Transcript www.minervaeurope.org

MINERVA EC for cultural websites:
from the quality principles
to the Handbook on cultural
websites user interaction
Pierluigi Feliciati (University of Macerata – MINERVA EC)
Maria Teresa Natale (MIBAC – MINERVA EC)
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
About cultural Web quality
The Web has promoted an increasing
proliferation of on-line cultural applications,
together with information and contents coming
from any source.
Almost every organisation or institution or
initiative or person today wants to be on the
Web, to mark its existence, to promote itself, to
disseminate its contents and its activities all over
the connected world.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
About cultural Web quality
Quality must be ensured for the delivering of
cultural content by cultural institutions, but
quality is a very broad, generic and
subjective concept
Quality has particular resonance in the
cultural sector because of the importance
and value of the material being
presented on cultural websites.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
About cultural Web quality
The increasing importance of web as
the principal medium to communicate
and to share information, may bring
some risks, that cultural professionals
must face as a primary challenge.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
About cultural Web quality
As use of the Internet as an information
access medium continues to grow,
exposure to culture via the Internet
becomes more and more prevalent.
As the Internet is used more and more
for education and research, the quality of
online content becomes more and more
important.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
Key messages
The key messages to create quality cultural web are:
Quality must be planned into a website from the start of
the project
The user is critical – involve him at every stage
Relationships with other online resources
(interoperability) and with future resources (long term
preservation) must be considered
With proper planning, and building on the information, examples,
standards and guidelines available, creating a high-quality website
need not be much more difficult, expensive or slow than creating a
lower-quality one.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
MINERVA for quality cultural Web
The European working group Identification of user needs,
contents and quality criteria for Cultural Web Applications
worked since 2002 :
•To define quality criteria for the digitised content
•To encourage the adoption of quality criteria for developing
cultural and scientific web applications
•To support the initiatives launched by the European
Commission with the provision of national digital content
•To encourage training actions on cultural sites, to promote
knowledge of multicultural issues
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
MINERVA for quality cultural Web:
milestones
March 2002 Beginning of Minerva
February 2003 First Deliverable on quality
November 2003 Handbook for quality in cultural Web sites
Improving quality for citizens (en, it), 10 quality principles (ar,
ee, en, el, fr, hu, it)
2004 Museo&Web planning kit (en, fr, it)
2005 Quality Principles for Cultural Websites: a Handbook (ar,
ee, en, el, fr, hu, it)
2006-2008 Dissemination of MINERVA products on quality of
cultural websites - the publication of an Handbook on
cultural websites user interaction (June 08, Lubljiana)
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
Cultural web quality: some definitions
“A Web site is a collection of information that the user
perceives to be a single unit”
(W.Arms, Digital libraries, chapt. 2)
A Cultural Web Application (CWA) can be considered to be
every Web application where the contents deal with cultural
heritage, and where at least one of those aims are realised:
supplying and spreading cultural informations
working as an instrument for education and scientific
research
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
“
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
A goal based planning
A cultural entity (person,
organisation, institution
or a group of different
entities joined to build a
cultural product)
could plan its own website
following a goal-based
planning method. The
Minerva Quality handbook
proposed since 2003 a set
of possible 12 goals for
cultural web:
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
reach transparency on the identity
 reach transparency on the application
 have efficiency in the sector networks
 presentate standards and regulations
 spread cultural content
 support cultural tourism
 offer educational services
 offer services for scientific research
 offer services to professionals
 offer services for reservations
and e-commerce
 promote web communities

Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
The 10 MINERVA Quality Principles
The ten principles for cultural web quality are short and provide
little guidance to how they are to be implemented or how to assess
whether or not a website complies with them.
The ten principles are aimed at cultural websites – those
concerned with museums, libraries, archives and other cultural
institutions.
However, the principles are quite generic and can be applied to
almost any website.
The Quality Principles Handbook, published in 2004 and freely
available in 7 languages, aims to add supporting information to
each of the principles.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
The 10 MINERVA Quality Principles
A good quality cultural Website must be:
1. Transparent
must clearly state the identity and purpose of the Website, as well as
the organisation responsible for its management
2. Effective
must select, digitise, author, present and validate content to create an
effective Website for users
3. Maintained
must implement quality of service policy guidelines to ensure that the
Website is maintained and updated at an appropriate level
4. Accessible
must be focused on the need to serve all members of the user
community, even if technologically or phisically disable
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
The 10 MINERVA Quality Principles
5. User-centred
must take in consideration the importance of user consultation,
involvement and contribution at every stage
6. Responsive
responsiveness is concerned with the ability for the site and the site
owners to respond to user questions and suggestions
7. Multi-lingual
access to culture should be universal. Language can be an important
barrier to access, so there must be considered that the web audience
for the cultural material goes beyond linguistic and national
boundaries
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
The 10 MINERVA Quality Principles
9. Managed
The primary concern of this principle is to ensure that due care and
attention have been paid to non-technical, non-cultural issues such as
intellectual property rights (IPR) management and privacy. The the
ethical and legal aspects of Website provision must be taken in
consideration.
10. Preserved
The rapid evolution of technologies has the consequence that
Websites created today are likely to be inaccessible in the longer-term
future Cultural material is likely to be as valuable in future years’ time
as it is today, with only few exceptions. This makes a long term
preservation strategy a critical part of any cultural Website and a key
quality indicator.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
Museo & Web Planning Kit (by WP5 Italy)
1) Structure and Contents of the Prototype
This section contains indications for organisation of the contents and services of a museum, and
many examples of sites around the world.
2) Tutorial
•How to build web pages according to the rules of accessibility and usability
•Practical information on architecture, management, inter-operability, copyright, multilinguism issues, etc
3) Quality check
Two tests:
1.to verify on which of the 12 Objectives for a Quality cultural web application your site has been built
2.To evaluate whether the quality principles have been applied
4) Models to download
5) CMS
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
2007-2008: MINERVA EC Working Group on
Quality, Accessibility and Usability
Coordinator
Germany in co-operation with Finland, Italy, Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece,
Poland, Belgium, Slovenja, Israel
In short
•It is aimed to work on quality of cultural websites.
•It exploits the work done in Minerva, and complements these products with new
publications and monitor relevant guidelines and promote best practice related to
websites.
•The main target are the small institutions.
•It organises “interactive” events, to assess websites and to grow the awareness of
quality and accessibility of websites among the cultural institutions.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
2007-2008: MINERVA EC Working Group on
Quality, Accessibility and Usability

