.Info

Issue 6 A Newsletter on Digital Culture ISSN 1609-3941 December 2003

INTRODUCTION

his is a rich issue of DigiCULT.Info covering topics in such Tareas as digitisation, asset management and publication, virtual reality, documentation, , and the development of the knowledge society.

n October the Italian Presidency of the European Union pro- Imoted, in cooperation with the European Commission and the ERPANET (http://www.erpanet.org) and MINERVA

Continued next page (UofGlasgow),© HATII Ross, Seamus 2003

Technology explained and applied ... Challenges, strategic issues, new initiatives ...

6 3D-ArchGIS:Archiving Cultural Heritage 16 New Open-source for Content in a 3D Multimedia Space and Repository Management 10 Zope at Duke University: Open Source Content 19 The IRCAM Digital Sound Archive in Context Management in a Higher Education Context 55 Towards a Knowledge Society 16 PLEADE – EAD for the Web 31 Metadata Debate:Two Perspectives on Dublin Core News from DigiCULT´s Regional Correspondents ... 34 Cistercians in Yorkshire: Creating a Virtual Heritage Learning Package 37 Bulgaria 45 SMIL Explained 38 Czech Republic 47 Finding Names with the Autonom Parser 40 France 49 The Object of Learning:Virtual and Physical 41 Greece Cultural Heritage Interactions 42 Italy News, events ... 44 Poland 44 Serbia and Montenegro 23 Delivering The Times Digital Archive 30 NZ Electronic Text Centre 37 Cultural Heritage Events Action in the Preservation of Memory ... 52 New Project Highlights the Growing Use of DOIs 24 PANDORA,Australia’s Web Archive, and the Digital 52 Digital Resources for the Humanities 2003 Archiving System that Supports it 54 New UK Law for Preservation of Electronic Publications 28 The Firenze Agenda (17 October 2003) 54 Tur ning the Pages 58 Late Breaking News

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DigiCULT.Info 1 (http://www.minervaeurope.org/) activi- den behind password protect sites and fire- to share experiences, create social bonds, ties, an international conference on digital walls.Two years ago Michael K. Bergman and construct ‘imaginary communities’ that memory preservation, Futuro delle Memorie reported that ‘The Deep Web: Surfacing take on social and cultural fabric (Ross, Digitali e Patrimonio Culturale (16-17 Hidden Value’ (The Journal of Electronic 2002). It is a environment as anyone October 2003 in Firenze).A major out- Publishing, 7.1 (2001), http://www.press. who has read Sherry Turkle’s early 1990s come of the meeting was the ‘Firenze umich.edu/jep/07-01/bergman.html) may study Life on the Screen and attempted in Agenda’. Building on the Spanish well be 500 times larger than the surface the past two years to investigate some of Resolution on Digital Preservation (2002, Web. Among his findings, based on data the same phenomena she describes will Document 2002/C162/02, http:// accurate as of March 2000, were the facts know. New spaces and practices are www.ibeurope.com/Newslink/311.htm#5 that the deep Web contained 7,500 ter- emerging all the time, older ones are disap- 850), the Firenze Agenda attempts to drive abytes of data and the surface Web only 19 pearing, and it is transforming the ways we forward work on digital preservation by terabytes, that on average deep Websites participate and interact. encouraging cooperation between such ‘receive fifty per cent greater monthly traf- players as ERPANET, Prestospace, Delos fic than surface sites and are more highly ver a decade ago we enjoyed seeing and Minerva. It identifies three areas of linked to than surface sites’, that the 60 Othe Rediscovering Pompeii exhibition activity that could deliver ‘concrete and largest deep Websites were 40 times larger twice: once in 1990 at the IBM Gallery of realistic actions’ over the next year or two. than the surface Web that the quality con- Science and Art (NYC) and again in 1992 We have reprinted the Agenda in this tent in the deep Web is far greater than at the Accademia Italiana delle Arti e delle newsletter in a new section,‘Action in the that in the surface Web, and that 95% of Arti Applicate (London). Displaying a cou- Preservation of Memory’, as called for in the deep Web is publicly accessible infor- ple of hundred objects excavated from the Firenze Agenda. mation.As a result we must conclude that, Pompeii, it gave visitors an insight into as attractive as comprehensive Web harvest- daily life in the first century AD Roman he main article in the inaugural ing may be, it is far from comprehensive resort, illustrated how computer technolo- Tshowing of this new section is a piece because it does not reach the hidden Web. gy had revolutionised the analysis of by Margaret Phillips (from the National Margaret Phillip’s article reports that archaeological evidence, and provided Library of Australia) on PANDORA and national libraries recognise this problem engaging interactives that gave visitors the Pandora digital archiving systems and that an International access to the wealth of information (PANDAS), which supports the collection Preservation Consortium has been estab- resources archaeologists had collected of Australia’s Web materials by staff at the lished to develop common solutions. about the Pompeii region.While our National Library (NLA).The Australians understanding about how technology and have been among the leaders in developing f course, the Internet is more than digital objects can be presented has strategies for preserving their documentary Ojust a massive digital library waiting advanced considerably during the past heritage as represented on the Web. In the to be harvested, processed, stored and decade, at the time the Pompeii exhibition middle of this year the NLA published a retrieved. Increasingly we recognise the offered an exciting early indication of how thoughtful review by Margaret Phillips central importance of the social space, con- interactives in an exhibition setting could (2003), Collecting Australian Online text and interactivity that lie at the heart of transform the experience of visitors and Publications, http://pandora.nla.gov.au/ the Internet.The physical and the virtual how underlying databases could provide BSC49.doc, which provides illuminating worlds are often contrasted, with the virtu- users with access to information about background and contains a valuable exami- al world and its cyberculture viewed as material culture and its distribution.The nation of selection and collection strate- uniquely different from ‘real-world cul- sumptuous catalogue of the exhibition gies.As well as drawing our attention to ture’.While it is true that there are charac- (Rediscovering Pompeii,‘L'Erma’ di the work of the NLA and the richness of teristics of cyberculture that set it apart Bretschneider, . 1990, Roma) provided the PANDAS tool, she notes the inaccessi- from more traditional measures of culture, some valuable insights into the use of bility to many harvesting strategies of the the boundary between the two worlds has information technology on the project (pp. ‘deep Web’.The ‘deep Web’ is that infor- never been precise and continues to blur. 105-128). Occasionally I wondered what mation landscape characterised by Websites The evolution of virtual social, informa- had become of the underlying databases.At and associated information resources drawn tion and economic spaces has demonstrat- the Firenze conference (see above) from dynamic or static databases in ed this with remarkable clarity.We are all Alessandro Ruggiero presented response to specific user requests, or hid- aware that the Internet enables individuals ‘Preservation of digital memories: risks and

DigiCULT.Info 2 Staff there shared their experiences,‘war stories’, and a few artist’s tricks – buying up hard disks for spare parts, and tech- niques of observation.The Symposium itself is worthy of mention because its forthcoming publication will bring togeth- er some of the latest thinking on digital preservation. Even those of us who had the privilege of hearing the papers will be rewarded by reading them (e.g. Ulrich Lang’s ‘Volatile Memory’).

n mid-November ERPANET co-hosted Ia workshop on Trusted Repositories with the Accademia dei Lincei (Roma) in its 16th century Palazzo Corsini.Talks by Robert Kahn from the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI)

© HATII (UofGlasgow),© HATII Ross, Seamus 2003 (Virginia, USA) and Professor Tito Orlandi Canadian National Archives opened the workshop. Materials from these and other workshop presentations can be emergencies – Six Case Studies’, which studies about data loss and recovery is a found on the ERPANET Website (http:// satisfied my curiosity.The system had ini- challenge, as Luciano Scala, Director of the www.erpanet.org). tially been switched off even before the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico exhibition, although it was switched back delle Biblioteche Italiane e per le on briefly to enable the show to be creat- Informazioni Bibliografiche, noted in his ed.While several of the case studies dis- Preface to the Ruggiero study. He report- cussed by Ruggiero have been noted in ed that, despite using contacts, engaging in other published literature, the Database of wide-ranging discussions with colleagues the Consorzio Neapolis (IBM and FAIT), and conducting interviews,‘it was often designed to enable the exploitation of hard, if not impossible, to gather enough environmental and artistic resources in the information to create a comprehensive area around Mount Vesuvius, has not record of the problem’ of digital loss. © HATII (UofGlasgow),© HATII Ross, Seamus 2003 received similar attention.The two-year These case studies are essential if we are to Robert Kahn and Tito Orlandi,at Accademia project, which began in 1987, to collect develop an understanding of the points of dei Lincei (Roma) and encode the data, engaged 110 staff and risk to digital objects, and the costs and cost some 36 billion Lira (or at the current possibilities of data rescue. few weeks before the workshop, conversion rate 18,000,000 euros). Adecades of work by Professor Tito Ruggiero’s report on the recovery of this escue of digital materials has become Orlandi, well known as an avid supporter resource provides a window to challenges Ra major industry and DigiCULT.Info of the thoughtful use of ICT to facilitate involved in digital preservation and recov- will examine the topic in a future News- humanities scholarship, on the study of ery. It took some two years to recover the letter. Some of the participants at the Coptic Literature and Civilisation resulted database and cost roughly 200,000 euros. excellent Canadian Conservation Institute in the release of Corpus dei Manoscritti Copti The work ‘was made possible only due to Symposium 2003 on Preservation of Letterari (CMCL).This online subscription the availability of a mainframe system simi- Electronic Records: New Knowledge and database provides resources on Coptic lar to the original one’ and the accessibility Decision-Making (in September in Manuscripts and Literature, with full texts of oral history and guidance from partici- Ottawa) were offered an illuminating visit (and translations into Italian), bibliographic pants in the original project (Ruggerio to Tunstall and Tunstall Data Recovery sources, and information on the Coptic (2003), p.30).Accumulating good case (http://www.datarecoveryservices.com). civilisation at large.

DigiCULT.Info 3 © HATII (UofGlasgow),© HATII Ross, Seamus 2003 © HATII, Ross, Seamus 2003 Tunstall and Tunstall (Nepean, Ontario) Disc Store Disc Crash,Tunstall and Tunstall (Nepean, Ontario)

igiCULT Forum has considered dig- multilingual presentation framework for n October the DigiCULT Forum Dital asset management systems from Encoded Archival Description (EAD) doc- Ireleased its Thematic Issue 4: Learning several perspectives – as a thematic issue uments. PLEADE provides a set of tools to Objects from Cultural and Scientific Heritage (number 2) in September 2002 and again build dynamic Websites. Resources.The Telematics Centre at the in March 2003 in our first Technology University of Exeter has contributed to Watch Report. Paul Conway, Director of iven the diversity of our domain, this newsletter a further article on this Information Technology Services at Duke GDigiCULT.Info has great difficulty topic which examines issues surrounding University Libraries, has offered us an in- selecting which conferences to cover and learning enabled through virtual exhibi- depth look at Zope, an open source con- would be delighted to receive suggestions tions.The discussion touches on such top- tent management system (CMS).While he and even conference reviews. Once again ics as the way the interaction of ‘virtual has examined the use of Zope from a this year we report on the Digital objects promoted an appreciation’ of physi- higher education perspective, many of the Resources in the Humanities Conference. cal objects and encouraged in virtual visi- issues that he raises also apply to Cultural DRH2003 was held in Gloucester, UK, in tors a desire to see the real (or physical) Heritage institutions – in particular, his September.The continued success of the original.They report, much as the conclusion that content management tech- DRH conferences reflects the increasing Education team from ARKive did in the nology can be a ‘useful lever of innovation dependence of academic researchers and last newsletter, that interactives need to add for libraries in a federated institutional heritage professionals on ICT. value to content, not merely point to it. environment’. In particular he argues that ‘university libraries have new opportunities he numbers of academic institutions imilarly Virtual Reality plays a signifi- for leadership and influence on campus.’ Tbuilding humanities and arts infor- Scant role as heritage institutions com- Could we extend his argument further matics programmes is also growing. For municate about the heritage and research by claiming that through extending its example, this December marks the second cultural remains. DigiCULT has covered access to heritage materials cultural institu- anniversary of the launch of the New some of these topics in earlier issues of this tions can extend their influence? Our Zealand eText Centre based at the Victoria Newsletter (e.g.Theatron in Issue 4) and in French correspondent notes that the University. In a recent interview its its first Te c hnology Watch Report (February New Cultural Portal launched by the Director Elizabeth Styron described her 2003). In this issue we report on Cistercians French Minister of Culture is a Zope- strategic approach to creating a sustainable in Yorkshire,a project which is creating based solution. unit. Her efforts are establishing an aca- learning materials centred around 3D demically grounded centre that delivers reconstructions of Cistercian buildings.The n the last issue Andrew McHugh intro- effective services for public sector bodies, theme of virtual reality is further investi- Iduced the topic of open source software cultural heritage institutions and commer- gated by colleagues from the Cultural and and in this issue we take up the topic again cial enterprises. Educational Technology Institute (Greece) with an article on PLEADE, a flexible in their presentation of work developing

DigiCULT.Info 4 3D multimedia tools for archiving cultural ox.ac.uk/).This project, run by Peter on other occasions, the authorship of that heritage materials from landscapes to Fraser and Elaine Matthews at the seasonal poem ‘The Night Before objects. One of the strengths of their work University of Oxford, aims to collect, doc- Christmas’ was re-attributed to Henry is that it enables access to and display of ument and make accessible (e.g. publish) Livingston after having been assigned to other data types alongside the models.This for further research all surviving ancient Clement Clarke Moore for a century and theme of visualisation is also taken up in Greek personal names from the earliest a half.After 150 years,‘The Night Before the closing article by the Director of the written materials to about the sixth century Christmas’ remains, even if a little too Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Institute AD.The project has been using computer materially so, a wonderful story of warmth for Philosophical Research, Professor technology since shortly after its founda- and seasonal cheer.All of us at DigiCULT Kristóf Nyíri, as he examines the develop- tion in 1972 to facilitate the development extend you our best wishes for the season ment of the knowledge society. of the lexicon.While the LGPN has used and hope that each of you may have a computer technology to facilitate its happy and successful 2004. igiCULT is funded under the Fifth manipulating, processing and presenting, in DFramework Programme of the other cases it may be feasible to automate Seamus Ross & John Pereira European Commission and, as with all the process of culling names from sources. Editors, DigiCULT.Info such activities, the Commission appoints a Colleagues at the Netherlands Institute for Project Officer to assist our work. Scientific Information Services have devel- DigiCULT’s first project officer,Axel oped a tool for extracting names from lit- Szauer, retired early from the Commission erary texts that will enable research into this autumn. One might not automatically how authors use names (e.g. types, fre- mark the passing of a project officer, but quencies, characterisation). Axel Szauer did much to ensure the suc- cess of our activities, helped us to avoid imilarly, research into the authenticity pitfalls that can bedevil projects, and gave Sof texts and the attribution of author- us support and encouragement.We were ship has been substantially aided by com- sorry to see him go and wish him all the putational tools, whether it be the studies best. led by Sir Anthony Kenny on Artistole, Gerard Ledger on Plato, or Don Foster on ames provide a rich source for variety material from poems purported to Nscholars, but culling them can be a be by Shakespeare, to more contemporary slow process. Our first encounter with this fiction and non-fiction.You may remember (UofGlasgow),© HATII Ross, Seamus 2003 scholarly domain was with the Lexicon of that, in part, because of his efforts, Christine Ataide (1994), Árvore de Natal, Greek Personal Names (http://www.lgpn. although less computationally based than National Palace of Pena

CONTACT THE PEOPLE BEHIND DigiCULT FORUM Salzburg Research HATII – Humanities Advanced Technology and Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H Information Institute

DigiCULT Project Manager Director, HATII & ERPANET John Pereira, [email protected] Seamus Ross, [email protected] DigiCULT Thematic Issue Scientific Editor DigiCULT Forum Technology Assessor Guntram Geser, [email protected] Martin Donnelly, [email protected] DigiCULT Network Co-ordinator DigiCULT.Info Content & Managing Editor Birgit Retsch, [email protected] Daisy Abbott, [email protected] DigiCULT Web Developer Brian Aitken, [email protected]

Copyright Notice: Introduction © HATII (UofGlasgow), Compilation © HATII (UofGlasgow), Images and other media © as noted at image or media access point, Layout and design © Salzburg Research, Individual Articles © named authors or their institu- tions. This issue may be freely re-distributed provided there is no charge for it and that it is redistributed in full and without alternation.

DigiCULT.Info 5 3D-ARCHGIS: ARCHIVING CULTURAL HERITAGE IN A 3D MULTIMEDIA SPACE

NESTOR C. TSIRLIGANIS, FOTIS ARNAOUTOGLOU, ANESTIS KOUTSOUDIS, GEORGE PAVLIDIS, CHRISTODOULOS CHAMZAS CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE, GREECE

D ArchGIS is an experimental applica- 3tion that attempts to implement the capabilities and promises that new tech- nologies bring to the field of documenta- tion and preservation of cultural heritage. It enables scientists to map and browse physicochemical information on the sur- face of 3D scanned archaeological arte- ArchGIS,© 3D 2003 facts. In addition, it is a Web oriented Figure 1. 3D ArchGIS plugin application that provides functionality and features not commonly available from sim- reading to narration.The introduction of information and made it more appealing ilar applications.The aim is to develop a these ‘supplements’ made the communicat- to the public. Physical and chemical char- flexible and user-friendly tool for combin- ed information more objective, enduring acteristics were, however, still interesting ing and displaying various data types and precise. Further technological advances only to a limited number of researchers. alongside 3D models – in some respects, an like typography and photography have Images combined with historical excerpts online GIS tool for objects of any size and since been used to expedite the process. in the form of digital catalogues became shape, from a ceramic fragment to an the standard in promoting private collec- archaeological site. ore recently, the advent of new tions and museums. Catalogues with deep- Mtechnologies and their applications er descriptions and scientific facts were also reservation and dissemination of cul- have radically altered the way information used for educational purposes and typolog- Ptural heritage has always satisfied a is stored, archived, retrieved and presented. ical research. Multimedia brought a new multitude of psychological, aesthetic, social The enormous impact this could have on era with virtual worlds. Relatively simple and political ambitions of humanity.The the registration, documentation, presenta- catalogues, enriched with video and graph- aspiration of the human race to dominate tion and, ultimately, preservation of cultural ics, were transformed into virtual muse- time was manifested early on with a gen- heritage was appreciated and explored ums, while multimedia databases offer a uine and ardent attempt to record, preserve early on. Systematic recording of the phys- multitude of information.Yet this wealth of and spread its present achievements and its ical and chemical characteristics, typologi- information remains, to a great extent, cultural heritage.Vision, memory and nar- cal description, and historical information bound to 2D media. ration were the original means used to of cultural objects led to the first databases, serve this purpose, and remained basically mainly for research purposes. reat advances in 3D technologies unalterable until the revolution that Goffer new opportunities to record accompanied the addition of writing to igitisation of 2D images of the every detail of cultural heritage in high vision, stone and paper to memory, and Dobjects enriched the stored textual precision, and to present it in a more

DigiCULT.Info 6 he Cultural Technology Unit of the TCultural and Educational Technology Institute (http://www.ceti.gr), with the collaboration of the Institute’s Multimedia Unit, initiated an attempt to incorporate the latest technologies and methodologies into an integrated documentation environ- ment for cultural objects.This began with the development of a multimedia database initially focused on archaeological ceramic and glass artefacts.The database should include detailed 2D and 3D images of archaeological finds accompanied by mor- phological-typological descriptions, histori- cal and scientific data such as dating measurements, mechanical properties and stoichiometric analysis that – where appro- priate and possible – will be mapped on

© 3D ArchGIS,© 3D 2003 the 3D image. Figure 2. 3D Photographic scanner combination of different technologies attractive way. It is not only, however, the tion of an artefact in every conceivable Awere incorporated to implement this new imaging methods that help in the detail.The effect that such a reconstruction task: 3D geometry and texture acquisition documentation and preservation of cultural will have upon scientific research, dissemi- technologies; 3D point-wise surface data heritage. In the early stages of archiving, nation of knowledge and public interest is acquisition technologies; relational database information was derived mainly from the profound. system technologies;Virtual Reality tech- human senses, primarily vision and touch, nologies (e.g.VRML); dynamic User since they described the perceived promi- THE CONCEPT OF ‘3D-ARCHGIS’ Interface technologies realised through Java nent and lasting characteristics of the arti- he main requirements of a modern and PHP languages. Finally, borrowing cles.Advances in science and technology Tinformation retrieval system are: ideas from GIS systems (where 3D infor- enriched this information and made it immediate access to distant stored data; an mation is structured in layers and the user more complex, substantial, measurable, reli- intelligent mechanism to turn raw data can visualise any kind of information lay- able and replicable.Today, innovations in into useful information; flexibility to allow ered graphically over the base background instrumentation make possible the extrac- users to submit queries of varying com- layer), the effort was directed to the devel- tion of even more accurate, point-wise plexity with a number of options; and opment of a system where a user can visu- information of physicochemical character- finally a user-friendly environment.All istics and mechanical properties of objects. these requirements point directly to Internet databases.There are many databas- he combination of modern measure- es with specialised content providing serv- Tments, 3D imaging, and mapping ices over the Internet. Specifically, a provides a field for the development of cultural database is a database that can pro- new ways to register and present informa- vide information related to cultural tion that can once again revolutionise the objects, monuments, museums, heirlooms, documentation of cultural heritage, leading and so on.At present, the majority of these to integrated and complete recording with databases’ data are limited to 2D pictures the capability to visualise data not only and drawings, textual descriptions and ArchGIS,© 3D 2003 macroscopically, but also in a point-size tables of data, all used to describe the Figure 3. micro X-Ray Fluorescence fashion, and enables the virtual reconstruc- archived object. (m-XRF)

DigiCULT.Info 7 © 3D ArchGIS,© 3D 2003 © 3D ArchGIS,© 3D 2003 © 3D ArchGIS,© 3D 2003 Figure 4. Entering data Figure 5.A new point selected Figure 6. Registered points

alise not only the physicality of an object, try and texture data (also known as 3 to 4 but also how it is described in the physico- dimensions of data) in a Web compatible chemical database (for example, the surface format like the Virtual Reality Modelling distribution of iron in the pigments of the Language (VRML). However, the decoration).This led to the name ‘3D Institute’s infrastructure makes possible the ArchGIS’ Cultural Database. extraction of information from an artefact that goes beyond the typical 3 to 4 dimen- FEATURES OF 3D ARCHGIS sions – 3D ArchGIS can be considered as D ArchGIS is an application based on an enhanced 3D model viewer with © 3D ArchGIS,© 3D 2003 3the client-server architecture.The unique features.The system allows data client component has been implemented mapping on the surface of the 3D model Figure 7. Colour mapping based on data as a plug-in for Microsoft Internet and at the same time composes a unique Explorer (see Figure 1).Web browsers are tool for browsing and retrieving these data. one of the most widely used and well- The information used for 3D mapping is D ArchGIS can be used for presenting established platforms for presenting multi- grouped according to its physicochemical 3all this mapped information or as a media content while supporting numerous attributes, retrieved using the micro X-Ray simple 3D viewer for displaying the 3D data formats, from simple text and images Fluorescence (m-XRF) technique against scanned artefacts on the Internet.The user up to live streaming video and 3D graph- the object’s surface to extract the chemical can see the object from any angle, zoom in ics. Such a sophisticated client-side soft- decomposition (see Figure 3). and out, and browse its surface for data. ware component requires an equally Furthermore, it is possible to visualise the powerful server that will be able to handle he initial study involves the digital object at spectrum bands invisible to the the complexity and size of the data. Tacquisition of geometry and texture human eye, or even to observe the chemi- Modern multimedia databases can handle from the actual artefact.Then it is parsed cal elements distribution as mapped on the huge amounts of data in a very efficient to the 3D ArchGIS to map the data surface of the object (Figure 7). manner.Thus,Web browsers are considered retrieved from the m-XRF system.The Furthermore, a point from a region of among the programming community as an mapping of the data is performed manually interest can be selected in order to grant ideal platform for the development of at present (Figure 4).A region of interest is access to the entire m-XRF analysis for database oriented applications in situations selected (Figure 5) on the surface of the that point which includes chemical com- where the main scope of the system is the 3D object that corresponds to the real position data followed by the respective global distribution of multimedia informa- object point where the measurements have spectrograms (Figure 8). tion.The current system of archaeological been taken.The contribution of 3D artefact archiving presents historical infor- ArchGIS to this task is that it enables study he system has the capability to block mation in textual format accompanied by of the 3D model of the artefact and users Tunauthorised users from inputting typological data alongside a realistic 3D can easily pick the 3D coordinates of the new data sets into the database; however, representation of the artefact on the same sampled point just by clicking on the sur- browsing and querying the database is a Web page.A typical 3D scanning system face of the 3D model (Figure 6). free access service with restrictions on the (see Figure 2) is limited to export geome- results. Querying is implemented through

DigiCULT.Info 8 tions, the target group of the application was identified as a group of ‘average, semi- experienced computer user[s]’.Therefore most of these users would have OS driven computer systems with (installed as default during the OS installation) and the ‘in window’ accelerated OpenGL graphics support.The majority of Microsoft Windows users steered the development process to the ActiveX plug-in solution.

