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By Gabriele Scali, Flavio Tariffi, Stefano Cuomo, Hub Kockelkorn, Dominique DeLouis and George Mallen - October 2001
OpenHeritage [1] is a research project funded under the Fifth Framework Programme (Jan 2001 - Dec 2002) aiming to create an IT infrastructure and service to improve access to collections information held by regional museums and galleries. The collections of regionally distributed smaller museums will thus be as attractive and accessible as the larger, better known, museum collections. This "cultural driven" economy could give a significant contribution to the local economic development enabling the enrichment of local touristic and cultural assets.
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It has been pointed out by several surveys that the application of technological solutions to memory institutions in fields such as the multimedia management and valorisation of museum and library collections is failing to express substantive and sustainable economic results for a number of reasons. The main being the lack of a self-supporting economic model for the promotion and exploitation of Cultural Heritage through ICT, and the excessive "technology push" in the use of virtualisation, to the expense of a sound understanding of the global vs. local processes. The result is the improper use of innovation often deployed in an self-referential way.
A general result is that memory institutions see ICT and multimedia as something that is "pushed" towards them from the outside, with frequent rejections and a generalised lack of compliance which results in improper use and quick obsolescence. The present scenario sees a fast-paced shift from the "old" economy made of goods and physical transactions towards a new "cultural economy" based on intangible services and on accessible, on-demand "experiences" where a dominant role is played by the media industry, tourism, entertainment and cultural self-accomplishment. It is a strongly user-centred system of values where access becomes the dominant concept, in which memory institutions are in the uncomfortable position of having to compete in a new, unusual horizon subject to current market forces. This is a particularly severe problem for the multitude of less famous memory institutions that represent up to 95% of the existing Cultural Heritage (CH) in most European countries, but do not benefit from the spotlights of a prestigious location or huge "routine" touristic flows.
Nevertheless, this "diffused heritage" represents the bulk of the heritage that will fuel the media and "cultural/touristic experience" markets especially in those areas (i.e. Objective 1 areas) which have to look at their territorial assets as one of the most important leading factors of their development.
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| Figure 1: The OpenHeritage business
model |
The project's objective can be summarised in these five steps
1) The development of dynamic, computable models of territorial CH systems aimed at assessing and valorising the prospective Socio-economic strengths of each region or location. These models, will make it possible for local policy makers to determine/benchmark the positioning of each system in the competitive scenario and to enhance and leverage the local areas of excellence for the Cultural Heritage.
2) The development of an innovative solution for collections management based upon the strengths of two existing Content Management (CM) systems. This technology aims at a shift in the way memory institutions resort to technological solutions in terms of user orientation, access solutions deployment model
3) The deployment of core territorial service infrastructures (the Territorial Service Centres - TSCs) supporting memory institutions through a host of facilities management, customer relationship management, storage, promotion and transaction services that range from ensuring the network and system management of the hardware and software equipment installed in museums to the outsourced management of sophisticated Call Center functions. The TSCs bring into CH the emerging new economy model of the Application Service Provider (ASP) and represent the territory-savvy enabler that can ensure a viable and effective deployment of ICT in memory institutions, while at the same time enabling a substantive exploitation of both individual memory institutions and territorial systems.
4) The validation of the model and related technologies and services in significant test beds, through a range of technological and territorial validation activities.
5) The development of an "openheritage.com" enterprise oriented at the exploitation of the European CH on the world market. The company will develop an advanced portal on Art and Culture encompassing both traditional "community" features and business-to-business areas for the exploitation of rich media assets, mostly derived from the establishment of local systems inside territorial memory institutions.
With the aim of providing a reference point for those peoples who wish to monitor strategic location of cultural heritage resources within a territory, - such as researchers, policy makers, business people, memory institutions, OpenHeritage defines a methodology and a prototype of a digital socio-economic modelling application, intended to satisfy these needs.
Cultural and natural heritage witnesses the development of knowledge and customs for each country through the centuries. Such heritage, often damaged by speculation, negligence, and ignorance, needs to be protected and exploited, in order to preserve the peculiar characters of each country.
The wrong administration of the natural and cultural heritage leads to serious damage, therefore it is necessary to provide tools which make policy makers, memory institutions, enterprises, capable of gaining knowledge of the entity of such heritage, and of services connected to it.
