Transcript Document

Access to and preservation of
cultural & scientific resources
Strategic Objective 2.5.10
IST Work Programme 2005-2006
Unit 'Learning and Cultural Heritage'
Directorate-General 'Information Society and Media'
Directorate 'Content'
Thessaloniki, May 2005
Overview of the presentation

Defining the work programme 2005-2006
– Consultation process
– Results of the first call under FP6

Strategic Objective 2.5.10
Slide no 2
Defining the work programme

Consultation exercise in 2004: multiple inputs from
the research constituency
– Via Web consultation, targeted e-mails, face-to-face
meetings
– Programme committees ISTAG and ISTC
– Other ongoing strategic assessments

Outputs:
– Work programme texts
– Supporting documents – report on consultation
process and results; analysis of 1st FP6 Call
– Input to ongoing background texts, incl. roadmaps
Goal: to develop dialogue and mobilise the research
community – in good time before the call
Slide no 3
Consultation exercise: 2 research areas

Strategic Objective in call 1: Technology-enhanced
learning and access to cultural heritage
– Separate consultations for learning and for culture
– Each defined its agenda and objectives – no false
synergies

Results
– The two research areas are separate with different
goals, technologies, stakeholders/constituencies
– TeLearn – on technology in the learning processes
and environments, convergence with cognitive
systems
– Cultural Heritage – more focused on the
content/object
Slide no 4
Consultation exercise – aims

Focus – reduce oversubscription – avoid wasted
effort in preparing irrelevant proposals

Relevance – how to get proposals that address
core issues and that make a difference (impact for
the budget available)

Ambition – projects should be leading edge but
realistic (achievable, in resources and timeframe)

Identify gaps from previous call, point to new
directions
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1st call: TeLearn and Cultural Heritage had 212
proposals with requested funding ca. 1000 Meuro;
actually funded 16 projects, for 80 Meuro
Slide no 5
Cultural heritage applications – a
reminder of what we have ongoing

FP5 clusters on:
– semi-automated digitisation and preservation for audio-visual content and film
– prototypes of different types of digital
libraries & services, e.g. for text, for audiovisual
– intelligent heritage for museums and
archaeological sites
– community memory and services for the
citizen
– networking institutions and technical
coordinating
Slide no 6
Results of FP6 Call 1

8 projects for ca. € 36 million
– Integrated Project (IP) on next generation
digital library services – components for
content management (in distributed
architectures) and access (BRICKS)
– IP on historic film and video restoration,
digitisation and preservation – factory
toolkit for widespread use by all types of
audio visuall and film archives
(PRESTOSPACE)
– Network of Exellence on digital library
research (links to NSF) (DELOS)
Slide no 7
Results of FP6 Call 1
– Network of Excellence on reconstruction and
visualisation (EPOCH)
– Coordination Action targeting local/regional
cultural institutions, 'operationalisation' of
research results and input to future research
(CALIMERA)
– Coordination Action for consolidation of policy
initiatives with programmes and practice in the
digitisation area (MINERVA)
– 2 Specific Targeted Research Projects on 3-D
modelling and 3G site guides (TNT and
AGAMEMNON)
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Results of FP6 Call 3
– Objective of Call – to build awareness of
opportunities in the enlarged Europe
– For Learning and Cultural Heritage, building on
the TEL (The European Library) project, this
resulted in one Specific Support Action centred
on the role of the national libraries in all 10 new
Member States in networking support for
proposals (TEL-ME-MOR)
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Cultural heritage applications research
The IST programme supports research aiming at

improving the meaning and experiences people get from
cultural and scientific resources in electronic form;

safeguarding digital resources so that they are available
in the future.
Focus is on the inter-related opportunities and
challenges – of the technologies and of
cultural/scientific digital content
Slide no 10
Issues for digital cultural content outside
research
Addressed by new eContentplus programme
which specifies content in areas of public
interest, education, culture, geographical
information, scholarly publishing, PSI.
Targets:

(re)usability & exploitation of content;
addressing multilingual and multicultural
inhibitors to (re)use and sharing
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Interoperability cross-Europe & of associated
services, good practice in innovation, thematic
networks and clustering
RTD programmes have a clear focus on research
Slide no 11
Cultural content – research challenges
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Complexity of cultural information objects
– temporal, spatial, physical and virtual; partial or
missing data; heterogeneity of typologies,
multiple formats / structures
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Complexity of media
– Assets based on mixed digital media
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Complexity of delivery channels
– Multiplying and becoming ubiquitous –
broadband, interactive TV, mobile
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Cultural content – research challenges

Complexity in potential contexts of use
– Different communities of use – collaborative
experiences and creating cultural information
– Cultural experiences revolving round storytelling bringing together different cultural objects
– Structuring explanations about the past
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Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and
preservation of cultural & scientific resources
Defines two core objectives
– Reinforcing emphasis on access
– Longevity of digital resources – i.e. digital
preservation
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Access - support the emerging complexity of
digital cultural and scientific objects and
repositories, through enriched conceptual
representations, and advanced access
methods

Digital preservation - explore how to preserve
the availability of digital resources over time,
through novel concepts, techniques and tools
Slide no 14
Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and
preservation of cultural & scientific resources
Objective 1: access

conceptualisation and representation of digital
cultural and scientific objects, of multiple forms and
origins

exploiting the potential of these resources for
developing new forms of interactive or creative
experiences

methods, systems, tools and enabling technologies to
support primarily non-textual and complex objects

integration into sustainable digital library
services, e.g. by linking work on the semantic web
with expertise in domain specific ontologies.
Slide no 15
Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and
preservation of cultural & scientific resources
Objective 1: access (cont.)

