Digital meets Culture

Graz, 10 January 2014

CULTURA Workshop at the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities

On 10th January 2014 a half-day workshop was conducted at the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities (ZIM) at the University of Graz.

Workshop participants were members of the centre, as well as researchers from the Dialect Cultures project.

The final version of the CULTURA research environment was demonstrated with the 1641 Depositions and the IPSA collection.

In a hands-on session participants had the opportunity to try out the system with both collections.

The workshops was very useful for gathering meaningful user feedback on CULTURA, but also in terms of disseminating the project results to experienced members of the digital humanities community.

Helsinki, 19-23 May 2014

PCP on digital preservation @ EGI CF 2014, Helsinki

Summary

Memory institutions are facing increasing transfers of electronic documents and other media content for long term preservation. Data are normally stored in specific file formats for documents, images, sound, video etc. that are produced by software from different vendors. This software is controlled neither by the institution that produces the files, nor by the institution that holds the archive. As a result, memory institutions have to make conformance tests before accepting transfers of electronic collections, but these tests are again out of control and not totally reliable. This poses problems in long-term preservation. Data objects meant for preservation, passing through an uncontrolled generative process, can jeopardise the whole preservation exercise.

The main objective of PERFORMA (PREservation FORMAts for culture information/e-archives) – a Pre Commercial Procurement project co-funded by the European Commission under its FP7-ICT Programme – is to give memory institutions full control of the process of the conformity tests of files to be ingested into archives, through the development of a set of tools which enable this process to happen within an iteration that is under full control of the institutions.

Aim of this workshop is to present to the whole digital preservation community – open source community, developers, standardization bodies and memory institutions – the new opportunities offered by the project and by the forthcoming call for tender.

Description

The main objective of the pre-commercial-procurement launched by PREFORMA 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.

Areas which will be covered by the tools developed by PREFORMA are:

Preservation-relevant metadata (for documents, books, images and audio-visual records).
Particularly challenging types of digital objects (notably audio-visual records).
Integration of digital preservation requirements in existing systems in order to increase their resilience against technological changes.

The total costs of the procurement amounts to 2,805,000 euro.

Six suppliers are planned to be selected at the end of the tender procedure to carry on the first design phase that lasts 4 months and completes with the ranking of the delivered designs.

The suppliers of the best three designs are requested to proceed to the prototyping phase, which includes two releases and the re-design phase and which lasts 22 months in total. These suppliers are then requested to proceed to the testing phase that lasts 6 months and which corresponds to the final testing with real data sets provided by the memory institutions.

Target communities and stakeholders

PREFORMA aims to ensure the establishment of a process of Open Dialogue, which involves:

Memory institutions and cultural heritage organisations coordinating or representing them, that are involved in (or planning) digital culture initiatives.
Developers contributing code for the PREFORMA tools as well as developers implementing the reference implementations in production software.
Research organisations providing technical and expertise advice to cultural stakeholders.
Standardisation bodies maintaining the technical specifications of the preservation formats covered in PREFORMA.
Funding agencies, such as Ministries of Culture and national/regional administrations, that own and manage digitisation programmes and may endorse the use of the PREFORMA tools in the digitisation process.
Best practice networks endorsing the use of open standards in creating and managing digital content.
Other projects in the digital culture, e-Infrastructures and policy arenas.

British Museum, 29 – 31 May 2014

RAI’s Anthropology and Photography Conference

The Royal Anthropological Institute organized a major international conference ‘Anthropology and Photography’, which took place at the British Museum’s Education Clore Centre on 29-31 May 2014.

The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is the world’s longest-established scholarly association dedicated to the furtherance of anthropology (the study of humankind) in its broadest and most inclusive sense. The Institute is a non-profit-making registered charity and is entirely independent. Aim of its “Anthropology and Photography” Conference is to stimulate an international discussion on the place, role and future of photography in anthropology and related disciplines. Participation of researchers and practitioners working in museums, academia, media, the arts and anyone who is engaged with historical or contemporary production and use of images is welcomed. The conference attracted thousands of delegates from around the world, including archaeologists, anthropologists, photographers, curators, social scientists, representatives of corporate bodies, media professionals, NGOs, teachers, students and the general public. Europeana Photography was invited by RAI and participated in the conference presenting its recent outcomes and future activities.