The development of a "European Strategic Atlas for the Cultural Heritage" is an example of application of computer science to the human sciences sector; technical methodologies like the entity-relationship model was concretely applied to a real case scenario, in order to show the main ontologies involved within the project.
The database which will store the identified entities was designed after a detailed requirement analysis and a conceptual design phase.
As delivered output of such activities, we developed a conceptual schema, which encodes the world of Cultural and Environmental Heritage and of related services, from an operational point of view.
A consistent part of our effort was devoted to the detection and classification of the different kinds of cultural resources that are present over the European territory. Each resource brings a set of values. The definition of such values was, for some aspects, difficult, since many resource classes are very domain specific. Thus, some sector specific competence was and will be required in order to complete our analysis and populate the proposed schema with suitable data.
Although our approach has been designed in order to be compliant with further refinement steps, we believe the proposed classification hierarchies are complete and stable enough.
We recognized that it is an important goal to specify which data is to be collected and how it will be organized using an easy electronic registration.
The solution under development is a comprehensive software suite designed to support the development and delivery of digital content, namely object descriptions and interpretations, multimedia productions for public access and to provide collection management functions. It is based on the architecture of System Simulation Ltd's MUSIMS (MUSeum Information Management System) and includes modules from Space's MuseumWare multimedia production toolset.
The main components of the system are:
1. Object Description Catalogue - this is the central repository of information about the museum's objects. The object description records are defined with field structures supporting the storage of both structured information like dates, dimensions, museum numbers, location codes, links to digital images and other multimedia resources, artist names etc, as well as unstructured free text information such as the object history, construction techniques, social relevance and other interpretative content. The data definitions follow the Spectrum standard using the recently defined mda/CIMI XML DTD for museum objects.
2. The Multimedia Resource Arena - this is a file system containing all the digital images, audio and video files, 3D models, special effects and virtual reality components. Each of these multimedia resource types can be created using 3rd party, readily available tools, eg image scanning and digitising products, Photoshop for manipulating digital images, Shockwave or Flash for creating animations. The MuseumWare toolset provides a range of facilities for creating such resources. Each resource entry is uniquely identified and can therefore be linked to objects in the Object Description Catalogue. These links can be one to one, one to many, many to one or many to many.
3. The Content Development System - Based on the Object Description Catalogue, this is a set of procedures for managing the development of descriptive content for public presentation. It defines the workflow processes for authoring text, image management processes, special effects production and so on.
4. The Collection Management System - Many museums and galleries already have computerised collection management systems. The proposed solution will provide interfaces to commonly available CMS so that data can be imported into the Content Development System. In this situation there are separate but linked systems each with its own functionality, processes and practices.
5. The Publishing Pipeline - This is a set of procedures for managing the delivery of content to a Web hosting service. It allows the museum or TSC to keep their Web sites up-to-date with new content, revised content, diary events, exhibition programmes etc. all controlled by a publishing schedule.
6. Terminology Resources - These are the thesauri, key word lists and dictionaries which control the vocabularies used for object description. These are required both for standardisation of object description and for retrieval. They also provide a basis for multilingual retrieval. OpenHeritage will licence available resources such as the Getty AAT (Art and Architecture thesaurus) and ULAN (Union List of Artist Names) and make these available within the solution. It will also incorporate special resources that individual museums may have developed for their own specialised use. Again the amount of work involved in such a special configuration will be a factor in the business relationship between OpenHeritage and the museum.
TSCs are built around the idea that memory institutions should consider new technologies as fundamental instruments of valorization and promotion for themselves and the surrounding territory but technological advances point toward a new way of conducting business: changing staff roles, new organizational structure, diverse audiences, increased access, innovative collaborations and new approaches. Cultural institutions (especially smaller ones) are seldom prepared to actualize these apparently simple changes. Territorial Service Centers aim to provide them with the necessary support and coordination.
TSCs are dedicated to providing the tools museums need to do their job and to offer expertise, models, best practices, and more, for anyone interested in using new technologies and media to help understand and appreciate cultural heritage collections.
Territorial Service Center refers, therefore, to an integrated managing model that supports networks of museums by offering them outsourced know-how and technology facilities and promoting a favorable link between museums, thus creating technological and concrete geographical networks based on cultural districts.
