Digital meets Culture

Europe needs a e-Infrastructure Commons for knowledge, science and innovation.

e-IRG’s White Paper 2013 published

A 2012 e-IRG Roadmap outlined a vision for the future of e-Infrastructures in Europe. Now, the e-IRG has published its 2013 White Paper, which takes the discussion one step further and proposes specific next steps.

The main focus of the 2013 White Paper is the integration of services for research communities and interoperability and coordination of e-Infrastructures. Follow-up aspects are Open Science, data management, big data, cloud computing and legal issues that arise from the commercial use of e-Infrastructures.

To meet the challenges of implementing the 2020 Strategy, Europe needs an “e-Infrastructure Commons” for knowledge, science and innovation. It should be open and accessible, and continuously adapting to the changing requirements of research and to new technological opportunities.

Available e-Infrastructure resources as well as the conditions for access vary strongly between countries. This limits the ability of universities and research institutes to collaborate with each other and with commercial researchers. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a European “e-Infrastructure Commons”: a flexible and dynamic ecosystem, providing integrated services through interoperable infrastructures.

A centrally managed e-Infrastructure is not a solution. Instead, there is a need for a joint strategic effort involving users, providers, and funding agencies, leading to a high degree of coordination without stifling innovation. The e-IRG White Paper 2013 outlines a number of steps towards this objective. These steps focus mainly on changes in organisation, governance and funding; an important element is the empowerment of end-users through changes in funding mechanisms.

Download the final e-IRG White Paper 2013.

Additional information, including the long version of the White Paper and the comments is available at: http://www.e-irg.eu/publications/white-papers.html

An article about the project has just been published on the Italian magazine Archeomatica

Linked Heritage, dissemination goes on

Archeomatica is an Italian magazine focused on technologies applied in the field of cultural heritage, and beside a very lively website, it features a tri-monthly paper newsletter, also available on line.

Archeomatica aims to publish papers of significant and lasting value written by scientists, conservators and archaeologists, and to disseminate information about new methodologies and experimental results.

The best up-to-date scientific applications and the exchange of ideas and findings are highlighted in this magazine, that is written in Italian but also hosts English, French and Spanish articles.

The issue n. 21 (March 2013) includes as “guest paper” a wide overview about Linked Heritage.

The article, in English language, was written by dr. Antonella Fresa and dr. Claudio Prandoni, the Technical Coordination of the project.

The article is available here on OJS platform: http://www.mediageo.it/ojs/index.php/archeomatica/article/view/151/240

Download the article (PDF, 271 Kb)

Read the full newsletter on-line at http://www.mediageo.it/ojs/index.php/archeomatica/issue/view/26/showToc

More information at www.archeomatica.it

The Knowledge Management Institute (KMI) is involved in the CULTURA project

Technology University of Graz disseminating CULTURA

Graz University of Technology in Austria pursues top teaching and research and many of its branches are involved in EU projects. It also co-operates with partner universities and extra-university facilities within the framework of international networks.

The Knowledge Management Institute (KMI), which is involved in the CULTURA project under the acronym TUG, is one of in total eight institutes of the Faculty of Computer Science.

The main interests of TUG in CULTURA are centred on evaluation and adaptivity. Regarding evaluation a main task of TUG is the elaboration and refinement of a sound methodological framework for the evaluation of the CULTURA core intelligent services and adaptive user community environment for the realisation of adaptive cultural experiences. This includes methodologies of user-centred evaluation as well as the investigation of the scientific soundness of the theoretical approaches underlying adaptivity in CULTURA (Social Network Analysis, Natural Language Processing).

Beside the core-activity related to project progress and achievements, the TUG team is doing a very important work of dissemination. Very recently, in particular, CULTURA was represented in 2 very valuable workshops (German language) related to humanities.