or the real time rendering of 3D Fgraphics Open-GL libraries are used. Open-GL (http://www.opengl.org/) is a well-established industry standard and is © 3D ArchGIS,© 3D 2003 supported by most operating systems and Figure 8. Data from a point graphics hardware developers.Thus, a large portion of the code is platform independ- a friendly graphical user interface (see form independent but the fact that accel- ent and the rendering of 3D graphics is Figure 9). In this way, a laboratory which erated OpenGL graphics are not supported hardware accelerated via the drivers of a conducts an extensive study on an archae- by default raises the issue of the manual standard graphics card. ological artefact can provide the entirety of download and installation of large files the information regarding that artefact in a (Java2 & Java 3D) by inexperienced users. D ArchGIS retrieves the 3D object to very valuable and efficient way to scientists 3be explored from a remote server, all over the world. ctiveX plug-in is a well-established along with information from a database Amethod for developing software com- where the latest measurements and scien- TECHNOLOGY BEHIND 3D ARCHGIS ponents that can be executed within other tific data for each artefact are regularly s mentioned earlier, the client com- applications (modularity). It is supported updated.The communication between the Aponent of 3D ArchGIS is implement- by a variety of software development plat- server and the client is bi-directional (see ed as a plug-in.The forms such as advantage of running the application as a Microsoft Visual Basic, plug-in within a single window is that it Microsoft Visual C++, allows the user to work in a consistent and and Delphi; however, familiar environment without the need to the main disadvantage switch between separate application win- of this method is that dows. Furthermore, the versatile nature of it is operating system a plug-in software component permits the dependent (only avail- application to be incorporated into bigger able from Microsoft Web projects and allows real multimedia Windows version95 visualisation of the entire data set.This and later) and browser very useful feature is, however, also a dependent (Internet restrictive factor that leads to some draw- Explorer and backs.As a browser plug-in, 3D ArchGIS is Navigator). restricted to Web oriented technology.The © 3D ArchGIS,© 3D 2003 most widely used technologies for devel- uring the initial Figure 9. Easy querying GUI opment in browser plug-ins are Java Drequirements and ActiveX. Java applets are plat- analysis and specifica-

DigiCULT.Info 9 Modern measurement instrumentation combined with multimedia databases and the appropriate software tools can offer a very rich and coherent description of a cultural object – a description that meets not only the needs of a virtual museum, but also the very demanding and detailed

© 3D ArchGIS,© 3D 2003 requirements of an in-depth, precise and accurate scientific study, even from remote locations. Figure 10. Communication Scheme ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Figure 10). 3D ArchCAD communicates Addressing bandwidth challenges will he 3D ArchGIS project at CETI is a with the server by performing calls to require innovative methods of data com- Tcollaborative effort of specialists in PHP (a server based script language) pages pression, including the 3D models, com- various fields of science and technology, as and retrieving the output (simple text) bined with progressive loading and display. is clearly shown through the professional from the server as a data set of input At its current implementation the applica- expertise of the members of the develop- parameters.This technique is implemented tion is focused on mapping physicochemi- ing team: Dr C. Chamzas (Electrical and by making use of operating system specific cal data on the surface of the 3D models; Mechanical Engineer), Dr N.Tsirliganis calls (which makes this part of the code future versions are designed to be more (Nuclear Physicist), Dr D.Tsiafakis platform dependent). flexible on the type of mapped data and (Archaeologist), Dr Z. Loukou (Chemist), will allow mapping not only on the surface G. Pavlidis (Electrical and Computer FUTURE DEVELOPMENT of the model but on its entire volume as Engineer),A.Tsompanopoulos (Electrical D ArchGIS is an experimental applica- well. and Computer Engineer), K. Stavroglou 3tion and still under development. (Electrical and Computer Engineer), D. Currently, it is on the second beta imple- CONCLUSION Papadopoulou (Chemist),V.Evagengelidis mentation. Future implementations of 3D D-digital archiving and presentation (Archaeologist),A. Koutsoudis (Multimedia ArchGIS will address operating system 3provides scientists and the general pub- Engineer), and F.Arnaoutoglou (Program- dependency, which is one of the most seri- lic with powerful means for the registra- mer).We believe this mixture of specialties ous limitations, and the needs of users with tion, documentation, preservation, display reflects the demands of archiving of Cultural low bandwidth Internet connections. and dissemination of our cultural heritage. Objects in the twenty-first century. BACK TO PAGE 1

ZOPE AT DUKE UNIVERSITY: OPEN SOURCE CONTENT MANAGEMENT IN A HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXT

PAUL CONWAY in defining the need, establishing the tech- this article is that DIRECTOR, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY nological boundaries of the initiative, and Web content man- marshalling the resources for the library to agement technolo- SERVICES, DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES take advantage of Duke’s overall invest- gy, if the fit is right, ment in CMS software and services.This may be a particu-

uke University is about to embark brief article explores the particular oppor- larly useful lever of © Duke University, 2003 Don a major initiative to deploy an tunities and challenges that are represented innovation for open source Web content management sys- by the choice of Zope as the university’s libraries in a feder- tem (CMS) as an enterprise Web applica- content management framework tool and ated institutional Paul Conway tion.Two years in the planning, the of Zope Corporation as a provider of environment. university library has played a pivotal role development services.The conclusion of

DigiCULT.Info 10 DUKE UNIVERSITY CONTEXT vision of a unified Web presence supported uke University (http://www.duke. by ‘a sound Web strategy and an environ- Dedu/) is a private higher educational ment that automates some of the collabo- institution founded in 1924 in Durham, rative contribution’.The report identified North Carolina.As with any modern four overarching benefits to a more unified research university, Duke is highly decen- approach to the Duke Web, including more tralised.Administrative departments are effective branding, customised content,

often proudly independent and have, over department autonomy with purpose, and © Duke University, 2003 time, evolved subcultures and ways of improved quality of the overall effort. One Perkins Library at Duke University accomplishment that may appear mysteri- of the critical mechanisms for achieving ous to the uninitiated. Decentralised these benefits, according to the report, is eration of pieces of information put administration extends to all aspects of the using software to support Web develop- together to form a cohesive whole.A book university, including technology operations ment and content sharing – precisely the has content, which is comprised of multi- and Web publication programs.The Web at claims of the content management system ple chapters, paragraphs, and sentences. Duke is a sprawling network that totals industry. 1 Newspapers contain content: articles, over 750,000 individual pages and hun- advertisements, indexes, and pictures.The dreds of databases that generate Web pages WHAT IS A CONTENT MANAGEMENT newest entry to the media world, the Web, dynamically. Over the past decade, virtually SYSTEM? is just the same; sites are made of articles, all HTML encoding has been hand-craft- n the United States, the term ‘content advertisements, indexes, and pictures all ed.The university’s news and communica- Imanagement system’ or ‘Web content organised into a coherent presentation.’3 tion department manages the Duke management system’ increasingly has a dis- homepage, but the front-page system is a tinctive meaning. For European readers, a content management system is the minuscule proportion of the whole. CMS might best be thought of as a subset Atechnical environment (hardware, Responsibility for creating and managing of the larger concept of ‘Digital Asset software, expertise) that supports the sys- virtually all pages beyond the front door is Management System’ or DAMS.The tematic processing of digital content from widely distributed across the campus. In DigiCULT Technology Watch Report 1 states authorship to publication. For our purpos- the university library alone, over 70 indi- that ‘DAMS employ technologies such as es,‘publication’ is delivery to users via viduals have authoring rights and responsi- commercially available database manage- Internet browser technology, but Boiko bilities for portions of the 30,000 pages ment tools to handle and manage makes it clear that, once digital content that reside on the library’s Web server; resources, allowing users to discover them resides in a CMS, it can be repurposed for some of these staff spend substantial por- with ease and speed and owners/creators any number of uses, including feeding to tions of their week on content creation to monitor their usage and version histo- digital printing presses or reformatting for tasks. Duke is just now beginning to focus ries.’2 Content management systems are transmission as ‘fixed’ digital entities, such on the very real resource and content limi- indeed database driven tools, but the focus as PDF documents.‘At first blush CMS tations of the university’s Web space.A near is on publication processes rather than on may seem like a way to create large Web- consensus exists at Duke on the value of search and discovery. sites, but upon closer examination it is in increased support for building and main- fact an overall process for collecting, man- taining Websites and increased capability to niversity of Washington professor aging and publishing content to any share content internally, reduce inefficien- UBob Boiko begins with a high-level outlet.’4 cies across the campus, and improve the view of content and its effective manage- overall quality of our technology face to ment.‘Content, stated as simply as possible, n ‘Content Management Systems:Who the outside world. is information put to use. Information is INeeds Them?’5 the authors acknowl- put to use when it is packaged and pre- edge that the boundaries are fuzzy uke conducted a review of the state sented (published) for a specific purpose. between document management systems, Dof the university Web in October More often than not, content is not a sin- knowledge management systems, group- 2001.The internal report articulated a gle “piece” of information, but a conglom- ware and other enterprise information management systems.They place the core 1 Duke University, State of the Web, 17 October 2001. http://www.oit.duke.edu/CMSsub/docs/StateofTheWeb.pdf 2 Seamus Ross, Martin Donnelly and Milena Dobreva, DigiCULT Technology Watch Report 1: New Technologies for functions of a content management system the Cultural and Scientific Heritage Sector,February 2003, p. 42. http://www.digicult.info/pages/publications.php 3 Bob Boiko,‘Understanding Content Management’ in ASIS Bulletin, 28 (Oct/Nov 2001). into four categories: http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Oct-01/boiko.html 4 Bob Boiko, Content Management Bible (New York:Wiley & Sons, 2001). 5 Paul Browning and Mike Lowndes,‘Content Management Systems:Who Needs Them?’ in Ariadne, 30, 20 December 2001. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue30/techwatch/intro.html DigiCULT.Info 11 1. authoring (creating Web content in a etc.) needed to support efforts to balance to a wide range of content objects both managed and authorised environment); creativity and flexibility with brand con- within and outside traditional CMS 2. workflow (management of the steps sistency at the departmental, school and content repositories. between authoring and publishing); University levels. • Delivery/Publication. Provide content 3. storage (authored content components, • Flexibility. Make it easier for all Duke to participating delivery servers and to in multiple versions, in a repository); Web efforts to support the full range of facilitate the publication and manage- 4. publishing (dynamic delivery of stored Web content sources (development ment of delivered content. content to the Web). tools, databases, etc.) and Web display •Site Management. Provide mechanisms devices (graphical browsers, text-only for monitoring and reporting on the use DUKE GOALS FOR A CONTENT browsers, kiosks and emerging small- of managed content; provide mecha- MANAGEMENT SYSTEM screen platforms such as cell phones and nisms for automatically generating high- t Duke, as may be the case in any PDAs). level ‘site maps’ depicting the relation- Awidely decentralised organisation, the • Implementation. Give first priority to ships of pages and objects to a depth of capabilities of an enterprise software tool the immediate needs of early adopters at least four layers of referral. with the wide impact of a content man- and second priority to anticipated future agement system are demanding.The team needs of an emerging CMS community. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS charged with identifying a CMS tool for ogether with the distributed institu- the university developed a list of key goals FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS Ttional structures of the university, driving the software selection process. he overall goals for the campus con- baseline functional requirements helped Ttent management initiative defined a determine the technical parameters of a • Site Maintenance. Enable non-techni- discrete set of functional capabilities that content management system. cal staff to update and maintain their must be included in any system, whether Web content more easily and efficiently bought or built locally. • Federated Architecture. Multiple using a variety of computing platforms independent servers running a standard, and Web development tools. • Content Authoring. Provide for the accepted CMS software package put • Consistency. Provide a consistent Web smooth and efficient creation and edit- together in coordination with a central site management environment that will ing of content; integration with com- CMS support organisation. handle content creation, style, visitor mon editing and word processing tools; • Interoperability. CMS systems must usability, policy, workflow, versioning, ability to import existing content, interoperate as seamlessly as possible and revision control for decentralised metadata, multiple file types. with a wealth of existing content already Web infrastructures and content authors. • Presentation. Flexible use of common available through a number of well- • Sharing. Facilitate the syndication development tools; creation or import of travelled and well-recognised Duke (sharing and reuse) of Web content, with templates, standard forms. campus Websites. System-driven man- the appropriate editorial accountability, • Syndication. Support the sharing and dates for change should be at the by offering central facilities to index and reuse of content across campus. discretion of the content creators, cache content that originates anywhere • Workflow. Support various forms of where possible. on the Duke subnet. workflow and facilitate the management • Integration. Because the level of tech- • Automation. Reduce inaccurate, out- of content throughout its lifecycle (from nical expertise varies dramatically among dated, redundant or unauthorised creation through publication and syndi- campus users, flexible integration with content through automated content cation to deactivation and archiving). third-party development and authoring management processes, versioning and • Ve r sioning. Provide revision control tools is critical. Some users will have a workflow. mechanisms, both in support of collabo- high degree of technical expertise and • Accessibility. Make it easier for all rative content manipulation and in sup- demand fine-grained control over their Duke Web efforts to achieve and main- port of change management and content content; some will have a low degree of tain compliance with evolving standards reversion. technical expertise and need to create (ADA and W3 compliance, University • Accessibility. Content stored or and deliver content in the most natural and departmental privacy policies, etc.) indexed within content repositories must and ‘matter of fact’ fashion possible. and provide the tools (repositories of be easily accessible during Website devel- • Scalability. Because neither the size of approved templates, images and logos, opment, and access needs to be provided the user population nor the extent of

DigiCULT.Info 12 the eventual growth of a CMS on cam- began with a thorough review of the exist- would encourage people to share resources pus is predictable, a CMS must be easily ing technical literature and a set of consul- and work together. Zope was responsive to scalable and expandable. tations with industry analysts.The our needs and we’re now working with • Openness. The University has a strong committee assessed products from fourteen them to create a CMS solution that we interest in ensuring that solutions companies and then issued a formal hope will transform Duke’s online activities.’6 deployed at the enterprise level support Request for Proposals (RFP) to four ven- open standards, both to protect against dors. Representatives of these companies ZOPE, OPEN SOURCE AND THE CMS vendor lock-in and to ensure the long- attended a half-day bidders conference to COMPETITION term utility of campus software imple- clarify the requirements and then submit- eb content management tools are mentations. Of particular interest to the ted full responses to the RFP.A compre- Wbig business in the US marketplace University are open-source solutions that hensive review of the four proposals led today. Industry analysts have content man- feature the active involvement of devel- the committee to recommend the selec- agement trends on their radar screens and oper and user communities and vendors tion of the Zope Corporation have produced assessment reports over the that demonstrate a willingness to train (http://www.zope.com) to build a Duke- past three years that document increasing local users and participate in open stan- specific content management system based hype, marketplace mergers and consolida- dards development. upon the open-source Zope content man- tion, and the relatively rapid maturing of • Modularity.The major components agement framework the product environment.Three of the of a campus implementation must be (http://www.zope.org). largest technology analysts have articulated capable of functioning with relative the case that an open source content man- independence and have modular com- uke University signed a contract agement system might be a viable option, ponents that can be adopted in varying Dwith the Zope Corporation to at least until the commercial sector stabilis- combinations by various campus units. develop a product called ‘Zope4Edu’ with es.Among these analysts, however, only • Enterprise. Enterprise-level strategies Duke as the first user.‘None of the leading To ny Byrnes’ independent CMS Watch has for selecting vendors, platforms and CMS packages seemed quite right for our given substantial attention to any of the support mechanisms will be used to situation,’ said Tracy Futhey, Duke’s vice open-source CMS tools. In some ways, the specify a CMS product. president for information technology and failure of open-source CMS to register a chief information officer.‘Our challenge share of marketplace or to compete direct- ased upon the requirements described was political and institutional as much as ly with large-scale enterprise applications is Babove, a campus-wide committee technical.We needed a system that was understandable. How do you identify ‘mar- managed a vendor selection process that very flexible, with open-source code, that ket share’ when the only product being sold is a service? How do you measure return on investment when the core soft- INDUSTRY ANALYSTS ware product is freely available for down- load? CMS Watch. http://www.cmswatch.com/ ‘CMSWatch is an independent source of information, news, opinion and analysis about Web content management.’ reely available and extendable software CMS Wire. http://www.cmswire.com/ ‘Content management news, commentary Fhas been around in many forms virtu- and product information.’ ally since the inception of computing technology. In particular, the educational Butler Group. http://www.butlergroup.com/ ‘Europe's Leading IT Analyst and research emphasis of the early evolu- Company providing Analysis without compromise.’ tion of Unix has fostered a robust commu- Faulkner Information Services. http://www.faulkner.com ‘Faulkner provides nity of developers and users that has freely in-depth technology information services to public and private sector organisations shared and cooperated on open-source worldwide. Our products include subscription and custom-developed reports, stud- software projects for many years.The more ies and databases.’ formal concept of ‘free’ software as an organised and licensed initiative is credited Gartner, Inc. http://www4.gartner.com/Init ‘Gartner, Inc. is a research and advi- sory firm that helps more than 10,000 clients leverage technology to achieve busi- to Richard Stallman, who founded the ness success.’ Foundation in 1984 and introduced the GNU project.Today, 6 Zope Corporation press release, 9 Oct 2003. http://www.zope.com/News/PressReleases/DukePR DigiCULT.Info 13 ompetition in the open-source OPEN SOURCE CONTENT MANAGEMENT TOOLS Cis narrow but intense. Zope is one of three enterprise-scale open-source content Enhydra Project. http://enhydra.enhydra.org/index.html ‘Enhydra is the first and leading Open Source Java/XML application server. It was initially created by Lutris management systems. In the United States, Technologies, Inc. Over four years in development it was open sourced on Janurary Red Hat markets a comprehensive Web 15th 1999.They christened the technology "Enhydra" after the California sea otter content management product suite that is (Enhydra Lutris) - a popular inhabitant of Santa Cruz.After Lutris switched to derived from the Ars Digita tool kit closed source development and finally failed on the market, the community took launched in the 1990s by Philip over the further development.’ Greenspun and his associates.The Enhydra Red Hat Enterprise Content Management System. system started life as proprietary software http://www.redhat.com/software/rha/cms/ ‘The Red Hat Content Management and then emerged as open-source software Solution (CMS) combines powerful Web content management functionality with when the parent company failed. the flexibility to tailor deployments to the specific production environments and processes of each organisation.As the needs of the organisation grow, additional ope is multidimensional in its concep- functionality can be integrated through other Red Hat Applications packages, tion and challenging in its implemen- including Red Hat Portal Server and collaborative plugins.’ Z tation.9 On one dimension, Zope is an Zope. http://www.zope.org ‘Zope is a framework for building a special kind of open-source Web application platform writ- Web application. Generally, a Web application is a computer program accessed with ten in the Python programming language. a Web browser; the special kind of Web applications built with the framework pro- People who know and use Python praise its vided by Zope can also be thought of as dynamic Websites that both provide static elegance; most developers are unfamiliar information to users and allow those users to work with dynamic tools.’ with the language.The open-source version of Zope, now in release 2.7.0, is fully and enthusiastically supported by a worldwide GNU-licensed ‘free software’ is routinely nised by the community at large, to re-dis- development community that coordinates leveraged by thousands of developers on tribute modified versions’ of the software.8 its activities through Zope.org.10 Zope is dozens of hardware and open-source plat- also a corporate entity that markets configu- forms.At its heart, the open-source model omplicating the open-source envi- ration services for the Zope platform and is based on access to the source code of an Cronment is the existence of private specialised products built on top of the application and the rights of users to freely companies whose livelihood involves sell- Zope content management framework. modify the software for their own use or ing services to other companies that are Some of the major developers of Zope and redistribution as they see fit.7 attracted to a given open-source product the content management framework are but need help installing, configuring or employed by the Zope Corporation. he success of any given open-source customising the software. For example, in Tproduct is as much related to the the United States, Red Hat is the premier n yet another dimension, Zope is a existence of an active community of devel- commercial marketer of the open- Ocontent management framework opers willing to share their work as to the source operating system (http://www.red- that provides the tools and pre-pro- fact that the source code is free. Open hat.com/). grammed elements required to create a source pioneer Eric Raymond notes that content management system. Plone the people who constitute a community systematically harness ‘open development ACCESS TO ZOPE and decentralised peer review to lower Zope, the community. http://www.zope.org costs and improve software quality.’ More Zope, the company. http://www.zope.com important, he clarifies that the develop- Zope, the developers. http://cmf.zope.org/ ment community manages development Zope, the European connection. http://www.eurozope.org/ directly through a trusted-peer network. Zope, the lab. http://www.zopelabs.com/ ‘The owner(s) of a software project are Zope, the magazine. http://www.zopemag.com/Issue001/index.html those who have the exclusive right, recog- Zope, the orientation. http://www.zopenewbies.net/index.html Zope, the Zen. http://www.zopezen.org

7 For more information on open-source software, see ‘Open Source and Free Software Solutions: Reliable, Standardised, Free’ in DigiCULT.Info, Issue 5, October 2003. (http://www.digicult.info/downloads/digicultinfo_issue5_october_2003.pdf) 8 Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral & the Bazaar; Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary (Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly & Associates, 1999), p. 89. 9 Paul Browning.‘Zope – A Swiss Army Knife for the Web?’ in Ariadne, 25, 24 September 2000. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue25/zope/intro.html 10 Chris McDonough,‘Gain Zope Enlightenment By Grokking Object Orientation’, 12 October 2000. http://www.zope.org/Members/mcdonc/HowTos/gainenlightenment DigiCULT.Info 14 (http://www.plone.org) is an example of a content system that is built using the Zope content management framework and dis- tributed on an open-source licence. Plone could serve as an intranet and extranet server, as a document publishing system, a portal server and as a groupware tool for collaboration between separately located © Duke University, 2003 entities.The ‘CMF Dogbowl’Website Figure 1. Diagram of library (http://cmf.zope.org) is the central infor- systems integration mation point for developers of, and for, the CMF.The site is additionally intended to responsibility for particular tasks of Web resources to engage scholarship directly. be used as a ‘fishbowl’ site for the CMF,in publication in areas of expertise that the ‘We see the library becoming more deeply the sense that Zope Corporation is com- library already has in place – in much engaged in the fundamental mission of the mitted to develop Zope ‘in the fishbowl’, the same way as a magazine publisher is academic institution – i.e. the creation and with all significant product development organised into specialised departments. dissemination of knowledge – in ways that visible and accessible to interested mem- •For the libraries at Duke, a campus- represent the library’s contributions more bers of the Zope community. wide CMS may dramatically improve its broadly and that intertwine the library ability to distribute the value-added with the other stakeholders in these activi- THE LIBRARY VISION FOR CONTENT products of its staff, including resource ties.The library becomes a collaborator MANAGEMENT guides, image and text resources created within the academy, yet retains its distinct uke University Library has been an locally, and research guides and other identity.’11 The content management initia- Dactive participant and an enthusiastic tools. tive at Duke has laid the groundwork for supporter of the University’s pursuit of an •Perhaps most important, a CMS, when the library to lead from one of its principal enterprise content management solution fully operational, will give the library an strengths, namely its innate mastery of for the campus.A viable Web content opportunity to present its Web content metadata and the fundamental role such management system, supported fully by the in ways that respond directly to the data plays in the management of informa- university, is a key technology tool for the information needs of its end-users and tion content, including dynamic Web library. In the emerging plan for digital give users the ability to determine their content. library infrastructure, software that supports perspective of the library. Previously the systematic management of Web space is static Web content can be presented substantial investment in Web content one of three critical components (see dynamically to portray the library as a Amanagement technologies remains a Figure 1).A CMS will be a more cost- landscape of digital content, as a service risk at this point in time. Not only is the effective way to manage the library’s Web organisation, or as a suite of tools to CMS market changing almost too rapidly gateway and a more effective way to share support resource discovery and use – to gauge, but the cultural conditions in digital content across campus. to name just three of the possibilities. higher education that are required to embrace a dynamic and open Web space •A CMS will empower library staff to are undeveloped and untested. In partner- produce more and better content with CONCLUSION ing with a purveyor of services to the the same or fewer human resources he role of the library in an institution open-source community, Duke is gambling devoted to the task. Tof higher education is changing. as to whether it can form a successful • The version control features of a robust Fuelled in part by technologies such as development community within the cam- CMS may provide a viable alternative to content management systems, which per- pus environment and change the culture of ‘archiving the Web’ by managing the mit more interesting and dynamic ways of Web content creation from the inside out. underlying content of the dynamic Web disseminating library content, university rather than managing fixed HTML libraries have new opportunities for leader- nformation on the Duke University representations. ship and influence on campus.Wendy ILibraries’ implementation of the Zope • By separating the content of the Web Lougee, University Librarian at the content management system is available from its presentation via a browser, a University of Minnesota, argues that from http://www.lib.duke.edu/its/ CMS will allow the libraries to focus libraries must use their technological index.htm. BACK TO PAGE 1

11 Wendy Pratt Lougee, Diffuse Libraries: Emergent Roles for the Research Library in the Digital Age (Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources,August 2002), p. 4. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub108abst.html DigiCULT.Info 15 NEW OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR CONTENT AND REPOSITORY MANAGEMENT

FEDORA Objects can be submitted to the repository by French companies AJLSM and Anaphore he Fedora Project (http://www.fedo in XML and are persistently stored in the as a generic platform for searching and Tra.info/), a joint venture between repository as XML files.The Fedora exten- browsing XML/EAD archival finding aids. Cornell University and the University of sion of the METS schema can be viewed A detailed report on the functionality and Virginia, has released an open-source digi- at http://www.fedora.info/definitions/ development of Pleade follows. tal object repository management system. 1/0/mets-fedora-ext.xsd. Based on the Flexible Extensible Digital he second tool, Navimages Object Repository Architecture (FEDORA), he system is currently being tested by T(http://sdx.archivesdefrance.culture.gou the system can support a repository con- Tsome North American institutions. v.fr/gpl/navimages/index.html), enables users taining one million objects, managed via a For more information and to download to manage, view, search and browse a series graphical user interface.The management the Fedora software, visit of digital images. It is composed of three and access APIs are implemented as http://www.fedora.info/. modules (the image collector, document SOAP-enabled Web services and among base, and image viewer) and was designed other features include an OAI Metadata PLEADE AND NAVIMAGES to be closely compatible with Pleade. Harvesting Provider. wo new open-source tools were Tunveiled on 7 October 2003 by the he new software was presented to edora digital objects conform to an Centre historique des Archives nationales Tcultural heritage and information Fextension of the Metadata Encoding (CHAN, http://www.archivesnationales. professionals and will become well recog- and Transmission Standard (METS, culture.gouv.fr/chan/).The first, Pleade nised as an aid to collection management. http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/). (http://www.pleade.org/), was developed BACK TO PAGE 1