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| Figure 2: The Open Heritage Data flow
and main actors |
TSCs are based on two main concepts:
The cooperation networks will be stronger and more efficient if they are founded on a community of shared interests over and above any technological consideration. The pooling of experience, information, knowledge and technical resources makes it possible to create a positive dynamism and to optimize budgets. Advantages include the sharing of costs and tasks, and the pooling of a wider variety of skills. Ideas are validated by a group which goes beyond the narrow confines of an individual establishment with the result that decisions benefit from greater critical objectivity and credibility. From the outset, the different technological or editorial products developed benefit from the market constituted by the consortium's own members. This gives added weight to the standards advanced by the networks and reinforces the scope for the exchange and re-use of their knowledge at a later date.
The system's logic is that the peculiar shared management services and activities of museums allow for the optimisation of each element that make up the network.
The realization of a network of museums, and the resulting sharing of strategic services, guarantees synergic relations between these institutions.
The combined administration of a museum network consents the increase of visibility, offers integrated itineraries and additional services that qualify the visitor's experience; in addition cultural events that involve the entire network are easily widespread. In this way, "minor" places will take advantage of the attractive potential of well-known sites for their development and diffusion. Moreover, this is one of the distinguishing purposes of the OpenHeritage project.
While cooperation makes it possible, in the first instance, to mobilize the resources required to implement the new technologies, the applications materialized by these technologies then allow museums to work more closely together.
Memory institutions are at risk of wasting big opportunities because of their own binds. The undeniable advantages offered by information technologies should stimulate the museum administrators to get informed on these new opportunities, acquiring a server and learning how to use it: unfortunately the necessary training would absorb internal resources already involved in other activities, and the indispensable investments would be unproductive for a single museum.
Territorial Service Centers are planned to be a significant force in helping to overcome problems of:
It follows that, the opportunity to exploit the advantages of new technologies, without doing investments directly, is offered by the Territorial Service Centers, developed with public and private incentives capable of supplying memory institutions with technical services (server, Web site, e-commerce and booking online facilities...), including the staff training, needed to directly reach the cultural heritage and tourism market thanks to an international network.
The advantage of working on the Web is that while a decisive element of forming concrete museum networks is a defined geographical context, Internet technology removes geographical binds: a community based on similar objectives and aims could be created.
The Internet can make a major contribution to the public image and face of the museum, and can make its collections and resources known and used by a world-wide audience in a way which was never previously possible. It is important that all museum staff should be aware of this, they should be encouraged to make their contributions and to take advantage of the Internet's benefits.
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| Figure 3: A TSC page |
The validation/test bed activities will test and approve the technological solutions, the territorial models and infrastructures and the global exploitation portal. These will be carried on in several Museums, organised in a pyramidal way that sees three major museums directly involved in the Consortium and another other 25 Museums with different responsibilities and representing a wide range of local Memory Institutions. These memory institutions will drive and test the technological solutions in order to provide an effective tool for the Cultural Heritage economy, and avoid the technology push effect.
Inputs will be required from staff with functions in documentation, education, interpretation, library and information services, computing, design, public relations, marketing and publications as well as those in curatorial departments. They should see the Internet as another tool which will enhance, but not replace, their traditional activities. It is important that appropriate work on the Internet should be recognized as valid professional activity, and that, for example, electronic publications should be taken into account in assessments as well as those published in printed journals.
There may be opportunities for museums to develop new services based on their Internet presence, such as remote enquiry-answering services, news services on the subjects they cover, on-line booking for events and party visits, distribution of publications and images (free or for a charge), on-line shopping services and opportunities for advertising and sponsorship. It is up to each museum to assess the possibilities and decide which will make a contribution towards its mission.
In deciding their policy for Internet activities, museums should of course consider them in the context of their overall information systems strategy. This should not only cover the preparation of material targeted at fellow professionals, the general public, children, and special interest groups, but should also consider how Internet facilities can be provided and used within the museum itself.
The global openheritage.com portal will offer a one-stop-shop, on a global scale, to all the contents and customer services hosted by the TSCs at the territorial level.; it will be powered by state-of-the-art Internet technology and will build on the previous experience of Partner CHOL in the frame of the Museum Images enterprise initiative (the new brand name chosen by CHOL for the on-line distribution of digital images).
The on-line system, that will be significantly enhanced from its present state, will extend its reach beyond the trading of image rights, to encompass a broad range of multimedia, editorial and educational services centred on Cultural Heritage.
Museum Images will showcase the Cultural Heritage of Europe and the wealth of knowledge that European museums possess, through the use of Internet technologies.