Work focuses on applying leading edge technologies
(knowledge technologies, visualisation, virtual reality)
– Automated methods for capture, indexing & semantic
representation – non-textual and cross-media objects
– Knowledge representation & access technologies for
complex, unstructured, dynamic cultural heritage objects
– Domain ontologies
– Collaborative content authoring – online communities
– Models for ubiquitous access to cultural information
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Tested in real but innovative scenarios
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Towards more participative/creative use of cultural heritage by
citizens and by cultural institutions, through innovative online
communities.
Slide no 16
Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and
preservation of cultural & scientific resources
Objective 2: digital preservation

Explore how to preserve the availability of digital
resources over time, through novel concepts,
techniques and tools.

Short to mid term experiments - empirical research
on solutions. Focus on emerging state of the art
and “stable” documents, but in multiple formats
and multi-sourced, distributed.
Slide no 17
Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and
preservation of cultural & scientific resources
Objective 2: digital preservation (cont):

Longer term research focusing on:
– complex, dynamic and very high volume digital
objects, including those with high levels of
interactivity.
– projecting concepts for solutions over longer
timescales
– mobilising and bringing together potential research
actors at European level
Positioning for future research
Slide no 18
Strategic Objective 2.5.10 – Access to and
preservation of cultural & scientific resources

Instruments for implementation
– Specific targeted research projects (STREPs) – main
mechanism for research on access and use of cultural
content
– Integrated Projects: main instrument for test-beds of
multi-sourced resources
– Coordination Actions: long-term preservation issues

Stakeholders: Cultural Heritage research
community, technology researchers and developers
(incl. high tech SMEs), and cultural institutions

Indicative budget: 36 million Euro

Balance – 60% old instruments (i.e. STREPs)
Slide no 19
Some lessons from call 1

Big is not necessarily beautiful
– Don’t inflate a STREP to become an IP
– Choose the right instrument – the Commission does
not re-write proposals or change the instruments
– Don’t inflate the consortium, concentrate on most
valid partners with clear roles (only 7% allowed for
management costs)
– Pay attention to partnership balance – include
technological and Cultural Heritage partners –
deliver advances and knowledge to benefit of both
domains
– Provide the reasons for your partner choice and the
rationale for the composition of the consortium
Slide no 20
Some lessons from call 1

Be specific in describing your objectives
and your work programme
– Identify clearly what you see as the problem
and the main research challenges
– Avoid repeating verbatim our work programme
text (no 'echo proposals')
– Describe convincingly the state of the art and
then indicate the progress and advances your
project will make
– Be aware of achievements of EU-funded and
other research
Slide no 21
Some lessons from call 1

Make your project relevant
– Involve competent users throughout the project
lifecycle
– Include methodologies for evaluating and
measuring the result of your work – show
clearly the progress you make incrementally
– Be convincing about potential impact - provide
measures for the implementation of the results
beyond consortium existence
– Reinforce communication and dissemination as
an integral part of the project
Slide no 22
Summary of core issues – cultural content

Support the increasingly complex focus for
applications from:
access  new environments for use and
experiences  increasing creative exploitation

Handling increasingly complex objects – nontextual, multiple formats

“Perpetual” availability – having digital world as
stable as physical in terms of making content
accessible and understandable over time

Improving our understanding of use and usage simple delivery of complex objects and systems
Slide no 23
IST Programme and Cultural heritage applications
research

Our brief: foster the early adoption of new technologies
for accessing and preserving Europe’s cultural, artistic
and scientific resources

Cultural content & applications present real challenges
for development of these technologies

We need effective marriage of technology and
applications domain – informed by knowledge base in
cultural heritage community

Innovation – shifting from technology innovation to
usage – reinforces the need to anchor ICT research also
in real user needs

Future – looking towards greater inter-disciplinarity
Slide no 24
How to make a good proposal

Start with a really good idea or objective liable to have
real EU impact

Find two or three key partners: management, technical,
content-related, organisation

Write a short abstract clearly defining the nature of the
work and the key results

Expand the partnership

Respect evaluation criteria: innovation, impact, state of
the art, quality, social aspects, dissemination, resources

Follow the requirements of the instrument: STREP, IP,
SSA, CA
Slide no 25
How to improve your proposal for submission

Avoid duplication with other projects

Choose an effective, easy-to-remember
acronym

Be open about your intentions and approach

Develop clearly described work packages with
reasonable resourcing (human and financial)

Ensure the Commission is aware of your
intention to submit

Do not leave everything until the last minute:
get your proposal in well before the deadline
Slide no 26
Work towards closer cooperation between
libraries, museums, archives and schools

All share a strong interest in education

They provide content-related services to their users

They understand how information technology can
promote current services and future developments

They participate in ensuring that their communities are
able to promote their own special cultural interests

They are leaders in developing citizen-based services at
the regional and municipal levels

They can provide support in developing
innovative/interactive environments for cultural
expression
Slide no 27
Further References
European Commission
Directorate-General Information Society and Media
Unit Learning and Cultural Heritage
L-2920 Luxembourg
Our Website:
http://www.cordis.lu/digicult/
Mailbox: [email protected]
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