Search Disabled |
|
|
|
Search Options | Help | Site Map | Cultivate Web Site | ||||
|
| |||||
| Home | Current Issue | Index of Back Issues |
| Issue 8 Home | Editorial | Features | Regular Columns | News & Events | Misc. | ||
Welcome to the eigth issue of Cultivate Interactive.
 |
I am pleased to announce good news for the Cultivate Project in the shape of issue 1 of Cultivate Russia Web-Magazine which appeared in October. We would like to congratulate Anna Mikhailovskaya, Editor-in-Chief of Cultivate Russia Web-Magazine, and her colleagues, on the arrival of their first issue! I am well aware of what is involved and can see that the efforts of both her and the Magazine's authors have been most productive. To all concerned we would like to say: "Welcome to the Cultivate Family".
The main accent of the magazine will be on the most interesting projects and programs of the European Commission. There will also be examples of successful partnership and a lot of other supplementary documents and graphics. I greatly regret that my Russian is all but non-existent, but I have been able to pick out some of the content from the Cultivate Russia Web-Magazine's front page. Among others there is a headline stating "Russia joins the Cultivate Family". There are articles on Russian experience in European projects, on cultural tourism, museums and the Internet and on the international EVA conferences and the EVAN Project. There is also an item on innovations in cultural heritage, an article on policy by Bernard Smith, Head of Unit, Cultural Heritage Applications, European Commission and much more besides.
 |
| Figure 1: Cultivate Russia Web-Magazine front page |
We are also pleased to be publishing work from colleagues in the Russian Federation with an article by Nadezhda Brakker and Leonid Kujbyshev of Centre PIC who provide us with a view of new trends in state information policy in the Russian cultural sphere. Providing a local view to complement that overall picture, Natalia Fedianina describes the successes and challenges in the development of ICT and culture in the Smolensk region. I am personally indebted to David Fuegi, Manager for Cultivate CEE, for his advice and support in procuring these articles.
The provenance and range of the articles in this issue will, I hope, be a source of interest and entertainment to readers. Dr.Geri Gay, Angela Spinazze and Michael Stefanone describe research on potential use scenarios in mobile computing in the musuem context in the Handscape Project; Angela goes one further and gives us a report on the Handscape Symposium. With symposia in mind, mention must be made of Marieke Guy's visit to JISC International Digital Image Symposium this summer. She has given us a detailed view.
We are also pleased to publish such a range of IST projects again, with articles from Les Grivell on the Oriel Project, a project focused on digital information management in the biosciences; Gesa Büttner and Joerg Torkler on the Compendium, a web-based information service on cultural policies in Europe; Paul Mulholland, Zdenek Zdrahal and Trevor Collins report on CIPHER, a new project aimed at developing sustainable cultural heritage forums. Annette Kelly and Domitilla Fagan definitely win the prize for the most original title of the issue: Not only Shamrocks: Digitising Local Studies Material in Ireland. Daniel Weiss writes for us on the CHIMER Project, which is aiming to establish the European Cultural Heritage Archive on an open platform to retrieve local heritage from six partner countries.
From other areas of work, Ben Challis reports on Weasel, a non-visual approach to presenting music notation for blind music learners. In the same areaAlistair Edwards gives us some very good advice on Giving Presentations with Accessibility in Mind. I am also grateful to Michael Day who reports on the Second ECDL Workshop on Web Archiving held in Rome this September.
 |
Brian Kelly has provided us with three subjects, the potentially tricky business of linking to other sites, viewing Cultivate Interactive on a PDA and Providing Feedback on Cultivate Interactive Articles. In the latter article Brian explains how we are experimenting with a new service to render the Magazine more interactive by appending an annotation service. The aim is two-fold. Firstly we wish to provide readers with the opportunity to ask questions, make comments and even initiate debates about the articles they read. Secondly we want to offer our authors the same options. They may wish to ask, for example, if other Digicult professionals have similar views or experiences. Moreover the service provides authors with the opportunity to provide small updates to their original article. If readers do wish to ask a question or make a comment, they can even email the Editor at cultivate-editor@ukoln.ac.uk to indicate they have placed an annotation in a particular article which can be notified to the author.
| Prague Architecture Archives after the flood |
Finally I want to finish on a sombre but very important note. Despite the good news above and the very pleasing outcome of the annual review of both Cultivate CEE and Cultivate EU, in particular the special mention of Cultivate Interactive's contribution to Cultivate activity, (testimony to the tremendous efforts of the Magazine's article authors in my view), we must not lose sight of the daunting problems many colleagues in our community are still facing. For example, I would refer you below to the information on flooding in Europe passed to a number of lists by Dr. Klaus Graf. There are appeals for help there to which readers may wish to respond.
As ever, my thanks to all Cultivate Interactive's authors who have written for this issue, both for their contribution and the support and advice they have given in the editorial process.
Richard Waller (Editor)
Date of Page: 15 November 2002
|
|