1. Florence Workshop, 16th June 2003 The MESMUSES portal of La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie MESMUSES : Involvement of the Mediathèque at the “Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie” of Paris. Christine Warin

2. Florence Workshop, 16th June 2003 The MESMUSES portal of La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie Contents Introduction to the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie... museums and libraries have to manage scientific information and knowledge Rational for using semantic web technologies Applying web semantic technologies to science museum : 3 main objectives What is done within MESMUSES How we have proceeded Lessons learned and conclusions

3. Florence Workshop, 16th June 2003 The MESMUSES portal of La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie Introduction to the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie A MUSEUM, –dedicated to sciences, technologies and industry Opened in 1986. popularise sciences and technologies roughly 3 millions visitors per year –offering a large panel of activities and contents exhibitions, guided activities, lectures... online offer through the web-site a scientific multimedia library, unique in France, is opened to everybody

4. Florence Workshop, 16th June 2003 The MESMUSES portal of La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie museums and libraries have to manage scientific information and knowledge Heterogeneous information sources, –lack of common practices, modelling method and tools Inflation of quantity of information –quality versus quantity –avoid saturation by filtering Ubiquity of science in every day life, it’s a social fact –visitor has questions (e.g. understanding cloning) –new knowledge is a mean to answer to its questions

5. Florence Workshop, 16th June 2003 The MESMUSES portal of La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie Rational for using semantic web technologies The Know how of Museums/Multimedia library –organise and structure the scientific and technical knowledge offered to the public –identify and define targeted publics semantic web technologies could help to –describe a knowledge domain (e.g. conceptual schema) –use a knowledge domain from different point of view (e.g. the targeted publics) –enhance the usual practices based on thesauri (e.g. hierarchical and disciplinary)

6. Florence Workshop, 16th June 2003 The MESMUSES portal of La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie Applying web semantic technologies to science museum : 3 main objectives Cartography of the scientific and technical knowledge offered to the public Offering an integrated offer to the visitor –permanently updated offer –guide the visitor through any on-site/online medium –keep a strong link between exhibitions and multimedia library Define itineraries through the information –pre-defined –adapted to the visitor

7. Florence Workshop, 16th June 2003 The MESMUSES portal of La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie What is done within MESMUSES Targeted knowledge domain : life sciences (program “Les défis du vivant”) Context: educational programs (enseignement secondaire et primaire) Targeted publics: teachers –as actor (framework Ministry for Education/CSI), or as visitor The issue –teacher is an expert on the knowledge domain –access to a large amount of information (books, web-site…) –there is a need for a tool to prepare course, to select information, to apply the educational program logic

8. Florence Workshop, 16th June 2003 The MESMUSES portal of La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie How we have proceeded a team : convergence of three expertise –a teacher in life-sciences, –a documentalist, –an expert on the Knowledge management main steps : –elaborating a conceptual schema describing the life- sciences concepts explained in the educational program list points of view for each subjects connected to each school year definition of conceptual categories (several subjects brought together) definition of links between the categories –selecting resources, related to concepts, from CSI contents and external sources (web)

9. Florence Workshop, 16th June 2003 The MESMUSES portal of La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie Lessons learned Difficulty to comprehend the provision of such a technology –as a first trial, need to focus on a specific application for a specific public Designing a conceptual schema –must be focused on the targeted application –required expertise in knowledge modelling –how a schema could be generic enough to apply to several applications Need for browsing tools –itineraries, graphical interface...

10. Florence Workshop, 16th June 2003 The MESMUSES portal of La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie Conclusions and prospects It’s a promising technology, –questions on modelling methodology were raised –interoperability with other Museums/Multimedia Libraries To be applied to the whole contents of CSI –candidates are exhibitions, guided activities, lectures, web-site.. –develop new approaches like community (e.g. in our example a teacher can be as well user and contributor) May be the underlying technology to develop a new kind of mediation “la muséologie informationnelle”