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By Ian Pigott - February 2002
This section aims to provide news of the European Commission's initiatives in the field of digital heritage and cultural content. Its objectives are to pinpoint the latest developments in programmes, projects and activities and to give a clear picture of progress in the area since the last issue. It certainly does not pretend to be a comprehensive account of what the EC is doing in the area but rather a short summary of some of the key items. The content is based largely on the information provided in the eCulture Newsletter, published by the European Commission, DG Information Society, Cultural Heritage Applications Unit [1].
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Since the last column in October, we have had an active time on all fronts. The IST programme has issued its last Call for Proposals under the present framework programme and we are all beginning to look at the 6th Framework Programme with a view to identifying key research themes for the future. During the last six months we have been working on the Lund Action Plan and on the Brussels Quality Framework. The Belgian Presidency has been very supportive of our activities and very forward looking in the Council Resolution on culture and the knowledge society. Contacts with the Spanish Presidency have been very positive and we hope to continue to develop with them the political vision for eCulture over the next six months.
The Lund Action Plan provides a framework for the implementation of the Lund Principles, a set of recommendations produced and agreed by representatives nominated by Member States to drive and stimulate digitisation of cultural and scientific content across Europe. Significant headway has already been made on plans for implementation: 1- wide diffusion and consensus building around the initiative, both at political and professional level, to be achieved in part by translation into all the official EU languages; 2- the National Representatives Group (NRG) has been established by all Member States for the coordinating group; 3- some specific working groups of experts nominated by Member States have been launched under the coordination of the NRG, with a view to building a common platform on key issues.
In regard to opportunities for projects, the 8th IST call [2] is open until 21 February 2002. While our sector has completed most of the focused work in the area of RTD for scientific and cultural heritage, there are openings for proposals in a number of more general areas: Action Line III.5.1 provides opportunities for disseminating the results from KAIII actions; Action Line III.5.2 looks ahead to RTD roadmaps and collaborative schemes for FP6 while Action Line III.5.3 aims at future paradigms for next-generation knowledge and interface technologies. The Cross Programme Activity V.1.15 CPA15 concerns technology platforms for cultural and arts creative expression.
We would like to draw special attention to Cultivate-list, an email discussion list for anyone in the cultural heritage sector interested in the Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme. If you need details of calls for proposals, if you are looking for partners, if you just want to find out about IST projects - this list is for you. The Archives of the Cultivate E-list can be accessed online [3]. Cultivate has also found a prominent place on the Information Society Discussion List in connection with the launching of the "Your Voice in Europe" initiative [4]. There has been considerable progress on the DigiCULT study. Indeed, after one year of research and extensive input from Cultural Heritage experts, the study on "Technological Landscapes for Tomorrows Cultural Economy", DigiCULT, is in its final phase. The primary objective of this study is to provide archives, libraries, museums and other institutions with recommendations on how to adapt to the technological and organisational challenges of the digital environment. The main topics considered are national policies and initiatives, organisational change, exploitation and technology. Within a few weeks, you will find the executive summary and final report for downloading [5]. The DigiCULT study is commissioned by the Cultural Heritage Applications Unit of the DG Information Society and paid for by the European Commission. DigiCULT co-organised the session on Culture and Community-Building at the IST Conference 2001, held in Düsseldorf in December last year [6].
DLM -Forum has announced an important conference on "@ccess and preservation of electronic information: Best practices and solutions". This third multidisciplinary European DLM-Forum on electronic records will take place at the Palacio de Congresos de Cataluña, in Barcelona, Spain, on 7 and 8 May 2002. The opening of the exhibitions and preconference activities will take place on 6 May 2002. The DLM-Forum 2002 welcomes specialists and executives representing different disciplines from public administrations, archives, ICT industries and research. A large number of participants from the EU Member States, regions, candidate states and other European countries are expected. The DLM-Forum 2002 will be organised by the Secretariat for the Information Society of the Catalan government together with other Catalan institutions and departments of the Spanish central government. Support is being provided by the European Union Presidencies of Sweden (1st half of 2001), Belgium (2nd half 2001) and Spain (1st half of 2002), the European Commission (Secretariat General, DG Information Society) and representatives from the ICT industry. The aspects of short- and long-term preservation, transparency, access and openness of public information will play an important role at the DLM-Forum 2002. The forum aims to achieve concrete results in this area. Notably, it will examine the creation of a Europe-wide network of excellence on electronic archives in order to achieve an even wider cooperation in this area between Member States, regions and at Community level [7].
The DELOS Network of Excellence, funded under Digital Heritage and Cultural Content, in co-operation with the Digital Library Initiative (DLI) of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), is organising a two-day concertation workshop of all projects funded by the EC IST program and the US DLI program in the field of Digital Libraries (DL), also including invited representatives of other relevant initiatives in Europe. The "EC/NSF DL All Projects Workshop" will be held in Rome on 25 and 26 March 2002. For further information contact Tarina Ayazi [8].
Discussions are currently underway on the EU's future research programme (a 6th Framework Programme for Research and Development). The Cultural Heritage Applications unit of the European Commission's DG Information Society is contributing to the cultural part of this discussion. Relying on the presence of many key experts at the successive EVA 2001 conferences in Florence (March), Glasgow (July) and Berlin (November), responses and comments to some basic questions were collected and collated in the form of a "Florence Agenda" followed by the "Glasgow Response" and then, finally, the "Berlin Conclusions".
In line with a general focus on consolidating the development of tools and services for an inclusive approach to raising scientific and cultural awareness for education, quality of life and tourism while highlighting common and specific aspects of cultural identity, more detailed recommendations were made in a number of areas.
In regard to the key aspects of access, content and users, the primary concern is the quality of content, the challenge for the cultural sector being to create high quality and pertinent digital resources (including a stable infrastructure for delivery). This includes the creation of truly integrated digital archives (providing seamless/dynamic access to large volumes of cultural objects and documents of various types, often in the form, of distributed resources). Specific attention should also be given to research investigating methods of improving user-friendly access to scientific and cultural content in accordance with a wide variety of personalised user requirements. The unanswered question of how, why and when users (individuals or communities) interface with digital collections requires detailed assessment, including consideration of emotional and intellectual access to content, especially for those who might otherwise be excluded (cultural poverty). Interaction with digital collections and the ability of individuals or communities to interact with and to add their own creativity also deserves consideration. Care should be taken to attract young people, both as users in their own right and as a vector of future trends. Finally, attention should be paid to access across languages, establishing a dialogue of cultures and building of new online communities.
It is also considered important to develop a common, European view on standards, promoting development and use of open standards, particularly in the context of widely applicable international solutions. Here, efforts should be made to promote a more active role for Europe. Another key issue for unlocking the full potential of scientific cultural resources is the creation of a harmonised European approach to a legal system with adequate protection of IPR.
On the technical front, mobile services will be the next great challenge, requiring incorporation of 3G technologies for services meeting the needs of the cultural institutions and operators. Further enhancement of 3D and VR representations will provide a basis for enhancing representation of real objects. Another challenge will be to support preservation and long term availability of digitally born content. And cultural content will contribute to speeding up technological developments, making the vast resource of authentic materials in digital form available for enhanced and focused research into digital collections as an integral part of an intellectual infrastructure for Europe's future research area.
From an economic viewpoint, there is a need for institutional knowledge resources and skills to be improved and sustained. In addition, it will be important to work towards lowering the cost of ICT applications in order to encourage competitive growth. Co-operative efforts across the whole of Europe should include not only culture but also research and creativity and should target job creation is an important objective. Culture is increasingly considered a strategic element for business in the context of culturalising the economy. Institutions must start to consider themselves not just as cultural actors but should take on an economic role. The economic potential of broadband access to the internet should also be borne in mind.
The importance of the European dimansion was also stressed. Only a truly co-operative and integrated approach would allow for a meaningful European digital cultural and scientific landscape. All European countries, not just the existing Member States, have key assets for cultural tourism calling for a co-ordinated approach across the continent.
Finally, the key stakeholders - whether from universities, research institutes, cultural institutions and large and small enterprises - should be seen as participants in the creation and evolution of pan-European laboratories of knowledge.
Turning to news of our projects and related developments, Europe's public libraries and cultural organisations have a vital role to play in the development of an e-Europe. The PULMAN Network of Excellence (Public Libraries Mobilising Advanced Network) now includes representatives of 26 European countries. The PULMAN approach is inclusive and participation will be extended, in the first instance by the establishment of wider groups of activists in each country. Activities and plans of the PULMAN Network are presented on the web, including guidelines manuals, a policy conference, international cooperation agenda, training workshops [9]. PULMAN Express, the first issue of its newsletter, is published at regular intervals throughout the year. free. To subscribe, visit the PULMAN web server and fill in the on-line form [10]. The first newsletter is now available [11].
The SCHEMAS project is recently hosted a workshop to review ways in which projects can share information about metadata use, and consider how collaboration can be rendered more effective. Participants were updated on recent developments regarding use of metadata schemas and application profiles. The role of registries in providing access to information about schemas was reviewed, and the SCHEMAS registry demonstrated. Presentations from the day are available on the Schemas site [12].
RENARDUS is a collaborative project that aims to improve academic users' access to a range of existing Internet-based information services across Europe. The latest project developments are available in the news digest [13].
The DIFFUSE project has developed an excellent and potentially comprehensive reference to projects dealing with standards issues, including short but effective project descriptions. All projects should visit the site and make sure that the information presented is correct. Projects are able to register or submit updates themselves [14].
The TRIS Accompanying Measure is to provide services aimed at increasing the coordination, impact and dissemination of the 25 take-up trials selected under the 4th IST Call for Proposals and funded under Digital Heritage and Cultural Content. In particular, it will provide projects with assistance on clustering, maximising impact, exchanging experiences and success stories, and supporting and facilitating the execution of IST TRIAL actions by encouraging standardisation, synergy, technology transfer and exploitation [15].
The MULTIMOD project started on October 2001 and will last three years. It will focus on improving the human-machine interface with particular reference to biomedical applications. The target of the demonstrator applications will be the musculo-skeletal apparatus [16].
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Ian Pigott
Project Officer
With the assistance of the Cultural Applications team http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult/en/our_team.html
in Luxembourg.
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For citation purposes:
Piggott, I. "DIGICULT Column", Cultivate Interactive, issue
6, 11 February 2002
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue6/digicult/>
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