Digital meets Culture

Grand prize of the European Commission honoring Innovation in Technology, Industry and Society stimulated by the Arts

STARTS Prize 2017 Open Call / deadline extended 13th March 2017

Appointed by the European Commission, Ars Electronica, BOZAR and Waag Society are launching a prize to select the most pioneering collaborations and results in the field of creativity and innovation at the crossings of science and technology with the arts. This follows the launch of a new activity in the European Commission named STARTS: Innovation at the nexus of Science, Technology, and the ARTS.

Science, Technology and Arts (=STARTS) form a nexus with an extraordinarily high potential for creative innovation. And such innovation is considered to be precisely what’s called for if we’re to master the social, ecological and economic challenges that Europe will be facing in the near future. The role of artists thus is no longer seen to be just about propagating scientific and technological knowledge and skills among the general public but much more as a kind of catalyst that can inspire and trigger innovative processes. The artistic practice of creative exploration and experimental appropriation of new technologies has a wide reaching potential to contribute to the development of new products and new economic, social and business models. Accordingly, the STARTS Prize focuses on artistic works that influence or change the way we look at technology, and on innovative forms of collaboration between the ICT sector and the world of art and culture.

Two prizes, each with €20,000 prize money, are offered to honor innovative projects at the intersection of science, technology and the arts: one for artistic exploration, and thus projects with the potential to influence or change the way technology is deployed, developed or perceived, and one for innovative collaboration between industry/technology and art/culture in ways that open up new paths for innovation.

Grand Prize — Artistic Exploration

Awarded for artistic exploration and art works where appropriation by the arts has a strong potential to influence or alter the use, deployment or perception of technology.

Grand Prize — Innovative Collaboration

Awarded for innovative collaboration between industry or technology and the arts that opens new pathways for innovation.

Submission phase ends on March 13, 2017!

More information: https://starts-prize.aec.at/en/

Bit Rot Be Gone, second winter school for audiovisual archiving

MediaConch in use at Sound and Vision’s Winter School

Source: Sound and Vision blog post by Erwin Verbruggen

Kara discussing Preservation Metadata and PREMIS. Photo by Sebastiaan ter Burg, CC BY 2.0.

Getting a grasp on a concept like digital preservation seem like a headache. Over the past 20 years, a steady stream of academic research and innovation projects have tried to fix the problem of keeping digital objects over a longer stretch of time than the systems and software they rely on were designed for. Eternity. Plus one. These attempts – and the smart minds that cooked them up: actual rocket scientists as well as librarians, engineers, curators, conservators, and archivists – have produced piles of documents to plought through.Often these use different words and come from different perspectives. With the Winter School for Audiovisual Archiving, we aimed to create a hands-on training that applies digital preservation frameworks and solutions to audiovisual collections. This in order to make collection managers and other caretakers feel more adept, responsible and aware to make use of the best practices that are out there.

Fourteen participants hailed from near and far – with participants from Mexico, South Africa and the United States, as well as a variety of public and private organisations. Trainers Kara Van Malssen (US), Peter Bubestinger (AT), and Erwin Verbruggen (NL) guided the group through lectures, use cases and excercises to bring them up to speed with current preservation frameworks and applications for audiovisual collections. After refreshing the participant’s grasp on OAIS concepts in order to use the model as a roadmap through the course, thinking through the people as well as system requirements needed to do digital preservation was the order of the day. Throughs hands-on excercises, participants approached their own collection’s challenges and got a peek into applying low-barrier-to-entry applications, such as VLC, MediaInfo, Exactly, Fixity and MediaConch to assess their audiovisual materials.

Patricia introducing some of the TATE’s art works. Photo by Sebastiaan ter Burg, CC BY 2.0.

Inspiration came from three guest speakers, who gave practical examples of how their organisations implemented approaches to digital preservation and translated conceptual models to practical workflows. From the human rights organization WITNESS, we learned how a small team can reach out to non-specialists and involve them in the archiving process from the very start. Yvonne Ng shared some of the wonderful resources the organisation created, such as their Activists’ Guide to Archiving Video or on-going updates on the WITNESS Archiving blog.

From the TATE Museum in London, Patricia Falcão introduced the challenges that come with taking care of a wildly varying collection that may seem small in numbers (~ 500 hours “Title”) but exceeds most institutions’ time-based media collection’s value – an estimated €25 million. Through European Commission-supported projects such as Presto4U and Pericles, the small team has been able to expand its expertise and work closely together with archive experts such as Dave Rice and fellow museums such as MOMA to invent or apply solutions to problems that just a few years ago didn’t yet have a clear answer. She also detailed how open-source tools such as Archivematica and the future implementation of Binder should help them sift through the collections and combine information from cataloguing system TMS with technical info necessary for the preservation chain.