PLEADE – EAD FOR THE WEB

MARTIN SÉVIGNY, AJLSM, & archivists and archival institutions, these tics have quickly put EAD in front, and FLORENCE CLAVAUD, three letters have a lot more meaning and this model is used today by a wide variety CENTRE HISTORIQUE DES EAD can easily be qualified as a real of institutions with archival holdings. enabling technology. One of the first rea- RCHIVES NATIONALES A sons is that EAD is an international and LEADE is more than a software generic data model, maintained by a large Pcomponent; it is a project and, more n 7 October in Paris, the PLEADE working group where archival professionals importantly, an open-source project. It Oproject was presented during a spe- and IT specialists meet, and where user means that the software itself is distributed cial meeting open to all cultural heritage needs drive the evolution process. with an open-source licence (namely the professionals in France and elsewhere and Moreover, this data model is now com- GPL) and the sources (including docu- to their private partners. PLEADE will pletely compatible with the ISAD(G) – mentation and examples) are available help institutions put archival finding aids General International Standard Archival online. encoded in EAD on the Web, by providing Description – conceptual model, published a set of tools to build dynamic Websites. in 1993 by the International Council on LEADE was initially developed by, and Archives and used worldwide.13 The two Pis supported by, two private companies: AD – Encoded Archival Description12 standards are based on the principle of E– is technically an XML data format multilevel archival description, leading to • Anaphore (Barbentane, France, for archival finding aids. However, for hierarchical finding aids.These characteris- http://www.arkheia.net), the leading

12 For information about the EAD, please visit the Official EAD Website at the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/ead/. 13 The standard is available online: http://www.ica.org/biblio.php?pdocid=1. DigiCULT.Info 16 French provider of software for archival the EAD structure, such as hierarchical the public, general conditions for reading institutions.Their flagship product, browsing and discovery of information. the archives, general information about the Arkhéïa, provides features for managing • Publishing framework: EAD docu- finding aids, etc.The pages containing the archival repositories, but also includes a ments can be published on the Web, static information are in XHTML format, module for building finding aids which enabling users to browse and then read and content is displayed according to the can then be exported in EAD format. the finding aids – and their accompany- general layout or ‘skin’ chosen for the site. • AJLSM (Bordeaux, France, http:// ing digital artefacts – online. www.ajlsm.com), an important provider • Search engine: PLEADE is suitable for LEADE also has an interesting feature of services and tools for managing publishing large collections of (small or Pfor organising finding aids in sub- documentary information using XML large) finding aids, thanks to the avail- sets and groups of subsets. Let us suppose and normalised solutions.AJLSM ability of a powerful search engine, that an institution wants to organise the specialises in cultural heritage informa- letting users find the most relevant available finding aid collections such as tion systems, and is the main developer archival components directly. those related to private companies, persons of the SDX platform, the underlying • Highly configurable: PLEADE is and public institutions.These subsets can technology for PLEADE. designed as a generic application and, be defined and grouped in PLEADE, and although it is usable straight ‘out of the documents can be added to one or more uring the past few months, two other box’, all kinds of configuration and local subsets. Once accomplished, administrators Dinstitutions have contributed greatly adaptation are possible. can easily configure in the interface a list to the development of the software by test- • Multilingual: By using Unicode-based of finding aids per subset and provide spe- ing and debugging it, and by providing technologies (XML, Java), PLEADE is cific search forms for documents within a valuable comments and feature requests: ready for multilingualism, both in the subset. Since no subset is hard coded in user interface (French and English are PLEADE, administrators can define their • The Centre historique des Archives currently available) and for full-text own subsets. nationales (Paris, France, http://www. searching. archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/chan/) • Web: PLEADE uses a Web architecture earching EAD documents in • The Archives départementales de (such as the Web itself, an intranet, even SPLEADE is possible in various ways. In Maine-et-Loire (Angers, France, http: a single computer or removable media the proposed interface, a simple search bar //www.cg49.fr/themes/archives- such as CD-ROM) for publishing the is available in all pages, letting users make departementales/) finding aids.This basically means that simple full-text searches across all finding PLEADE itself is installed on a Web aids published by PLEADE.Although urrently, PLEADE is available as a server, and the users connect to the some users may find this feature sufficient Csecond release candidate of version application using a standard Web browser. for their needs, administrators will often 1.0.This version has been thoroughly test- want to provide more advanced search ed, and can be downloaded from the FUNCTIONAL OVERVIEW forms. For such needs, PLEADE includes a development Website.A final release of n institution may use PLEADE for its search form generator, dynamically build- version 1.0 should be made available in Aspecific characteristics such as search- ing and displaying HTML search forms December 2003. ing and displaying EAD documents only, from easy to create XML configuration or it can build its own Website with the files.With the examples included in the MAIN CHARACTERISTICS platform. In order to do this, PLEADE PLEADE distributions, building specialised LEADE is a highly configurable and provides four general features: publishing search forms should not be a problem for Pmultilingual Web publication frame- static information, along with organising, anyone.All relevant EAD documents are work, including a search engine, for EAD searching and displaying finding aids. available for searching. documents.There are a few important concepts in this short description that we nce installed, PLEADE may be seen ith any search engine, one must should emphasise: Oas a traditional Website, as it includes Wdefine what the searchable units of facilities for publishing static informa- information are. In PLEADE, these units • EAD documents: As PLEADE is built tion and organising this information in a must be determined at the time of index- for EAD documents, everything is opti- configurable menu.This static information ing (and not dynamically at query time) mised for the principal characteristics of may be a home page, opening hours for and, to do this, the administrator is provid-

DigiCULT.Info 17 ed with various options such as choosing between one EAD document and another, objective is to build a virtual community one or more archival levels (e.g. fonds, file, or between one EAD document and the of sponsors, developers, contributors, inte- item), one or more hierarchical levels (e.g. digital surrogates of the archival material, grators and users, each playing an impor- any third-level component) or even an and so on. tant role in the evolution of the project. EAD element (c0, c1, etc.).This means that One striking aspect of this collaboration is the user will see meaningful search results, TECHNOLOGICAL OVERVIEW the amount of contributions needed from at the file level for instance, but these ollowing the tradition of open-source non-technical people. results will always be contextualised (the Fsoftware and modern software devel- titles of its parents are presented also). opment methodologies, PLEADE is a thin urrently, PLEADE uses its own layer built on top of some other technolo- CWebsite and the Sourceforge plat- isplaying EAD documents in gies.The most important ones are, from form for open-source projects as the main DPLEADE usually involves a three- the bottom up: tool for building this virtual community. pane window.The top pane presents the •a Web server, such as Apache, for bibliographic information about the find- handling HTTP requests from a Web • At http://www.pleade.org, one will find ing aid; the right-hand pane contains the browser, and sending back the informa- general information about the project, its contents, split into searchable units in order tion as HTML pages; actors, various events relating to the to avoid large pages on slow network con- •a Java servlet engine, such as Apache project, and up-to-date documentation. nections; and the left-hand pane contains Tomcat, and beneath it a Java virtual Most of the information is currently in interactive tables of contents for browsing machine; French, but translation into English and the finding aid by the component titles • and SDX (http://sdx.culture.fr), a search other languages should occur early in and, if available, by indexation terms found engine and publishing platform for 2004 (contributions welcome). in the documents. Browsing and reading XML documents, based on the Cocoon • At http://sourceforge.net/projects/ the EAD documents is possible with a 2 infrastructure. pleade/, one will find for down- standard Web browser, like any other fea- loading the latest distributions of the ture of PLEADE, as the documents are LEADE can thus be seen as a layer on software, and a mailing list (and its dynamically converted from XML to Ptop of SDX, a layer that lets anyone archives) for the PLEADE community. HTML. publish EAD documents on the Web.This The Sourceforge services are available layer takes control of tasks such as index- in various languages including English, he above description of the main fea- ing, organising and displaying EAD docu- and the mailing list accepts posts in any Ttures of PLEADE should not conceal ments.This layer is quite generic and can language. the fact that everything is highly config- be easily configured to suit different needs • At http://ajlsm-sdx.hopto.org/sdx- urable, from the interface ‘look and feel’ to or layouts.And since SDX supports the use 21h/pl-demo/, there is a standard the way the documents are indexed. For of thesauri for searching, along OAI-PMH installation of PLEADE, including instance, when an administrator adds a harvesting or repositories, these features the example documents distributed document (or a batch of documents shar- could be easily added to PLEADE. with the platform. No specific con- ing similar characteristics), he or she may figuration or adaptation has been choose the subsets it belongs to, how the s PLEADE is based on Java technolo- made for this installation. document will be fragmented for searching Agy, it can be installed on any platform f anyone requires to know more about and displaying, how to build the title of supporting a Java virtual machine, includ- IPLEADE or wishes to contribute, the the searchable units from the various EAD ing Linux and most of UNIX,Windows first step is to subscribe to the mailing list elements, whether a table of contents and Mac OS X. It is thus easy to install it and then send a message.All contributions should be used and, if so, what its label will on a personal computer for testing or pre- and questions are welcome. BACK TO PAGE 1 be, whether the indexing terms should be sentations, and also on high-end servers for used for browsing and/or global searching, public access. what presentation formats to use from among a list of available formats (two are THE PLEADE PROJECT currently available), the set of phrases for eveloping successful open-source labelling the EAD element contents for Dsoftware involves a lot more than display, how to process hypertext links technologies. For PLEADE, the main

DigiCULT.Info 18 ‘As limited as it is, the manipula- THE IRCAM DIGITAL SOUND tion of dials and buttons is an act of ARCHIVE IN CONTEXT interpretation. Forty years ago, a lis- tener could only turn his turntable on or off, and maybe, if it was an BERNARD STIEGLER, advanced model, adjust the volume MICHAEL FINGERHUT, somewhat.The variety of controls NICOLAS DONIN available nowadays requires a capac- INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE ET DE ity for analytical judgment.Yet these COORDINATION ACOUSTIQUE/MUSIQUE14 controls are still very primitive in comparison with the means of par- ticipation that will be offered to the omestic and institutional archiving record buyer-consumer does not need to listener when the current very Dand dissemination of texts, images know anything about music in order to lis- sophisticated techniques still in the and sound (as well as 3D representations, ten to it, nor share with the music producer- labs are integrated into domestic haptic sequences and so on) have been composer any instrumental or formal, appliances’. 15 deeply affected by the advent of digitisa- practical or theoretical knowledge. He can- tion, which has opened up vistas unfore- not read or play music any more; his ears seeable a few decades ago, mainly due to have no eyes and hands, as it were. He is tribution as well as online access, and, in its potential of quasi-infinite perfect repro- nescient. due course, the modes of listening, both duction (sometimes called ‘hyper-repro- igitisation has brought about a major professional and amateur.We are therefore ducibility’). Digitisation has indeed Dchange in the fundamentals of the working on tools for computer-assisted induced a profound breach in the technol- whole process, and therefore constitutes a music composition as instruments of ogy of memory from the way in which it vast opportunity for change, in particular description, indexation and representation had emerged in the industrial age, in par- with respect to music, and even more so of musical sounds, including means of ticular regarding music. learned music, and this concerns us directly genetic traceability of the works, among at IRCAM16 (http://www.ircam.fr). other things.We are also developing instru- t the turn of the nineteenth century, the ments for musicological analysis, as well as Adevelopment of analogue reproduction IRCAM IN THE DIGITAL AGE an authoring environment for producing – in particular the phonograph – allowed for his thesis, put forth by Glenn Gould personalised formalised and transmissible the establishment and development of a Tas early as 1966, has led us to redefine ‘signed listenings’ of a musical piece (by a powerful record industry which made possi- at IRCAM the policy of production, use musicologist, teacher, conductor or musi- ble widespread access to music of all kinds and broadcast of digitised documents, and cian), to be used as listening guides or a (including music directly derived from this in particular of sound documents. It graphical track on a musical DVD to be technology, such as jazz, or reinvented by the doubtlessly affects the process of music cre- used in the HiFi appliances of tomorrow. record industry, such as baroque music).The ation; the issue of digitisation is therefore In addition, we are putting together a separation between artistic production and not just a question of patrimonial archival Web radio channel, which will allow cultural consumption has had very positive and collection production or of access access to these analyses as well as to effects: a large public – at least in the indus- modes, but a reinvention of the whole music as it is being created or the trialised world – has acquired a vast (if shal- field of lutherie (or instrument-making). avant-première production. low in places) knowledge of music history and its cultural diversity. RCAM is thus in transition from the t is within this new context that the Iage of computer music to that of music IIRCAM multimedia library has evolved owever, in turn, reproducibility has creation in the era of generalised digitisa- into a laboratory and become part of a Halso caused a huge regression in the tion, which will affect, among other things, wider project about new lutherie, at the musical audition capacity of this public: the home HiFi systems, media for offline dis- heart of which is the digital document.

14 Bernard Stiegler is a philosopher and the director of IRCAM. Michael Fingerhut, mathematician and computer scientist, is the director of the IRCAM Multimedia Library and its Engineering Bureau. Nicolas Donin, a musicologist, is head of the Formulation du Musical research team. 15 Glenn Gould,‘Idées’ (1966) in Bruno Monsaingeon Le dernier puritain (Fayard, 1983), p. 88.Translated from the French by the authors of this paper. 16 Institut de recherche et de coordination acoustique/musique, founded in 1976, is a not-for-profit organisation and an associate department of the Centre Pompidou (the French national centre for arts and culture). DigiCULT.Info 19 text. In 2002, the scheme, and ‘walked through’ via a 3D vir- Hypermedia Studio was put tual representation. Digital documents can in place, with the goal of be searched by type, availability and other exploring novel means of, musically pertinent criteria. However, and tools for,‘active’ listen- while all the metadata is available from ing to digitally recorded anywhere on the Internet, each item of music, for musicological data is access controlled, depending on the research, teaching and indi- particular rights associated with it. vidual appropriation. In

© IRCAM 2003 conjunction, the External rom within the library, special inter- Figure 1. IRCAM Audio Player Relations department has Ffaces have been designed to provide been actively seeking part- convenient and secure20 access.The Web ners, via European projects and other browser, based on Internet Explorer, has THE EMERGENCE OF THE MULTIMEDIA means, to share, develop and valorise been adapted to remove all unnecessary LIBRARY AT IRCAM AND ITS DIGITAL know-how, infrastructure and content. and unsafe controls,21 while the multime- COLLECTIONS dia player, providing a familiar metaphor of rom its inception, IRCAM has been THE MULTIMEDIA LIBRARY SYSTEM a (physical) CD even for archives which Fengaged in scientific research into, and he basic building blocks of the sys- never existed in this form (see Figure 1), technological development for, all the Ttem, uninterruptedly operational, shows the structure of the musical works phases of music creation and production, scalable, and evolutionary since 1996, con- (title, movements), information about the from the elaboration and exploration of sist mostly of off-the-shelf hardware17 and performers, as well as the booklet (for ideas by the composer, through its actuali- software18 components.As the modular CDs) or the programme notes (for sation in a paper and/or electronic score, design allows for replacement without IRCAM concert archives).22 its live performance on stage by instru- interruption of service, the system has reg- mentalists and computers, and its off-stage ularly been subject to upgrades reflecting life-cycle.The R&D department is work- the evolution of standards, software and ing in close collaboration on research and hardware, converging towards an increas- artistic projects with composers trained in ingly generic integrated solution for its Pedagogical department, with instru- archival access and valorisation of cultural mentalists and with other artists.The pub- content. lic performance of their resulting compositions is then handled by the rom the very first version of the sys- Production department. Ftem, user access has been provided by means of Web technology,19 which allows his abundance of projects and activi- in-house and external access (search, navi- Tties generates a wealth of intellectual gation and retrieval), in French and production, in the guise of music scores English, to a variety of multimedia con- and recordings of performances on the one tent.All databases can be queried through hand, and scientific publications and con- forms, and each item (data, metadata) has © IRCAM 2003 ferences on the other. In 1995, the its own URL. Domain-specific search Figure 2. Score annotation tool.The scanned Multimedia Library was established to strategies are provided. For example, the score is annotated with the help of a graphical organise and integrate into the existing documentary database allows for searches palette (on the left) specifically designed for research library as many as possible of the by genre and subgenre, period, instrumen- musical usage.The annotations can be placed archives of this production, thereby ensur- tation, and so on.The library catalogue can and moved along the time axis (lower part of ing both preservation and access in con- be browsed according to the classification the figure).

17 Servers and local clients: PC. Underlying network and protocol: Ethernet (100 Mb/s and 1Gb/s),TCP/IP.Good quality audio boards (Digigram) and headphones (Senheiser). 18 Web server:Apache, with PHP-MySQL extensions; Loris (library software system); 4D (composers database). 19 Accessible at http://mediatheque.ircam.fr/, subject to restrictions due to copyrights. 20 Securing the content was a precondition to be allowed by the rights holders and their representatives to provide this access. 21 The only available controls are ‘back’,‘forward’,‘refresh’ and ‘stop’. It also takes over all of the screen and does not allow for escaping to other programs or to the system.This allows for securing both the platform and the content in this public space. 22 This player also works as a VCR when viewing movies. DigiCULT.Info 20 FROM PRESERVATION TO ACCESS ll IRCAM performances (concerts, Aconferences) have been recorded since the late 1970s by the Production department, first on analogue, then on dig- ital tapes for archival purposes.After the Multimedia Library system became - tional and an adequate agreement was signed with the appropriate music rights societies, the following steps were added © IRCAM 2003 to provide for both digital preservation Figure 3. Signed Listening of an electronic music loop by Andrea Cera.The loop is manually and access to these hitherto sealed archives: decomposed into several audio layers, representing (as in sequencers) along the time (horizontal) axis 1. Transfer to a mixed-mode CD23: the impacts. Some of the lines can be masked (here, the 5th one), so as to allow one to focus on each tape is transferred (by means of other parts of the loop. Some operations such as slowing down can be used to refine the listening digitisation in the case of old tapes) to and synchronize it with the transcription.A condensed view of a phrase is inferred (in the right one or several audio tracks of a writable half) from the initial transcription.The simultaneous representation of several layers (bottom lines) allows one to search for and characterize implicit regularities in the transcription. CD; the description of the event in a structured form is written in a com- puter-readable file in the first (data) uring the first stages of the project, appropriate those elements s/he is interest- track of the CD. Dthis has been achieved by providing ed in, through an individual, singular and 2. For each tape, two identical CDs are cross-links between related objects through unpredictable process. produced. One is archived, the other is their related metadata; the library record transferred to the Multimedia Library. for a score provides links to the online he IRCAM Hypermedia Studio aims 3. The audio contents of the latter CD biography of the composer and a docu- Tto provide tools for these purposes, are extracted, compressed and transferred mentary note about the piece, which in based on technological experiments direct- to the online area.The description con- turn can link to all available online record- ed by users: musicologists, composers, tents are imported into the appropriate ed versions, both from the IRCAM audio music lovers. In particular, the project of database. archives and commercial CDs. Signed Listenings, launched in 2003, strives 4. The online metadata is then verified, to propose instruments for personal listen- validated and cross-linked with appropri- he increased availability of off-the- ing purposes. Specialists of different types ate online resources. Tshelf multimedia authoring tools has, of musical listening are asked to imagine, therefore, allowed for the creation of high- using commercially available or IRCAM- s a result of this process, every docu- er-level integrated objects, such as musico- designed technology, a representation of Ament that is archived is made available logical analyses (text, audio, diagrams), their individual way of perceiving a given online.We are currently developing various interactive score-and-performance presen- piece or corpus.With the help of an engi- automation strategies for the last two steps tations,Websites and so on – all based on neer and a musicologist, each one authors above so as to facilitate retrospective online the existence of the underlying sound a hypermedia mock-up24 with the follow- transfer of archives. archive and the ready availability of its ing characteristics: material. FROM ACCESS TO INDIVIDUAL • it exemplifies both a way to listen to, APPROPRIATION he question of the digital availability and a way to analyse, music; hile books in a library are – at least Tof these cultural contents within a • it allows the end listener to reproduce W– contextualised by their neigh- technological context can be re-addressed and/or alter the author’s manipulations bours on the shelf, the issue of ‘nearness’ nowadays in order to integrate usability in of the musical material (synchronisation, acquires a different meaning in the digital better and novel ways. Providing access to annotation, semi-automatic analysis of space; objects can have many neighbours collections means not only making them the signal, of the musical structures etc.), with whom they can be put in context, available through structured and adaptive thereby becoming an author in his or either manually, automatically or both. digitisation, but also allowing the user to her own right.

23 A compact disc which comprises audio and data tracks. 24 These are not necessarily functional objects, but models of what a finalised tool should look like after adequate development, allowing experts to test their ideas visually and aurally in a collaborative way. DigiCULT.Info 21 hese experiments (using various tech- Tnical set-ups including Web plug-ins, DVD and installations) will allow us to determine both the generic and specific components of such a system, the former laying the ground for a possible access tool for all types of (musical) collections, the latter for specific corpora. For example, annotating a scanned score synchronised with a recording is generic to any corpus of music pieces that have both a score and © IRCAM 2003 a digitised recording (Figure 4 shows such Figure 4. Mock-up of Web Radio (example of a program about Edgard Varèse’s Déserts.The main a mock-up done at IRCAM for the stream alternates interviews and musical excerpts (represented by the two colors). It allows the lis- tener to access the full source documents used by the producer (here, an excerpt of Le Sacred du MUSICWEB25 European project). On the Printemps provides access to the full recording, represented by a longer horizontal bar below).The other hand, manual transcription of an listener-spectator can thus navigate between a main stream and stored streams. In addition, he can electronic or repetitive music loop, with appropriate himself any stream by annotating it; here, four lines of annotations mark excerpts from or without filtering the spectrum so as the program for different reasons (favourites, important citations, thematic indexation…). to reveal hierarchical rhythmic patterns, is specific. content by accessing proposed ways of lis- tening (by means of Signed Listenings pro- TOWARD A NEW CONCEPT OF vided by specialists) and by appropriating MULTIMEDIA TEMPORAL OBJECTS the content, and thus formalising his or her roviding simultaneous access to con- own listening on top of, or in parallel Ptent and to tools as a systematic with, the one proposed by the editor. process in this project is a necessity, in par- ticular as IRCAM is a place for artistic NEW LISTENING TOOLS FOR AUDIO AND creation and production of complex tem- MUSICAL ARCHIVES © IRCAM 2003 A view of the Multimedia Library, as seen in poral objects.This is especially true of usic, and particularly contemporary its virtual 3D interface (http://mediatheque. works belonging to the family of the new Mmusic, raises acute and essential ircam.fr/infos/vrml/index-e.html) music of the second half of the twentieth questions about the temporal object in the century which mixes score and software, digital era – its exploration, annotation and ation of HiFi systems offering novel ways for which the modes of listening are rarely restitution in all of its synthetic complexity, of searching content, interacting with the if ever codified and the analysis tools by individual users with singular modes of musical material, and visualising and per- underdeveloped.As well as the general approach.The coordinated musicological, sonalising the musical data. issues of access (e.g. indexation, navigation) scientific and technological research pro- to temporal objects there also arise ques- grammes at IRCAM aim first at addressing he cultural and educational challenge tions of more or less local, more or less them specifically, and then produce nor- Tspecific to IRCAM-created music is singular characteristics (modes of annota- malised and generic access tools for the lis- vital: analysing it allows users to explore tion, musical structures and so on) specific tener, for whom the archive is a multiple- issues of listening and composition that are to learned Western music.This is why entry object, which can be interpreted in common to almost all kinds of music. It IRCAM is working on a new concept of a different, even contradictory, ways. allows for the comprehension of most of Web Radio (see Figure 4) closely related26 the musical objects as complex temporal to the Signed Listening project.The main o allow for these entry modes by entities.The listening tools which will be stream (structured like a traditional radio Tmeans of open and usable listening developed in this context will thus open programme, hence the name) provides per- tools, IRCAM is about to coordinate the up new ways of accessing learned music, as tinent access to digitised content.The Semantic HIFI project.27 The goal of this well as learned access to ‘simpler’ music. ‘auditor’ will thus be able to explore the project is the development of a new gener- BACK TO PAGE 1 24 These are not necessarily functional objects, but models of what a finalised tool should look like after adequate development, allowing experts to test their ideas visually and aurally in a collaborative way. 25 New communication and information technologies in the music classroom, coordinated by the AEC (Association Européenne des Conservatoires,Académies de Musique et Musikhochschulen). 26 Publication in the Web radio is done through a scenarisation file, which is an XML description (some existing standards are tested for this representation) of the sequencing of the various media and excerpts.The Signed Listenings can be seen then as either associated media or main stream. 27 In collaboration with Sony, the Fraunhofer Institute, Native Instruments, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain) and Ben Gurion University (Israel). DigiCULT.Info 22 DELIVERING THE TIMES DIGITAL ARCHIVE

REG READINGS, PRODUCTION DIRECTOR OF THOMSON GALE AND MANAGING EDITOR FOR THE TIMES INDEX, TALKED DIGICULT.INFO THROUGH THE PROCESS OF BRINGING ‘THE THUNDERER’ TO THE WEB.

fter two years of collective effort in parameter-driven tools that we Reading (UK), India and the USA, have developed in-house. Pages A © The Times Digital Archive, 2003 the digitisation of The Times from 1785 to that were badly cropped prior Figure 1: Keyword Search screen for 1985 is nearing completion.This article is to microfilming are manually The Times Digital Archive a very brief account of Thomson Gale’s cleaned and the title and page (http://www.galegroup.com/) endeavours number electronically inserted. to create a searchable backfile of the oldest These processes not only make continuously published daily newspaper in the final image look more the English language. Every headline, arti- attractive, but improve the cle and image, every front page, editorial, accuracy of OCR on the text birth and death notice, advertisement and and reduce the overall file size classified ad that appeared within the pages for delivery over the Internet. of The Times (London) is now easily Cleaned images generally range accessible – a complete virtual chronicle of in size between 600 Kb and 1.6 history for this period from the very first Mb depending on content. stirrings of the French Revolution to the Large display adverts or picture release of Microsoft Windows, from the pages with a high black content © The Times Digital Archive, 2003 reckless driving of stagecoaches to motor- approach the higher end of the Figure 2: Sample Results screen. Showing the context way madness. range with some occasionally in which an article was originally published (the article reaching 3 Mb in size. is highlighted in the thumbnail to the left) came high he digitisation process starts with our on the 'wish list' of project advisers. Ttwo Mekel M500 greyscale scanners he page images are deliv- and 1,250 reels of 35 mm microfilm.The Tered on DLT (Digital Linear Tape) individual pages are captured in greyscale to our contractors in India for article clip- and saved as 300 dpi bi-tonal TIFFs at a ping, OCR, and the creation of fielded article on the page and the OCR process rate of six frames a minute. By carefully metadata made up of publication name, provides the co-ordinates of every word controlling the duplication of the micro- year, date, issue number, page number, title, within each clip or article. In this way film masters and applying our own algo- subtitle, author, column position and illus- articles can be extracted ‘on the fly’ from rithms for gamma correction (light tration type.A category type is also added full-page images and the selected search balance), noise removal and edge enhance- (e.g.‘Letters to the Editor’ or ‘Sport’) to terms highlighted on the delivered image. ment, we have been able to generate high- further segment the material and help end- This approach obviates the need to store quality images for good OCR results.The users better limit their searches. Clipping both full pages and clips on the image images from the scanners are then de- the page into articles generates co-ordi- servers.The images, clipped images and skewed, cropped and de-speckled using nates or positional information for each XML containing the OCRed text and

DigiCULT.Info 23 metadata are returned to the UK for n a project of this size and checking before being forwarded to our Iscope, planning is everything. US site for indexing and uploading to Background work started over our own servers. five years ago on copyright per- missions, experiments with he process may appear both very microfilm duplication, software Ttechnical and very mechanical, but enhancements, clipping and software can only do so much. Many categorisation rules, XML and months were spent manually checking DTD creation as well as the nearly every image for text that was too design and build of the delivery faint, too damaged or too dark to OCR platform.The endless design © The Times Digital Archive, 2003 well. Perhaps I should also mention the meetings and conference calls, Figure 3:The article delivered is the second of the three detailed examination of hundreds of pages though tedious at the time, results shown in Figure 2.The search terms are high- to establish rules for the segmentation of really underpinned the project lighted in colour in the metadata and the body of an articles and the management of a growing and ensured its success.And article - especially useful in longer articles. list of criteria for article categorisation.We from a personal point of view it have seen eighteenth-century issues with- has been great fun: I am now a out page numbers, issue numbers that good deal more knowledgeable appear more than once, mastheads printed about the intricacies of image upside down and articles with continua- processing and file organisation tions in earlier columns or pages.Where and have a head stuffed full of the scanners have been unable to extract pirates, pickpockets and ladies’ any detail from the film pages we have maids. gone back to hard copy, but in many instances the originals are even worse.

