Rivista "IBC" XI, 2003, 4
Dossier: L'IBC per l'Europa
musei e beni culturali, dossier /
Information and communication technologies play an essential role for studying and managing cultural heritage. However, the widespread adoption of information technologies calls for a reflection upon their proper application and the efficiency of their procedures. This is even more so as ICT were developed in contexts and for purposes completely extraneous to the cultural world. The whole model (the so called business model) and specific applications of ICT must then undergo a reengineering process to extend their boundaries, improve their effectiveness and apply them according to the methodologies used un the field of cultural heritage. This will lead to the creation of a new paradigm, where technological rules, methods and top level applications will be harmonised with cultural content, thus preserving its value. University education and vocational training play a key role in this process. In Italy in particular the educational sector lacks methodological excellence and suffers from inadequate university systems which are ever more self-referential.
Top level initiatives as regards the application of information technology to cultural heritage, namely the projects funded by the European Commission in the context of the research and development Framework Programmes, although examples of a clever and innovative use of advanced technologies in the cultural heritage sector (where Italian participation is particularly significant), are lacking. This is why the Commission decided to introduce a number of corrections in the Sixth Framework Programme. In this respect there is a key word which must be kept in mind: fragmentation. The European Union identified fragmentation as one of the core problems of previous programmes, particularly in the field of cultural applications.
Firstly because this sector lacked a critical mass: partnerships formed through European projects consisted of small, short-term and highly specialised groups, which focused on a specific objective, paying little or no attention to the "surrounding conditions" and whose results were scarcely disseminated. On the one side this approach led to high quality products, and this is why such projects must still be guaranteed funding opportunities, but on the other side new instruments had to be introduced to solve such problems. One of these new instruments consists of the so called "Networks of Excellence", a funding opportunity introduced by the Sixth Framework Programme and whose potentiality, according to the Commission, has not yet been fully exploited. The objective of this tool is to create an international network of highly competent and complementary subjects working together on a long-term perspective and in the view of a progressive and permanent integration by implementing a joint research programme, promoting mobility of researchers, encouraging permanent education and ensuring dissemination of results. If we consider a traditional project (or a more recent and more effective form of it, the so called "Integrated Project") as a "vertical", problem-oriented initiative, a Network of Excellence represents a "horizontal" initiative whose goal is to creation of an infrastructure. Participating in such a project requires paying more attention to the fact of "being there" than simply "doing something".
As regards technological applications developed for managing cultural content, fragmentation also involves other domains. It can be determined by the need, sometimes neglected, for a interdisciplinary approach. This expression, often overused, sometimes simply implies the presence of experts from different and not always coherent disciplines, competent for their own object of study. On the contrary, boundaries should intersect, competences should overlap to build up common work spaces and eliminate fragmentation.
A further element of fragmentation is inherent to the "pipeline", i.e. the "production process" of cultural communication. This process involves the retrieval of data from different sources (material, historical, archival, oral, bibliographical sources), their organisation and analysis, their archiving and preservation and evolves into the interpretation, reconstruction, narration and communication of cultural content. Each of these phases has been the object of ICT studies and applications. Yet ICT applications have always been aimed at solving the problems of each specific domain, with little or no regard to the development of interfaces connecting one phase of the process to the other. This limit can only be removed by adopting an holistic vision of the entire process.
The last, but not least, element of fragmentation is represented by education. Europe lacks interdisciplinary initiatives, both at a national and international level, with the exceptions of Great Britain, where a number of universities organise interdisciplinary courses, and of few isolated, occasional initiatives (also in Italy). In order to be effectively and properly educated, young researchers - clerici vagantes of modern times - are forced to move throughout Europe. There is a strong demand for interdisciplinary, international, co-ordinated proposals which preserve the diversity of different cultures, always risking being absorbed by the supremacy of Anglo-Saxon culture and education which benefit from the use of English as a universal work language.
This analysis represents the starting point for the creation of EPOCH, the European network bringing together one hundred European cultural institutions whose common goal is to improve quality and effectiveness in the application of Information and Communication Technologies to cultural heritage. The network was established through existing scientific collaborations, many of which were developed in the context of the CAA (Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, the international association organising the homonymous annual conference www.caaconference.org); while others were developed as partnerships for the implementation of European projects. After over one year of lively debate, in April 2003 the project proposal was submitted, in response to the first call of the Sixth Framework Programme and in the Networks of Excellence area of activity. After a rigorous selection process and a number of time-consuming bureaucratic procedures (not yet completed) EPOCH was selected as one of the networks eligible for funding in the Cultural Heritage sector, together with another network on Digital Libraries, a few projects on specific subjects and Minerva institutional network.
