The DEER Distributed European Electronic Resource Dr Suzanne Keene Francesca Monti University College London

The DEER report covers: 1. INTRODUCTION 2. DEFINING THE DEER 3. DEER PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 4. RESOURCES 5. TECHNOLOGIES 6. OPTIONS FOR DEER ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT 7. FINANCIAL OPTIONS 8. LEGAL FRAMEWORK, GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS 9. IMPLEMENTATION 10. CONCLUSIONS APPENDIX A: SOME CULTURAL NETWORKS

DEER vision Access to all European networked cultural content Provide users with a view of and access to our rich and varied cultural landscapes, in a multilingual and multicultural information environment

Why a DEER? Culture is the core of European identity and identities ICT Europe’s second most important economic sector (is tourism the first??) ICT + cultural material = a key means of enhancing European competitiveness

Defining the DEER

DEER principles –Overarching - ultimately, Europe’s digital cultural memory –Unity and diversity - enjoying Europe’s diverse cultures –Multilingual - as far as practicable –Communication, creativity and joint working - forum for participation and collaborative research –Visionary and forward looking - using advanced technologies –Permanent - through principles of digital preservation –Multinational - distributed repositories, national committees –Interoperable - an environment for a distributed resource –Bring users to the foreground - market + user research –Education and learning - for higher education and for all

The DEER audience Higher education & research The general public, lifelong learners Public sector organisations Commercial companies seeking content Tourist industry

The DEER components

DEER components DEER Content in distributed repositories Content in distributed repositories Virtual Agorá Virtual Reference Room Virtual Reference Room Infrastructure: the cultural GRID?

Interface design

The Virtual Reference Room The portals for the DEER Personalisation and collaboration Search & discovery tools Meta resources: Cultural ontologies Cross referenced bibliographical material Subject gateways Discovery tools Multilingual tools Web service software for combining resources from different sources, eg the DACO

The content of the DEER Initial target users: higher education, research Primary sources: digitised documents, books Research data sets 3D, VR representations Software tools: learning & teaching

The Virtual Agorá Forum for learning + teaching Software tools Tailored content Virtual Forum Bulletin boards Contacts directory Translating tools On-line evaluation User input Augmented real Agorá Events noticeboard Actual events Remote participation Online publication

The DEER technical requirements

Technical requirements High bandwidth communications infrastructure Web services & middleware for cultural content management Distributed information repositories (national) Excellent user friendly portal(s) for multilingual, multicultural access Technologies for interactive working: Agorá etc.

The DEER system A very large distributed knowledge management system Requires the entire chain of cultural content management, from creation to delivery to end users A cultural GRID

Archival store preservation Versions: Original, Preservation, Dissemination, Metadata store User access store Metadata + ontology databases Content files for delivery to users Content providers Metadata engine Application Metadata engine Presentation + delivery Discovery Delivery User request Tools for user input Offsite storage Backup

Operating the DEER

Organisational models Central, top down (JISC) Distributed consortium (CULTIVATE) secretariat National/specialist matrix (ICOM) SC Exec. Council Specialist committees National committees

Secretary General ICOM model Policy making body(s) Executive, Advisory Secretariat National Committees Affiliated Bodies + Regional Groups Specialist Committees

ICOM governing bodies Advisory Committee: = chairpersons of National and International (Specialist) committees (themselves elected) Elections to Executive Committee by designated voting members of each National and Specialist Committee, plus (few) reps. of Affiliated Organisations

Some essential DEER policies Content - what’s in / out of scope? Financing - by what route? Management - how the whole organisation is run: elected / appointed government? Centralisation vs. distribution Multilingualism - to what extent? Uses and users - priorities, which groups?

Funding the DEER Four funding models explored: Designated central funding –eg, GRID programme: over >1 FP “Serendipitous” project funding by bids –eg, 6th FP: broad priorities Membership subscription –eg, ICOM Commercial not-for-profit –eg, AMICO, SCRAN

Financing the DEER % Deer funding requirement Time Central funding Other funding sources

Legal + standards framework Within Euro legal framework DEER Legal entity: EEIG? Other? Copyright + intellectual property rights (!!!) Rights management of content + resources

Managing access to content ‘Common access agreement’ Creative Commons licenses: –Retain copyright and control over use of content but allow free public domain access / designated uses Data protection legislation

Standards Communication and network Authentication Identification Browser software Content Metadata Terminology

Software standards Open source / free software where possible –eg, Linux

Conclusions The DEER: not just an option, becoming a necessity A cultural GRID for Europe A practical possibility Provide the organisational framework to consolidate the benefits of previous and present investment in cultural IST