1 Opportunities for Community Memory Projects Ian Pigott European Commission Directorate General Information Society - Directorate E Preservation and Enhancement of Cultural Heritage “DigiCult”

What is DigiCult all about? Our overall aim is to provide support for targeting research and development projects funded under the European Commission’s framework programmes (FP5 & FP6) for Information Society Technologies (IST) Projects are selected after calls for proposals once or twice a year They typically consist of partnerships from several European countries with cultural organisations, research interests and commercial companies Activities can range from research projects to networks of excellence and supporting measures 2

FP5 (until 2002): Focus was on the following areas Digital libraries applications Virtual heritage Culture economy Heritage for All 3

Scope of cultural heritiage research under FP5 (i.e ) Addressing access to scientific and cultural content through the networking of libraries, archives and museums 110 projects, 688 participants, 506 organisations, 35 countries museums, libraries, archives, industry, government, research 40% cultural, 30% industry, 30% research 4

Now moving into FP6 ( ) with new focus Digitisation and preservation Digital libraries Intelligent heritage Community memory 5

Huge response to first call for proposals earlier this year leading to eight new projects Networks of Excellence for digital libraries (DELOS) and intelligent heritage (ITEACH/TECNO) Integrated (large-scale) projects for cultural knowledge services (BRICKS) and film archives support (PRESTOSPACE) Smaller projects for museum networking (TNT) and mobile support for archeological sites (AGAMEMNON) Coordination actions on digitisation (MINERVAPLUS) and role of local institutions (CALIMERA) 6

Much of our work is in support of the eEurope-2005 initiative agreed by all EU countries covering content, services, applications eGovernment (including eHealth) eInclusion (to overcome the digital divide) broadband access eSecurity 7

eInclusion is particularly important as it addresses: digital skills lifelong learning public access points special needs access in outlying areas 8

Local and regional cultural institutions - libraries, museums, archives - can play a key role here because: they know their users' requirements they provide a physical focus staff have or can develop the necessary skills they are all involved to some extent in the educational process they have a tradition of supporting access to information 9

The main objective of Heritage for All interests under FP5 (until last year) has been to: support on-line communities in documenting and safeguarding the emerging record of their societies focus on projects with replicable models for creating local cultural resources with the active participation of citizens as end users encourage take-up projects liable to contribute to services for the citizen 10

Key FP5 projects in the Heritage for All sector include: CHIMER - developing new models for children-based services (e.g. mobile devices and GPS-based maps) CIPHER - establishing communities of interest for cultural heritage resources in four very different regions (e.g. by storytelling) COINE - creating sustainable web-based environments for local cultural activities with emphasis or a wide variety of digital objects 11

FP5 support activities and take-up projects include: PULMAN - network of public libraries in 36 countries developing examples of best practice and providing digital guidelines while encouraging collaboration with museums and archives ACTIVATE - take-up developing models for documenting local heritage BEASTS - take-up building cultural tourism models for SMEs SEAX-DAMAS - take-up introducing user-friendly interfaces for local archives 12

These activities have paved the way for: creating market opportunities based on extensive technology- enhanced services at local level combining technical expertise with professional guidance and strong end-user involvement building an ever more comprehensive living archive of local activities, occupations, interests and cultural attractions overcoming social exclusion in an attractive yet effective way 13

Possible priorities for FP6: Providing a more robust framework for citizens across Europe to participate actively and interactively in building the emerging heritage of their communities Catalysing the overall development of the information society by concentrating on the contributions of ordinary people from all walks of life Developing easy-to-use features for training and educating citizens in making full use of the potential of IT systems and services Overcoming social exclusion in an attractive yet effective way 14

FP6 Research Topics with an emphasis on innovation and scalability: Seamless accessibility to a wide variety of localised multimedia content resources and content-building facilities for the citizen Bridging the gap between libraries, museums and, in particular, archives in the local environment Far greater scope for user-friendliness in systems, tools and services functioning with PCs, digital TV, mobile devices, digital cameras, navigation systems, voice-related support, multilingual services and 4G mobile/ubiquitous-computing perspectives Complementarity with national research objectives and with the requirements of cultural tourism 15

FP6 Non-Research considerations underlying take- up work and evolving applications: Stronger involvement of ordinary citizens creating business opportunities drawing on local content for culture, leisure, sports, travel Ultimately every home and every vehicle in Europe will be able to access repositories documenting the heritage of regions, towns and villages across Europe This will create a greater feeling of local identity while encouraging exploration of remote resources in the same area of interest 16

FP6 - the new challenges for Community Memory : Translate results from digital libraries and virtual representation into viable services for the citizen Contribute to building an evolving and expandable digital map of local heritage putting individual interests first Develop technical solutions for overcoming language barriers and rationalising cultural disparities Promote examples of good practice to facilitate digisation and preservation of valuable content Overcome fragmentation, support strategies of excellence 17

FP6 - the new challenges for Community Memory : Translate results from digital libraries and virtual representation into viable services for the citizen Contribute to building an evolving and expandable digital map of local heritage putting individual interests first Develop technical solutions for overcoming language barriers and rationalising cultural disparities Promote examples of good practice to facilitate digisation and preservation of valuable content Overcome fragmentation, support strategies of excellence 18

FP6 - the Community Memory timetable : 2003: First IST call: has led to the CALIMERA project which will help to build interest in future R&D work within and on behalf of local institutions 2004: Third and Fourth IST call: focus on cultural memory and heritage leading to larger projects with real impact Throughout the FP6 programme: opportunities for other RTD interests (digitisation/preservation, digital libraries, intelligent heritage) to address the needs of local communities and individual citizens 19

FP6 - Community Memory messages: Focus on the needs of ordinary people in their local environments Develop technologies and strategies which bring everyone: children, members of the workforce, the unemployed, pensioners, the socially disadvantaged, into the heart of the information society Sensitise politicians, business and tourism interests, hardware/software suppliers, telecoms companies about the economic potential of the local to global approach And finally Join hands in ambitious but realistic targets 20

Further information from: 21