First event was the interdisciplinary symposium ‘Bairisch-österreichische Dialektkulturen vor 1800‘, which was organised by the Dialect Cultures project in conjunction with the ‘Humanities Day’ at the University of Graz, 20-21 June 2013. In this occasion Alexander Nussbaumer discussed about CULTURA as an example research environment for digital cultural heritage collections. During the symposium, the attention was focused on dialect culture, with reference to potential further development and evaluation of the Dialect Cultures database.

Shortly after this event, there was another valuable lecture at the University, in cooperation with the Center for Information Modelling in the Humanities, on 25 June 2013; CULTURA was presented during in an introductory lecture on basics of information technology for humanities. The two digital collections used in CULTURA (1641 Depositions and IPSA collection) were introduced and both instances of the CULTURA environment were demonstrated as a showcase for information modeling in the humanities.

On 18th and 19th of July 2013, Linked Heritage will be presented at the 67th edition of the Festival

Linked Heritage presented at the Festival of Avignon

On 18th and 19th of July 2013, Linked Heritage will be presented at the European encounters organised in the framework of the Festival d’Avignon, one of the major European events in the field of artistic creation which brings together a lot of professionals and cultural operators from all cultural and artistic fields.

Individual dissemination meetings will be organised with key actors of non heritage fields, Universities and High Schools in order to present the project results and to ask them to disseminate its results.

Activities will include:

Individual Meetings: Director of the cluster for cultural industries and heritage of PACA Region, Director of the Ecole d’Avignon, French Regional Agencies for Culture.
Networking Activities: clustering with local authorities, professional European networks, regional agencies for culture, representatives of national authorities, etc.
Dissemination of Linked Heritage communication material during the events (debates, professional meetings, info points, “Maison des professionnel”, etc.)

For more information about the Festival visit http://www.festival-avignon.com.

CULTURA was one of the examples cited during the prestigious Conference in Dublin

CULTURA at the EU Irish Presidency Conference

An international conference ‘Use, Re-Use and Access’ was held in Dublin Castle on 17 June 2013.

Hosted by the Irish Presidency of the European Union and by the Local Government Management Agency, the conference attracted an international audience of cultural heritage and memory institutions and numerous representatives of Irish local and national memory institutions.

The conference was opened by Irish Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Fergus O’Dowd, followed by a video message from Mrs. Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission. Among the key-note speakers, the Conference included Javier Hernandez-Ros, the Head of Unit ‘Creativity’ at the Commission, Frederic Bokobza of the French Ministry of Culture and Lord David Puttnam, Digital Ambassador for Ireland.

During the plenary session, Ciaran Clissmann from Pintail Ltd, partner of CULTURA, surveyed recent web and smartphone developments in the mainstream, and how they can offer appealing approaches to solving persistent digitization challenges.

CULTURA was mentioned as one of the projects which is actively contributing to the research in this field. The full presentation is available for download here.

Medelhavsmuseet will digitally place human mummies on a virtual autopsy table and derive 3D models for interactive visualization.

Mummies virtually unwrapped in Sweden

Medelhavsmuseet – the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm will digitally place human mummies on a virtual autopsy table. The work is taking place in advance of a new exhibition on Egypt, which is due to open in 2014 at Medelhavsmuseet.

Six of the museum’s mummies were x-rayed using the CT scanner at Linköping University Hospital, in the framework of a collaboration with Interactive Institute Swedish ICT, Visualization Center C and CMIV in Norrköping/Linköping.

photo Medelhavsmuseet

The project is based on current research within visualisation and interaction design, and its goal is to connect research and cultural history with the help of the latest technology, in the form of interactive visualisation.

“Using the table we can describe the individual’s health and fate, the mummification process and the ancient Egyptians’ assumptions about the life thereafter.” said Sofia Häggman, Egyptologist at Medelhavsmuseet.

photo Medelhavsmuseet

3D digital models will be generated by compiling data from photos and X-ray scans for the mummies and their associated sarcophagi. By combining the very latest techniques in computed tomography, laser scanning and photogrammetry, the user experience will be upgraded to an incredible level of realism. It will be possible to zoom into very high resolution to see details like carving marks on a sarcophagus, and the true colors of the mummy. The 3D model also allows to “unwrap” a mummy by peeling off virtual layers of the wrapping to explore the mummy itself and the artifacts that were buried with the body.

