge, p. 1).

The aim of the panel discussion was to introduce the notion of intangible heritage and its relationship with performance. From this starting point, it focused on specific examples of the use of performance within heritage practice.

The theme of the 5th June was The Relevance of Memory to Creativity and Cultural Development in the Digital Age.

The evening consisted of guest speakers presenting/interpreting the title of the talk from their own discipline perspective. There was then space for discussion, debate and audience participation.

This studio talk engaged with new media narrative and investigated how new connectivity is changing cultural interpretation. The focus was on how increased digital connectivity is changing common notions of memory, identity and culture.

Memory was explored through the developing relationship between material and virtual culture, considering why the storing and reconstitution of memory is relevant to cultural development. The talk explored the evolution of creativity, communication and the new order of declassification.

Keynote speakers from the fields of Creativity, Science, Technology and Education were invited, with the aim of developing networks and fields of common interest. The event organisers are interested in expanding the potential of transdisciplinary research in Art & Design History, Material Culture, Memory, Narrative, Simulation, Identity, Technology, Curation and Education.

The aim of the panel discussion was to discuss the relevance of material knowledge to virtual culture, whilst considering the future role of the Cultural Institution.

For more information visit: http://capturingtheintangible.wordpress.com/home/

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Mainz, Germany, 7 May 2014

PREFORMA presented at the Yearly Assembly of German Museum Association

On 7 May 2014 PREFORMA project was presented at the Yearly Assembly of German Museum Association.

The event, organised by the German Museum Association (DMB), brought together IT and documentation professionals in museums as well as representatives of German national projects in the cultural heritage sector.

A presentation of the project was delivered by Stefan Rohde-Enslin from SPK (Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) with the aim to familiarise the audience with the project and raise awareness that files have to be checked before being preserved.

Download here the presentation of PREFORMA.

the conferences of the EVA series are always a good moment of interaction with experts from all over the world

Eva Florence 2014, dissemination

Europeana Photography was present once again to the EVA conference in Florence, held on 7 – 8 May 2014.

A nice presentation by Emanuela Sesti of Fondazione Alinari highlighted to the present audience the progress of the project, and disseminated about the exhibition All Our Yesterdays, currently on show in Pisa until the 2nd June, and then travelling through Europe (next appointment: Leuven, January 2015).

The EVA Florence conference this year had as ususal a nice program of interesting speeches, and it is intended to be a forum for the user, supplier and scientific research communities to meet and exchange experiences, ideas and plans in the wide area of Culture & Technology.

The 2014 event included a plenary conference and 3 workshops dedicated to International Cooperation, to Innovation and Enterprise and to e-Infrastructures for cultural content.

The meeting was organised to plan in bigger detail the upcoming activities of the 6 themed Pilots of the project.

EuropeanaSpace, creative & organizational meeting in Amsterdam

by Tiziana Lombardo, FST

On 15 and 16 May 2014 took place at Noterik‘s premises in Amsterdam the ESpace WP4 partners’ meeting. The event was organised to plan in bigger detail the upcoming activities of the 6 themed Pilots of the project (Museums, Open & Hybrid Publishing, Games, Dance, Photography, Europeana TV), to deeply discuss their scenarios and to prepare for the project’s Deliverable 4.2 that is exactly dedicated to the Pilots’ planning.

The first day was occupied with an interactive brainstorming session, facilitated by partner and WP4 leader iMinds, that saw 12 consortium members being busy with imagining future scenarios and visionary applications for the 6 pilots.

Thanks to a massive use of post-it and discussion, the “brainstorming” team exercised in developing 6 use cases scenarios, their applications, their feasibility and possible business model.

The brainstorming team has been rewarded with plenty of candies and mashmallows that were the brain gasoline of the whole afternoon session.

The second day saw an in-depth discussion on planning the delivery of the project market analisys and the structure and contents for deliverable 4.2. Hackathons and monetizing workshops, which will be organized later in the project to boost the pilots’ prototypes and results, were also roughly planned. The occasion of the meeting was also the good place to preliminary present and discuss the upcoming Opening Conference of Europeana Space, to be held in Venice in mid-October 2014 hosted by University of Venice.

The project members left the meeting with a full agenda for the upcoming weeks that will make the project run at full steam…. hopefully we still have some candies left!!

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