To find out more about The © The Times Digital Archive, 2003 Times Digital Archive, visit Figure 4: Page 6 of The Times of 8 June 1953.In the http://www.galegroup.com/ 'Browse by Date' search, mousing over a headline on the Times/. right-hand side outlines the related article in the large thumbnail image. Clicking on either the headline or within the outlined area will deliver the article selected.

PANDORA, AUSTRALIA’S WEB ARCHIVE, AND THE DIGITAL ARCHIVING SYSTEM THAT SUPPORTS IT

MARGARET E. PHILLIPS for research now and in the future. During DIRECTOR DIGITAL ARCHIVING, the last ten years, national libraries and other ‘memory’ institutions have had some NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA difficult decisions to make regarding the extension of this role to electronic formats. THE ROLE OF NATIONAL LIBRARIES IN WEB HARVESTING ational libraries have accepted he primary role of a national library Nresponsibility for online publications Tis to develop and maintain compre- and a small number have embarked on hensive collections of documentary mate- programmes to develop collections, or

© HATII (UofGlasgow),© HATII Ross, Seamus 2003 rial relating to its country and its people, to ‘archives’, of them. Having accepted the National Library of Australia preserve them and to make them available responsibility, proceeding with it has been

DigiCULT.Info 24 no easy task. In the print world the princi- ples and procedures are straightforward and well established and usually supported by legal deposit legislation, requiring publish- ers to deposit one or more copies of every publication with the national library. Preservation is also a relatively simple task with print material.As long as attention is paid to the security of the collection and it is kept under controlled conditions of tem- perature and humidity, there is an excellent chance that most of it will last hundreds of years.

he situation to be addressed with Tonline publications is much more complex (and therefore much more costly) in every respect and national libraries have responded to it in a variety of ways. One of the first and fundamental decisions to be made is whether to archive online publica- © Damian McDonald tions comprehensively (whole domain har- National Library of Australia vesting) or selectively.There are advantages and disadvantages with both approaches28 nother basic decision is whether the cations for inclusion in PANDORA, and some national libraries such as Sweden, Apublications will be acquired, or Australia’s Web Archive (http://pandora. Norway, Finland and Iceland have taken the ‘ingested’, by deposit from the publisher or nla.gov.au/). It does so in cooperation with comprehensive approach, while Canada, by Web harvesting using a harvesting robot eight other PANDORA partners, all of Australia and Japan are archiving selectively. or ‘crawler’.Almost all archives established whom have responsibilities for collecting to date rely on Web harvesting, but the and preserving Australian documentary s technologies and National Library of the Netherlands has heritage.The mainland State libraries, the Apractices mature, hybrid, more sophis- built a major archive based on the deposit Northern Territory Library, ScreenSound ticated approaches will be possible.An model. Australia (the National Film and Sound ideal situation would be a selective archive Archive) and the Australian War Memorial complemented by periodic snapshots of Regardless of approach the archiving are all participants. whole or part of a country’s domain library must: and/or subject-based snapshots such as the • identify what is being published; ach of the partner agencies identifies, Election 2002 Web Archive29 developed by • decide what is worth saving; Eselects, catalogues and archives publi- the Library of Congress and the Internet • define roles and responsibilities of cations for which they accept responsibility Archive.The National Library of Australia different stakeholders; as defined by their selection guidelines. (http://www.nla.gov.au/) keeps a close •protect archived publications against loss; After seven years of archiving Australian watch on developments in whole domain •preserve the integrity and guarantee the online publications, the National Library archiving with this possibility in view. It is authenticity of publications; and reviewed its guidelines31 in early 2003 and also interested in the more focused • ensure long-term access and usability. set priorities to focus effort on six main approach being explored by the Biblio- categories: thèque Nationale de France, which would PANDORA: AUSTRALIA’S WEB ARCHIVE •Commonwealth and Australian Capital use automated methods to identify and he National Library of Australia selec- Te rritory government publications archive significant sites.30 Ttively harvests Australian online publi- • Conference proceedings

28 A summary of the advantages and disadvantages of both the comprehensive and selective approaches is given in sec- tions 3-5 of Margaret E. Phillips, Collecting Australian Online Publications (2003). http://pandora.nla.gov.au/BSC49.doc 29 Library of Congress. Election 2002 Web Archive. http://www.loc.gov/minerva/collect/elec2002/ 30 Julien Masanès,‘Towards Continuous Web Archiving: First Results and an Agenda for the Future’ in D-Lib Magazine, vol. 8, no. 12, December 2002. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december02/masanes/12masanes.html 31 National Library of Australia, Online Australian Publications: Selection Guidelines for Archiving and Preservation by DigiCULT.Info 25 the National Library of Australia. (2003). http://pandora.nla.gov.au/selectionguidelines.html mercial publications.To protect the pub- lishers’ interests, access to these titles is restricted during the period of commercial viability nominated by the publisher. During this period the titles are available for consultation in the reading room of the archiving partner only, and the PANDO- RA digital archiving system manages this process automatically.

PANDORA DIGITAL ARCHIVING SYSTEM (PANDAS) o achieve the greatest possible efficien- Tcy in creating a collaborative, selective archive, the National Library of Australia has devoted considerable effort to developing a digital archiving system to manage the

© PANDORA 2003 © PANDORA process.The original intention was to buy a system off the shelf, as defined in the PANDORA interface showing the results of a search for Ayers Rock. Information Paper, issued as part of the Digital Services Project.33 The initiative did •E-journals sion to archive and make publications not find any system that met PANDORA’s • Publications of tertiary education available via the Web has been negotiat- needs and the Library had no alternative institutions ed with the publishers. but to develop one itself. In June 2001 the • Titles referred by indexing and • The ‘significant properties’ of resources Library implemented the first version of the abstracting agencies within the archive can be analysed and PANDORA Digital Archiving System •Topical sites: determined both for individual resources (PANDAS) and version 2 followed in (a) sites in nominated subject areas and for classes of resources.This August 2002. Subsequent enhancements (defined in Appendix 2 of the enhances our knowledge of preservation have brought us to version 2.1.3. selection guidelines) that will be requirements and enables strategies for collected on a rolling three-year preservation to be put into place. he PANDAS software supports the basis; and Tfollowing archiving functions: (b) sites documenting key issues of any of the titles in the Archive are • Managing the metadata about titles that current social or political interest, Mgathered on a regular basis to cap- have been both selected and rejected for such as election sites, Sydney ture new content, and each new gathering inclusion in the archive; Olympics, the Bali bombing. is referred to as an ‘instance’.The PAN- • initiating the gathering of titles selected DORA Archive is now over half a terabyte for archiving; he selective approach to archiving in size, contains almost 5,000 titles and • managing the quality checking and Tenables PANDORA partners to over 9,000 ‘instances’. problem fixing process; realise some important objectives: •preparing items for public display and • Each item in the Archive is quality ith the permission of publishers, generating a title entry page; assessed and functional to the fullest Wtitles are harvested using HTTrack, • managing access restrictions; and extent permitted by current technical a freely available Website offline browser •providing management reports. and resource capabilities. and mirroring tool.32 A small number of • Each item in the Archive can be fully titles are not available on the Web but are he software is Web-based and enables catalogued and therefore can be included distributed by e-mail, and these are Tall eight partners from their remote in the national bibliography. received directly from the publisher. Most locations to carry out all of the tasks nec- • Each item in the Archive can be made titles in the Archive are freely available on essary to download and store titles in the accessible owing to the fact that permis- the Web, but approximately 100 are com- central archive located on the National

32 Xavier Roche, HTTrack Website Copier: Open Source Offline Browser (http://www.httrack.com). 33 National Library of Australia, Digital Services Project: Information Paper (1998). http://www.nla.gov.au/ dsp/infopaper.html DigiCULT.Info 26 Library’s server.The software runs on a Javascript not working correctly, missing FUTURE DIRECTIONS standard PC and with Internet Explorer files, or broken links due to coding errors he selective approach to archiving is 5.5 or above. or case sensitivity. Tvery labour-intensive.While PAN- DAS has enabled us to realise some effi- he collection managers use PANDAS fter a site has been gathered and ciencies and to increase productivity, it still Tto store descriptive, administrative and Achecked for completeness, it is pre- requires manual entry of metadata and preservation metadata about the Web site pared for public access in the Archive.A processing of titles one by one. being archived, such as: script is used to disable external links, • descriptive information (title, URL, forms and mailto addresses automatically. n order to be able to deal with the persistent identifier, publisher details); When users click on one of these links in Iincreasing volume of online publishing, • permission status (whether permission the archived copy, a screen will appear giv- particularly in the government sector, the to archive was granted or denied by the ing them the option to leave the archived Library is undertaking a pilot project to publisher); version of the site and access the link to explore the possibility of automating or • type of resource; the live site (if the latter still exists). semi-automating the processes of identify- • status (selected, rejected, still being ing, selecting, describing and archiving monitored); public ‘title entry page’ is generated Commonwealth government publications. • subjects (selected from a list of broad Afor new titles, or is updated when a To automate identification, selection and categories); new instance of a title is gathered.The title description, it is working with seven gov- • collection name (if the title is being entry page indicates whether the title is ernment agencies to examine the metadata included as part of a collection of sites being gathered regularly, provides a link to they produce and to refine workflows for on a particular event or topic, such as the publisher’s live site if it still exists, lists making it available to the National Library an election campaign); all the archived instances of the title, pro- for inclusion in the National Bibliographic •restriction information (e.g. access vides information about software required Database (NBD).34 The aim is then to dis- in-house only for a specified period); to view it, and indicates any access restric- til from this a small number of best prac- • gathering schedule. tions. It also provides a link to the publish- tice models that all government agencies er’s copyright statement if there is one, and could use to contribute metadata to the he gathering schedule can specify that to the National Library’s own generic NBD. In a second phase of the pilot proj- Ta site should be archived once only, copyright warning. Subject and alphabetic ect, metadata would be extracted from the or it can specify a gathering frequency title listings are automatically updated NBD and batch loaded into PANDAS for (monthly, quarterly, annually, etc). It is also when new titles are added to the Archive. archiving. Before this can be done, PAN- possible to enter a date list so that an item DAS will need to be further developed and is gathered on specific dates. he PANDAS software manages access this will be undertaken as part of the Trestrictions on the titles that require development of version 3. he PANDAS software allows a variety them. Restrictions may be applied for Tof Website copying software to be commercial reasons, for privacy or cultural he main driving forces for the future ‘plugged-in’ and allows the collection reasons, or as part of a policy decision for Tdevelopment of PANDAS are: manager to control the scope and timing certain categories of material. Items can be •the need to be able to ingest a much of the gathering process.As part of the restricted for a specified time period to use larger volume of online publications and gathering process, technical metadata about within the Library building only, or can be their associated metadata, automatically the file types captured is recorded by the password protected so that designated users or semi-automatically; system.This information is used to gener- can obtain access. PANDAS manages these • the need to improve discovery of and ate automatically public notes listing any restrictions and allows only those access to items in the burgeoning plug-ins required for viewing the site. researchers in designated locations (based Archive in a variety of ways; on IP address) or with the required pass- • the need for PANDORA to be able to ANDAS currently does not have any word to access the archived versions.As interface with data acquired other than Pautomatic quality assurance feature time periods for restrictions expire, the sys- by the current selective harvesting such as a link checking feature. Collection tem automatically updates the title entry method.This may include large amounts managers must check the whole site man- pages which indicate the changed access of publisher-supplied data, partial or ually to identify problems, such as conditions. whole domain harvests, and publications

34 The National Bibliographic Database is a database to which approximately 1,100 Australian libraries contribute catalogue records and library holdings and it is made available through the Kinetica service (http://www.nla.gov.au/kinetica/). DigiCULT.Info 27 and databases from the ‘deep Web’ obtained as a result of the deep Web PANDAS EVALUATION SYSTEM archiving initiative described below; • the need for a collection manager Because libraries and other collecting institutions around the world are beginning to interface to the preservation metadata, take on the responsibilities of collecting digital publications, and because as yet there and mechanisms to support preservation are few digital archiving systems available to assist them, the National Library of Australia has received a number of enquiries about the use of the PANDAS soft- processes; and ware.The Library has decided to make the software available on a cost-recovery • the need for better and more flexible basis, although it will be limited in the number of agencies it can accommodate.To reports from the system. enable interested libraries to assess whether PANDAS does in fact meet their busi- ness needs, the PANDAS Evaluation System has been developed and has recently ARCHIVING THE ‘DEEP WEB’ been made available to the first evaluating library.A maximum of three agencies at o date, titles archived in PANDORA any one time can evaluate the software. Thave mostly been gathered using a robot that follows html links from the root URL submitted as the starting point for he ‘deep Web’ presents special chal- CONCLUSION gathering. Tlenges to national libraries that are he business of building a digital endeavouring to identify and archive a Tarchive, managing it in the long term, very large part of the Web consists of nation’s output in this form, whether they and providing access to it is a complex and Asites not accessible via html links but are taking the selective or comprehensive costly operation.A digital archiving system, stored in structured databases, which it is approach (both of which rely on harvest- which manages workflows, stores the digital necessary to query for presentation of ing robots).The National Library of objects themselves, as well as descriptive, information.These queries are typically Australia has embarked on a research proj- administrative and preservation metadata, made via selection of options from drop- ect to find ways of taking in, managing and provides management reports, is essen- down boxes or by entering terms into a and providing access to publications and tial to support it.This system must develop search engine.This requires intelligence Websites structured as databases. It is also hand in hand with the archive itself, grow- that gathering robots and search engine participating in the Deep Web Archiving ing to facilitate expanding business require- indexers do not have at this stage.The hid- Group of the recently formed Interna- ments and enhancing productivity at every den nature of data stored and accessed in tional Internet Preservation Consortium35 stage.The National Library of Australia is this way has led to its being known as the and will collaborate with other members about to embark on another development ‘deep Web’. in developing solutions and sharing results. cycle for its digital archiving system. BACK TO PAGE 1

THE FIRENZE AGENDA (17 OCTOBER 2003)

Reprinted without amendment by DigiCULT as the Agenda itself requested.

n response to the challenges of preserv- he agenda covers a short period (12- Group (NRG) for endorsement and to Iing digital memory, a group of experts T18 months) identifying concrete and encourage each Member State to support have proposed an agenda with focussed realistic actions which respect the interests the initiative. objectives addressing creation, preservation of museum, libraries and archives, and the and access issues for both digitised and differences between media formats. It is ction Area 1 of the agenda addresses born-digital objects.The Italian Presidency, an open process integrating ongoing Aproblems and risks. Probably the the European Commission, ERPANET, actions and the voluntary efforts of par- most important task today is to create and the MINERVA project are the pro- ticipants.The experts have identified awareness about risks and problems among moters of this initiative in the philosophy some initial responsibilities for each of the decision-makers at all levels. Area 2 con- of eEurope and linked to the National actions, and progress will be reviewed in siders ongoing initiatives and currently Representatives Group (http://www. one year.The Firenze agenda has been available technologies, whereas Action cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult/nrg.htm). submitted to the National Representatives Area 3 examines the legal and regulatory

35 The International Internet Preservation Consortium was established in July 2003 under the leadership of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (http://www.bnf.fr/). DigiCULT.Info 28 implications and responsibilities which PRESTOSPACE: workshops or seminars tion of recommendations. must now be addressed, and who is or events organisation on the field; annual DIGICULT FORUM: technology watch responsible for finding solutions for digital state-of-the-art on digital preservation for and tutorials on the field; contribution memory preservation. audio-video archives.Workshop on ‘user of technology specifications for a research requirements for audio-visual preserva- agenda; creation of an ‘Action in the ACTION AREA 1: CREATE AWARENESS & tion’, March 2004, Amsterdam. Preservation of Memory’ section in the COOPERATION MECHANISMS Digicult.Info Newsletter. he first step is to build community ACTION AREA 2: EXCHANGE GOOD PRESTOSPACE: technology specifications Tand consensus, focussing initially on PRACTICE AND DEVELOP A COMMON for a research agenda for audio and video decision-makers.The expert group will POINT OF VIEW archives; production of recommendations. work with user communities to capture ata collection on current practices, Meeting in collaboration with the FIAT their requirements and suggestions and Dand selection and promotion of good annual conference, on ‘technical specifica- develop suitable approaches to address practice are necessary steps to enable the tions and system architecture for an audio- those needs.They will build consensus sharing of progress and to develop a com- visual integrated preservation system’, beyond the current audience, towards pro- mon knowledge basis on suitable October 2004, Marseille. fessional bodies and establish cooperation approaches and technologies.The focus MINERVA: data collection infrastructure with other initiatives in the field.The here is to identify weak or underdeveloped for accumulation of good practice experi- expert group will report regularly on areas of practice. Lessons already learned ence; training trials on the long-term sus- progress and planning. from examples of good practice must feed tainability of digitised scientific and into tutorials and papers (e.g. on digital cultural objects in cooperation with •Workgroup activity and events, e.g. collections, trusted repositories, metadata, ERPANET and DELOS. workshops, seminars, papers, helpdesk IPR, selection criteria, and Web archiving) and electronic fora; and must be the basis for specifying a • Report of activity to NRG every six ‘European interoperable platform’. ACTION AREA 3: LONG-TERM POLICIES months. AND STRATEGIES • ‘State-of-the-art’ on existing initiatives, ack of clear reference policies and Co-ordinators: ERPANET and good practice selection and promotion. Lresponsibilities today is a serious risk MINERVA projects. •Technology watch reports on emerging in the future preservation of our memory. issues. The expert group will stimulate ERPANET: coordination and Web servic- •Propose a research agenda on technolog- national/sectoral authorities in order to es for the expert group including forum, ical priorities and challenges about digi- develop digital preservation policies, projects and literature assessment, the tal preservation. research/training programmes and trials as help-desk advisory service, erpaEprints; •Training (skills) initiatives and appropriate. In particular, the legal frame- workshops on ‘trusted digital depositories’ programmes. work for electronic resources/records col- (Rome, November 2003); seminar on ‘sci- • Issues of stakeholders/users. lections and deposits may be incomplete, entific digital objects’ (Lisbon, December not only for libraries and archives but also 2003); publication of the workshops’ and Co-ordinators: ERPANET and DELOS for e-government, for education, for seminars’ final reports. projects. research and other environments of our MINERVA: network of the national rep- information society.The adoption of a resentatives for promotion and for data ERPANET: data collection and analysis to common agenda could be instrumental in collection; workshops or seminars or identify good practices: description and catalysing national efforts on a coordinated events organisation on the field like analysis of single and collective case studies framework at the European level and Bibliocom on 30 October; NRG report and creation of erpaTools;promotion of investment in collaborative public/private by the end of 2003 including a slot to erpaAdvisory services; inform the preserva- projects. present progress of the initiative. tion research agenda (see below). DELOS: annual digital preservation sum- DELOS: continued review and coordina- • Identify reference actors, within the mer school; annual state-of-the-art studies tion of the NSF/DELOS Digital Member States, to act as coordinating from the digital memory preservation Preservation and Archiving research agen- bodies for national initiatives and to cluster. da; studies and papers on the field; produc- produce recommendations.

DigiCULT.Info 29 • Analyse and compare current legal NZ ELECTRONIC TEXT and regulatory contexts leading to specifications for suitable frameworks CENTRE for stakeholders, in particular for memory institutions, for permanent AS THE NEW ZEALAND ELECTRONIC TEXT access to digital deposits (with particular CENTRE APPROACHES ITS SECOND BIRTH- attention to objects that are ‘born digi- tal’) and online registers of trusted DAY, ITS FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, preservation repositories. ELIZABETH STYRON, SPOKE TO • Study and propose suitable business DIGICULT.INFO DURING A VISIT TO HATII models and costs analysis and long-term (UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW) ABOUT HOW funding strategies for public institutions. •Foster cooperation with emerging THE CENTRE WAS FORMED, AND ITS WORK, international activities such as that AIMS AND SERVICES. © NZETC, 2003 being developed under the auspices of UNESCO. he New Zealand Electronic Text he digital archive, accessible from •Validate and promote the research TCentre (http://www.nzetc.org/) gen- Tthe NZETC Website, is a constantly agenda at EU and Member State levels erates standards-based digital content and expanding collection of searchable XML with special emphasis on encouraging provides a wide range of services to both texts and images.The document delivery national funding agencies to allocate educational and commercial organisations. service is open source: a Java servlet called resources to enabling research in line NZETC, based at the Victoria University Cocoon, which is run inside the Apache with the evolving research agenda. of Wellington, is a vibrant institution Tomcat servlet container. zCocoon is a which, despite its young age, has already flexible environment that compartmentalis- Co-ordinator: Italian Presidency.The won the confidence of the cultural her- es the transformation of documents from Italian Presidency will lead this area, but it itage community.The Centre was first XML via XSLT, allowing the delivery of is crucial to have long-term commitment conceived by Elizabeth Styron, its current a variety of formats. by future Presidencies and Member States Director, while she was involved in the authorities. Early American Fiction project ZETC also acts as a source of (http://eaf.chadwyck.com/) at the Nexpertise for the digitisation commu- ITALIAN PRESIDENCY: developing the University of Virginia.While on a nity in New Zealand. It can host collec- report on risks and emergencies with at Fulbright fellowship in New Zealand, tions created externally, perform document least four other cases and the report on using TEI (http://www.tei-c.org/) and conversion and repurposing, open-source legislation and policy frameworks; imple- XML, and working on the development of e-publishing, metadata creation and digital menting Website for the initiative and e-text coding, Styron put a proposal to imaging, and provide consultation services ensuring continuity in cooperation with Victoria University to create a centre based for both the public and private sectors and the future Presidencies. on the model used at the University of project management for activities involving PRESTOSPACE: bridging the gap Viriginia.The project was funded by the XML, SGML,TEI, text and image conver- between technical results and service Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences sion, and multiple e-book delivery formats. implementation, meeting in Paris, at Victoria, and in December 2001 the In addition, the Centre provides institutions December 2004. NZETC was born. with advice on the digitising of their own ERPANET: improving the understanding materials. Public institutions are particularly of the interconnectedness between e-gov- NZETC has three major aims: interested in the open-source solutions ernment and e-citizenship viability and the • to create a free online archive, focusing made possible by this expert advice. long-term authenticity and integrity of on the Pacific Island and NZ region; NZETC also collaborated in the creation digital entities; providing an annual review • to provide resources and services for of the Heritage Materials Imaging Facility of national policies and strategies; enhanc- others; (http://www.hmif.co.nz/). Housed at the ing and promoting policy and legal frame- • to establish and develop a community National Library, this facility opens up new work tools. of people who have expertise in the digitisation possibilities for the whole BACK TO PAGE 1 creation and use of digital resources. country.

DigiCULT.Info 30 hrough regular seminars and the he policy of outreach allows the who developed the Greenstone open- Ttraining of graduate students, as well TCentre to identify unexpected users source Digital Library delivery system as instructional outreach activities both of its resources and collections. It has (http://www.greenstone.org/english/home within the university and for the public, evolved beyond the simple model on .html), and the Online Encyclopaedia of NZETC is gradually building up a com- which it was based and has become a truly New Zealand project (http://www.teara. munity of knowledge about XML, elec- wide-ranging focus for digitisation efforts govt.nz/).The Centre is working on a tronic publishing and the creation and use in New Zealand. Projects with which the print-on-demand repository and will con- of digital resources. Centre is currently involved include the tinue to develop its activities to meet users’ Greenstone project at Waikato University, demands well into the future. BACK TO PAGE 1

METADATA DEBATE:TWO PERSPECTIVES ON DUBLIN CORE

TO PRESENT A BALANCED VIEW OF THE METADATA STANDARD DUBLIN CORE, DIGICULT.INFO INTERVIEWED TWO CULTURAL HERITAGE PROFESSIONALS WITH DIFFERING OPINIONS: DR ANDREW WILSON, THE PROJECT MANAGER OF DIGITAL PRESERVATION AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA (HTTP://WWW.NAA. GOV.AU/), AND DR WENDY DUFF FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO (HTTP://WWW.UTORONTO.CA/).

