Digital meets Culture

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.

a new publication developed within the activities of the Linked Heritage project

Geocoded Digital Cultural Content

This new book Geocoded Digital Cultural Content, edited by Franc J. Zakrajsek and Vlasta Vodeb (with a foreword curated by Antonella Fresa) focuses on Geographic location, which is a very important attribute of a cultural heritage item. The authors investigate here the possibilities and approaches regarding the use of e-infrastructure in geo-coded digital culture.

Scheme: The INDICATE project as a bridge between GIS, cultural content and e-infrastructure

This work is a result of a strong cooperation between LINKED HERITAGE project (Coordination of Standards and Technologies for the enrichment of Europeana) and the INDICATE project (International Network for a Digital Cultural Heritage e-Infrastructure), a concluded European Union FP7 project which aimed to establish a network of common interest made up of experts and researchers in the field of e-infrastructures and digital cultural heritage at Euro Mediterranean level.

The geo-coding of cultural content is becoming a very promising technique which is opening new scenarios of exploitation and valorisation of the European heritage. Many applications have been developed and are used in the cultural tourism, teaching, learning research domains. This publication is the result of a wide range of studies, experiments and investigations carried out in the frame of several national and European initiatives in the last year.

This document is an extract distilled from the case study on Geocoded Digital Cultural Content and associated workshop held in Ljubljana, which is published in cooperation with the LINKED HERITAGE, because of the high-interest demonstrated by the cultural institutions about the use and application of the GIS technologies to their digital repositories.

Download the publication here (PDF)

Helsinki, 30th September - 1st October 2013

VAMP2013

TERENA and SURFnet has organized the second VAMP workshop on September 30th & October 1st, 2013 in Helsinki, Finland.

Goal of VAMP2013 was to foster the deployment of identity management and collaboration tools within the research communities. The organisers invited IT architects of international Research Communities, identity federations and providers of (collaborative) infrastructures for research to participate in this interactive workshop.

Workshop

The design of the workshop was to provide:

structured presentations on exemplar deployments within specific Research Communities, as well as
open discussions for Research Communities architects and infrastructure experts to share use cases, best practices, infrastructural solutions, etc.

VAMP2013 sequels VAMP2012. Participants has known about the latest developments in identity federation support for Research Communities, how they can (and cannot) use identity federation, what are the experiences of Research Communities with collaborative infrastructures, and what tools are available for strengthening collaboration.

Proceedings and results of the International meeting will be published ont the VAMP2013 website at http://www.terena.org/activities/vamp/ws2/

FIM4R & REFEDS

VAMP2013 was organised in conjunction with the FIM4R (Oct 2,organised by ELIXIR Finland) and REFEDs (Oct 2 & 3, organised by TERENA) meetings.

DCH-RP

DCH-RP Project attended the meeting and its representative, Marco Fargetta from INFN, took a presentation on “Federated access to e-Infrastructures worldwide”

Download the abstract here

eCSG is a standard-based web 2.0 demonstrative platform

The DCH-RP e-Culture Science Gateway joins IDEM and eduGAIN

The DCH-RP e-Culture Science Gateway has been registered as a Service Provider of the Italian identity federation IDEM* and, through it, to the eduGAIN** identity inter-federation. This means that everybody belonging to the eduGAIN member countries (see the image below) and holding federated credentials can be authenticated to access and use the e-Culture Science Gateway.

eduGAIN member countries

IDEM* (federated IDEntity Management for service access) frees reasearchers, teachers and students from managing their multiple credentials necessary to access web services.

The eduGAIN** service is intended to enable the trustworthy exchange of information related to identity, authentication and authorisation between the GÉANT (GN3plus) Partners’ federations. The eduGAIN service will deliver this through co-ordinating elements of the federations’ technical infrastructure and a policy framework controlling the exchange of this information. The initial goal is to enable Pan-European Web Single Sign On (Web SSO) to both GÉANT services and to those provided by other communities represented by, or associated with, the GN3plus Partners.

More information:

http://ecsg.dch-rp.eu

http://www.idem.garr.it

http://www.edugain.org

Adobe Connect Virtual Room, 24 June 2013

Webinar on the DCH-RP e-Culture Science Gateway

The general architecture of the DCH-RP e-Culture Science Gateway (e-CSG) and its web-based and mobile app implementations are the subjects ot this webinar which is organised by the DCH-RP project and also supported by the European Grid Infrastructure. Live demonstrations about how to access and use the e-CSG, both as end-user and repository manager, will be provided.

Webinar access page: http://connect.ct.infn.it/dch-rp

Agenda: http://agenda.ct.infn.it/conferenceOtherViews.py?view=standard&confId=936

Useful links:

Instructions to register and sign in on the e-CSG

e-CSG mobile app page on Google Play

Dates: 24 June 2013 (16:00-18:00)

Timezone: Europe/Rome

Location: Adobe Connect Virtual Room: http://connect.ct.infn.it/dch-rp

Chairs: Roberto Barbera

Instructions: