CULTUR-EXPPLATFORM DISTRICT GOVERNMENT BURGAS Second project meeting Burgas

The CULTURe EXchange Platform project is implemented under the European Union’s Black Sea Basin Joint Operational Programme. The project started on 1 July It involves organizations from five countries: Georgia, Greece, Republic of Bulgaria, Republic of Armenia, Republic of Moldova. The project duration is 24 months; the EU funding is 295 KEUR.

The overall objective of the project is to enable the cross-border exchange of culture by providing an innovative, multi-lingual IT platform, based on available open source social platform solutions and adapted for culture producers (artists), culture operators (museums, festivals, etc.) and other actors of the culture market. The platform will be an online tool, where all entities related to the culture will be able to advertise, discuss and organize cultural assets and events in the region.

District government Burgas Implemented activities in the frames of the project

GA1 Platform requirements definition (1-4 Months) GA1 included detailed analysis of the functional and non- functional requirements of the platform, which were taken into account for the upcoming activities. The team from Burgas together with the partners from AMAP extracted and formalized the relevant requirements

Having in mind the importance of the activity, the project team from BURGAS discussed carefully the strategy for the realization of the proposed task and took the following steps:  Research and testing of different platforms with open source software – 5 different open source platforms were tested by our IT expert;  Communication with IT experts regarding the characteristics of the culture platform – communication with more than 10 different IT experts;  Drawing of the main requirements and including them in a power point presentation – it was introduced to the project partners during the first kick-off meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia on  Elaboration of two reports about the functional and non- functional characteristics of the platform – they were presented to all project partners, revised after their comments and uploaded to the project web site.

GA2 Selection of existing open source platform (4-5 Months) GA3 Platform adaptation and implementation (6-10 Months) Burgas was not responsible partner in the implementation in GA2 and GA3, but was regularly informed by the Lead partner and provided assistance in the process of selection of existing open source platform and modification of the selected open source solution.

GA4 Preparation and migration of cultural content to the platform (1-24 Months) For this activity BURGAS and AMAP, with the support of external IT consultants and with assistance of the Lead partner, work on selection, process and upload of the relevant content to the platform. The process is simultaneously executed with a number of partners working on their own content. The process consists of several sub-tasks.

Content selection  Examine the existing data base  Gathering information about the culture sector in the region of Burgas BURGAS attracts and supports cultural producers and operators in the region in providing their presence and content to the platform  Contacting new culture producers and culture operators We have provided the initial content, but the platform will be enriched with new content. We will try to attract more users and create a snowball effect. This is the reason why we started an active campaign for attracting cultural producers and operators in the region in providing their presence and content to the platform.

Signing of Memorandum for partnership in the fields of culture On 17 th of January was held an official meeting between the Governor of District Burgas and the mayors of all 13 municipalities from district Burgas. An official Memorandum for cooperation in the fields of culture and art, culture and art industries, preservation of cultural heritage was signed. The purpose of this Memorandum is to establish long-lasting cooperation in the fields of culture and art between the Governor of district Burgas and state and municipal culture institutions, municipalities, creative organizations and non- governmental organizations. The present Memorandum is open for adherence for all state institutions and non-governmental organizations that share the above mentioned purposes.

Signing of Memorandum for partnership in the fields of culture A press conference was held in Burgas on The Governor of district Burgas, both depute governors, experts from the administration and wide audience presented at the event. The press conferences ended with an official signing of the Memorandum from more than 50 different organizations – Municipal Children Center Burgas, State Opera Burgas, Municipal Enterprise “Summer theatre and festivals”, Association of the painters Burgas, Culture center “Sea Casino”, Museum “Petya Dubarova”, Museum Ancient Nessebar, Gallery Bogoridi, Historical Museum Pomorie, Foundation Green Burgas, Association of the architects, Regional Library Burgas, State Puppet Theatre Burgas, Art Gallery Nik Nessebar, Salt Museum Pomorie and many others.

All individual artists that wanted to support the platform and become an active part in the project signed official letter of support. More than 10 individual artists (musicians, painters, writers) signed letters of support during the press conference on

Content preparation workshop Taking into account that migration is one of the most important parts from the successful implementation of the project, content workshop will be organized in Burgas. The workshop will be attended by representatives of all partners’ organizations. The workshop will have two parts:  In the first one IT expert from GRENA will explain platform functionalities to the partners and train them how to use the platform (“train the trainers”) in order to be educated and able to support the culture producers and operators in the delivery of culture content.  In the second part of the workshop IT specialist from BURGAS will train representatives of different culture organization from the region, as well as individual artists how to use the platform.

In this stage of the project Burgas has fruitful partnerships with different culture producers and culture operators from Burgas. Burgas has connections with different external organizations and will try to attract as many followers of the project as possible. Although the serious work on the liaison with external organizations will start once the platform is implemented and operational. By this moment a couple of independent artists from foreign countries have declared their support to the platform.

GA6 Visibility of the Action (1-24 Months) First phase – before the implementation of the platform Until the platform is implemented and operational we held internal communication activities. Our main focus was on disseminating the project to the culture producers and operators. BURGAS contacted a lot of culture institutions and organizations, official letters were sent to all of the municipalities of the region. Second phase –the actual dissemination When the first content is migrated to the platform and will last until the end of the project, the visibility activities will concentrate on wider promotional campaigns and dissemination of informational materials as the project must reach a broad audience.

District government Burgas 1 “Tsar Petar” str. Telephone: /

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