THE DUBLIN CORE AND ITS LIMITATIONS not the Dublin Core is sufficiently robust found that the average number of tags per WENDY M. DUFF and usable, and sufficiently used, for page went from a low of 2.32 in 1999 to a archivists to adopt. I would suggest that it high of 3.14 in 2002.They also noted the fails and that a careful examination of the limited number of pages that used formal he Dublin Core (DC) is a simple 16- assumptions underlying it points to the metadata schemes.They found that ‘Dublin Telement metadata standard for difficulties.These assumptions include the Core metadata appeared on only 0.5 % of resource discovery, which aims to facilitate ability and willingness of individuals and public Website home pages in 1998’ and the creation of metadata by end-users.The institutions who create Web resources to the number rose to only 0.7 % in 2002. Dublin Core has four basic goals: simplicity supply Dublin Core metadata, the applica- They concluded that little progress had of metadata creation and maintenance, bility of the Core to the archival domain, been made in the use of metadata standards commonly understood semantics, interna- as well as user expectations when they and that existing metadata tags are ad hoc. tional scope, and extensibility.The goal of search the Web. extensibility acknowledges that some proj- UNIVERSALITY AND DOMAIN NEUTRALITY ects and domains may find the Core inade- END-USERS he principle of extensibility suggests quate to their needs.The Core encourages s previously noted, the Core was Tthat other domains can use the Core metadata experts from other domains to Adeveloped as a simple metadata – though they may need to augment it extend the Core with additional elements scheme that end-users could employ.A with domain-specific elements.The unstat- as the Australian Government did when it project to conduct five annual surveys ed assumption of this principle is that the created the metadata standard for the (1998-2002) of the Web administered by Core is applicable across most type of Australian Government Locator Service. the OCLC Office of Research sheds some resources and that all domains could use it. The goals of the Dublin Core should be light on whether creators of Web resources I would suggest that this requires a domain applauded. Information retrieval on the use it.37 The survey found that metadata neutrality which DC does not have. Web could benefit from having consistent usage is on the rise, though it noted that Metadata standards involve the identifica- metadata elements linked to resources; many new HTML editors automatically tion, delineation and categorisation of however, the question remains whether or supply metadata tags.The researchers information. Categories of information

37 Rick Bennett, Edward T. O'Neill and Brian F.Lavoie,‘Trends in the Evolution of the Public Web: 1998 – 2002’, in D-Lib Magazine (April 2003). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april03/lavoie/04lavoie.html DigiCULT.Info 31 are not neutral.They reflect a particular he relationships that are highlighted domains. Collaboration is important and view of the world and the Dublin Core is Tare those traditionally emphasised in the various professions should work no exception. Bowker and Star point out bibliographic description. Moreover, the together to build a model that supports that ‘categories are historically situated relationships supported by DC are not the different perspectives. Furthermore we artefacts, and like all artefacts, are learned ones archivists stress in their descriptions. need more research that investigates how as part of membership in a community of For example, various rules for creating the Core is used and its impact on those practice.’38 Taxonomies are grounded archival metadata emphasise the impor- who seek information on the Web.With upon, shaped by, and reflect the world tance of documenting the provenance of collaboration, research and automated tools view of their creators.The Core is inher- records. Provenance is linked to creation, for supplying metadata we may develop a ently a standard that reflects a bibliographic but creation is defined as creation, and/or Core that meets the needs of all types of view of the world and assumes that the accumulation and use.The creator of an users who seek information on the Web. entities being described are single objects archival document might be the person that emanate from an intellectual endeav- who, or organisation that, acquired and our. The sixteen elements are grouped used the document, not the ‘entity prima- WHY THE DUBLIN CORE METADATA into three categories: elements that relate rily responsible for making the content of INITIATIVE (DCMI) IS IMPORTANT to content, elements that relate to intellec- the resource,’40 as the Core defines it. DR ANDREW WILSON tual property, and elements that relate to instantiation.The elements related to intel- INFORMATION RETRIEVAL irst, I had better make my biases clear. lectual property – contributor, creator, he Core strives to improve informa- FI have been attending DCMI publisher and rights – describe a limited Ttion retrieval across different domains Workshops and Conferences for the last set of relationships an object can have to a and to enable access to various types of five years. I am a member of the Dublin person or institutions. Some view this dis- material.The Web provides the means to Core Usage Board, the Dublin Core tinction as arbitrary at best. Bearman, open up access in an unprecedented way. Advisory Board, and am currently co-chair Miller, Rust,Trant and Weibel point out However, we need to study our users to of the Dublin Core Preservation Metadata that this categorisation might meet the understand better how they distinguish Special Interest Group. For the previous needs of bibliographic items, but these among different types of material.Will the three years I was co-chair of the Dublin divisions are not sufficient for many infor- users who seek published documents Core Governments Working Group. mation objects.They state that: become confused when they retrieve busi- ness records in their search? Will users find n response to a number of non-specific ‘The terms Creator, Contributor search results with DC tags more under- Icriticisms of the Dublin Core metadata and Publisher are often used as if standable than results without these tags? element set (DCMES) I recently articulat- they roughly correspond to the rela- Will the user be able to distinguish ed my own thoughts about DCMI and its tionships between an Agent and a between a representation of a series of achievements over the last 8-10 years at Work (he wrote this play), an Agent records consisting of photographs, textual the ERPANET Workshop in Marburg in and an Expression (she acted in this documents and a sound recording from a early September 2003 (http://www. play), and an Agent and a description of a single report? If archivists erpanet.org/www/products/marburg/mar Manifestation (they published this use the creator element for documenting burg.htm). My intention was to help those script). However, the Creator, provenance, will they help or hinder the at the workshop understand a little better Contributor, Publisher distinction searchers on the Web? We need to find how significant the DCMI has been for us does not provide a fine enough clas- answers to these questions before we sim- all, and for metadata generally. sification to specify such vastly dif- ply endorse or adopt the Core. ferent roles as editor, composer, or want to preface my remarks by saying actor, or distinguish these roles from mproved access to the rich resources on Ithat the Dublin Core metadata element others with a lesser creative impact Ithe Web is a noble cause but the results set (DCMES) was never advertised as on a manifestation such as typogra- of study by Bennett et al.may indicate that being a perfect element set, and the com- it may be a lost cause.The DC aims to munity had never undertaken to deliver pher, foundry, or audio engineer.’ 39 support greater collaboration across perfection.As Tom Baker, perhaps the most

38 Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star, Sorting things out: Classification and its Consequences (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1999), p. 287. 39 David Bearman, Eric Miller, Godfrey Rust, Jennifer Trant and Stuart Weibel,‘A Common Model to Support Interoperable Metadata: Progress report on reconciling metadata requirements from the Dublin Core and INDECS/ DOI Communities’ in D-Lib Magazine (January 1999). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january99/bearman/01bearman.html 40 Diane Hillman, Using Dublin Core (August 2003) http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/ (accessed 10 November 2003). DigiCULT.Info 32 that support metadata.These tools and technologies support all types of metadata, not just DC metadata.A prime example of this is the work on registries by UKOLN (http://www.ukoln.ac.uk), the European Commission, and other bodies like OCLC (Online Computer Library Centre: http://www.oclc.org/). It seems to me that any projects on registries and any real-life implementations of registries have all been initiated as a result of the work of the DCMI DC-Registries Working Group. It is a similar case with application profiles. These are probably one of the more signif- icant technologies for helping to achieve metadata interoperability being developed currently, and without DCMI the work of CEN (European Committee for Standar- © HATII (UofGlasgow),© HATII Ross, Seamus 2003 disation, http://www.cenorm.be/cenorm/ National Archives of Australia index.htm) on application profiles, for example, would have taken a lot longer to significant DC theorist, has said, DC meta- shining example for us all.The DCMI was initiate.Again, if RDF ever takes off and data is a set of signposts for digital surfers, the first truly global community, in the lives up to the promise envisaged for it i.e. it is there to guide people to resources, area we can generalise by calling informa- in the ‘Semantic Web’ concept,41 this will and does not claim to be a GPS system or tion management, to develop a successful be due, in no small part, to the use and even a road map.Those who try to fit metadata standard. DCMI showed that it encouragement of this technology by DCMES into tasks for which it was never can be done – that a diverse group of indi- metadata communities. designed are the ones making the mistakes. viduals can work together to develop a It is not the fault of the DCMES that it standard that can be used globally by all o, all we information professionals have cannot be used for record-keeping, or for the communities which participated in its Sa lot for which to thank the DCMI. database management, or for preservation development. DCMI demonstrated that And the DCMES is developing to take metadata, except insofar as the success of such communities can be put together and into account the practical needs of the DC has encouraged people to think it can can work cooperatively to achieve their communities that make up the DCMI. be bent sufficiently to allow it to fit almost aims and desired outcomes.The Dublin Thus, the purpose of working groups such any application involving metadata.Those Core metadata element set, despite its flaws as DC-Government is not to develop a set who try to misshape the DCMES in these and shortcomings, is a viable standard for of elements for government resource dis- ways do not understand enough about resource discovery metadata, as is shown by covery but to look at ways to make metadata or enough about the aims and its very widespread implementation across DCMES more relevant to the task of dis- purposes of DC, and DC itself should not a large range of communities.Without the covering government resources. DCMI be blamed for such misuse. example of DCMI I do not think there Working Groups are not about developing would be groups like ERPANET more metadata standards (we all know that he Dublin Core community began in (http://www.erpanet.org), and the other there are already more than enough out T1995, mostly comprised of people global initiatives in the field of informa- there) but to help make the DCMES do from the North American library and aca- tion/knowledge management. what it does a little bit better for specific demic communities, but DCMI partici- communities. I think this is a crucial point pants quickly became truly global in he second area in which I believe that for everyone to understand – if we do not nature.This is where the major success of Tall metadata implementers and practi- understand this, then we do not under- the Dublin Core community lies, and it is tioners should be eternally grateful to stand properly what the purpose, aims and an achievement that should be taken as a DCMI is the work on other technologies drivers of the DCMI are.

41 Cf. DigiCULT’s Thematic Issue 3:Towards a Semantic Web for Heritage Resources (http://www.digicult.info/down loads/thematic_issue_3_low.pdf). DigiCULT.Info 33 inally, let me say that, while I under- DCMI than other communities.We should The papers of the 2003 Dublin stand the issues archivists and record- not decry this and throw the baby out F Core Conference:‘Supporting keepers have about metadata and DC with the bathwater but all work together. Communities of Discourse and metadata in particular, one of the reasons The DCMES is not the answer to every Practice – Metadata Research and that DCMES does not quite fit our con- metadata need but it was never intended to Application’, which was held in text is because we, as a profession, are very be. Instead of criticising DCMI, I believe it Seattle at the end of September late in coming to dine at this particular behoves all of us to endeavour to work 2003, are available online from: table. Librarians were thinking about these together as a community of like-minded http://www.ischool.washington. issues long before archivists/record-keepers individuals intent on making the DCMES edu/dc2003/index.html were, and therefore had more influence as good and as useful as it can be within its over the shape of the DCMES and the own constraints. BACK TO PAGE 1

CISTERCIANS IN YORKSHIRE: CREATING A VIRTUAL HERITAGE LEARNING PACKAGE

TO FOLLOW UP OUR PREVIOUS COVERAGE Yorkshire (and beyond) and had an endur- OF 3D RECONSTRUCTIONS OF ARCHAEO- ing impact on their local environment. LOGICAL SITES, DIGICULT.INFO SPOKE TO There are only six Yorkshire Cistercian CARL SMITH, DIGITISATION OFFICER FOR abbeys with surviving fabric.Among the THE CISTERCIANS IN YORKSHIRE PROJECT Yorkshire houses, Fountains and Rievaulx, both founded in 1132, are of notable BASED AT THE NIVERSITY OF HEFFIELD U S . importance and remain popular with visi- tors of all ages; Fountains Abbey, indeed, is he Cistercians in Yorkshire project a World Heritage site. Roche was chosen T(http://cistercians.shef.ac.uk/), funded because of its location in South Yorkshire with a grant from the New Opportunities near to Sheffield and because of the archi- Fund’s UK-wide digitisation programme, is tectural significance of the building (one Yorkshire, 2003 © Cistercians in creating a Web-based learning package of the earliest examples of ‘New Gothic’ A wireframe rendering of the exterior of Roche Abbey centred around three-dimensional virtual architecture in northern England).We heritage reconstructions of Cistercian elected to work also on Kirkstall in Leeds ment should allow the users to regularly abbeys in Yorkshire.These reconstructions in order to contribute to the celebration ask their own questions while analysing the are seen by the project team as providing of the 850th anniversary of that monas- associations between pieces of information, both a way into the learning materials on tery’s foundation in collaboration with the rather than just isolated facts.At the heart the Website and an informed insight into Abbey House Museum in Leeds. Many of the Cistercians project are 3D virtual re- the Cistercian mindset.The project’s cen- modern communities in Yorkshire live on, creations of the abbey churches and tral ambition is to use the architecture as or near, land that was once owned by the monastic buildings, which will be accom- an explanatory teaching device, to answer Cistercian order; this project will encour- panied by pages explaining the history and questions about the nature of this expres- age potential users, such as residents and the social, economic and cultural signifi- sion of the monastic ideal through explicit local schools, to explore the history of cance of each foundation.We are creating reference to the shape and form of the their local area. high-quality, architecturally accurate 3D buildings within which it was articulated. models of buildings using CAD and 3D reas of humanities research that can MAX technologies.These packages have he Cistercians, or ‘white monks’, Abenefit from the implementation of been chosen on the basis that they are Tplayed a major role in the religious Virtual Reality (VR) include those that industry standard and maximise the and economic life of medieval England. require greater interactivity in the learning chances of future file migration. They became significant land-owners in process.A well-designed virtual environ-

DigiCULT.Info 34 interdisciplinary. Its mission Quicktime files;VRML files; MAX files; as is to make the fruits of this well as visual and textual descriptions of scholarly research accessible the methods of the 3D reconstructions. and appealing to the widest Ultimately the direct linking of the models possible audience. with the database will allow queries of all the associated data. Inheritance will be t present most VR- used to allow the desegregation of the Arelated projects place designs into their original elements – an overwhelming emphasis where the output of one phase can be seen on the final presentation of as the input to another.The final learning the model.As a result, the packages will contain a wealth of material developmental stages are including images, 3D models, text and © Cistercians in Yorkshire, 2003 © Cistercians in rarely made available to sound about the Cistercians, who they A rendered view of Roche Abbey from the cloister researchers. However, for were,how they lived, what they believed, these reconstructions to and why they were significant in the histo- he models are then rendered using work as efficient mechanisms for encoding ry of medieval Yorkshire.The architecture Thistorically accurate textures and sur- new interpretations and ideas, any deci- of each site, explained in the context of faces. Reconstructing these ancient struc- sions that have been made during the other local churches (and European tures, which have not, and could not, be design and construction stages of the proj- Cistercian abbeys), will open visual and readily visualised before, has intrinsic value ect must also be made explicit.We would textual windows onto the Cistercian way and is at the core of the project’s ambi- like our users to become familiar with of life as experienced by the monks, the tions. Even expert architectural historians these architectural structures from the lay-brothers and their secular neighbours. can struggle to rebuild ruins of this struc- point of view of their units of construc- tural complexity in their mind’s eye; unin- tion. he key advantage of this approach is structed lay visitors can find that Tthat the 3D model becomes a front imaginative leap completely beyond them. herefore, access to the source material end for providing access to the full scope This research makes a major contribution Tand supporting evidence for every of knowledge collected on the resource at to modern understanding of the architec- reconstruction is established and main- many points in time.This will provide tural construction of these now ruined tained.The project database includes mate- many different ways of viewing the infor- buildings and sheds new light on the rial catalogued from each stage of the mation and help to promote the greatest Cistercian use of sacred space. By combin- creation of the resource including refer- number of interpretations.Arguably, the ing 3D modelling technologies with rigor- ences to varied information: architectural user can learn a great deal more about a ous conventional historical and 2D drawings of ground plans and eleva- specific building or style of architecture if archaeological research and expert archi- tions; reconstruction drawings; photo- they are able to interact with the material tectural analysis of the surviving fabric, this graphic surveys of the sites; photographs of in ways that are not possible on site or via project is genuinely multi-faceted and the models; artistic impressions; movies and traditional print media.We are carrying © Cistercians in Yorkshire, 2003 © Cistercians in © Cistercians in Yorkshire, 2003 © Cistercians in

Complex arch moulding objects from Rievaulx Abbey

DigiCULT.Info 35 © Cistercians in Yorkshire, 2003 © Cistercians in Summary of the stages involved in the reconstruction process: a section from the transepts at Roche abbey; the recording of the section using photogram- metry; the 2D elevation drawings of the section; the 3D wireframe reconstruction of the section; and the 3D solid reconstruction of the section.

out a variety of evaluation studies con- cerning the most efficient forms of deliv- ery and how best to integrate the models with the learning package.

hile working on the Cistercians in WYorkshire project one fact has been highlighted on many occasions – that the accuracy (and subsequent academic value) of the reconstructions is entirely depend- ent on the quality of the source materials available.These VR models have the potential to generate a level of detail that is rarely available in the drawings or plans of the site, and there is a tendency for these visual representations to be accepted by the users as completely accurate when in fact there are limits to our historical under- © Cistercians in Yorkshire, 2003 © Cistercians in standing of the site.All of our models are reconstructed from existing site plans, pho- togrammetric surveys, early photographs and from the surviving fabric.Although we can reconstruct much of the fabric of the building from the fragments that remain, there are sections for which there is no surviving evidence. In these cases the architectural consultant formulates a reconstruction to show the most likely appearance of the building based on analo- gy with other more complete sites. In order to make the degree of hypothetical reconstruction involved explicit at all stages of the project cycle, it is necessary to pro- vide a clear distinction between all the original and restored areas of the structure. In order not to distract from the overall

© Cistercians in Yorkshire, 2003 © Cistercians in coherence of the models we have decided Wire frame renderings of the interior of Roche Abbey

DigiCULT.Info 36 that the 2D plans and photogrammetrics, which generally serve only one purpose CULTURAL HERITAGE which are themselves accessible from the before they are put into storage or thrown models, are the most efficient place to away. As a result of 3D printers42 becoming EVENTS make this distinction. more affordable it will be possible to take advantage of common modelling software igiCULT’s Website provides a full s well as myself, the project team which allows you to make slight changes Dcalendar of events relevant to the Aincludes the director (Dr Sarah Foot, to designs without having to start from cultural heritage sector from conferences a medieval historian employed in the scratch. I am personally very interested in to training workshops. Events taking place Sheffield History department), the project recycling information, i.e. how do we re- in January and February 2004 range from manager (Nigel Williamson, who has a arrange humanities data that we already annual conferences on standards and tech- background in the use of IT in the possess in order to allow new forms of nologies to events on multimedia model- humanities and works for Corporate analysis to proliferate? Ultimately, if the ling, collaborative systems and mobile data Information and Computing Services at entire archive of the Cistercians project management, topics which are all covered the University of Sheffield), the historical could be made available then any or all of in the upcoming DigiCULT Technology researcher (Dr Julie Kerr, whose PhD was the huge range of research materials could Watch Report 2. BACK TO PAGE 1 in medieval monasticism), and the archaeo- be analysed and, where necessary, reused to logical consultant (Stuart Harrison, an provide updated or modified models.This For more details of cultural heritage events and to view the entire list, please independent scholar, recognised as the would significantly extend the lifespan and visit: http://www.digicult.info/ world expert on northern British usefulness of the project and would reaf- pages/events.php Cistercian architecture). I currently work firm one of our central aims: to allow users between six floors of architecture students to create multiple interpretations from and I am struck by the fact that they spend multiple angles, aided, not restricted, by the a lot of effort creating physical models architectural VR reconstructions. BACK TO PAGE 1

NEWS FROM DIGICULT’S REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS

DELOS NETWORK OF EXCELLENCE ON BULGARIA Europe) in Borovets, Bulgaria.The sympo- DIGITAL LIBRARIES REPORT DIGICULT REGIONAL CORRESPONDENT: sium attracted some 30 participants from ‘Invest to Save’ – the Report and MILENA DOBREVA Bulgaria, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Recommendations of the NSF-DELOS Romania, Ukraine, and Serbia and Working Group on Digital Archiving and Montenegro. Nineteen papers were pre- Preservation (2003) – is now available from sented, grouped in several tracks: http://delos-noe.iei.pi.cnr.it/activities/ • General trends in digitisation of cultural internationalforum/Joint-WGs/digita- heritage larchiving/Digitalarchiving.pdf and pres- •Digitisation in Libraries and Archives ents the conclusions of the International •Technology and Tools Forum’s discussion of strategies for digital • Education: historical issues, preservation preservation. DIGITAL PRESERVATION OF CULTURAL and accessibility aspects. HERITAGE SYMPOSIUM he papers will be published in a he Digital Preservation of Cultural Tspecial issue of the Review of the THeritage symposium was held on the National Centre for Digitisation (http:// 16 and 17 September 2003 within the www.ncd.matf.bg.ac.yu/) based at the International Congress of MASSEE University of Belgrade.The issue will (Mathematical Society of South-Eastern appear early in 2004.

42 3D printing will be examined in detail in the next issue of DigiCULT.Info. DigiCULT.Info 37 ithin the Technology and Tools ses- •To mobilise the human and material (launched yearly) offer institutions grants to Wsion, a presentation of the resources existing in the region. cover up to 70% of the digitisation cost of DigiCULT Technology Watch Report 1: New •To disseminate scientific information as their projects.The variation in funding lev- Tec hnologies for the Cultural and Scientific well as the results of research. els from one year to another continues to Heritage Sector (http://www. digicult.info/ •To facilitate communication between be a problem; nevertheless, the virtual com- downloads/twr2003_01_low.pdf) was centres having similar scientific interest. pletion of dispersed collections is becoming delivered by Milena Dobreva and Nikola reality.At the end of 2003, around 550,000 Ikonomov. One of the symposium discus- n many cases, institutions from the cul- high-quality digitised pages of manuscripts sions raised the issues of digitisation of sci- Itural and scientific heritage sectors still and 1.2 million pages of periodicals will be entific and cultural heritage, where have to be made aware of the need for available. Not only documents from big Professor Jonathan Borwein (from the digitisation work and the challenges in library collections, but rare items from Centre for Experimental and Constructive preservation and access.The network will regional museums and castle or monastery Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, seek a mechanism to support a wide range libraries are being digitised. at Simon Fraser University, Canada) and of initiatives to overcome these challenges. Professor Julian Revalski (Institute of South Eastern European counties, includ- he first programme originated in Mathematics and Informatics) presented ing a number of associated states, risk T1992-1993 when the first pilot CD- their experience in digitisation of mathe- becoming casualties of the ‘digital divide’ ROM for the UNESCO Memory of the matical heritage and the Digital not because of lack of access to the world, World programme was prepared and pub- Mathematics Library project (http://www. but because their heritage is not accessible lished in Prague. Routine production start- library.cornell.edu/dmlib/index.html). in the electronic space. ed in 1996 when the digitisation centre was built in the National Library.The cen- he final discussion, entitled ‘Does he next Meeting will be held in tre has since substantially expanded, thanks TSouth-Eastern Europe need a net- TBelgrade in late May or early June to a long-term cooperation with AIP work in digitisation of Cultural Heritage?’ 2004.The constitution of a body repre- Beroun Ltd (http://www.aipberoun. initiated the creation of the South-Eastern senting the network will be presented cz/english/index.asp) who are considered European Network for Digitisation of there for agreement. to be a co-founder of the programme, now Scientific and Cultural Heritage; a network called Memoria (formerly known as which will be developed in the near future Memoriae Mundi Series Bohemica, and which issued its first document, The CZECH REPUBLIC http://www.nkp.cz/o_knihovnach/English Borovets Declaration.Participants agreed that DIGICULT REGIONAL CORRESPONDENT: /LPIS6.htm). Under this programme, old organisations in the region face common ADOLF KNOLL manuscripts are digitised, supplemented by problems and share common scientific and rare printed books and historical maps. cultural heritage.The knowledge and experience of individual institutions should he second programme, Kramerius be shared. It is very important to take T(http://www.nkp.cz/o_knihovnach/ measures to increase communication and English/LPIS7.htm), started routine work the exchange of technological expertise, in 2000. It is oriented to the digitisation standards and practical skills within the of the preservation microfilm produced in region.Access to the experience of col- order to safeguard acid-paper library mate- leagues outside the region would also rials, mostly older periodicals. help.The participants agreed that additional CZECH NATIONAL DIGITISATION effort should be made to respond to the PROGRAMMES he data from both programmes are Action Plan envisaged in the Lund Tstored and made available thanks to Principles of the European Union (http:// lmost thirty important Czech cultural funding from the third national pro- www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult/lund_prin Ainstitutions have already taken part in gramme, Digital Library (http://www. ciples.htm). two national digitisation programmes nkp.cz/o_knihovnach/English/LPIS4.htm), coordinated by the National Library of the concerning long-term storage of, and he following issues were defined as of Czech Republic (http://www.nkp.cz/ access to, digital documents. Tcrucial importance: altnkeng.htm).The calls for proposals