Participants at work. Photo by Sebastiaan ter Burg, CC BY 2.0.

During the training, besides guides shared by research groups and some of the excellent AVPreserve papers, example documents from fellow organisations such as the Dryad Digital Repository and the Irish Film Institute served as an example. We also looked at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision’s own governance documents. Guest speaker Josefien Schuurman explained how these came about/. As an organisation that has demanding turn-around requirements as well as a long-term cultural preservation mission, we apply the high-level concepts of the digital preservation domain to both our organisation and our infrastructure. After the period of mass digitisation brought on by the Images for the Future project, they helped us figure out the preservation puzzle and led us to achieve the Data Seal of Approval last year.

We closed the training by challenging our participants to consult each other on the next steps for their organisation. On the first day, one participant mentioned how their organisation applied ‘band-aid solutions’ to its preservation challenges. We look forward to hearing back from our participants how they fared to replace these with proper planning and tracking with the knowledge shared during this training session. If you have ideas or questions about how we might help you fulfill your preservation challenges and demands, feel free to contact us through the form below or write to us directly at winterschool@beeldengeluid.nl.

Winter School for Audiovisual Archiving 2017 group picture. Photo by Sebastiaan ter Burg, CC BY 2.0.

More info

The Winter School for Audiovisual Archiving 2017 was organised with support from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in collaboration with AVA_Net. Much thanks to our advisory board: Rachael Stoeltje (reto.ch), Harry Romijn (GAVA), Annemieke de Jong (Sound and Vision), Eef Masson (UvA), Kara Van Malssen (AVPreserve) and to Johan Oomen.

Interested in future Winter School editions? Stay up to date by leaving your contact details through this form.
Missed the webinars? Revisit the guest speaker talks via the Sound and Vision YouTube channel:
- Yvonne Ng – WITNESS Media Archive: 25 Years of Human Rights Video
- Patricia Falcão – Preservation of Digital Video at TATE
- Josefien Schuurman – Sound and Vision for Preservation
Find the pictures Sebastiaan ter Burg took on his Flickr page.

deadline for submission of proposals is 1 March 2017 and the journal will be published on June 2017

SCIRES IT journal / Call for Papers / Vol. 7 No. 1

SCIRES-IT (SCIentific RESearch and Information Technology) is inviting papers for Vol. 7 No. 1 which is scheduled to be published on June 2017.

The deadline for submission of proposals is scheduled for March 1, 2017.

Papers should be submitted electronically via email (sciresit.journal@gmail.com) to the Editor in Chief in DOC and PDF, including a cover sheet containing corresponding author’s name, affiliation, mailing address, phone, fax number, email address and short Cv.

SCIRES-IT (e-ISSN 2239-4303), is an open access journal providing an international forum for the exchange and sharing of know-how in the areas of Digitalization and Multimedia Technologies and Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in support of Cultural and environmental Heritage (CH) documentation, preservation and fruition.

It is a peer-reviewed journal, founded in 2011, available online on a semi-annual basis, at: http://caspur-ciberpublishing.it/index.php/scires-it.

Here you can download the template: http://caspur-ciberpublishing.it/public/journals/43/SCIRES-IT_Template.docx

Crakow (Poland), 7-9 September 2017

Eighth European Workshop on Applied Cultural Economics / call for papers open until 15 May 2017

The European Workshop on Applied Cultural Economics (EWACE) was founded in 1990 and is intended to provide a forum for the development and dissemination of applications of quantitative methods in cultural economics, as well as cultural-related applications of mathematical economics, experimental economics and other quantitative approaches (e.g. applied micro and macroeconometric approaches).

Authors are welcome to submit papers on applied cultural economics and we offer the following lists to illustrate, but not exhaust, possible topics: industrial organization of cultural products and services (e.g. pricing, trade); labour market issues of artists (e.g. wages, migration cultural participation); spillovers and externalities of firms in the cultural sector (agglomeration); pricing of art items; studies on demand elasticities. Participation of interested researchers and policy makers from all countries is welcome.

Series organizers and Scientific Committee:

Karol J. Borowiecki, University of Southern Denmark
Christiane Hellmanzik, Technical University Dortmund
John O’Hagan, Trinity College, University of Dublin
A. E. Scorcu, University of Bologna
R. Zanola, University of Eastern Piedmont

Deadline for presenting the abstract: 15th May 2017

Hosted by Cracow University of Economics: http://www.uek.krakow.pl/

Download the call for papers with full instructions: PDF, 400 Kb

Chicago (IL) USA, 20-21 April 2017

DPLAfest 2017

DPLAfest 2017—the fourth major gathering of the Digital Public Library of America’s broad community—will take place on April 20-21, 2017 in Chicago at Chicago Public Library’s Harold Washington Library Center.