“We can literately create a virtual copy of the mummy. This version could be shared with other museums, be used for research or be part of an interactive visitor experience,” said Thomas Rydell of the Swedish Interactive Institute. “In this project we are working with mummies, but the same methods could of course be used on large variety of objects, such as natural history objects and other historical artefacts.”

photo Medelhavsmuseet

The museum’s mummies are of great interest to the general public, and are the focus of many visits, by adults and children alike. With the help of the visualisation table, originally developed for healthcare, the museum visitors will be able to discover the mummies in detail, easily and intuitively investigate complex data, which would normally only be available to researchers. It is already planned for the spring of 2014 a permanent exhibition of ancient Egyptian civilization, including the 3D digital models of the mummies.

“The technology will enable our visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the men and women inside the mummy wrappings,” said Elna Nord, producer of the exhibition. “Layer by layer, the visitor can unwrap the mummy and gain knowledge of the individual’s sex, age, living conditions and beliefs. With help from the technology, the mummies become so much stronger mediators of knowledge of our past.”

More:

http://www.varldskulturmuseerna.se/en/medelhavsmuseet/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/egypt-2014/mummies-on-a-virtual-autopsy-table/

http://www.best-news.us/news-4805588-Mummy-3d-models-reveal-his-true-colors-Figure.html

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Technology/2013/07/01/Swedish-museum-to-let-visitors-virtually-unwrap-mummies/UPI-27241372713494/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23045904

Adobe Connect Virtual Room, 9 - 30 July 2013

Web course on the development of applications for Catania Science Gateways

Introduction:
The goal of the present course is to create the skills to integrate scientific applications in Science Gateways implemented with the Catania Science Gateway Framework. This will allow the creation of an intercontinental team of developers able to respond to requests of integration of specific applications from Virtual Research Communities all around the globe. The members of the team will gain the access to the available gateways to develop and run also their own applications.
Generalities on the Catania Science Gateway Framework have already been presented in a recent webinar and all interested people can watch the recording of that event at this link.
People interested in attending this course are invited to fill the Registration Form as soon as possible and to have a careful look both at the Requirements and at the Preliminary homework to be done before the first webinar.

Dates of Webinars:
Webinar no. 1: 9 July 2013, 14:00-15:30 GMT
Webinar no. 2: 16 July 2013, 14:00-16:00 GMT
Webinar no. 3: 23 July 2013, 14:00-16:00 GMT
Webinar no, 4: 30 July 2013, 14:00-16:00 GMT

Times are given in GMT. If you want to know the correspondent time in your timezone go to http://www.worldtimeserver.com/convert_time_in_UTC.aspx

Webinar access page:
http://connect.ct.infn.it/sciencegateway

Timetable:

Have a look at the timetable here

Instructions:
Please login as guest and provide your Name and Affiliation in the Guest Name field.
In the top left corner you can then click on “Meeting -> Audio Setup Wizard” to configure your audio.
You can test your computer and your devices at this link: http://connect.ct.infn.it/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm.
Adobe Connect tutorials are available at: http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-adobe-connect-8/.

REQUIREMENTS

Skills:
In order to profit most from the course, the following prior knowledge is required:
– Java programming;
– Web application development (HTML, Java server pages, XML, Application Server, servlets);
– Basic Unix shell (VPN, SSH, bash scripting);
– Basic Database management (in particular MySQL).

Hardware:
Being a web-based course, no hardware is provided by organisers.
Participants shoud have at their disposal for the whole duration of the course a real/virtual machine with either Mac OS X or Linux installed and at least 2 GB of RAM. CentOS is the recommended Linux distribution.