DigiCULT.Info 38 he current average annual production (http://digit.nkp.cz) for manuscripts and ble to all metadata as well as to preview- Tis roughly 100,000 pages of manu- old printed books, periodicals and museum quality images.Access to higher resolution scripts and 400,000 pages of periodicals. objects.The DTD for digitised mono- images requires a licence. For digitised The data format used for storage is now graphs is becoming available and the DTD maps, the MrSID technology will be exclusively JPEG with varying compres- for sound documents is in preparation. implemented by the end of 2003. sion qualities – 256 shades of grey in the case of periodicals. Since routine produc- he digitised documents are archived he periodicals (and other types of tion began, a lot of attention was paid to Ton compact discs (Memoria pro- Tdocuments in the future) will be the metadata container comprising the gramme) and in a robotic library on mag- made available in the Kramerius applica- whole digitised document.The lack of netic tapes (Kramerius programme), and tion, which is currently being developed available good practice at that time led to fast access services to all of them will soon and tested by the Czech Qbizm Corpor- the creation of a proprietary SGML-based be available via special applications. ation (http://www.qbizm.com/).Activities standard, called DOBM, in 1996.The for- include migration of metadata as well as mat was in fact an enlargement of the anuscripts and similar materials will the optimisation of images for access. In HTML DTD with elements enabling the Mbe accessed through the Memoria this case, the access image format is DjVu description of contents of objects, a rudi- database (http://www.manuscriptorium. (http://www.djvuzone.org/), into which mentary solution, now better expressed by com).We intend that the database will all the images are being converted.The XML.The DOBM files were HTML files become a shared catalogue for historical application is expected to be launched for containing formatting in parallel with collections.The bibliographic description users by the end of 2003.All the copy- internal mark-up of rich content elements. of its records should be in MASTER for- right-free titles (from the eighteenth cen- The format was very flexible and enabled mat, while from the beginning of 2004 tury up to 1880) will be accessible free of the needed mark-up on all structural levels UNIMARC records will also be accepted, charge. More recent titles will be accessible of digitised documents including pages, as a tool to support conversion between on site, where the originals are stored. annual volumes, periodical numbers and these two formats will have been devel- even articles. oped. Interest in uploading records into hese two access systems will enable this database is international: the first Tmore concentration on digital owadays, new XML-based formats international contract was signed with archival storage that will become physically Nare available.The move to XML was the University of Wroclaw Library, Poland. independent.The archival system applied fostered not so much on the availability Other institutions in Poland, Slovakia and today is the Czech AIP Safe document and universality of this platform, but rather other countries have also indicated a wish system, product of AIP Safe Ltd on changes in content description rules to join.The database software is based on (http://www.aipsafe.com/). since 1996, especially the appearance of the the reliable Czech National Bibliography MASTER DTD (http://www.tei- To r nado application, developed and main- ur digitisation programmes have c.org.uk/Master/Reference/) for biblio- tained by AIP Beroun Ltd.43 To r nado has Ogrown on the basis of substantial graphic description of manuscripts (in the been extended to operate on MASTER research and development activities.They definition of which we also participated). records and to handle the complex meta- concern both metadata and data areas data structures of the complete digitised including large tests of new emerging ew XML Document Type documents. Furthermore, additional tools solutions. Our long-term goal is to create NDefinitions have been prepared for for work with images have been added. a virtual research environment based on manuscripts, as well as other types of docu- The access images will be optimised JPEGs historical documents. For this, other types ments.Today, metadata migration into new in preview, low and normal quality, and 1- of documents and data objects will be XML containers is coming to an end for bit (black and white) GIF format.The nor- added as well as TEI-processed texts of manuscripts and is in full swing for digi- mal quality JPEG is carefully watermarked selected manuscripts. tised periodicals.We used the redefinition with visible letters on the image back- of the metadata containers to facilitate a ground. JPEG 2000 (JP2) was considered p-to-date information about Czech large qualitative improvement of metadata for high-quality access but, owing to too Udigitisation activities is available from structures on all levels of digitised docu- visible background structure cleaning at the http://digit.nkp.cz server in English ments.The new XML DTDs are available certain compression ratios, its application and Czech. from our digitisation server was discontinued. Free access will be possi-

43 User Manual can be found at http://www.aipberoun.cz/docs/CNB/manual_en.pdf.

DigiCULT.Info 39 FRANCE will benefit from an address like culture.fr, and audio tools, all these trends are defin- DIGICULT REGIONAL CORRESPONDENT: from all the information that goes with it ing the framework of a new technical MURIEL FOULONNEAU and from sites that are already popular.’ music system, explored each year at Résonances.This continuously changing .Aillagon added that he wished to horizon involves: Mput up ‘a simple Website that is easy •a renewal of organology and musicology to use for the many people in France who concepts by reactivating ancestral musical are not yet expert Net surfers, but are difficulties related to writing and com- beginning to explore the wealth at their position techniques, analysis, representa- fingertips.A site that offers them direct, tion, listening, instrumental conception, rapid access to culture, so that they can see training, interpretation and even rehearsal; what’s on where they live, find a particular • and the increased merging of electronic NEW CULTURAL PORTAL: museum or library, and discover all the rich fabrication with digital instruments WWW.CULTURE.FR and fascinating Internet sites around.’ widely used in the artistic field – as if he French minister of culture, Jean- the organological question would finally TJacques Aillagon, recently launched s far as the organisation of the portal have to be extended to the whole of the the new cultural portal http://www.cul- Ais concerned, he said this Website was trans-artistic field. ture.fr initiated by the French Ministry of working ‘like the Web itself, in a flexible, Culture, with the aim of supporting and decentralised way.Today, several hundred he instrument was already the central strengthening the dynamic aspect of cul- people already contribute and update con- Tissue at the first Résonances in ture on the Internet. tent, using material from their own sites or October 2002, which focused on two dif- initiatives.’ ferent topics:‘new ways of listening’ and e declared:‘When we talk about cul- ‘new instruments’. Hture on the Internet, we too often he portal is based on an open-source think of the illegal downloading of materi- Tsoftware, Zope44 and CPS (collabora- ésonances 2003, which brought al. But more importantly, culture on the tive portal server) developed by Nuxeo Rtogether 6,000 visitors, built on Internet means online museums, digitised (http://www.nuxeo.org/cps). Parts of the brainstorming on new instruments for syn- works, virtual tours, documentation, infor- content of culture.fr are available in thesis and control, and expanded it to mation for visiting, seeing, listening, read- English and Spanish. innovative systems for live performance. It ing, making reservations and creating. focused on issues such as the positioning of [Culture] means all the Websites produced RÉSONANCES – INTERNATIONAL instruments in space (particularly sound by institutions (and I am keen for all those CONVENTION ON TECHNOLOGIES spatialisation), score following technolo- attached to the Ministry to be particularly FOR MUSIC gies, motion capture systems for installa- active in this area), amateurs, associations OLIVIER LESCURIEUX, IRCAM tions and choreography, real-time and businesses… I have set a very simple sound/image interaction, as well as new objective for the culture.fr portal: giving a or the second year, and with a perspectives related to real-time voice pro- new, decisive boost to culture on the Frenewed affluence of music profession- cessing of actors and singers.The public Internet by increasing the number of visi- als, scientists and visitors, Ircam-Centre discovered the extraordinary variety of tors to high-quality cultural Websites. Pompidou45 organised and hosted ‘new instruments’ designed for artistic Résonances, which has become a major expression in live performances. o the culture.fr portal does not directly European event for those involved in the ‘Screate new content: it provides sup- future of sound and music. he second theme of Résonances 2003 port, visibility and recognition to all the sites Twas Tools for Music Analysis.This that make up the quality and dynamism of he evolution of the music industry major trend emerging from the fantastic the culture Web.We cannot list everything, Ttowards concentration and globalisa- processing power of the digital era is fun- of course: that’s the job of the search tion, the integration of its manifold func- damentally transforming personal appro- engines, but the culture.fr portal, a more tions within the computer, the emergence priation of the musical phenomenon, from qualitative affair, aims to present sites, and of generalised Internet access as well as the musicians to listeners.These issues were give a chance to lesser known sites which obvious but powerful merging of creation explored in an international conference on

44 Cf. DigiCULT.Info article on Zope, also in this issue. LINK 45 Cf. DigiCULT.Info article on the Ircam Sound Archive, also in this issue. LINK DigiCULT.Info 40 musical analysis and listening based on two integration within cultural institutions.The the University of Patras are leading the perspectives (electro-acoustic music and Workshop, entitled ‘Practice of Knowledge IST project BALKANET: Design and the Set Theory). Sharing’, will be held in Heraklion, Crete, Development of a Multilingual Balkan on 20-22 April 2004.The deadline for WordNet. BALKANET (http://www.ceid. ou can find the complete programme submission of papers, presentations and upatras.gr/Balkanet/) will develop a multi- Yof Résonances 2002 and 2003, position statements is 30 January 2004. lingual lexical database comprising an indi- including biographies and abstracts, on Interested participants are invited to attend vidual WordNet for each Balkan language, http://resonances.ircam.fr. Provisional the CIDOC CRM Special Interest Group and attempt to represent the semantic rela- themes for 2004 are Improvisation and working meeting that will take place on tions between words in each language, Interpretation, and planned events already the third day of the Workshop. linking them together to form an online include: multilingual semantic network. Semantic • Computer Music Days (JIM 2004) he Centre for Cultural Informatics is relations will be classified in each individ- • Symposium on interpretation analysis Tpart of the Information Systems ual WordNet according to a shared ontol- • International workshop on Laboratory at the Foundation for Research ogy. BALKANET is an excellent Improvisation and Technology Hellas (FORTH).The opportunity to explore less-studied Balkan • International conference on Sound Centre pursues a comprehensive, cross-dis- languages, and to combine and compare Design ciplinary approach to supporting the entire them cross-linguistically. • 10th anniversary of the Electronic Music lifecycle of cultural information and docu- Foundation. mentation procedures for the benefit of XODUS S.A. is the coordinator the preservation, study and promotion of Eof the eContent project M-Guide: Résonances 2004 will run from 13-22 cultural heritage. Cultural Location Based Information October. Services. M-Guide (http://www.exodus. INTRODUCTION TO KEY PLAYERS AND gr/m-guide/) will develop and deploy a GREECE PROJECTS system for providing location-based infor- DIGICULT REGIONAL CORRESPONDENT: he Informatics and Telematics Institute mation services for the cities of Athens EFTHIMIOS MAVRIKAS T(ITI, http://www.iti.gr/) and the (GR) and Turku (FI). Information content Centre of Research and Technology Hellas will consist mainly of tourist information (CERTH) are key participants in REACH: on specific monuments and sights of New Forms of Distributed Organisation downtown areas, neighbouring informa- and Access to Cultural Heritage, a project tion and public services hot spots. M- funded by the General Secretariat for Guide services will be provided using Research and Technology (GSRT, existing GSM +/2.5 G mobile technology. http://www.gsrt.gr/).The objective of REACH is the development of a system of he Foundation of the Hellenic World unified access to, and management of, T(FHW,http://www.fhw.gr/) partici- information concerning the Hellenic pates in the IST thematic network art- PRACTICE OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING’ Cultural Heritage.This system will inter- nouveau: on the Transition to the Digital WORKSHOP connect all the Greek databases of cultural Era of Arts and Culture.The network has he CIDOC CRM Special Interest content, offer a central point of access to been established as a platform for infor- TGroup (http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/) and existing, scattered collections, and promote mation exchange and discussion on the Centre for Cultural Informatics at the worldwide study of the Hellenic opportunities for advanced information ICS-FORTH (http://www.ics.forth. Cultural Heritage. REACH complements technologies in the artistic and cultural gr/isl/cci.html) have announced a three- the extensive nationwide effort of digitisa- application domains.The FHW con- day International Workshop designed to tion of collections under way in the CUL- tributes to the network its wide experi- bring together researchers and practitioners TURE Sector of National Priority. ence in the use of state-of-the-art in information provision and exchange, information and computer technology in with the goal of presenting and discussing he Research Academic Computer the research, awareness and understanding knowledge sharing among museums, TTe chnology Institute (CTI, of Hellenic history and culture. libraries and archives, and information http://www.cti.gr/) Research Unit 2 and

DigiCULT.Info 41 he Prisma Centre for Development Conference events took place at University ITALY TStudies (http://www.prismanet.gr/) of Macedonia facilities in Thessaloniki in DIGICULT REGIONAL CORRESPONDENT: coordinates the Culture2000 project November 2003. ANNA MARIA TAMMARO ACRINET: European Acritic Heritage Network. Since its inception in 2001, he University of the Aegean, ACRINET has been investigating the TDepartment of Cultural Technology acritic tradition across Europe, establishing and Communication (DCTC), is organis- its symbolic and social meanings, and col- ing the 2nd International Conference of lecting material from archives and popular Museology ‘Technology for the Cultural culture in the form of manuscripts, publi- Heritage: Management – Education – cations and films to represent the acritic Communication’ (http://www.aegean.gr/ heritage.ACRINET will make this mate- culturaltec/museum/), under the auspices rial available to a wide public by creating a of the Ministry of Culture and the 46 virtual museum. Ministry of the Aegean.The conference EURESCO CONFERENCE REPORT: will be held at University of the Aegean DR MILENA DOBREVA he Cultural Informatics Laboratory facilities in Mytilene, Lesvos, from 28 June n early September, from a picturesque T(CILab) at the Department of to 2 July 2004. Imountain in Tuscany, the international Cultural Technology and Communication centre Il Ciocco hosted the European (DCTC, http://www.aegean.gr/cultural- FOCUS ON EDUCATION: research conference ‘Philological tec/), University of the Aegean, initiated raduate studies programmes currently Disciplines and Digital Technology – the Socrates-Minerva project WebDANCE Goffered include: Computational Philology:Tradition versus using Advanced E-Learning Tools. • MSc in Cultural Informatics – PhD Innovation’.The event was organised with WebDANCE (http://www.aegean.gr/cul- (http://www.aegean.gr/culturaltec/ the support of the EURESCO conference turaltec/webdance/) promotes the use of msc/) at the University of the Aegean, programme of the European Science new technologies in dance education and, Department of Cultural Technology and Foundation, the French CNRS, and the in particular, the use of interactive multi- Communication; Regione Toscana (Tuscany Regional media technologies (3D animation, • MSc in Cultural Policy, Management Government). It brought together about MPEG-7 annotated video) in traditional and Communication – PhD (http:// 70 experienced and young researchers dance information representation, and the panteion.criticalpublics.com/cmc/ from 22 countries.This created an excep- use of the Internet as a dance-learning pages/postgraduate/) at Panteion tionally good mixture of experiences. medium.To this end,WebDANCE will University, Department of Commu- develop a platform that can be used both nication, Media and Culture; apers examined digital technology for as a Web-based resource for dance teachers • MSc in Cultural Information Systems Pconservation, restoration, dissemination and as a Web-based explorative learning and Cultural Heritage Management at and management of library materials; the environment for dance students in formal the University of Crete, History and relationship between the digital documents (school) and informal contexts. Archaeology Department (http://www. and linguistic/philological research; philol- history-archaeology.uoc.gr/) – ogy and bibliographical databases; critical CONFERENCE UPDATES Computer Science Department editing and hypertextual and hypermedia he Greek Computer Society (EPY), (http://www.csd.uoc.gr/); tools; and the philology of non-alphabeti- Tin cooperation with the Aristotle • MSc in Language Technologies – PhD cal sources (e.g. demotic alphabet, music), University of Thessaloniki, the University (‘Technoglossia’, http://www.ilsp.gr/ philology and archaeological research. of Macedonia and the Technological and texnoglossia/) at the Institute for Educational Institution of Thessaloniki, Language and Speech Processing – he diversity of questions that should organised the 9th Panhellenic Conference in University of Athens, Department of Tbe addressed in the years to come Informatics (PCI 2003, http://epy9.csd. Linguistics – National Technical were summarised by the Euroconference auth.gr/), the 1st Balkan Conference in University of Athens, School of Chair, Dr Andrea Bozzi from the Institute Informatics (BCI), and the MultiMine Electrical and Computer Engineering of Computational Linguistics in Pisa, Italy, ‘Knowledge from Multimedia’ parallel (http://www.ece.ntua.gr/). in his opening address: workshop (http://www.multimine.gr/).

46 Based partly on the presentations made at the European Research Conference (EURESCO) on ‘Philological Disciplines and Digital Technology – Computational Philology:Tradition versus Innovation’ (Il Ciocco, Italy, 6-11 September 2003) organised by the European Science Foundation.This information is the sole responsibility of the author and does not reflect the ESF or Community’s opinion.The ESF and the Community are not responsible for any use that DigiCULT.Info 42 might be made of data appearing in this publication. n my opinion, today computational editor to evaluate the relationships of applications of digital technologies to ‘Iphilologists (in the strict sense of the traditional hand-written text and to philological disciplines, possibly accompa- term) have superior technological represent it using bi- or tri-dimensional nied by training courses for the beginners resources available compared with their graphic technologies? in the field.Without any doubt the event colleagues working during the pioneering •How can linguistic analysis (morpholo- increased the feeling of attendees that phase.The resources I refer to include dig- gy, lexicon, etc.) together with the they belong together and face similar ital technology, computer programs and in assistance of computational systems problems. It also gave practical and work- particular interconnectivity offered by the (morphological and morpho-syntactic ing answers to some of the questions Internet. analysers, lemmatisers and lexical data- raised, which will reach a larger group of bases, etc.) effectively contribute to the scholars through a special volume of e can only hope to have con- study of text?’ Linguistica Computazionale,a publication Wtributed to the development and of ILC in Pisa, where some of the subjects advancement of a multi-secular discipline hese and other questions, that could discussed at the Euro conference could if, on one hand, we get rid of the usual Tbe raised by any of us, are in fact a bbe developed. prejudices that go hand in hand with stimulating research path for a scholar who novelty especially if it is closely tied with has, on the one hand, consolidated tradi- CONFERENCE TO PREPARE NEW technological development and, on the tion and methodology and, on the other, a INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS other hand, if approaches and strategies series of surprisingly efficient technological that are truly considered useful for third possibilities. First International Conference of employers and millennium philology are clearly indicat- LIS school teachers (University of Parma, ed.Therefore this means that we must ne common concern, especially for 24-25 November 2003) answer a series of questions, including: Othe younger participants in the •To what point is digital image repro- forum, was how they could receive system- n an international context, this First duction capable of offering an alternative atic and regular training in this field where IInternational Conference collected reading to that of the original or facsim- frameworks change at an incredible pace. employers’, staff’s and students’ perceptions ile editions? Another important question raised is what and expectations of education and training •To what point can critical edition actually shapes this community of scholars needs for the digital environment. information recorded in a database working in the field of digital philology. contribute to facilitating constitutio The current diversity of problems and t aimed to reflect upon and share ideas textus? approaches should somehow form clearer Iand best practices related to preparing • What sectors, traditionally considered frameworks in the community, and such information professionals for the hybrid part of the philological discipline (epig- forums have the important role of support- digital library and in an international raphy, papyrology, medieval philology, ing this process. labour market. How can employers afford ancient printed text philology, musical the re-qualification and continuing educa- philology, genetic criticism, etc.), can he excellent work of the conference tion needs of information professionals in effectively be enhanced by computer Tchair, Andrea Bozzi from ILC (Pisa), the digital environment? How are Library elaboration techniques? and Vice Chair, Jean-Louis Lebrave from & Information Science (LIS) schools, after • In what situations can the electronic ITEM (Paris), and the financial support of the Bologna Declaration, planning for bet- edition be considered preferable to the the conference sponsors made possible the ter employability of new information pro- paper edition and what are the situations balanced participation of experienced and fessionals? What are the best practices of where an electronic edition must substi- young researchers with various interests in LIS schools worldwide to prepare them in tute a paper one? the field combined with specialists from the digital environment? •How can Web-based textual archives be associated countries of the EC.This made of effective assistance to a critical editor? of the conference an inspiring forum, •How can hypertextual instruments be which will hopefully be the first in a used in philological disciplines for sequence of events. Let us express our research and/or didactics? wish that this idea will find further sup- •How can clustering techniques and port and will grow as a regular meeting visualisation of information assist an place for the community working on

DigiCULT.Info 43 POLAND hese tasks will be realised in coopera- people start from the beginning and find DIGICULT REGIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ttion with public libraries that (follow- their own ways of performing digitisation. ing the academic libraries’ example) have This results in ad hoc approaches, incom- MARIA SLIWINSKA established a Standing Conference and patibilities, no clear notion of future use, Committees. and wasted time and money.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE he idea behind the Nacionalni Centar he annual IATUL Conference 2004 Tza Digitalizaciju (National Centre for Tdevoted to ‘Library Management in Digitisation, NCD, http://www.ncd.matf. Changing Environment’ will be held in bg.ac. yu) is to overcome these shortcom- Krakow (Poland) from 30 May to 3 June ings by organising continuous and system- 2004.The conference sessions have been atic work.At present, the consortium subdivided into four themes: includes the Mathematical Institute and • Elements of Library Management Archaeological Institute of the Serbian POLISH INTERNET LIBRARY •Traditional Collection and e-Resources Academy of Science and Art, Mathematical he Polish Internet Library – Policy Dilemma Faculty Belgrade, National Library of T(http://www.pbi.edu.pl), established • Public Relations: User-oriented Services Serbia, National Museum Belgrade, in 2002, contains about 260 scanned books •Regional Library Cooperation. Archive of Republic Serbia, Serbian and since its opening over seven million Institute for Monument Protection and visits have been recorded.An average visit ore information can be found at: Yugoslav Film Archive. Representatives of takes about half an hour. It is planned to Mhttp://www.biblos.pk.edu.pl/IATU these leading cultural and research institu- develop the collection, making available L/programme.php3. tions form the Main Committee of the over 6,000 items.At the end of 2008 liter- NCD. ature without copyright, handbooks, some scores and cartographies should be avail- SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO The main aims of the cooperation are: able from the Internet Library as well as DIGICULT REGIONAL CORRESPONDENT: • coordination of efforts of institutions graphics, photographs and periodicals.A ZORAN OGNJANOVIC involved in cultural and scientific list of currently available titles can be heritage digitisation; found at: http://www.pbi.edu.pl/lista.php. • establishing and promoting a national strategy for cultural and scientific INFOBIBNET heritage digitisation; olish public library directors have • exploration, adaptation and implementa- Pformed the INFOBIBnet consortium tion of international standards and pro- in order to prepare public libraries for their tocols for cultural and scientific heritage new roles and include them and their users digitisation and preservation at the in the global information society. national level; development of new NATIONAL CENTRE FOR DIGITISATION standards in areas where they do not yet INFOBIBnet will work on: umerous institutions from Serbia are exist; • the introduction of compatible library Nin possession of a large number of • launching cultural and scientific heritage management systems and Internet scientific journals and rare books, archive digitisation and making plans for a possi- connection at all public libraries; documents, textual and image data, as well ble migration process to new formats • making Internet access points available as the other cultural and scientific values. and technologies for already digitised for local users; Recently, important efforts have been data. • contributing to the Polish information made to digitise, preserve, describe and resources; index the cultural and scientific heritage. hese goals should be enabled through • the creation of new information services All these attempts are interesting and have Tthe activities of the NCD. Some of for users; concrete outputs, but on the other hand the activities are: • active participation in government and they only last as long as they are financially • forming expert groups for specific fields local government information systems. supported, and in almost every new project of interest (groups for museums,

DigiCULT.Info 44 libraries, archives, monument protection, and the tools for storage, processing and CD established a journal, called standardisation, data protection, etc.); presentation of the digitised data. During NReview of the National Centre for • establishing, at the national level, a basic the digitisation process, models of a dis- Digitisation, which is published both in set of standards in the area of digitisation tributed information system for digitised electronic and in printed form (http:// of cultural and scientific heritage; cultural and scientific heritage and specific www.ncd.matf.bg.ac.yu/?page=publica •developing models of the appropriate software that follows the above standards tions&lang=en).The journal publishes distributed information systems and should be developed.The models should papers (mostly in Serbian) concerning all specific software for the realisation of allow dissemination and wide access over aspects of digitisation of cultural and scien- digitisation standards; the Internet to cultural and scientific val- tific heritage.Two national conferences • connecting cultural and research institu- ues that at present are not easily accessible. under the name ‘New Technologies and tions involved in the digitisation project These systems should be as compatible as Standards: Digitisation of National Heritage’ into a particular Internet subnet and possible. Collaborators from cultural and were organised in 2002 and 2003 (www. developing a network of information scientific institutions ought to use the soft- ncd.matf.bg.ac.yu/?page=conferences&lan and WWW servers; ware both as end-users and as experts who g=en), presenting local experiences with • securing long-term storage and mainte- define metadata for corresponding objects new technologies, standards and the other

nance of digitised heritage; and enter information into databases. fields in the area of digitisation. BACK TO PAGE 1 • organising continuous, persistent and systematic work on cultural and scientific DIGICULT REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS: heritage digitisation; • training collaborators from cultural and Warm thanks go to all of our Regional Correspondents: scientific institutions; Bulgaria Milena Dobreva • collaboration with similar institutions Czech Republic Adolf Knoll from abroad. France Muriel Foulonneau Greece Efthimios Mavrikas he activities illustrate the multidisci- Italy Anna Maria Tammaro Tplinary character of the NCD. For Poland Maria Sliwinska example, the issue of standards in the area Serbia and Montenegro Zoran Ognjanovic of digitisation of cultural and scientific DigiCULT are still seeking Regional Correspondents for countries not mentioned heritage concerns data and metadata for- above. If you would like to contribute, please contact the DigiCULT.Info content mats and structures, access protocols, rights editor, Daisy Abbott, at [email protected] management, thesauri, search procedures, SMIL EXPLAINED

CONTINUING ON FROM DIGITAL OBJECT co-ordination of different media displayed W3C, leading to SMIL 1.0 becoming a on a Website. SMIL can be thought of as W3C recommendation in June 1998. IDENTIFIERS AND HUMAN LANGUAGE similar to HTML but with additional tem- TECHNOLOGIES IN DIGICULT.INFO’S poral definition, controlling placement of HOW DOES IT WORK? TECHNOLOGIES EXPLAINED SERIES, multimedia in both space and time and MIL, an XML specification, defines a DAISY ABBOTT CONSIDERS THE therefore allowing both the synchronisa- Snumber of elements and attributes use- tion and integration of various media. ful for controlling presentation, synchroni- YNCHRONISED EDIA NTEGRATION S M I sation and interactivity. Media components LANGUAGE. MIL was designed as a declarative accessible by URLs are named (tagged) Sformat for expressing media synchro- and their display can be positioned in WHAT IS SMIL? nisation on the Web as an alternative and space and scheduled in time. Positioning he Synchronised Media Integration complementary approach to scripting can be defined similarly to HTML. TLanguage (SMIL, pronounced ‘smile’) languages. In March 1997 the first Controlling display of media in time is is a mark-up language which supports the Working Group was established by achieved in two main ways: parallel (e.g.