It has been recognised that an important goal is the specification of the data to be collected and how it may be organized to simplify electronic storage. Central to the Museum Image philosophy is the respect of the integrity, security and copyright of digital images entrusted by the museums for Internet distribution. To keep faith to its mission Museum Images is constantly seeking out improved and leading–edge technologies in this field.
Museum Images objectives are :
Museum Images offers publisher companies, the press and advertising a tool to search through a Europe-wide catalogue for the unknown or little-known images, a hidden source of wealth.
The Museum Images platform will allow the interpretation of the scientific descriptive fields provided by museums thanks to a search engine and lexical interrogation system which has been adapted to the language of the business.
Museum Images will also offer services such as portfolios, paste-up, protected delivery of the digital images, and the possibility of using high-bandwidth networks. It can optionally manage authorship rights for most of the images which it will offer.
And finally, Museum Images is ready to consider partnership proposals in either technological or editorial fields. It brings you the richness of the collections which it distributes and the store of knowledge which museums possess about them and that they are willing to share with you.
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| Figure 4: The access to the Global
Portal |
IST-2000-25136 OpenHeritage project aims at providing a model for the promotion and exploitation of the cultural heritage assets of smaller cultural institutions by fostering their connection to the territory. The project is developing and implementing solutions for the analysis and comprehension, valorization, regional network of museums and galleries and a dedicated IT infrastructure to support it. A strong involvement of local Memory Institutions, particularly local Museums, for developing general but customised technological solution will help in shifting from the technology push effect to a cultural driven economy.
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Gabriele Scali (First Author)
Technical Director - Space SpA
Via M. Nistri, 5
59100 - Prato
Italy
Gabriele Scali was one of the pioneers of object software engineering in Italy at the beginning of the 90's. After field experience ranging from cognitive sciences to adaptive systems, to simulation and pattern recognition, he has worked in the biomedical sector in which information technologies are not only used but also created and developed.
Flavio Tariffi
Technical Director - Space SpA
Via M. Nistri, 5
59100 - Prato
Italy
Flavio Tariffi has been dealing with ICT for Cultural Heritage topics for several years and is in particular responsible for the analysis and project management of high-tech solutions in the fields of database management systems, digital imaging, library and museum systems, advanced telecommunications applications and interactive multimedia publishing both on CD and on-line.
Stefano Cuomo
Project Coordinator - Space SpA
Via M. Nistri, 5
59100 - Prato
Italy
Stefano Cuomo comes from the academic and research world and for a long time looked after the innovation initiatives for a study centre based in Florence's University and the town hall of Prato. He is an expert of European research projects financed by regional and Community funds.
Hub Kockelkorn
ICT Project Leader - Museon The Hague Stadhouderslaan 41
2517 HV, Den Haag
The Netherlands
Hub Kockelkorn deals with IT projects, like the European OpenHeritage and Regnet projects and co-ordinates a couple of Dutch educational projects. He has participated before in two European projects (RAMA and SIMILE) and was responsible for several external projects (exhibition about the Marshall Plan, research into the user requirement for a visitor information system at EXPO 2000 in Hannover). He is a member of the advisory committee of the Foundation for the Ethnological Collections in the Netherlands and has written various publications in the field of socio-economic history and automation matters in museums.
Dominique DeLouis
President Cultural Heritage On Line
24, rue Sainte Marthe
75010 Paris
France
Dominique Delouis graduated in Computational Engineering and Management at the Ecole Centrale in Lille, France and in Information System Analysis and Design at Sup'Telecom in Paris. In September 2000 he set up the Cultural Heritage On Line company that is involved in the OpenHeritage project. Previously, he was in charge of a number of information technology projects, as a project manager at France Telecom: RAMA and Electronic Document Interchange between Libraries (EDIL/Libraries programme). He is the marketing manager of Museums On Line and coordinated the MENHIR project. Dominique Delouis is also a consultant for UNESCO.
George Mallen
Director System Simulation Ltd
250M Bedford Chambers, Covent Garden
WC2E 8HA London
UK
George Mallen is the founder and Managing and Director of System Simulation Ltd, a software engineering firm specialising in software infrastructures for cultural heritage and e-publishing applications.
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For citation purposes:
Scali, G., Tariffi, F., Cuomo, S., Kockelkorn, H., DeLouis, D and Mallen, G. "OpenHeritage: Enabling the European Culture Economy", Cultivate Interactive, issue
5, 1 October 2001
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue5/openheritage/>
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