An annual series of workshops, presentations, and discussions, DPLAfest brings together librarians, archivists, and museum professionals, developers and technologists, publishers and authors, teachers and students, and many others to celebrate DPLA and its community of creative professionals. The fest takes place in different locations each year and is open to the public.

The hosts for DPLAfest 2017 include Chicago Public Library, the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, Chicago Collections, and the Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS). Taking place in downtown Chicago, DPLAfest 2017 will bring together hundreds of people from DPLA’s large and growing community over two days for interactive workshops, hackathons and other collaborative activities, engaging discussions with community leaders and practitioners, fun events, and more.

Learn more, register and get all information: https://dp.la/info/get-involved/dplafest/april-2017/

as an additional outcome of E-Space project, a useful How-To booklet about hackathons

Learn from the E-Space Hackathons experience

The holding of hackathons is a popular and already well-established activity that offers industries the possibility to gather people enthusiastic to develop new ideas. The E-Space project took up this concept and developed it further, re-conceptualising the meaning of ‘hackathon’ in the cultural heritage sector, engaging creative industries, developers, professionals and new audiences with content and tools delivered and developed, respectively as part of the Europeana Space project.

busy participants at the Open and Hybrid Publishing hackathon

E-Space Hackathons, 6 events held in various European cities, were conceived as a platform for engagement and the clear response was that such events are incredibly beneficial not just for engagement but for stimulating institutions as a whole, gaining new ideas and energy through the younger, creative industry participants. Alongside engaging new audiences, the structural purposes of the hackathons was to inspire the creation of new businesses that will build strong business models wherein creative re-use of cultural heritage materials can develop business sustainability. Out of the E-Space hackathon, 7 winning projects passed throught two rounds of selection (the Hackathon and a Business Modelling Workshop), and were eventually tunnelled in an intensive incubation support, thus being prepared for their approach to the real market.

What made E-Space hackathons so unique, successful and path breaking is the focus on concept development, knowledge-sharing and business modeling rather than pure coding. It was not the value of the prize that attracted participants: what was highly appreciated by the participants is the possibility of exchanging ideas, developing synergies around the concept of re-using digital (cultural) content. E-Space Hackathons gave people the challenge of converting their ideas in a sustainable business model with a possible market potential.

Of course, a hackathon is not a one-size-fits-all format that suits every purpose. It can bring insights, inspiration and ideas. But its success depends on proper organization and its focus.

Based on the experience with organizing six hackathons in the Europeana Space project and pre-existing experiences with project partners, we created a how to guide, exploring the use of hackathons in the cultural sector and helping others to get started with organising one themselves.

This publication intends to share the lessons we learnt for the realization of a successful event. It was developed by partner WAAG and is available under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike).

Downlad the booklet: PDF, 8 Mb

About E-Space hackathons: http://www.europeana-space.eu/hackathons-home/

About the 7 Incubated projects: http://www.europeana-space.eu/e-space-incubated-projects/

WAAG website: http://waag.org/en/news/hacking-culture-guide

The online course “Europeana Space: Creative with Digital Heritage” will be relaunched in 2017, under KU Leuven's coordination.

E-Space MOOC: a successful first run

by Clarissa Colangelo, KU Leuven.
Article originally appeared on the E-Space Photography Pilot Blog.
photo courtesy KU Leuven

On January 10th 2017 the MOOC “Europeana Space: Creative with Digital Heritage” ended. With almost 1000 enrolled learners from 90 different countries and regions, we are very pleased to announce that this first run of the course was a success.

What made this possible was not only the enthusiasm shown by the E-Space partners in collaborating to the development of this course, but also the availability of KU Leuven to host our MOOC on their edX channel and to provide excellent support throughout the whole process; for them this was an experiment with a MOOC that stems directly from a research project rather than being based on existing university lectures.

Grades were not the main focus of the MOOC. What interested us more, was that students could learn and discover useful information and material derived from our experiences within the E-Space project, that would allow them to improve and enhance their creative role in relation to the reuse of digital cultural heritage.

The course raised very positive reactions among the learners. With some minor adjustments, we will soon be able to relaunch the course, which we are confident will be met by the same positive reaction!

“Thanks for offering this course! Very interested to learn this material, glad to know about this information, how to use it, and the future of its use!”

Full article: https://espacephotography.com/2017/01/25/e-space-mooc-a-successful-first-run/

The course: https://www.edx.org/course/europeana-space-creative-digital-kuleuvenx-eurospacex

Visit the E-Space for Education Portal: http://www.europeana-space.eu/education/

a Memorandum of Understanding is launched after the end of the EU funding period, to continue the work done so far with E-Space

E-Space Initiative: Where Culture Meets Creativity

As the EU-funded project ends on 31 January 2017, the partners, affiliate partners and followers of the E-Space project are invited to join the MoU for the E-Space initiative “E-Space: Where Culture meets Creativity”.