Software:
All software needed to integrate applications in a Catania Science Gateway will be provided by organisers except the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) since participants can already be used to different IDEs.
Our recommended choice is however NetBeans. In order to create Liferay plugins you can use the Plugin Portal Pack extension of NetBeans or configure the plugin to use the Liferay SDK.

An on-line tool, support and blog dedicated to the tricky issue of intrenational IPR legislation

Specialized IPR Support from Europeana Photography

Note for the reader: beside the IPR support tool and blog available and described below, EuropeanaPhotography project is very active on training, organizing workshops and roundtables.

Upcoming appointments related to IPR are:

Vilnius ICT 2013 IPR networking session, 7th November 2013

Paris dedicated workshop organized by Parisienne de Photographie, 14-15 November 2013

In the framework of EuropeanaPhotography, an on-line support service and a blog was recently implemented by University of Patras, developed according to the partner’s needs and now available for anyone interested or in need for a specialized support.

In facts, discussions about IPR in EuropeanaPhotography so far went through an IPR dedicated mailing list, which is restricted to the project’s members. The on-line support service is instead open to everybody and surely this website will become in a short time a benchmark for IPR issues for the whole community.

The support service is composed different resources:

The Online Guidebook, a step-by-step tool, that allows any archive, museum or collection holder to explore the main aspects of IPR legislation and get support and guidance.

Step 1: Identification of the Work

Step-by-step the user is guided to a final result:

The Library

The section is a collection of key documents regarding IPR, information about the Europeana’s IPR strategy, the Labeling Strategy common IPR issues and the DEA and an IPR Glossary.

The “Get Help” section

The section includes a database of all the copyright organizations and collective societies of several countries (not only the EU Member States).

Ask us

The section redirects the user to the IPR Guidebook Blog, maintained by the expert dr. Dimitrios K. Tsolis of University of Patras.

You all are welcome to use the tool and to discuss in the blog!

Download the EuropeanaPhotography IPR Guidebook (PDF, 4.5 Mb)

A panel of international speakers discussed about digital cultural heritage and its potential for exploitation and education

Conference about “Use, Re-use and Access”, prestigious event in Dublin

Chairs and speakers of the International Conference

An international conference ‘Use, Re-Use and Access’ was held in Dublin Castle on 17 June 2013. Hosted by the Irish Presidency of the European Union and Linked Heritage partner the Local Government Management Agency, the conference attracted an international audience of cultural heritage and memory institutions and numerous representatives of Irish local and national memory institutions.

Mr. Fergus O’Dowd, T.D., Minister of State, Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government

The conference was opened by Irish Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Fergus O’Dowd, TD, who spoke enthusiastically of his own experience in using the internet for family history and local studies research. The Minister expressed strong support for the re-use of cultural and heritage information in education and research.

Delegates in St. George’s Hall, Dublin Castle, watching a video address from Mrs. Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission

The Minister’s address was followed by a video message from Commissioner Neelie Kroes (see the full video message here), who unfortunately was unable to attend the Conference in person. Commissioner Kroes emphasized the importance of an open approach to information sharing, and highlighted the role of Europeana.

The conference continued with a series of exciting presentations, addressing complementary aspects of the digitization and subsequent re-use of cultural heritage material from around Europe, including:

– Javier Hernandez-Ros, the Head of Unit ‘Creativity’ at the Commission, focused on the challenges and opportunities for digital culture. He also outlined the budgetary constraints for culture in the coming EU programmes (download the presentation in PDF).

– Prof Jon Drori, UK national expert, gave an insightful presentation on the strategic pitfalls which can befall digital cultural projects, and offered 15 Golden Rules for avoiding them (download the presentation in PDF).

– Frederic Bokobza of the French Ministry of Culture outlined the French national investment program, which, despite the financial constraints on public spending, is establishing a spectrum of large digitization public-private partnerships, with strong focus on long-term return on investment (download the presentation in PDF).

– Lord David Puttnam, Digital Ambassador for Ireland (keynote speaker) spoke extensively on the exciting prospects for education. A particular emphasis was placed on the importance of opening access to cultural assets for re-use, and avoiding unnecessary restrictions (download the presentation in PDF).

– Prof Sara de Freitas presented the work of the Serious Games Institute at the University of Coventry, particularly those games and artefacts that relate most closely to cultural heritage (download the presentation in PDF).

– Rossella Caffo, Director of ICCU, Italy, presented the work of Linked Heritage and its achievements (download the presentation in PDF).

– Paul McSweeney of the Irish Local Government Management Agency gave an overview of Irish digital culture portal Askaboutireland.ie, including practical examples of geo-enabled cultural heritage material and user-generated content (download the presentation in PDF).

– Finally, Ciaran Clissmann, Linked Heritage partner, surveyed recent web and smartphone developments in the mainstream, and how they can offer appealing approaches to solving persistent digitization challenges (download the presentation in PDF).

l-r Ms. Annette Kelly, Head of Libraries Development, LGMA; Lord Puttnam, Digital Ambassador for Ireland; Ms. Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Librarian

Conference attendees provided feedback to the speakers in active question and answer sessions. Fruitful and interesting conversations focused on education, re-use, relevant web developments and the potential for cultural tourism. Thanks were expressed by all presenters and participants to the hosting organisations.

[Show as slideshow]

An initiative for cooperation between China and Europe, supported by company Promoter

Chinese cultural artifacts that are in Europe go back, digitally, to China

Loy Soo Choon (Amber Digital Solutions) explains the process used for the 3D reconstruction.

The idea is actually very simple. Many museums and institutions in Europe hold Chinese collections including artifacts and potteries, that hardly most of Chinese people could ever see. Now digital technologies can help, through very advanced 3D reconstructions to be used for virtual and travelling exhibitions that will bring the Chinese cultural artifacts held in Europe back home as 3D objects.

This is an initiative of the technological branch of Chasen Sino-Sin and related company Amber Digital, sponsored by an important group of Chinese corporations and enterprises, that are seeking in Europe for the museums and institutions that hold Chinese collection to offer them a zero-cost, advanced 3D digitization service.

Company Promoter, well known and trusted player in the European landscape of digital cultural heritage, is supporting the operation as cultural mediator.

It is a very recent news the signature of the agreement protocol with the Hallwyl Museum in Stockholm for the digitization of its Chinese collection, to be done in spring 2014.

Zhao Feng (CEO of Amber Digital Solutions), Antonella Fresa (Director of Promoter srl), Åsa Marnell (Head of collections of the Hallwyl museum) and Karin Nilsson (Head of digital resources of the Hallwyl museum).

The phisical artifacts will never move from their place while the Chinese technicians and engineers, in cooperation with in-site curators, will digitize them. When the 3D scanning is complete, the Chinese experts will reproduce the full texture of the 3D model. The result is a perfect 3D digital reproduction of the original artifact, ready to be used for digital exhibitions and even 3D printing to reproduce physical copies of the originals to accompany the digital exhibitions or to be on sale in the museum shops.

The concept and exchange is very simple and plain: the museum keeps the full property of the digital objects for any purpose and exploitation, while the Chinese company is licensed to the re-use the 3D models in China for educational and research purposes, and for virtual exhibitions.

Heli Haapasalo (Director of the Hallwyl museum), Åsa Marnell (Head of collections of the Hallwyl museum), Zhao Feng (CEO of the Amber Digital Solutions) follow with interest the presentation about the 3D solution by Loy Soo Choon (Amber Digital Solutions).

It is a win-win agreement: from one hand, it is very convenient for the museum, which will not pay for the digitization service; from the other hand it is an opportunity for the Chinese partners who will be able to show and to study artifacts of their culture otherwise no more accessible in their country.

Discussion is ongoing with other Swedish institutions that have Chinese holdings, but of course this initiative is not limited to Sweden and it is expected to be enlarged to other European cultural institutions in the near future.