DigiCULT.Info 45 requires a few lines of mark-up. No spe- cialised tools are required to author SMIL; it can be written in a text editor and many free tutorials have been published on the Web making it accessible to new users.To play SMIL presentations, your browser must be SMIL compatible – several free SMIL browsers exist (e.g. X-Smiles

© Daisy Abbott,© Daisy 2002 (http://www.x-smiles.org/), GriNS (http://www.oratrix.com/GRiNS//), HPAS (http://www.research.compaq. show ImageA at the same time as playing are defined as sequential or parallel. If con- com/SRC/HPAS/), and SOJA AudioB) or sequential (e.g. play VideoC tained within a pair of tags, (http://www.helio.org/products/)) and then show TextD).Synchronisation can be the tags will produce a display as follows: most of the more common browsers now further controlled (again using methods prelude.jpg is shown for 6 seconds in the support the language. familiar from HTML) by defining times as image window, then there will be a second relative or absolute.An example of using of blankness, followed by the video MIL’s flexibility means that SMIL pre- relative and absolute temporal definitions columns.mov looping three times in the Ssentations can be as varied as Web could be: show ImageE three seconds after video window. However, if the tags are pages.A simple example of a multimedia VideoF starts playing (absolute), stop contained within tags, the presentation could be a slide show: a pic- showing ImageE when VideoF finishes image will be displayed as before, but after ture is displayed with an audio commentary (relative).As parallel and sequential display 1 second the video will also start. Five sec- (in parallel); once the first commentary is is defined by tags, these two temporal dis- onds later the image will disappear, and the finished, the presentation moves on to the play types can be nested to create very video will stop when it has completed second picture and commentary (in complex multimedia displays. three repetitions.The and sequence).Another example might be a tags can be nested, thereby facilitating any musical analysis application:‘Peter and the A SMIL EXAMPLE: complex synchronisation of media, as long Wolf’ plays as an audio file while text and ultimedia definition in SMIL can be as the individual tags are placed within the images appear at set points in the piece to Mextremely simple; only a very few correct combination of parallel and identify each animal and to describe the tags are required to display most media. sequence tags.47 story.The possibilities of cultural heritage Two typical pieces of SMIL code pertain- applications of synchronised multimedia are ing to one media file each are shown MIL allows interactive control of multi- huge and SMIL offers a simple, flexible and below.The first tag displays an image in a Smedia by supporting the definition of accessible way to achieve them. previously specified area, image_window. buttons such as Play, Stop, FastForward and The image is shown for 6 seconds.The so on, and includes features of HTML such ore information and SMIL second tag plays a video in a different area as linking to separate files.This means that a Mresources can be found at the of the screen defined by the region play- user can interrupt a presentation in order Synchronised Multimedia homepage, back_window.The video has an intrinsic to follow an interesting link and then http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/, at the length, therefore the duration tag can be resume the display when finished browsing. dedicated Web page JustSMIL http://smw omitted. However, the begin time specified Recent versions of SMIL have included .internet.com/smil/, and the upcoming causes the video to wait 1 second before more elaborate control mechanisms such as DigiCULT Technology Watch Report 2, chap- beginning playback.The video will repeat slow motion or a random starting point. ter on the XML family of specifications, three times.This file is given an id number due for publication early in 2004.To see that can be referenced by later tags and HOW CAN SMIL BE USED? the potential of SMIL in action, although used to specify behaviour such as ‘start v2 MIL can be further compared to not in a cultural heritage context, look at playing 10 seconds after v1 has finished’. SHTML in that it was designed specifi- http://www.people.hbs.edu/lbouthillier/ cally to be easy to use – a simple presenta- smil/, or for an easy tutorial, try http:// xactly how these two files are dis- tion can be authored in a few lines of www.helio.org/products/smil/tutorial/ Eplayed depends on whether the tags SMIL just as a simple HTML page only toc.html. BACK TO PAGE 1 47 Example taken from Daisy Abbott, Documentary Previsualisation: Multimedia Presentation Languages (September 2002).

DigiCULT.Info 46 FINDING NAMES WITH THE AUTONOM PARSER

ithout the help of combined with our expectation that, if Wa name parser this those words really are names, they will would be a time-consum- (with a certain probability) not appear in ing and error-prone job, the same text without the first character which may explain why capitalised. So we expect to find ‘Simon’ this method has not been in a text, but not ‘simon’, but we do used much until now.The expect to find ‘Table’ as well as ‘table’. name parser we have Therefore, to identify all probable proper developed and the Web site names in a text under investigation, we through which it can be simply return all tokens that have an initial used will make this type capital but do not appear in the same text of name research a lot easi- uncapitalised.With the Autonom frame-

© NIWI-KNAW,2003 er.We expect it will even- work we intend to provide (and in part tually yield much more already do provide) an online platform for concrete and reliable results individual researchers to express such rule- KARINA VAN DALEN-OSKAM & than onomastic research of this type has like features or phenomena in texts.The done to date. Here we will describe the platform will convert formalised textual JORIS VAN ZUNDERT first steps we have taken towards a Website features described by the researcher into NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR SCIENTIFIC in which researchers from all over the rule-based algorithms for text parsing. INFORMATION SERVICES (NIWI-KNAW) world can analyse names and other features Such algorithms may then be applied to DEPARTMENT OF DUTCH LINGUISTICS AND in the texts of their own choice. any text available to the researcher within a repository. LITERARY STUDIES TECHNICAL BACKGROUND utonom (http://autonom.niwi. INTRODUCTION Aknaw.nl) is a Web application that ne of the research topics of the provides a framework for computer-assist- ODepartment of Dutch Linguistics ed analysis of texts. Its special focus is liter- and Literary Studies of the Netherlands ary texts.At the moment Autonom does Institute for Scientific Information not implement any machine learning sta- Services (NIWI-KNAW) is ‘names in lit- tistical approaches, because such approaches erary texts’. Names can be studied from require large training corpora that may not different perspectives: from linguistic, lit- always be available or appropriate to the erary or onomastic (‘name studies’) points literary field in question. Rather we adopt- of view.Areas for investigation include: ed a rule-based (or finite state) shallow how authors use names to distinguish parsing techniques as a pragmatic solution. between entities (persons, places, etc); We do, however, intend to strengthen this which types of names are used and what technique by adding probabilistic feature their frequencies are; how authors make parsing We will use the growing number use of names to give their story a certain of texts that are researched within the atmosphere or to describe the characters Autonom framework as a training corpus. or places in their work; and how authors

differ from each other in their use of irst, we developed the name parser. © Autonom, 2003 names. Central to this kind of research is The rule we use within the parser to F First page of the novel De Middelburgsche to consider all names in the texts under identify proper names is our knowledge of Avanturier (1760, author unknown), one of the investigation in the analysis. the fact that in Dutch it is customary to eighteenth-century novels that will be analysed write proper names with an initial capital, with [the] help of Autonom.

DigiCULT.Info 47 © Autonom, 2003 © Autonom, 2003 In this presentation all tokens by default have been marked as ‘proper name’, so the researcher only has to unmark the wrongly suggested words. lthough at the moment we only pro- their algorithms, texts and analysis results. parser has missed any names the researcher Avide an algorithm for parsing proper As such, researchers will be able to com- can request a view of the text, in which names, the contours of the framework are bine and cross-examine their individual the tagged names are highlighted. beginning to form.A researcher may result trees for further cooperative analysis. upload a text file to a personalised and pri- t will be possible to add names that vate repository. From the repository the HOW DOES AUTONOM WORK? Iwere not found by the parser by mark- text may then be analysed by applying an o analyse the names in a (literary) ing them in this text view.This method algorithm of the researcher’s choice.The Ttext a researcher provides scanned and proved to be efficient: our first test resulted parsing algorithm returns an XML tree OCRed text.As the goal is not to present in a percentage of 79.4% accuracy in representing the tokens in the text identi- an ideal and ‘clean’ digital version of the tokens that the parser suggested were fied as ‘probable’ proper names.The text, the researcher can leave the OCR names.There were very few names that researcher can approve or reject the sug- text uncorrected.The .txt version of the were not recognised as such by the parser, gestions made by the algorithm and anno- digital text must then be uploaded to the only five from a total of 61,152 in the tate (i.e. tag) analysed items.The repository; this is very easy to do and all test text. ‘authorised’ results are stored in a private procedures are carefully explained on the analysis repository. From this repository Website.To avoid problems with copyright hen the researcher has decided the result trees may be regained for future ref- we have taken care to ensure that only the Wtagging is sufficient, s/he can turn erence, editing, or for rendering a view on researcher who submits a document will to the tag view and take the set of tagged the combined result trees and analysed be able to analyse and view it. types and tokens as input for further analy- text. For these latter purposes we rely on sis. In this respect, little has been done so a ‘just in time trees’ model (JITT)48 that he next step is to analyse the far. One of the first things we plan to do is allows us to preserve the original digital Tuploaded text.The name parser pres- to add the possibility for the researcher to text and to store multiple result trees in a ents the researcher with a list of all types in group name types by normalised word- concurrent versioning system (CVS). By the text that might be names. In this list, forms, for instance to get nominatives and realising concurrent versioning for analysis which also shows the number of occur- genitives together (e.g.Albert and Albert’s). results we intend to provide the researcher rences, the researcher can view all tokens Furthermore, we would like to add results with the possibility to recursively refine per type. Each word that is probably a of our deeper knowledge about the names the formal definition (and thereby the name is presented with some context, so in the text, for instance mark certain algorithm) for the textual phenomena that it is very easy to check whether all names as ‘speaking’, when quotes from the sought within texts.The researcher should of the parser’s suggestions are correct. text under investigation can prove that the in this way be able to reproduce, refine author has made use of the etymological and combine any prior algorithms used for licking the save button fixes the meaning of the name to ‘build’ the charac- analyses. In addition, we want to provide Cchosen interpretation of the token(s) ter or the place he or she is describing.We collaborative means for researchers to share as a name or not.To check whether the also want to be able to get results for the

48 For more information about Just in Time Trees, see http://www.sbl-site2.org/Extreme2002/.

DigiCULT.Info 48 ly testing it on other texts and trying it TRY OUT THE NAME PARSER out on older texts as well.The first older texts we are analysing are some eigh- If you would like to try the name parser as it is, please visit teenth-century novels. In this time peri- http://autonom.niwi.knaw.nl and register as a user (this is necessary to keep the od, authors capitalised not only names, texts safe from copyright infringement; registering and making use of all tools is free but many nouns as well.We will test of charge).We would be interested to hear about your experiences and we welcome any suggestions you might have. whether the different use of capitalisation will significantly change the usability of the parser. If so, we will try to adapt the frequencies of different categories of XML, XSL, CSS), and on open-source name parser for eighteenth-century names.This means that first we will have software (e.g.TomCat,Xalan, Dom4J etc); Dutch texts and give the user the choice to elaborate on the tag set. Up until now, and we use a lightweight development of different versions of the parser. we have worked with proper names only. protocol (eXtreme Programming or XP), Autonom can also be used for other lan- For our research we will have to enlarge which we feel is flexible enough for use guages that are presented with the the set of attributes for this tag: we want in academic and research environments. Roman alphabet, namely for those lan- to separate first names from surnames, guages that make use of the same capitali- personal names from place names, and NEXT STEPS sation rules as Dutch. A lot of languages distinguish different types of place names he first tool we have added supports have the same system and can therefore from each other, and so on, but keep all of T‘nearness analysis’.This tool presents make use of Autonom. (For modern them in the large group of ‘proper names’. a table of all the tagged name types in the German, where all nouns are capitalised, Each researcher will have to be able to cre- text, and all other names that are located Autonom actually functions as a noun ate his or her own tag set and attributes. between one and ten words away from parser.) We are thinking of developing the We are currently developing tools for this. each instance of this name.The number interface to enable the researcher to tag a of names in the ‘neighbourhood’ is given text completely in any language (in the s far as possible,Autonom has been as well as the mean distance.When, after Roman alphabet) and of any time period, Adeveloped in respect of good prac- elaborating on the tag set and the attrib- thus to tag each word in it with a dic- tices: we intend Autonom to be open- utes, the results of this nearness analysis are tionary entry and with a tag denoting source software under a GPL licence (as more promising and valuable, we will try part of speech. BACK TO PAGE 1 we think all software developed within an out several ways to visualise them. academic context should be); we only rely For more information on Autonom, please visit on platform-independent programming he name parser is developed for http://www.niwi.knaw.nl/en/neerlan- (Java), on open standards (i.e. HTML, Tmodern Dutch texts.We are current- distiek/onderzoek/toon.

THE OBJECT OF LEARNING: VIRTUAL AND PHYSICAL CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERACTIONS

AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF DIGICULT THEMATIC t the Telematics Centre, University of wall.net/): in partnership with Cornwall ISSUE 4: LEARNING OBJECTS FROM CULTURAL AExeter, we have just started our 12th County Council, the Telematics Centre AND SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE RESOURCES digital heritage education project.A full is creating an open-access Website to (HTTP://WWW.DIGICULT.INFO/PAGES/PUBLICA- description of all our projects can be found stimulate and support involvement with TIONS.PHP), DOMINIC PROSSER, FROM THE on our Website at Cornish Culture. It is designed to sup- UNIVERSITY OF EXETER TELEMATICS CENTRE, http://telematics.ex.ac.uk.Although we port the adult literacy core curriculum. AND SUSAN EDDISFORD, TIVERTON MUSEUM AND cannot describe them all here, exploring (Supported by the New Opportunities the following projects will demonstrate Fund). THE TELEMATICS CENTRE, SPOKE TO our work: • Virtual Victorians (http://www.victori DIGICULT.INFO ABOUT THE THEORY AND PRACTICE • RealCornwall (http://www.realcorn ans.org.uk/): working in partner- OF LEARNING THROUGH VIRTUAL EXHIBITIONS.

DigiCULT.Info 49 n our work there is a facilitate deeper engagement with objects Isymbiotic relationship and thus provide time for reflection and the between ‘virtual visiting’ building of personal meanings and inter- and physical museum- pretation.This virtual contextualisation going.We recognise that could also be made available within the each has its strengths and gallery, to provide this additional dimension limitations, and would to the interpretation of artefacts, and to argue strongly that the enhance the visitor experience. virtual should be designed to promote, complement, e have already gathered evidence extend and enhance the Wthrough our work that virtual visits

© Exeter City Council and the University of Exeter, City Council and the University © Exeter 2002 physical experience rather to our sites have prompted subsequent Playing the Burmese Gong Chime Circle than seek to replace it. physical visits, and vice versa.The findings Too many heritage from Burma and Virtual Victorians show ship with Tiverton and Mid Devon Websites fall into the trap of simply trying that the virtual objects promoted an appre- Museum Trust, the Centre is researching to create a surrogate virtual copy of the ciation of the value of physical objects and and developing a Web-based resource physical exhibition, rather than creatively of displaying them in museums, and built around museum artefacts, news- embracing the potential of the ICT medi- increased the desire to see them for real. paper archives and photographs.This um to provide exciting and meaningful resource is designed for use by schools learning experiences, such as being able to he virtual museum can help to attract (primary and early secondary), and life- record yourself playing on a Burmese Tvisitors from non-traditional museum long learners. (Funded by the Depart- Gong Chime Circle, asking a ‘real’Virtual audiences.An engaging and enjoyable vir- ment for Education and Employment Victorian a question via the Web or build- tual visit can dispel negative preconcep- Museums and Galleries Education ing your own virtual exhibition. tions of physical museums and their Programme and the New Opportuni- collections and encourage new audiences ties Fund). he relationship between the real and to become museum visitors. • EVE (Everyone’s Virtual Exhibition, Tthe virtual museum visit appears to http://billdouglas.ex.ac.uk/eve/): we are be mutually beneficial.Active engagement t goes without saying that well-designed creating tools to allow users to create with the objects in the virtual environment Imuseum Websites can build a worldwide their own virtual teaching resources and contributes to the users’ conceptual under- audience and engage them in contextualised exhibitions from the collections of items standing of the objects that they see in the and meaningful virtual visits.Virtual encompassing the development of popu- real museum, but cannot touch. Victorians, for example, has had strong take- lar entertainment housed at the Bill Inadequacies in the digital objects, such as up in classrooms around the world, includ- Douglas Centre. EVE is designed for use loss of ability to appreciate and ‘read’ scale ing Italy, New Zealand,Australia, Dubai, in Further and Higher Education. and textural quality, are compensated for USA, South Korea and even Scotland! (Funded by the Arts and Humanities by the users’ own prior knowledge, experi- Research Board). ence and beliefs, constructed in the real ach of our projects has a social science • Burma (http://www.molli.org.uk/ world and, of course, the opportunity to Eresearch methodology underpinning burma/): based around the Burmese participate in meaningful, exciting and it. Primarily, this is concerned with the Theatrical Orchestra, or ‘saing’, part of rewarding virtual interactions. analysis of user data gathered through a the reserve collection at the Royal range of means including electronic and Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, this he well-designed online museum site paper-based feedback forms, analysis of project allows users to see and hear the Twill provide a meaningful addition to user contributions and interactions Burmese instruments and express their the formal and informal learning experi- prompted through the site such as ‘ask a own musical talent by making a record- ence and enjoyment of the museum visit. It Victorian questions’, registrations to build ing of themselves playing the instru- will enable the visitor to explore more exhibitions, or exchange of e-cards.We ments.This project is designed for deeply the context in which the objects also employ a lot of qualitative face-to-face primary education. (Supported by the need to be placed in order to understand techniques, such as focus groups, inter- re:Source Designation Challenge Fund). their meaning.The virtual visit should views and observation.

DigiCULT.Info 50 he virtual envi- doing, they temporarily suspend their focus Tronment increases on the physical world and enter the virtual learning by allowing world as willing participants, dispelling the user to explore and expectations of the normal conventions and manipulate the object logic of reality, and creating a belief in the and engage with both virtual. its originating context and its owners. In n order to create and sustain a believable Virtual Victorians it is Ivirtual world, the digital learning domain possible to give a magic must be sufficiently credible, compelling lantern show, while and indeed enjoyable. Personalisation is an photographs, archive important design element.The opportunity material and the daily that the virtual world provides for the cre- © Tiverton and Mid Devon Museum Trust and the University of Exeter, and the University 2003 Trust Museum Tiverton and Mid Devon © journals of the ‘Virtual ation of belief in the Victorian Poslett fami- Using the building bricks e-toy. Victorians’ themselves ly, for instance, contributes to engagement help to place the with the objects from the collection and t the heart of all our work is a learn- objects in a wider context. In Burma, users the development of the key historical skills Aer-centred approach.We endeavour to can watch a shadow puppet play, or create of enquiry and empathy, and increasing the make the learning experience personal to their own, accompanied by music com- users’ historical understanding. each learner. In achieving this we offer posed and recorded on the Burmese various opportunities for the learner to orchestra. It is essential that these activities f the site is fun, as well as educational, it engage with objects, originating contexts are enjoyable and provide a rich user expe- Ihas the chance of allowing users to and peoples in a meaningful and enjoyable rience. Such elements capture the imagina- become immersed and deeply engaged way, either through hands-on virtual activ- tion and interest of the user, promote fuller with the cultural materials.The intention is ities such as the Virtual Victorians e-toys, engagement with the subject, and stimulate that the users get so caught up in the site through opportunities to interact with and aid learning. that they do not realise they are undertak- other people, through publication of users’ ing learning activities. own material on the site, by participation lthough the projects provide resources in a series of experimental Webcasts or Afor lifelong learning, where appropri- e encourage people to reflect on simply through sending your friend an e- ate they are carefully tailored to the learn- Wtheir cultural experience and to card of the Looe Fishermen’s Choir. ing requirements of the English National share their feelings, beliefs, knowledge, cre- Curriculum and QCA schemes of work. ativity and ideas with others.This is entral to our work is the creation of Not only does this maximise the learning achieved in a number of ways, though each Cthe ‘value added’ experience, rather potential of the projects within formal edu- places an emphasis on the ‘C’ in ICT. For than merely content and information cation, our research has gathered evidence example, in RealCornwall, our users delivery.The virtual representations of the to suggest that it also encourages the use of become creators of cultural artefacts objects need to be more satisfying and illu- the resources by pupils and parents to sup- through the contribution of memories, minating than mere two-dimensional rep- port formal learning and facilitates shared tales, sayings and so on.The users then are resentations, which cannot replicate the family learning. both consumers and producers of culture in quality of the physical experience of the a true learning community.Within the site original artefact.Technology is used both amuel Taylor Coleridge argued that our design we have attempted to blend user to provide an opportunity to explore the Sresponse to drama is characterised by a contributions seamlessly into the site with- functionality of the artefacts and to add a ‘willing suspension of disbelief’49 and thus out differentiation from in-house content. personal dimension, which extends involves the very same ingredient of belief As with most of our sites, learning path- engagement with the object through per- that is essential to everyday emotion. Our ways are not overt, though all the user con- son-to-object interaction and person-to- work has led us to believe that in certain tribution forms are in fact writing frames person interaction. digital interactive exchanges, children, and designed to support the adult literacy core adults, are willing to suspend disbelief in order curriculum at entry levels 1 and 2, and to engage with the virtual world. In so ICT literacy.

49 S. Coleridge, Biographia Literaria (London: Rest Fenner, 1817). DigiCULT.Info 51 e have found, through researching his pilot will provide the means of entitled ‘Online Registries:The DNS and Wschoolchildren’s use of The Tregistering data sets for long-term sci- Beyond...’ and deals with digital object Burmese Theatre Orchestra project, that entific reference; initially geo-reference architecture. Release 1.0 is itself powered parents and children alike derived learning data will be used, but the principle is by the DOI through Content Directions, gains through this work. It is the cultural equally applicable to all scientific data. Inc. (http://www.contentdirections. content and the nature of the learning Each primary data set, persistently identi- com/).50 activities that are fresh and interesting to fied with a DOI, will have a structured both.Who could resist composing a tune description, facilitating its study, citation here are now over 10 million DOIs on the Gong Chimes or Burmese clappers and continued use.As well as working Tassigned.‘An introduction to the online? towards a more standardised method of Digital Object Identifier System’ begins on storage, the robust nature of DOIs also page 20 of DigiCULT.Info Issue 4 PUBLICATIONS allows the data sets to be linked with other (http://www.digicult.info/downloads/dig- e are publishing our work in a material, for example, scientific articles that icult_newsletter_issue4_lowres.pdf). More Wrange of national and international have used the data. information can be found in the detailed journals.The first in the series is: P.Dillon document by IDF Director Dr Norman & D. Prosser,‘Educational Transactions in he project leader, Dr Michael Paskin:‘Digital Object Identifiers and Museum Online Learning Initiatives’ in TLautenschlager of the World Data Digital Preservation of the Record of International Journal on E-Learning,vol. 2, Centre for Climate Science’ at http://www.doi.org/top- no. (1), 2003, pp. 4-20. (http://www.mad.zmaw.de/wdcc/), said: ics/020210_CSTI.pdf. ‘This development will ameliorate current etails of future publications will be shortcomings in data provision and inter- Davailable from http://telematics.ex. disciplinary use, where data sources may ac.uk/pubs.htm. BACK TO PAGE 1 not be widely known and data are archived DIGITAL RESOURCES FOR without context. It will enable citations of THE HUMANITIES 2003 data in a standard manner, and facilitate links to more specialised data schemes.The DOI system offers us a proven well-devel- DAISY ABBOTT ATTENDED DRH2003 NEW PROJECT HIGH- oped system that is already widely (31 AUGUST – 3 SEPTEMBER 2003) LIGHTS THE GROWING deployed and enables us to focus our ON BEHALF OF DIGICULT. efforts on the scientific data aspects of the USE OF DOIS project.’

major new project will use the he data were described by TIB as a ADigital Object Identifier system to T‘vital resource’ for the scientific com- persistently identify scientific data.The munity and their inclusion in the TIB’s German National Library of Science and collection of digital sources is an important Technology (TIB, http://www.tib.de) has step in improving access to information in

recently joined the International DOI the largest library of science and technolo- Abbott, © DigiCULT,Daisy 2003 Foundation (http://www.doi.org/wel- gy in the world.The project is funded for Park Campus, Cheltenham, site of DRH 2003. come.html) and will act as a contact for one year by the Deutsche Forschungs- this project, which will develop DOI gemeinschaft (http://www.dfg.de/), and implementation for data sets based on the coordinated by the World Data Center for he Digital Resources for the recommendations of a 2002 report by Climate (WDCC) at the Max-Planck- THumanities conference, held annually, CODATA, the Committee on Data for Institut für Meteorologie in Hamburg. is a major forum for everyone affected by Science and Technology of the the digitisation of cultural heritage, from International Council for Science recent issue of online technology the creators of digital resources for access (http://www.icsu.org):‘Concept of Citing Areport Release 1.0 or conservation to the information’s or Scientific Primary Data’. (http://www.edventure.com/release1/) is collection’s varied users and audiences. DRH2003 was hosted by the School of 50 Recent issues also include coverage of issues related to DigiCULT’s upcoming Te c hnology Watch Report: social software, blogging and virtual community software; and Radio Frequency Identification technology (RFID) which was covered in the chapter on Smart Labels and Smart Tags in Te c hnology Watch Report 1 (http://www.digicult.info/downloads/twr2003_01_low.pdf). DigiCULT.Info 52 ect-based and technical devoted to archiving endangered languages papers and gave a well- were examined, as were many aspects of rounded and detailed image archives and visual resources. view of distinct areas of Structure and content of digital libraries the sector.Although the- and other collections were debated too, matically linked sessions several papers introducing very specific were deliberately organ- new resources such as the Forced ised, the extremely effi- Migration Online Portal (http://www. cient timekeeping of forcedmigration.org/) and the TV Times session chairs allowed Digitisation Project. Other themes emerg- attendees to pick and ing from the grouped papers were: encod- choose individual papers ing and mark-up, XML, and data standards; within each group. changing scholarly communities; rehousing Themes that arose from historical data; places and spaces; new

© DigiCULT,Daisy Abbott, © DigiCULT,Daisy 2003 linked groups of papers approaches to cultural preservation; and an The busy poster sessions in the exhibition hall. were varied and offered a excellent series of papers and exhibits on comprehensive view of resource discovery services for the arts and the digital humanities humanities (Artifact (http://www.arti Humanities at the University of sector. Many themes were wide-ranging fact.ac.uk/),The Arts and Humanities Data Gloucestershire. Presentations, poster dis- and some more specific; from the confer- Service (http://www. ahds.ac.uk), EDINA cussions and plenary speeches were held ence as a whole, many pertinent issues (http://edina.ac.uk), Humbul Humanities within the beautiful Park Campus, 25 acres emerged, often posing more questions than Hub (http://www. humbul. ac.uk/), and of landscaped parkland a short distance were answered! the Resource Discovery Network from the centre of Cheltenham, which (http://www.rdn .ac.uk)). contained the conference venues and pecific papers on how to digitise the accommodation for all participants. Scultural past and present it in a mean- he conference plenary speeches ingful and accessible way included discus- Treflected the overall themes of the here were over 160 participants in sions on maximising learning potential for four days’ activities. Meg Bellinger, Tattendance, from across Europe, children, re-presenting historical data (in Associate University Librarian for Australasia and the Americas, over 100 of projects such as 3D Virtual Buildings and Integrated Systems and Technical Services, whom also presented a paper or project. the Cromwell in Ireland ‘time-maps’ proj- Yale University Library, opened the con- The ages and backgrounds of the attendees ect), and the digitisation of community, ference with a speech considering technol- varied widely, representing a wide cross- cultural and religious resources.There were ogy related to the creation and use of section of the people in the digital cultural also many presentations devoted to issues knowledge objects, and the implications of heritage community. surrounding digital publishing and the transformative technologies on preserva- changing of texts and access to them. tion of information. She went on to pro- he programme was packed with Papers ranged from technical projects such vide an overview of digital repository Tinteresting projects and presentations, as using computers to assist in analysis of developments.The two engaging and making it difficult to choose which ses- fictional texts,51 to presentation of E- entertaining speakers who closed the con- sions to attend – although many papers Books, to more abstract dialogues on the ference,Theodor Nelson (founder of were subsequently discussed among partic- changing nature of publishing, and a panel Project Xanadu, the original hypertext ipants around the dinner table, allowing for of publishers discussed the approaches to project, and Senior Fellow of the McLuhan an informal (and often animated) insight and effects of digital publishing as a whole. Institute,Toronto) and Kim Veltman into presentations which may have been (Scientific Director of the Maastricht missed by individuals. Papers were grouped aturally, many of the papers and McLuhan Institute and founder of E- into linked sessions, allowing the presenta- Nposters concentrated on digital col- Culture Net), discussed the past, current tion of a particular topic from several dif- lections: libraries, archives, museums and and future state of the Web and current ferent angles.This grouping encouraged a brand new resources. Digital archives from and new modes of access to the informa- refreshing combination of theoretical, proj- the UK National Archive to small projects tion it presents.