For more information please visit:

http://www.therai.org.uk/conferences/anthropology-and-photography/

Download the conference flyer – PDF

Workshop organised by I2CAT in the framework of I AM Project

Mobile Apps and Augmented Reality

On 3-7 February 2014, at the School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona, a workshop was held on Mobile Apps and Augmented Reality. The workshop was organised by RICHES’ partner I2CAT (Internet and Digital Innovation in Catalonia, research organisation promoting research and innovation in advanced internet technology), in the framework of I AM project (International Augmented Med).

I AM is an international cooperation project involving fourteen partner organisations in seven countries around the Mediterranean Sea. It is funded by the 2007-2013 ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme. The 14 partners work to develop joint activities to provide innovative services to the tourism sector in each of their countries, with the aim of assisting economic development in the Mediterranean region. The innovative services consist in the application to a number of heritage sites of a variety of multimedia and interactive techniques in the field of Augmented Reality.

Mobile applications and Augmented Reality technologies offer new opportunities for heritage and tourism. A new market is under development and specific skills are required to offer innovative products adapted to the market needs.

As mobile devices become more powerful in terms of interactivity, data gathering and Internet access, Augmented Reality apps are increasing.

They have the opportunity to augment, enhance and transform user’s experience.

Barcelona 3-7 February’s workshop explored the design, development and user studies associated to mobile Augmented Reality. In particular, discussion topics were focused on:

Design of mobile Augmented Reality Apps
Augmented Reality for Heritage and Tourism
Augmented Reality for Marketing
Augmented Reality Games, Entertainment and Education
Exploration currently standards, available tools and devices

I AM mascot “Blue”

The workshop was conceived as a 5-days training, covering the global development chain, from understanding the business approach when working with mobile apps to the programing training.

Within this workshop the participants were provided with the knowledge and skills required to develop Augmented Reality experiences. It was discussed theoretical design approaches and practical frameworks, which will help developers to make Augmented Reality interfaces in mobile contexts.

The workshop had a great success, the maximum capacity of participants was reached before the ending of the requests.

Target audiences were: developers, SME’s, entrepreneurs and students willing to develop apps for heritage and tourism.

You can join the network and the active community around Augmented Reality and Video mapping for Heritage though the Linkedin Group; the presentations from all the training activities in the framework of the project (and specifically from the Barcelona workshop) are available online on the project website. You just need to register and the documents are available for download.

The call for grants is still open! Deadline by the 17/02/2014

For more information visit http://www.iam-project.eu/

View the event we published to announce the workshop

RICHES on Twitter: #richesEU

Brussels, 10 February 2014

Concertation among EC-funded PCP projects

On February 10th, 2014 the Innovation Unit of the European Commission organised the 1^st concertation meeting for ongoing Pre-Commercial Procurement projects. This represents a good opportunity to collect information about good practices and to bring up problems or questions.

PREFORMA has been invited to the meeting and three representatives participated and presented the project:

the Coordinator Borje Justrell from the Swedish National Archives (Riksarkivet);
the Technical Coordinator and Communication Manager Antonella Fresa from Promoter Srl;
Peter Pharow from Fraunhofer-Institut for Digital Media Technologie IDMT, who will lead the first phase of the procurement – the design phase.

Download here the project presentation delivered by Borje Justrell.

Download the minutes and the list of attendees.

On the following link you can find uploaded all presentations: Click here to view PCP_PPI.

Athens, 26-27 February 2014

“Achieving Impact” international conference

NET4SOCIETY, the network of National Contact Points for research in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities organised a transnational conference which took place in Athens at the National Hellenic Research Foundation on the 26th and 27th February 2014 on the occasion of the Greek EU Council presidency.

Entitled “Achieving Impact: Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities (SSH) in Horizon 2020”, the conference highlighted the important role SSH has to play, through its relevance and impact, in achieving the targets set out in Europe 2020 – the EU’s growth strategy for the current decade. The conference also showcased exciting opportunities that exist in Horizon 2020 to help prepare the SSH research community for the New EU Programme for Research & Innovation.

The two-day event appealed to members of the SSH research community who are looking for networking and funding opportunities within Horizon 2020. It was of particular interest to researchers from universities and research organisations in the field of SSH, Civil Society Organisations & Non-governmental Organisations. SSH-relevant industries involved in Research and Innovation activities were also among the target audience. Established networks such as ERA-NETs were invited to attend. In addition, the conference targeted at research programme owners/managers as well as policy makers.

