Informal meetinrg, 15 - 16 November 2000 Jean Monnet Building Meeting Room M5 Luxembourg

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Informal meetinrg, 15 - 16 November 2000Jean
Monnet Building Meeting Room M5Luxembourg
e-Europe European Digital Content for Global
Networks and co-ordinating mechanisms

• Dr Seamus Ross
• Director, Humanities Computing Information
  Management
• Humanities Advanced Technology and Information
  Institute--HATII
• Faculty of Arts, University of Glasgow

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Activities

• Is there a market for our content
• Is there a technology that allows us to
• secure it, to ensure access, to monitor
• Intellectual Capital for the future
• Poverty of Imagination
• Interoperability
• co-operation
• legal frameworks
• standards
• strategic planning

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Diversity of Heritage

• Cultural Heritage
• Scientific Heritage
• Sustainable
• Surrogates
• Scalable
• Preservation of digital record

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Approaches

• Strategic approach -- top down or bottom up
  (National Directorate vs .)
• Italy, possibly Greece (top down)
• UK , Germany (bottom up)
• Access for the General Public
• Enhance Cultural Actor Knowledge
• training, awareness, opportunity

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Issues

• Duplicate and complimentary efforts
• Quality control and evaluation
• Economic sustainability
• Skills base -- invest first
• Project management
• Workflow
• time motion studies --shelf to shelf
• Authenticity
• Reliability -- completeness process control

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Content

• Strategies for developing a European view of
  cultural identity and heritage
• Common strategies on selection, definition and
  purpose of content
• Services involving other sectors and actors (eg
  education, tourism etc)
• Added-value content and added-value services.
• Content and Context
• Preservation vs Access

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Why are we here?

• Focus on policy and organisational issues and not
  on technology.
• Preparing a strategy framework - identifying and
  creating co-ordinating mechanisms for the
  digitisation of cultural heritage - is a main
  objective.

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Key Issues

• Do the member states need co-ordinating
  mechanisms in the area of digitisation of
  cultural heritage on European level?
• If yes, what should be the mechanisms?
• What steps have to be taken, both by the member
  states and the European Commission, to establish
  them?
• What are the prerequisites for establishing the
  mechanisms and do these prerequisites exist at
  the national level?
• Who should be responsible for the different
  mechanisms?
• When and how should the different mechanisms be
  established?

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Structured Activities

• Series of Presentations
• overview of the national situation
• key european issues
• General discussions
• Working Group Discussions
• Reports Back
• Agreement of the way forward

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Objectives

• A web based inventory on ongoing initiatives and
  projects
• Access to European cultural heritage
• In terms of content selection criteria
• In terms of technological and interoperability
  issues
• Longer term strategies for the digitisation of
  cultural heritage.

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Basic Issues

• The key underpinning issues effect the process
  they are
• A content rich Europe will by creating networks
  that have added value and increased visibility.
  This requires
• Use of common standards ensure operability
• Technological solutions which are sustainable
• Development of business- and cost models
• But above all else shared strategies, policies
  and organisation

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Conclusions

• Focus on citizens, education, business
• Globalisation Communicating Culture
• Acquire Experience
• Awareness raising - European Network
• Develop business cases strategies
• Intellectual Capital is an asset
• Collaborate
• Be Proactive

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Approaches (1)

• Co-ordination key issue
• Inventory or survey of methods and strategies
• Exchange and identification of information
• Optimize conditions that incubate digital
  projects
• Terminological interoperability

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Approaches (2)

• Provide Information Centre Help Desk
• Framework for activities
• Limit scope of activities
• Interoperability
• Long term Preservation
• Strategic justification
• QA of material

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Approaches (3)

• Lets make use of what we have done or know
• Context is key (Virtual Heritage)
• Balance of Institutional activity
• Improving community access to materials
• Skills, Skills, Skills
• Focus on services that build communities

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Approaches (4)

• Piggy-back on emerging technologies
• New charging mechanisms are needed to ensure
  sustainable resources
• Focus on added-value
• Framework for activity (e.g. aims of
  digitisation)
• Guiding standards and practices to ensure
  consistency

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Approaches (5)

• European-wide activities create the political
  activities that enable things to happen at
  national level
• Do member States have policies concerning
  digitisation?
• Justification of why we are digitising?
• Visionary Project that encourages member states
  to develop national policies

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Look Beyond

• Look beyond cultural heritage?
• Inventory (?)
• Access to European Cultural Heritage
• selection
• technological and interoperability
• Longer term strategies for digitisation of
  cultural heritage