The Digital Heritage and Cultural Content Web Site Development Team discuss the new site in context.
The Information Society Technologies Programme ( IST) Programme is one of the five thematic programmes under the European Commission's Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (1998-2002). It brings together and expands the work carried out under the former ACTS, Esprit and Telematics Applications programmes to provide a single, integrated programme reflecting the convergence of information processing, communications and media. The programme is structured into separate, interrelated Key actions.
Digital Heritage and Cultural Content is one of the five thematic areas for research and technological development under Key Action III - Multimedia Content and Tools - of the IST Programme.
The general aims of Key Action III are to improve the functionality, usability and acceptability of future information products and services to enable linguistic and cultural diversity and contribute to the valorization and exploitation of Europe's cultural patrimony, to stimulare creativity and to enhance education and training systems for lifelong learning.
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Digital Heritage and Cultural Content aims at expanding the contribution of libraries, museums and archives to the emerging culture economy, including economic, scientific and technological development. This area is coordinated by the European Commission's Cultural Heritage Applications Unit, DG XIII-E2, in Luxembourg.
The three main research priorities of the Digital Heritage and Cultural Content area will be: ensuring integrated access to collections and materials held in libraries, museums and archives; improving the operational efficiency of large-scale content holdings by means of powerful interfacing and management techniques, preserving and accessing multimedia content of various types, including electronic materials and surrogates of physical objects.
Within the 1999 workprogramme, these are taken up in two main action lines:
In connection with the implementation of the IST Programme, the European Commission's Cultural Heritage Applications unit (DGXIII/E-2) has developed the Digital Heritage and Cultural Content (Digicult) web site. The site has a dual purpose: to provide information about the Digital Heritage and Cultural Content area (workprogramme, calls, activities, documents, projects, etc.) and its context in the Fifth Framework Programme and IST Programme; and to provide information about other EC activities previously carried out or on-going in the digital heritage area.
The Digicult pages aresite is structured into 4 main areas:
In connection with the first two 1999 Calls for Proposals under the IST programme that opened on 19 March programme, an Ideas Forum has been set up specifically for the two action lines associated with Digital Heritage and Cultural Content area within Key Action III. This aims to provide a platform for interested parties to post ideas and comments related to the two action lines and contains a list of ideas and interests received by the Cultural Heritage Applications Unit DGXIII/E-2 as well as an electronic questionnaire for submission of further ideas and comments.
Figure 1: Digital Heritage and Cultural Content Electronic Ideas Forum |
The main English-language section is supplemented by resource pages in French, German, Italian and Spanish which will be gradually expanded by providing translations of key documents as well as news, information and links to external web sites covering items of interest in the various languages.
The Digicult web site is regurarly updated and will be further developed and expanded in the future by including information, news and documents produced by the Cultural Heritage Applications Unit in connection with the new Cultural Heritage area.
In order to facilitate the exchange of ideas and comments, a Feedback option and a Keep me Informed facility are is provided on the site. Also the Keep Me Informed service, shown in Figure 2, is available for those interested in receiving news by email of important additions and modifications to the Digicult web site.
Figure 2: Keep Me Informed Service |
The EU team working on Digital Heritage and Cultural Content is based in Luxembourg, in the Euroforum building. External experts provide additional support and, among other things, participate actively in developing the web site.
Any suggestions, comments or additions on the Digicult web site are very welcome and can be sent to digicult@cec.be.
While the new Cultural Heritage Applications Unit has already started to carry out activities in this area, it is still monitoring on-going projects and activities under the Telematics for Libraries Programme within the former Fourth Framework Programme in which libraries but also museums and archives played an important role. The new web site links to the Telematics for Libraries site in many places to demonstrate the continuity of the work and will become the starting point for libraries interests too.
An exhaustive article on the Telematics for Libraries Programme (1994-1998) was published on the first issue of the Exploit Interactive magazine and is available at: < http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/telematics/>. This site has become static, except for the update of the Libraries project synopses.
DGXIII/E-2's web site is regularly updated and will be further developed and expanded in the future by including information, news and documents produced by the EC in connection with the cultural heritage area.
If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).
Digital Heritage and Cultural Content Web Site Development Team
DGXIII/E-2
Euroforum Building, Luxembourg
Email: digicult@cec.be
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For citation purposes:
Digital Heritage and Cultural Content Web Site Development Team,
"The Digital Heritage and Cultural Content Web Site",
Exploit Interactive, issue 2, 20 July 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue2/digicult/>
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