Cultural Content and Digital Heritage Bernard Smith European Commission INFSO/D2

 fully participating countries: -the 15 EU Member States -Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Israel, -Switzerland (by 2001) - the 11 accession countries  All programmes are open for international co- operation on a project-by-project basis  Science & Technology Agreements with USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, etc. International Cooperation

Multimedia Content & Tools Publishing & Media Education, Culture & Knowledge Multimedia Content Language & Content Technologies

 Strategic RTD objectives through to 2005: 4improve the accessibility of Europe’s scientific and cultural collections (cultural landscape) 4focus on high-quality representations of artefacts and collections 4generate new digital art forms, including performing arts 4develop sustainable cultural environments 4provide a test platform for technology trials Cultural Heritage

 Building on what? 4nature, quality and value of the content 4communities of providers (museums, archives, libraries, performing arts,...), professionals and users 4ownership of key research problems 4strategies that create competitive edge in a cultural economy 4a lasting “info-structure” of technologies, test-beds, guidelines, standards, new alliances, human and institutional networks,...

“ The work on digital heritage and cultural content will aim to improve access to cultural patrimony, facilitate its valorisation and stimulate cultural development by expanding the key contribution of libraries, museums and archives to the emerging 'culture economy', including economic, scientific and technological development. Actions will particularly address new digital processes and cover business and economic models, especially those which stimulate new partnerships through networking and new services for the citizen” extract from the IST Programme Digital Heritage & Cultural Content

 integrate and improve access to heterogeneous distributed and networked collections and repositories and the information they hold, in digital and traditional form (e.g. library holdings, museum exhibition material, public archive contents, multimedia art or sound archives, digital film collections and digital cinematic distribution networks)  improving the functionalities of large-scale repositories of content by providing rich and powerful interactive features and advanced management and copyright techniques RTD objectives extract from the IST Programme Digital Heritage & Cultural Content

 preservation of and access to valuable multimedia content from multiple sources, covering electronic materials and electronic surrogates of fragile physical objects  take-up: a key aspect will be validations and demonstrations” RTD objectives extract from the IST Programme Digital Heritage & Cultural Content

Support Measures 4Delos: A Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries  reference point for Digital Library projects by ERCIM in France 4Cultivate-EU: Cultural Heritage Applications Network  pan-European network of memory organisations by the Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut in Germany 4Cultivate-CEE: extension of Cultivate-EU to Central and Eastern Europe  bis 4CELIP: Central and Eastern European Licensing Information Platform  library training project by EBLIDA in The Netherlands

Support Measures 4Electronic Imaging and The Virtual Art Networking  4addition of an Israeli node to Cultivate  4A European Virtual Library  4A European Network of Public Libraries  bis 4A Platform for Interchange Ontology Standardisation  bis 4Monitoring European Library Economics for International Benchmarking  bis

Cultivate-EU Objectives: A European Cultural Heritage Network will be established. It will provide a platform for memory institutions to exchange experience, and to dialogue with national authorities and professional associations. The network will also provide proactive information and awareness services targeting Europe’s memory institutions. Issues such as cataloguing, conservation, imaging, e-commerce, IPR management, meta-data, etc. will be discussed.

Cultivate-EU Potential Benefits: 4raise awareness on the IST programme within European memory organisations 4provide information services, information days, and individual advice for memory organisations considering participating in the IST programme 4link European memory institutions to national administrations and professional bodies to reinforce the relationship between institutions and the citizen

Work Programme 2001 Competence building Access to competence in multimedia Provide access to advanced emerging technologies and services, knowledge and competence relevant to multimedia systems and services, via world-class competence centres already existing or emerging in Europe. A common objective is to benchmark developments and the adoption of new technologies in the domains targeted. Such centres should be able to demonstrate leadership qualities in their respective domains of competence. The sustainability of such services must be established based upon well-articulated requirements and convincing business models.

Thank you