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

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

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

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

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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. Operating the DEER

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

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

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

14. Standards Communication and network Authentication Identification Browser software Content Metadata Terminology

15. How to get there? A managing organisation Funding A technical infrastructure Content for the DEER

16. Complementary approaches Bottom up: NoEs, E-Culture Net Top down: IPs, STREPS, this report

17. Contribution in FP6 Review projects funded in FP6 –especially E-Culture Net, we hope –which ones would develop DEER components? Concertation meetings focusing on how they could coalesce into parts of DEER

18. Starting the organisation Start-up DEER committee –Carefully identify a few key players from obvious DEER national organisations + major stakeholders –Maybe funded as an Accompanying Measure

19. Support of stakeholders The European Commission The Council of Europe The European Science Foundation The governments of EU member countries European Research Councils, jointly and severally European libraries organisations

20. Establish funding Work with the Commission to establish a durable funding programme –eg, GRIDS, GRIDSTART Identify a permanent home for the DEER

21. 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