LEARN MORE: http://www.europeana-space.eu/network/e-space-initiative/

The partnership’s main objective is to pave the way for the establishment of a sustainable initiative based on the results of the E-Space project, with a longer term vision to support the creative reuse and valorisation of digital cultural content available online. Both individuals and institutions can join the partnership providing their support to the ‘E-Space initiative’ in accordance with their desire and capacity to get involved.

A major outcome of E-Space project is a set of resources for entrepreneurs, creative companies, owners of digital archives and collections, and individuals interested in open digital cultural heritage content.

Content Space and IP: tools for creative reuse of digital cultural heritage

In the Content Space created by Europeana Space project are collected guidelines and tools for clearing copyright and find information about the development of business models for the exploitation of digital cultural heritage content.

The Content Space contains information about licensing, rights labelling and associated new technical standards, guidelines on how to identify re-usable content, and legal advice and tools for the lawful re-use of digital content. An explicative video helps understanding the basic context.

As a final outcome from the Content Space, we are happy to announce the arrival of the IP Case Studies booklet. This contains information regarding intellectual property right within the six Europeana Space Pilots (museums, TV, dance, open and hybrid publishing, photography and games). The booklet contains stories and lessons learnt during the project, the hackathons, the business modelling workshops and the incubation periods.

The booklet is a publication realized and printed in December 2016 with ISBN 9789082636000. It is also available online as a full PDF booklet and the 6 Case Studies are also available individually for download.

The Content Space also includes guidance, tools and resources on openly licensed and public domain materials in the Open Content Exchange Platform.

We would also like to draw your attention to the Online Consulting Kit with a wealth of detailed and professional information that is easily accessible.

Visit the E-Space Content Space: http://www.europeana-space.eu/content-space/

We hope once again that you enjoy the materials and tools we have developed and that you get creative with the amazing cultural heritage that exists all around us!

10% discount off annual membership fees

Open Preservation Foundation and BitCurator Consortium Discount Membership Opportunity

Building on the existing strong ties between our organisations, the Open Preservation Foundation (OPF) and BitCurator Consortium (BCC) are pleased to announce a discount trial membership opportunity that offers its members a 10% discount off annual membership fees.

From 1 January 2017, members of the OPF will receive a 10% discount on membership fees when they join the BCC for a year long trial membership, and BCC members will receive a 10% discount when they join the OPF. The offer runs from one year to 31 December 2017.

Ross King, Chair of OPF, Austrian Institute of Technology said:

”The OPF and BCC share a common goal to provide reliable, open source software to support the preservation of digital objects for the long-term. We welcome applications from existing members, as well new organisations who are interested in joining a growing community benefiting from open source tools and resources.”

Matthew Farrell, President of BCC, Duke University said:

”We are delighted to build upon our existing partnership – the BCC and OPF have co-hosted events and webinars, and OPF has carried out code quality reviews for BCC software. Both organisations operate as not-for-profits with funding going directly to software development, outreach and training materials.”

The trial discounted membership provides libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions with an opportunity to experiment with membership in the BCC and OPF and leverage the knowledge, skills, and resources of their highly dynamic and active communities.

About

BitCurator Consortium

The BitCurator Consortium (BCC) is an independent, community-led membership association that serves as the host and center of administrative, user and community support for the BitCurator environment. Its purpose is to support the curation of born-digital materials through the application of open-source digital forensics tools by institutions responsible for such materials.

https://www.bitcuratorconsortium.org/

The BCC is now welcoming institutions in all sectors and nations to join as General Members. Member benefits include:

Access to the BCC help desk
Prioritisation in future feature and enhancement requests
Dedicated educational offerings
Voting rights
Eligibility to serve on the BCC Executive Council and Committees
Service opportunities
Community engagement and networking
Professional development and training
Subscription to a dedicated BCC member mailing list
Special rates for BCC events, including the annual BitCurator User Forum

Read more about the benefits of joining the BitCurator Consortium: https://www.bitcuratorconsortium.org/join

Open Preservation Foundation

The Open Preservation Foundation (OPF) is an international not-for-profit membership organisation that sustains technology and knowledge for the long-term management of digital cultural heritage. The Foundation provides its members with reliable solutions to the challenges of digital preservation. http://openpreservation.org/

OPF’s membership comprises archives, libraries, research institutions, universities, and service providers that share a commitment to advancing digital preservation. Members steer the Foundation’s strategy and activities and benefit from exclusive or priority access to OPF interest groups, webinars, technical clinic and events, as well as support in adopting and using our open source software including JHOVE and veraPDF. Read more about the benefits of joining the OPF: http://openpreservation.org/about/join/

To discuss any aspects of the offer, or the respective member benefits, please contact Sam Meister (sam@educopia.org) or Becky McGuinness (becky@openpreservation.org).