51 Cf. DigiCULT.Info article on Autonom, in this issue. LINK DigiCULT.Info 53 will be deposited in archives just like the texts, read or listen to notes explaining printed materials.A campaign, led by the each page or use other features specific to British Library on behalf of the UK’s six the individual text. legal deposit libraries, brings the law up- to-date. Since the law was first passed in his application allows access to many 1911, the six legal deposit libraries have Tmore pages than could be viewed if been able to collect copies of all printed the manuscripts were simply displayed in a material published in the UK. However, glass case and, crucially, without the risk of the increasing volume of important mate- damage to the original. rial published in electronic and other non- print formats fell outside the scope of the urning the Pages was launched in 1911 Act and was not therefore being TApril 1998 and won the BIMA comprehensively collected. Interactive Display Award, followed by a Millennium Product Award and the he adjusted law ensures that non- National Heritage/NP Museum of the Tprint publications can be saved as Year Multimedia Award. Originally based part of the published archive, becoming on touchscreen technology, since 2002 the © DigiCULT,Daisy Abbott, © DigiCULT,Daisy 2003 an important resource in their own right, Library, together with its commercial part- Sculpture at Park Campus and is indicative of the changing attitudes ner Armadillo Systems, has developed a towards contemporary publishing and its Web version of Turning the Pages.When it verall, DRH2003 justified the excel- preservation. BACK TO PAGE 1 was released using this software, Sultan Olent reputation this series of confer- Baybars’ Qur’an was an immediate success. ences has built up over the years. Most A selection of 40 pages from the material presented was both accessible Lindisfarne Gospels, with superior func- from a position of little familiarity and TURNING THE PAGES tionality, was added in May 2003. challenging enough to engage the interest of the audience well beyond each session. ave you ever wished that reading urning the Pages at the British The organisation of both the programme Hdigitised materials online was more TLibrary (http://www.bl.uk/collec- and the social activities was outstanding, like reading a real book? The British tions/treasures/digitisation.html) currently creating a friendly atmosphere of intellec- Library has developed an interactive appli- includes the Lindisfarne Gospels, the tual discourse and allowing both new and cation called ‘Turning the Pages’, which Diamond Sutra, the Sforza Hours, the regular attendees an insight into current allows visitors to virtually ‘turn’ the pages Leonardo Notebook, the Golden theoretical and practical work in the field of rare books and manuscripts.The pages Haggadah, the Luttrell Psalter, Elizabeth of Digital Resources for the Humanities. I are animated and appear to obey the laws Blackwell’s Herbal, the Sherborne Missal, anticipate that DRH2004, to be hosted by of gravity, increasing the realism of the and Sultan Baybars’ Qur’an. BACK TO PAGE 1 the University of Newcastle, will be a sim- reading experience. Users can zoom in on ilar success. BACK TO PAGE 1 Screenshot showing the Lindisfarne NEW UK LAW FOR Gospel viewed PRESERVATION OF with Turning the Pages. ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS

t the end of October, a Private AMembers Bill became law with the result that the UK Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 now provides for secondary leg- islation to ensure that non-print materials Copyright © The British Library Copyright ©

DigiCULT.Info 54 TOWARDS A KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

PROFESSOR KRISTÓF NYÍRI ing that, while indeed practical knowledge (skill) as such access is opposed to theoretical knowledge.This last IRECTOR NSTITUTE FOR D , I becoming distinction is the most momentous – and PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH, increasingly the least tenable. HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES attainable today, it was never a possi- t was perhaps the main discovery of bility in earlier Itwentieth-century philosophy that all

© Nyíri, 2003 Kristóf Nyíri ages. In a trivial knowledge, ultimately, is based on practical ew information and communication sense, all societies are knowledge-based; knowledge, on knowing how rather than Ntechnologies herald the promise of, however, much of the knowledge both in knowing that, as Gilbert Ryle has put it.54 and indeed have to a significant measure traditional societies and throughout Practical knowledge is largely autonomous. already brought about, changes that can be modernity was possessed by a minority, There is a layer, or dimension, of practical meaningfully discussed under the heading and much of that knowledge was not knowledge that can in no sense be cast in of knowledge societies.However, the term knowledge at all, but rather myth, supersti- the form of theoretical knowledge, and all ‘knowledge societies’ by now seems to tion, lethal error or, at best, spurious learn- theoretical knowledge represents merely an have acquired two distinct, albeit related, ing. It does a disservice to progress to deny articulation of knowledge that is invariably meanings. In its first meaning it refers to that we are today in fact witnessing a his- reducible to practice. It is this sense that the trend classically analysed by Daniel Bell torical turning-point, and that past soci- Ryle flatly states:‘theorising is one practice in his The Coming of Post-Industrial eties were ignorance-based societies rather amongst others’.55 Society.52 In post-industrial society – Bell than knowledge-based societies. also uses the terms ‘knowledgeable society’ ‘Where is the wisdom we have lost and ‘knowledge society’ – knowledge and s a result of the Internet and mobile in knowledge? Where is the knowl- technology have become the central Atelephony, radically new forms of edge we have lost in information?’ resources of society and economy. Perhaps knowledge are emerging. It is philosophy it is the currently oft-used circumlocution and the social sciences that help us view T.S. Eliot ‘knowledge-based society’ that best this phenomenon from a historical per- expresses this state of affairs; and perhaps it spective; help us understand that the new is useful to stress, as Manuel Castells does, forms are indeed forms of genuine knowl- that what characterises this society ‘is not edge; and help us realise that the feeling of hroughout the ages, the knowledge the centrality of knowledge and informa- a cultural loss, voiced by so many contem- Tpossessed by humankind has primari- tion, but the application of such knowl- porary intellectuals, is unfounded. ly been practical knowledge: the knowl- edge and information to knowledge edge of how to do things, and the material generation and information ow, of course, the term ‘knowledge’ culture in which that know-how was processing/communication devices, in a Nrefers to a family of concepts.There embodied. Certainly there existed theoreti- cumulative feedback loop between innova- is knowledge as opposed to mere informa- cal knowledge too, in the primordial pic- tion and the uses of innovation’.53 tion, or indeed to raw data; multisensorial torial form of cave paintings for example56 knowledge as opposed to textual knowl- and in the form of verbal knowledge: n its second meaning, the term ‘knowl- edge; linearly and hierarchically organised handed-down sayings, myths, and the like. Iedge society’ is connected with the idea knowledge as opposed to knowledge However, much of that knowledge was, of universal access to knowledge, emphasis- organised in network structures; and indeed, not knowledge at all. Prior to the rise of modern science, the progress of 52 Daniel Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society:A Venture in Social Forecasting (New York:Basic Books, 1973). humankind was simply not due to any 53 Manuel Castells, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture,vol. 1: The Rise of the Network Society knowledge preserved in texts, oral or writ- (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), p. 32. 57 54 Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (London: Hutchinson’s University Library, 1949). ten. Furthermore, one of the crucial fac- 55 Ryle, The Concept of Mind,p.26. tors in the rise of modern science was 56 Cf. John E. Pfeiffer, The Creative Explosion: An Inquiry into the Origins of Art and Religion (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982). 57 As Lynn White, Jr puts it in his Medieval Technology and Social Change:‘Since, until recent centuries, technology was chiefly the concern of groups which wrote little, the role which technological development plays in human affairs has been neglected’ (Medieval Technology and Social Change (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962) p. vii). DigiCULT.Info 55 precisely the early-modern encounter porary opinion-makers, who mistake the mation, but is starved for knowledge’.59 between traditional scholarship on the one new practical culture of the digital age for The notion that ‘information’ is somehow hand, and the crafts and arts on the other. the sickness for which it is a cure. Culture, inferior to ‘knowledge’ is not of recent ori- learning and theoretical knowledge are gin, and modern definitions can be t is essential to realise that the original humankind’s collective instruments in the summed up by saying that knowledge Itask of the nascent humanities disciplines, struggle to overcome its vital, practical might be usefully regarded as information too, was a thoroughly practical one.The problems. It is entirely obvious that digital in context. Now there is no reason at all to emergence and development of the networked communication is a vastly bet- suppose that information looked for, and humanities were initially bound up with found, in the world of digital networked the spread of alphabetic writing, and subse- communication is more devoid of context quently with the development of printing. than information gathered in the world of Entirely practical is, also, the emerging the printed page.The opposite is the case. scholarship of the European Middle Ages. Web pages offer a variety of links whereas It amounts to no more than the mere books stand alone. Information encoun- exercise of the (still rare) ability to write. tered on the Internet can be more easily For centuries the issue is simply the con- checked than information found in books. servation of texts by laborious copying; the And as to mobile communications, it is a learning conveyed by the University of standard observation that information Paris around the twelfth century culmi- sought through cell phones is, characteris- nates in the skill required for composing tically, location-specific and situation-spe- legal documents.After the invention of cific. It seems, then, that mobile printing, the later humanists are taking an communication, too, tends to engender not active part in the technical production of just information, but information in con- classical editions; it is printing which sub- text: that is, knowledge per se. sequently leads to new developments in © Nyiri, 2003 the domains of grammar and letters, for nowledge possessed by individuals "Asparagus agrestis" from the Psuedo- instance the need to elaborate unified stan- will always represent but a fragment Apuleius, a printed version of a ninth century K dards in orthography, syntax and vocabu- botanical manuscript, published just after of what society at large knows; knowledge lary. On the basis of practice there arises 1480 in Rome. It contains woodcuts that are is dispersed in society.Also, knowledge is theory – which however need not be far careless copies of the manuscript illustrations not independent of the medium in which removed from life, as long as the practice and could, of course, not be of any practical it is embodied, preserved and communicat- itself is a living one. use. ed. Communication technologies, from cave paintings to the printed page, have ertainly by the ninetenth century, ter-suited medium for dealing with the always influenced the very nature of the Chumanities scholarship had largely global problems facing us today than com- knowledge they communicated. In partic- lost its touch with the real concerns of munication through channels inherited ular, the rise of rational thinking is not everyday life. Friedrich Nietzsche was the from the Gutenberg age. But then let us independent of the spread of alphabetic lit- first philosopher to recognise this state of ask: do we have at our disposal, in those eracy, first among the Greeks, and then in affairs.As he put it:‘Modern man finally struggles today, real knowledge – or merely early-modern and modern Europe. drags a huge crowd of indigestible rocks of information? knowledge around inside him … our n his paper ‘Visualisation and Cognition’ modern culture is not alive … it is really choing T. S. Eliot’s famous lines from IBruno Latour points to ‘writing and no true culture, but only a way of knowing Ethe early 1930s – ‘Where is the wis- imaging craftmanship’60 as the ultimate about culture.There remain in it thoughts dom we have lost in knowledge? Where is ground of modern science.Through the of culture, feelings of culture, but no cul- the knowledge we have lost in informa- technologies of writing and pictorial rep- tural imperatives come from it.’58 It tion?’ – John Naisbitt in his popular book resentation the objects of cognition appears, however, that Nietzsche’s diagnosis Megatrends (1982) bemoans the phenome- become mobile, and at the same time is still unpalatable to a great many contem- non that the world is ‘drowning in infor- immutable; they can be collected, present-

58 Friedrich Nietzsche,‘On the Use and Abuse of History for Life’ (1874), translated by Ian C. Johnston, see ed and combined with one another. http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/Nietzsche/history.htm. 59 See also Vartan Gregorian’s address at http://www.cni.org/docs/tsh/Keynote.html. 60 Bruno Latour,‘Visualisation and Cognition:Thinking with Eyes and Hands’ in Knowledge and Society: Studies in the Sociology of Culture Past and Present,vol. 6 (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1986), p. 3. DigiCULT.Info 56 Picture printing was invented around 1400 the task of translating multimodal contents ing which is ‘carried out following the AD.This was arguably a much more revo- into the single modality of spoken lan- codes of practice relevant to a particular lutionary invention in the history of com- guage.Written language is a rather more discipline’.63 When the relative weight of munication than that of typography half a limited medium.Thus digital multimedia applied research as compared with basic century later. Prior to printing, pictures documents, adding sound and image to research is growing, the experience of could not become aids to the communica- text, can be truly liberating instruments coherence in everyday life overrides the tion of knowledge, as their inevitable dis- of communication. image of fragmented scientific specialities. tortion in the course of the copying The idea of a non-fragmented, unified process meant that information could not et us note also that, whereas written knowledge need not imply the possibility be reliably preserved. Printing allowed pic- Llanguage is poor at conveying practical of a single harmonious vision of reality. It tures to become more or less exactly knowledge, pictures, especially animated suffices if we can demonstrate the possibili- repeatable; tangible knowledge became pictures – by themselves, or in combina- ty of transitions from one field of knowl- easier to disseminate. Of course, woodcuts, tion with words – are quite effective.61 edge to another; the possibility of etchings and engravings were still a long Pictures can show what texts can merely conceptual bridges, passages, interactions – way from being faithful copies of what tell about, and pictures can summarise, in a transitions which become easier when they attempted to depict. Until the age of way that can be grasped in a single glance, word is enhanced by image.The digital photography, there existed no technology complex information that may be unintel- network environment promises the emer- of exactly repeatable pictorial representa- ligible when propositionally expressed.62 gence of a world of knowledge less frag- tions of particular objects. mented than that of the past centuries. he emergence of digital graphics is n the mid-1980s, there began a veritable Tof course only one aspect of the pro- earing in mind that human conscious- Iiconic revolution, made possible by the found change in the course of which the Bness is itself a network of mental repre- graphical capabilities of computer software. computer (as part of the interactive multi- sentations, the linear order of written The ease with which one can produce pic- media global network) has become an language necessarily has a constrictive, tures and the everyday possibility of picto- everyday element of knowledge produc- indeed distorting, effect on thinking. Hence rial communication bring about a world in tion.Those patterns of mobility, from the point of view of cognitive psychol- which people are becoming familiar with immutability, compoundability and ogy the trend of supplanting, on the Web, pictures, and are acquiring a rich experi- demonstrability analysed by Latour gain an extended linear texts by clusters of inter- ence of dealing with them, to an extent entirely new meaning in the medium of linked short documents is an unquestionably unprecedented throughout written history. the Internet. Science based on the book is progressive one. Hypertext is a more natural The fact that we are increasingly able to replaced by science based on the global form of organising ideas than the linear text communicate via pictures is of fundamen- network.The barriers separating different is, and hypermediality, the interlinking of tal significance, since not words but per- specialties seem today to become fluid multimedia documents, is – given the multi- ceptual symbols and, in particular, images once more.A new, transdisciplinary mode sensorial character of consciousness – an are the primordial stuff of consciousness. of science emerges.This change is not even more natural form. Supported by To this age old view – never doubted by independent of the fact that, as Gibbons et increasingly powerful search engines, the everyday thinking but practically forced al. put it in their book The New Production has the potential to underground by the psychology and phi- of Knowledge,‘the density of communica- become a truly inalienated communicational losophy of the first half of the twentieth tion among scientists through various environment.The Web – now enhanced by century – science increasingly appears to forms of mobility has been greatly the miracle of mobile communications – is return today. Human consciousness is a increased in recent decades’, resulting in still vastly underrated, and indeed misrepre- network of multisensorial, multimodal rep- the ‘linking together of sites in a variety sented, even by leading opinion-makers, not resentations reflecting a world of move- of ways – electronically, organisationally, least since headstrong views characteristically ments, shapes, colours, sounds, and so on. socially, informally – through functioning lack the foundation of hands-on experience. Oral communication, rich in metaphors, networks of communication.’This new Hypermediality creates an environment in embedded in here-and-now situations, and mode of science is characterised by prob- which fragmented theoretical knowledge, accompanied by non-verbal metacommu- lem solving ‘organised around a particular and also practical knowledge dispersed nicative signals, can successfully cope with application’, rather than by problem solv- among the members of society, becomes more easily accessible than ever before. 61 For some references see Kristóf Nyíri ‘Pictorial Meaning and Mobile Communication’, in Nyíri (ed.), Mobile Communication: Essays on Cognition and Community,pp. 175 f. and 179. 62 A brilliant book on the subject is Colin Ware, Information Visualization (San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann, 2000). 63 Michael Gibbons, Camille Limoges, Helga Nowotny, Simon Schwartzman, Peter Scott and Martin Trow, The New Production of Knowledge:The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies (London: SAGE DigiCULT.Info 57 Publications, 1994), pp. 38, 6, 39, 45, 44, 3. Challenges in Digital Archiving and Long- term Preservation.’The report presents findings from a joint Library of Congress and National Science Foundation work- shop on research challenges in digital preservation.The report can be down- loaded from: http://www.digitalpreserva tion.gov/index.php?nav=3&subnav=11.

n example of one of the types of Aresearch needed is emulation, as dis- cussed in the Digital Preservation Testbed White Paper “Emulation: Context and Current Status” available from: http:// www.digitaleduurzaamheid.nl/bibliothee

© Nyiri, 2003 k/docs/White_paper_emulation_UK.pdf. Screenshot demonstrating the planned Hungarian Virtual Encyclopedia ('Philosophy') PRESERVATION METADATA WORKGROUP CLC's and RLG's sponsored lthough there exists a real inequality Preservation Metadata: LATE BREAKING NEWS O Ain terms of the visibility of the differ- Implementation Strategies (PREMIS) ent nodes and hubs on the Net,64 the new workgroup has two main aims. One goal is ICTs are still very conducive to the build- s we went to press we selected the to establish a core set of preservation meta- ing of bottom-up knowledge. Publishing Afollowing reports, surveys, and work- data with wide applicability.A second on the Web is infinitely easier and more ing groups from those that crossed our objective is to understand how the scien- democratic than publishing in the world of desks as worthy of mention on 10 tific, cultural heritage, and public sectors the printed page ever was. December 2003. develop and run digital repositories, as well as developing an appreciation as to how y way of concluding, I will present an AMERICAN MUSEUMS DIGITAL IMAGING they are encoding, storing and managing Billustration of networked knowledge SURVEY their preservation metadata. If you have a in action: the first plans of a Hungarian rofessors Roy S Berns and Franziska chance to help out with the The Virtual Encyclopaedia, the construction of PFrey of the Rochester Institute of Implementation Survey before 16 January which has been entrusted to the Institute Technology have begun a study of direct you can find out how to do so at: for Philosophical Research of the digital image capture of works of art with- http://www.oclc.org/research/pmwg/. Hungarian Academy of Sciences in US museums, archives and other cultur- NEW DUBLIN CORE WORKING GROUP ON (http://www.mta.hu/), with numerous al heritage institutions.To give their study PRESERVATION METADATA institutes of the Academy participating in a good grounding they are conducting a its development.We envisage an ency- survey. For further information and forms rs Andrew Wilson (National Archives clopaedia in the classical sense: a full circle see: http://www.cis.rit.edu/museum Dof Australia) and Heike Neuroth of learning – a densely interconnected web Survey/intro.php. (University of Göttingen) announced the of entries, with specially designed software PUBLICATION OF 'IT'S ABOUT TIME: formation of a Dublin Core Working to map and display the structure of links. RESEARCH CHALLENGES IN DIGITAL Group on Preservation Metadata. The mapping software will place unlinked ARCHIVING AND LONG-TERM Information about the workgroup can be entries far towards the peripheries of the PRESERVATION' found at: http://dublincore.org/groups/ map, while densely linked entries are t the start of December,The National preservation/ and those wishing keep up moved towards the centre. BACK TO PAGE 1 ADigital Information Infrastructure and to date with or to contribute to discussions Preservation Program (NDIIPP) at the about preservation metadata can subscribe U.S. Library of Congress announced the to: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/DC- publication of ‘It's About Time: Research PRESERVATION.html.

64 Cf. Albert-László Barabási, Linked: The New Science of Networks (Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2002); Steven Strogatz, Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order (New York:Hyperion, 2003); Mark Buchanan, NEXUS: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks (New York:W.W.Norton & Co., 2002). DigiCULT.Info 58 CULTURE 2000 PROGRAMME AND THE AMAZON.COM ‘NOT A DIGITAL AUDIOVISUAL POLICIES LIBRARY’ ust after we closed this issue we received he December (2003) issue of Wired Jthe a report of discussions on the future Tcarries a piece by Gary Wolf on ‘The of the Culture 2000 programme and of the Great Library of Amazonia’. Search Inside European audiovisual policies were the the Book makes it possible for registered major issues on the agenda of the Culture users to search and then view pages from Council on 24 November. During their 120,000 volumes representing some 33 Council meeting ministers exhaustively million pages.Amazon claims that it is not examined the Commission's mid-term attempting to build a digital library, but reports on Culture 2000 and Media pro- that its aim is to sell more books by giving grammes. During the debate on the Culture users more effective access to content.The 2000 programme, ministers agreed to pur- technical design, delivery mechanisms, and sue closer cultural co-operation within business model that underpin Amazon’s Europe and with third countries, and to approach are worthy of evaluation. enable access by new Member States' to the programme through specific actions. LEADERS TOOLKIT new toolkit has been developed that ased on the mid-term report Ministers Adelivers transcripts and images of Bconcluded that the Media and Media archive documents over the Internet training programmes showed how a lack of together with appropriate contextual coherence has undermined EU audiovisual material.The LEADERS toolkit is built on policies. Ministers agreed that it should be standard methods for encoding texts (TEI), made easier for new Member States to access digital images (NISO Mix), finding aids funding and that digital technology should (EAD) and authority records (EAC).A be included in the programme through pilot demonstration of the project using test projects. During the first quarter of 2004, the data is online at the LEADERS Project Commission will present a draft proposal for home page (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/leaders- the 2007-2013 Culture and Media pro- project). grammes. For more information on the pro- grammes see Media: http://europa.eu. EVALUATION OF DIGITAL CULTURE int/comm/avpolicy/media/index_en.html CONTENT and Culture 2000: http://europa.eu.int/ he Cultural Content Forum has just comm/culture/eac/index_en.html Tmade available a new report, ‘Evaluation of Digital Cultural Content: THE GLASS WALL Analysis of evaluation material’ evaluating hanks to one of our contacts we audiences for online cultural content.The Trecently saw a printout of document analysis is wide-ranging and reflects the produced by the BBC travelling the web experience of 90 different evaluation stud- under the filename of theglasswall_bbc_ ies from across the world.The study design.pdf.The document describes how emphasises the lack of standardised the BBC went about revising the design approaches.This study and others are avail- of its website before its relaunch last year. able for download from http://www.cul- Rumour has it that ‘the document was turalcontentforum.org/publications/ never officially released, instead simply Evaluation issues will be covered more leaked and it's difficult to get hold of, since fully in the next issue of DigiCULT.Info whenever it appears online, BBC bosses BACK TO PAGE 1 request that it be removed.’ If you can find a copy, it is worth a look.

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