The Conference sessions addressed the following areas:

The Creative and Cultural Industries
The European Social Model
Social Innovation.

The second day addressed Horizon 2020, specifically matters arising from the Work Programme for Societal Challenge 6; Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies. It featured a brokerage event to facilitate participants’ engagement with the HORIZON 2020 research programmes and to enhance their networking and collaboration prospects. RICHES Project Coordinator Neil Forbes, of Coventry University (UK), and RICHES Communication Manager Antonella Fresa of Promoter Srl (Italy) attended the conference as invited experts of the second day, in the session devoted to “Reflective societies: European culture”.

The conference was organised by NET4SOCIETY (www.net4society.eu), the network of National Contact Points (NCPs) for Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities in the EU Research Framework Programme.

Presentations are now available in the conference website. Conference reports, videos and photos will be available soon.

Download the conference agenda

View the event published on digitalmeetsculture.net to announce the conference

RICHES on Twitter! #richesEU

The Italian e-zine about new technologies and Cultural Heritage presents RICHES to its readers

RICHES is on Archeomatica website!

On the 5^th of February 2014, Archeomatica published an article about RICHES, offering to its readers a general presentation of the “Social-Sciences and Humanities” project funded by the EU Commission within the 7^th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.

Archeomatica is a multidisciplinary magazine, printed in Italy and published also online, devoted to the dissemination of advanced methodologies, emerging technologies and techniques for the Cultural Heritage’s knowledge, documentation providing, preservation and improvement. Archeomatica is open access, believing that the research results freely available to the public improve the global knowledge exchange. Its contents and its objectives are certainly in line with RICHES’ ones and the magazine presented itself as an appropriate tool for the project’s dissemination.

RICHES Italian article is entitled “RICHES: come le tecnologie stanno cambiando la cultura? – RICHES: how technology is changing culture?”; to read the article click here.

Visit Archeomatica website

RICHES on Twitter! #richesEU

Paris, 29-30 September and 1 October 2014

First EAGLE International Conference

The First International Conference of the EAGLE project (Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy) “Information Technologies for Epigraphy and Digital Cultural Heritage in the Ancient World”, organised with the support of Collège de France Chaire Religion, institutions et société de la Rome antique and École Normale Supérieure, was a great success.

The tickets were sold out two weeks before the event with more than 170 registered participants coming from all over Europe and beyond.

Information Technology has brought many significant changes in the field of Cultural Heritage and continues to be a dynamic and exciting field for the emergence of new opportunities. This wave of change has had particularly significant consequences in the field of Epigraphy and Classical Studies where the vast potential for digital content and new tools continues to reveal itself, opening doors to new and as-yet-unexplored synergies. Many technological developments concerning digital libraries, research and education are now fully developed and ready to be exported, applied, utilized, and cultivated by the public.

Susan Hazan (keynote speaker) and Silvia Orlandi (EAGLE Project Coordinator)

Co-funded by the European Commission under its Information and Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme, EAGLE aims to create an e-library for Digital Epigraphy of unprecedented scale and quality for ingestion to Europeana.

EAGLE is also aiming at creating a network of experts and people interested in Epigraphy and Cultural Heritage. This event is intended to be a forum for anyone willing to share and discuss experiences and current general best practices for digital editions. It is open to researchers, archivists, industry professionals, museum curators and others seeking to create a forum in which individuals and institutions can find a place to collaborate.

Tom Elliot (keynote speaker) and Antonio Felle (one of the speakers)

The EAGLE 2014 conference included several presentations around the themes of Harmonization of Content and Geographical information, Translations and Linked Open Data, Intellectual Property Rights, User Engagement, Cultural Heritage and the Social Web, Digital approaches to cross-disciplinary studies of inscriptions. The keynote-speakers consisted of some of the most salient voices in the field, including Tom Elliott (New York University) and Susan Hazan (The Israel Museum). Finally, a Digital Poster Exhibition was organised to showcase the 25 posters that were submitted to the Conference.

For further information visit the EAGLE 2014 Conference website and follow EAGLE on Facebook and Twitter!

Brussels, end of January - beginning of February 2014

PREFORMA presented at OFA Event & FOSDEM 2014

Between the end of January and the beginning of February 2014, researchers and practitioners from the PREFORMA project had several extremely interesting discussions at the OFA event and at FOSDEM.