Objectives
•to support small cultural heritage institutions in increasing the accessibility to their digital
cultural heritage by sharing practises and techniques within the wider community and
interested public;
•to motivate cultural heritage institutions which are still reluctant to make their already existing
digital content available within the European digital library;
•to contribute to the mutual alignment of metadata sets and metadata use in the cultural
heritage sector in order to improve quality, accessibility and usability;
•to support guidelines and measurement tools that assist in the maintenance and raising the
quality of cultural heritage applications;
•to contribute to the organisation of tutorials to make users aware of open source software
tools that assist in improving the quality, accessibility and usability of digital cultural heritage
offers.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
Handbook on cultural websites user interaction
The sector of culture: categories
Archives
Libraries
Museums
Cultural heritage diffuses on the territory
Institutes for administration and safeguarding
Centres for research and education
Schools
Cultural projects
Temporary exhibitions
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
Handbook on cultural websites user interaction
Users
Who are they? This is the definition in the MINERVA
Handbook for quality in cultural Web sites: improving
quality for citizens (2003)
A user is a professional or not, specialist or not who
casually or with specific aims, occasionally or
systematically uses the Cultural Web Application. User
identity is extremely variable depending on cultural
profile, aspirations for cultural growth, professional aims
and even momentary curiosity.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
Handbook on cultural websites user interaction
After 4 years, we can find different definitions for the
Internet user, for example:
- hybrid individual
- transceiver (transmitter + receiver)
- prosumer (producer + consumer = information recipient and
provider of its own contents
Different terms characterize the many user’s activities
and behaviours on the web:
·
consumer / client / audience
·
user / surfer / iewer
·
player / clicker / downloader / streamer
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
Handbook on cultural websites user interaction
A new type of user
Non human users/agents: robots, spiders, crawlers
In this case users are not human individuals searching for or
providing documents and contents, but software agents charged
to search in the Web in order to index and store web pages.
This variety of definitions reflects an articulated offer of
contents and applications present in the new media
environment, which at the same time is:
1) Vehicle of information and communication
2) encyclopedic archive and tool of cultural training
3) entertainment and community interaction area
4) technological platform
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
Handbook on cultural websites user interaction
Keeping in considerations these premises, the MINERVA EC
handbook will analyse :
· -- Type of users
· - Current trends in web services (special chapter on Web
2.0)
· - Current techniques for evaluating user needs and
interactions (static textual questionnaires, wiki models,
panel groups, focus groups, log analyzers, personas for
user-centered design...
- Difference between WEB ANALITICS (without user
involvement) and AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT (with user
involvement)
·
- The importance of using metadata
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
Handbook on cultural websites user interaction
The aim of the handbook is to edit guidelines on user
interaction, keeping into consideration and matching
user types
site life stages
cultural subject type
type of web applications
and editing
and guidelines on how to build a questionnaire.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
MINERVA EC WP5 - Collection of good practices on
Web user interaction Campaign
All institutions and cultural web professionals are invited to
send to MINERVA information on their cultural web
applications involving services and initiatives dedicated to
user interaction, such as questionnaries, wiki, panel groups,
focus groups, personas, contact centres, folksonomies, etc.
Information must include: the name of the institution/initiative,
the title, a short description of the service, the URL.
Reporting campaign will close at the end of march 2008.
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC
Thank you for your attention. Any question?
Pierluigi Feliciati
[email protected]
Maria Teresa Natale
[email protected]
EVA-Jerusalem 2007
20 November 2007
Pierlugi Feliciati – University of Macerata – MINERVA EC
Maria Teresa Natale – MiBAC – MINERVA EC