A R&D Project supported by the Telematics Application Programme of the European Union. Set up through a tight co-operation of public authorities from four countries, namely Greece, Italy, France and the UK, associated with research organisations and with IT companies from the same countries. Through the project, this partnership tested an original information system which offers access to huge information repositories created by public bodies and, to a smaller extent, by private organisations which document cultural heritage together.

Project website: www.aqua.inria.org

The European project TRADEX examined the management of IPR in the commerce of digital objects, focusing on the on-line transfer of multimedia objects. At the technological level, TRADEX considered available copyright marking technologies in order to solve the problems of illegal copying and of proof of ownership in the context of multimedia objects.

Project website: www.tradex-ist.com

Partners

1. Consorzio Pisa Ricerche Multimedia and Telematic Research Centre Meta Centre (coordinator) - Italy
2. Netimage Sarl - France
3. Università degli Studi di Firenze - Italy
4. Centrica S.R.l. - Italy
5. ENGINEERING Ingegneria Informatica S.P.A - Italy
6. Digital Archive Japan Alliance - Japan
7. Ministero per i beni e le Attività Culturali - Istituto Centrale per Il Catalogo e la Documentazione - Italy

The European project CHANCE aimed at establishing a European-wide service for on-line access to cultural data repositories. The proposed service offered a uniform content base to multimedia applications and tools used primarily in the educational, edutainment, and tourist market segments, although all potential users of digital cultural contents, such as publishers and professionals, benefited from the CHANCE service. The service was foreseen as being delivered by mixed bodies composed of European Public Authorities, entrusted with the management of Cultural Heritage, and private institutions, which ensured the commercial exploitation of the service.

Project website: www.project-chance.net

Partners

1. ENGINEERING Ingegneria Informatica S.P.A (coordinator) - Italy
2. Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa: CRIBECU - Italy
3. Ministero Per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Istituto Centrale per Il Catalogo e la Documentazione - Italy
4. PRODUCTEURS - France
5. NETIMAGE - France
6. FCR - Fundació Catalana per la Recerca - Spain
7. Direcció General de Patrimoni Cultural - Spain
8. EUTELIS - Germany
9. Staatliche Museen Zu Berlin - Germany
10. Greek Museum of Cycladic Art - Greece
11. ATKOSOFT - Greece

(TNT) project aims at setting up a sizeable demonstration activity whose aim is to verify the economical and technical feasibly of a model based on a trusted e-Content value-added chain for the trading of CH digital contents.

The use of ICT applied to the Cultural Heritage (CH) sector has generally failed to provide valuable economic results, and its potential is thus very far from being fully exploited.

On one hand, many cultural heritage institutions have tried to find a place in the online market and have looked for "niches" and business models that might work for them. The objective of these institutions was not to become commercial but to gain some revenues in order to finance at least a part of their cost-intensive operations (for example, cataloguing of cultural heritage).

On the other, developing and marketing digital cultural products is a complex and costly task, which requires dedicated expertise and infrastructures. Public CH Institutions do not generally have adequate resources for managing this kind of business.

Many European institutions have already produced impressive amounts of digital contents, while relying on external agencies to manage the market-related aspects, such as packaging, marketing and distribution of this e-Content. In this business model, Internet has become the natural channel for information exchange and e-Content trading.

However, despite having produced the digital contents, significant successful European examples of such value-added chains are rare. A primary requirement for such an e-Content, Internet-based, value-added network to be participated in by European Public CH authorities is that it must achieve a public acceptance beyond pure commercial interest. CH Institutions can only be actors within trusted networks which:

• certify the identity, the liability and the quality of the involved actors
• guarantee the correctness and the legality of the e-Content products
• guarantee the validity of licensing procedures, commercial conditions and transactions

On the contrary, network-based interactions and exchanges have mostly been based, for a long time, on a player's anonymity ("untrusted" networks). A general conviction indicates this as the primary cause for the e-Market to have failed in reaching its expected business dimensions. In the specific case of CH, this is a leading motive preventing Public CH Authorities to join and experiment Internet-based business chains to exploit cultural e-Contents.

Project website: www.tnt-project.net

Partners

1. ENGINEERING Ingegneria Informatica S.P.A (coordinator) - Italy
2. Metaware - Italy
3. Ministero Per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Istituto Centrale per Il Catalogo e la Documentazione - Italy
4. Ministero Per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica - Italy
5. Fratelli Alinari - Italy
6. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek - Austria
7. E-relations - Germany
8. Staatliche Museen Zu Berlin - Germany

In 1995 ICCD managed the Italian participation to the G7 project "Multimedia access to World Cultural Heritage" launched by the G7 Governments effort of establishing global pilot projects in a number of selected areas. The preparation of this project was entrusted to the Italian and French governments and its purpose was to ensure the interoperation of networks for open multimedia access to major museums and galleries. The goal of the project was to accelerate the digitisation of collections and to ensure their accessibility by the public (e.g. schools and universities). This project aimed at creating a virtual gallery that would allow the public to interact in real time with museums and galleries.

The main goal of MoU, a joint initiative launched in 1997 by the Directorate General XIII and Directorate General X of the European Commission, within the context of the ACTS Programme (Advanced Communications Technology and Services), was to create conditions for a harmonious and balanced development and deployment of the market of multimedia services and applications in their access to the European cultural heritage. ICCD took part in the MoU initiative participating in several work-groups.

The eEurope 2002 Action Plan was endorsed by EU Member States at the Feira European Council in June 2000. Objective 3(d) of the Action Plan is to stimulate European content in global networks in order fully to exploit the opportunities created by the advent of digital technologies. Within that objective there is a specific action for Member States and the Commission jointly to create a co-ordination mechanism for digitisation programmes across Member States. The key issues are collected in a paper called Lund Principles, followed by an Action Plan of initiatives and co-ordinating groups composed by representative of each Member State in several fields. ICCD is taking part in several expert working groups.

ICCD plays an active role in the European project MINERVA, a thematic network of European Culture Ministries, co-ordinated by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, created in order to give support to the effort launched after the above mentioned joint initiative of Member States and the Commission to create a mechanism of co-ordination for digitisation programmes across Member States.

ICCD participates in Eva conferences network. They began in London in 1990 as part of the original EC supported VASARI project. Events have been held in California, Japan, and Russia and across Europe with thousands of participants. These acts constitute a cross-sectional, multi-disciplinary, local & global set of events regarding new technologies in the cultural sector.

The most reliable iconographic classification system at the international level and a specific system for iconographic research and image documentation. During the last ten years ICONCLASS has known a greater and more widespread utilisation in informative applications, thus becoming a reference standard acknowledged at an international level. ICCD has realised the Italian version of the ICONCLASS system. Other translations available at the moment are in German, French, Spanish, Finnish, Norwegian, Hungarian and English. In 1992 the ICCD definitively endorsed the choice of this catalographic standard in the field of the pre-cataloguing and cataloguing of the historical and artistic goods.

The most reliable iconographic classification system at the international level and a specific system for iconographic research and image documentation. During the last ten years ICONCLASS has known a greater and more widespread utilisation in informative applications, thus becoming a reference standard acknowledged at an international level. ICCD has realised the Italian version of the ICONCLASS system. Other translations available at the moment are in German, French, Spanish, Finnish, Norwegian, Hungarian and English. In 1992 the ICCD definitively endorsed the choice of this catalographic standard in the field of the pre-cataloguing and cataloguing of the historical and artistic goods.