PREFORMA researchers at the OFA-event

At the OFA event (28 February 2014), the University of Skovde presented the PREFORMA project and the reaction was very positive. Several key players in the “open” world now know about the project (including some legal experts on Open Source and public sector procurement). After presenting the general process, very useful informal discussions followed concerning the legal and procurement challenges that PREFORMA is facing.

Web90-FOSDEM2014-PreformaResearchers-at-LegalTrack_DSC_0061

The PREFORMA project participating in the legal track at FOSDEM.

At FOSDEM 2014, Jonas Gamalielsson, Bert Lemmens and Björn Lundell met Peter Bubestinger, who is working for “Österreichische Mediathek”, Austria’s national A/V archive in the video department. The discussion covered various challenges related both to Open Source implementations of file formats in the AV-domain and to requirements from the memory institutions.

Web90-FOSDEM2014-PreformaResearchers-Discussing_DSC_0096

Researchers and practitioners from the PREFORMA project discussing challenges for memory institutions related to implementation of file formats at FOSDEM.

A step ahead in the process of Open Dialogue that PREFORMA is fostering between the memory institutions and the technology providers who develop the software, that will lead to the definition of the requirements of the PREFORMA tender.

For more information visit www.preforma-project.eu.

Helsinki, 20 May 2014

E-infrastructures and services for data preservation and curation @ EGI CF 2014, Helsinki

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

In the last years, e-Infrastructures and DCH communities entered a dialogue and now several data-infrastructure projects exist, whose results can be adapted and re-used in the DCH domain. In particular, fruitful cooperation started among these projects to test the services and tools developed to facilitate the storage, access and preservation of digital data and to provide feedback for the further improvement of such services. Aim of this workshop was:

To present the common registry of services and tools which is being developed jointly by DCH-RP & APARSEN and to discuss how to sustain it after the end of the project. The registry will contain descriptions of common user scenarios as well as information about the tools that may be used to implement them. In addition it will support searching the tools database using several criteria and it will also provide assessments and reviews of most relevant tools. The aim of the registry is to help a broad range of DCH communities, institutions and projects to plan implementation of their digital preservation processes implementation and understand commonly available options by offering them the integrated information from both projects.
To present the first results of the Proof of Concepts that have been conducted in the frame of DCH-RP, where e-infrastructure providers and cultural institution work together to test services and e-infrastructures to store and manage cultural digital resources.
To present the interim version of the roadmap for the long-term preservation of digital cultural content, which aims to help policy makers and programme owners to plan ahead and assist managerial teams of cultural institutions in taking decisions related to digital preservation and to support cultural heritage institutions in defining practical action plan with a realistic time frame for its implementation.
To attract new projects and initiatives working in the domain of DCH, e-infrastructures and digital preservation to find synergies and discuss opportunities for cooperation, starting from concrete use cases.

PRESENTATIONS

Introduction to the workshop (Antonella Fresa, Promoter Srl, download PDF)
A roadmap for the preservation of digital cultural content (Borje Justrell, Riksarkivet, download PDF)
The DCH-RP registry of services (Michal Jankowski, PSNC, download PDF)
APARSEN structured list of services for digital preservation (Felix Engel, FTK, download PDF)
Keeping culture alive: participative storage and access solutions for cultural and research institutions (Hilke Arijs, KIK-IRPA, download PDF)
Sustainability of digital preservation services in the long term (Ed Fay, Open Planets Foundation, download PDF)

THE DCH-RP PROJECT

DCH-RP (www.dch-rp.eu) is a coordination action co-funded by the European Union under its Seventh Framework Programme whose outcome is a roadmap for the implementation of a preservation infrastructure for Digital Cultural heritage (DCH) which will be the first instance of an Open Science Infrastructure for DCH in 2020.
For further information visit the DCH-RP Showcase.

TARGET COMMUNITIES AND STAKEHOLDERS

Researchers in the humanities
Teaching and learning actors (schools, training centers, university courses)
Cultural and creative industry for the creative use and re-use of the digital cultural content
Content providers (e.g. big and small cultural heritage institutions – libraries, museums, archives, other National institutions -, private and public publishers, etc.).
Policy makers and programme owners
E-infrastructure providers, technology providers and R&D institutions
R&D projects and initiatives focusing on e-Infrastructures and digital preservation.