EPOCH is led by four main partners: the University of Brighton (UK), PIN scrl (Italy) - Educational and Scientific Services for the University of Florence - the Ename Center (Expertisecentrum voor Erfgoedontsluiting) (Belgium) and the University of Leuven (Belgium). The University of Brighton co-ordinates the network and reports to the Commission. The managing structure consists of a Board of Directors which includes a representative from IBC. Partners to the projects are research centres, university departments, museums, national and regional public agencies, such as IBC, dealing with cultural heritage. There is a good balance between technological centres, well experienced in ICT applied to cultural content, and cultural centres which already apply ICT. EPOCH activities will be funded over four years, starting from 1st January 2004, yet the network is expected to be supported even after the end of the project.
After the project had been approved, the partners first met in Brighton from 5th to 7th November 2003, during the VAST 2003 International Meeting (www.eg.org/events/workshops/vast2003/). These meetings, first organised in Italy in the year 2000 on Virtual Archaeology and Computer Graphics applications in archaeology, are held once a year and have been appointed as the official occasions during which the yearly activities of the network will be evaluated. A mid-term meeting will then take place annually during one EPOCH session of the abovementioned CAA conference, which in 2004 will be held, for the first time, in Italy (www.caa2004.org) and during which the EPOCH network will probably be launched.
EPOCH programme of activities is wide and complex. Here it is briefly summarised according to its division into work packages. The first work package (Management) concerns the management of the network and is entrusted to the University of Brighton, namely to Professor David Arnold. It includes all activities needed for the proper management of the whole system, that is presentation of financial statements, reporting activities, policies and administrative procedures. A Review College will also be appointed consisting of a panel of experts whose task is to identify priority lines of research (the so called Research Agenda) and present them to the Board.
The second work package is assigned to the Ename Center, namely to Ir. Daniel Pletinckx. It deals with the integration of different activities (Integrating Activities) and focuses on those activities aimed at integrating the work of the partners involved, supporting and monitoring external inputs to the network. Participants to this work package must identify the needs expressed by cultural "actors" (stakeholders) along the whole production process of cultural communication and group them in a horizontal Observatory on technology market in order to assess the importance and potential effects of new technological developments and other similar activities outside the network. The work package also includes the development of show-cases, that is demonstrations of the results which can be achieved through the application of existing resources and subsequent feedbacks.
The third work package (Jointly Executed Research) is coordinated by the University of Leuven, namely by Professor Luc Van Gool. This work package deals with joint research activities, that is initial definition of architecture, components and guidelines, development of a common research framework for the production of digital cultural content, assignment of specific research tasks, their monitoring and evaluation of the results achieved. This also implies the integration of existing components with new tools aimed at filling the gaps in the production process and eliminating bottlenecks which affect efficiency.
The fourth and last work package (Spreading Excellence) is entrusted to PIN scrl - Educational and Scientific Services for the University of Florence -, under the direction of Professor Franco Niccolucci. It deals with different issues such as dissemination of results, education and adoption of standards. Its main objective is to promote and support the sharing of the results achieved by the network inside and outside it. PIN scrl is the network web site (where network's knowledge is stored and which represents the point of access to the network itself) manager. Its tasks also include the development of educational activities by annually surveying and monitoring educational offer and demand, the promotion and organisation of ad-hoc educational initiatives, the management of a significant number of grants for young researchers and the publishing of a yearly "White book on education in Europe in the field of ICT applications to cultural heritage". Other activities are the publishing of a "Report on the state on the Union" on research, policies and practices adopted by the EU and the participation in and/or the organisation of a number of cultural events, besides those already mentioned above.
Italian participants in EPOCH are important and qualified. Among these are the Milan Politecnico, the University of Genoa, the University of Bologna (with two departments), CNR (ISCIMA, ITABC, ISEM), the University of Florence, through PIN Consortium, the University of Naples - "L'Orientale" - a number of SMEs and IBC, the sole Italian institution of its kind which participates in the network.
IBC specifically participates in the definition of strategies and in the operational choices taken by the Board, which represents the decision-making authority of the partnership. It also provides essential inputs as its privileged condition allows it to better identify user needs as well voice the needs of those working in the cultural world. Finally, it participates in the research activity concerning the definition of evaluation standards, thus making best use of the experience acquired in this field. This is a crucial role whose importance will increase as closer links with other European projects such as Minerva (with which EPOCH shall coordinate its actions) will be established.
Web site:
The official EPOCH web site will open in the first months of 2004.
IBC contact person:
Maria Pia Guermandi
(MPGuermandi@ibc.regione.emilia-romagna.it)
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