Digital Cultural Heritage Management for Local Heritage Overcoming Barriers to Accessibility with Regional Digital Infrastructures

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Published: Aug 6, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26265/jiim.v9i1.38585
Keywords:
digital cultural heritage management regional development digital infrastructures barriers
Mariana Ziku
University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece
Alexandros Teneketzis
University of Patras, Department of History and Archaeology, Greece
Georgios Alexandridis
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of Digital Industry Technologies, Greece
Yannis Christodoulou
University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece
Markos Konstantakis
University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece
Athanasios Drosopoulos
University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece
Elias Dritsas
University of Patras, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Greece
Georgios Siolas
National Technical University of Athens, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Greece
Konstantinos Paximadis
University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece
Fevronia Rousaki
University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece
George Caridakis
University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece
Abstract

Purpose - The paper describes the development of the “AegeanA” digital infrastructure for cultural heritage management in the region of the North Aegean, Greece, with the objective of overcoming those barriers by connecting with cultural heritage institutions across the region and supporting the wider sharing of their collections in open-access and semantically enriched ways.


Design/methodology/approach - Design and implementation of an open-source collection management system in the context of regional development. Focus is given on the components of user analysis and the development of the technological framework, especially in achieving interoperability with larger national and European digital heritage infrastructures. In addition, protocols of collaboration are established between the regionally operating institutions and the University of the Aegean.


Findings - i) Challenges in reaching out to the majority of the targeted institutions: Registration of 54 cultural institutions operating currently in the Region of the North Aegean, out of which 17 at least with digital heritage collections/artefacts, interested to take part in the project. A survey targeting regional institutions yielded 6 replies, containing insights on qualitative and quantitative data, including needs and challenges.


ii) Specific user needs identification and technical development attuned to interoperability: A range of requirements related to access, functionality, usability, and support were identified, reflecting the diverse needs of regional institutions. Technical components include the configuration and customisation of the open-source collection management system selected for developing the digital infrastructure, especially in achieving interoperability with the national cultural aggregator with the implementation of the OAI-PMH and resolution of technical issues.


Originality/value - The research addresses a significant gap in the digital transformation of cultural heritage institutions at the regional development level.

Article Details
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Author Biographies
Mariana Ziku, University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece

Mariana Ziku, Researcher in the e-Aegean CulTour project, is a PhD candidate at the Intelligent Interaction Research Group, Dept. of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean. She is also staff member of the Master’s Programme Folk/Popular Culture and Modern Cultural Heritage at the Hellenic Open University. Her research is in Digital Cultural Heritage/Cultural Informatics, particularly in the field of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCE). She holds a BA in Art Sciences, an MA in Theory/History of Art and Curation (University of Ioannina, Greece), and an MSc in Digital Humanities (KU Leuven, Belgium).

Alexandros Teneketzis, University of Patras, Department of History and Archaeology, Greece

Alexandros Teneketzis, Researcher on the project, is Assistant Professor of Art History at the Department of History and Archaeology, University of Patras, Greece. He also teaches Public History at the Hellenic Open University as an Adjunct Lecturer. He has published widely on public art and memory, the history of digital art and the history of museums.

Georgios Alexandridis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of Digital Industry Technologies, Greece

Georgios Alexandridis received the M.S.E.E. degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Greece, in 2005 and the Ph.D. degree from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece, in 2015. From 2018 to 2023, he was Laboratory Teaching Staff at the Artificial Intelligence & Learning Systems Laboratory of ECE, NTUA. Since 2023, he has been an Assistant Professor with the Department of Digital Industry Technologies, School of Science, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He is the author of one book chapter, more than 20 journal articles and more than 35 conference articles. His research interests include natural language processing, the development of large language models for tasks such as sentiment analysis, as well as the application of deep learning techniques on a wide range of domains, such as video and image processing.

Yannis Christodoulou, University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece

Dr. Yannis Christodoulou holds a PhD from the National Technical University of Athens (School of Electrical & Computer Engineering) in Knowledge Representation and Web Ontologies, an M.Sc. in Advanced Computing – Global Computing & Multimedia from the University of Bristol, and a B.Sc. in Informatics from Athens University of Economics & Business. His research interests and experience lie within the fields of Knowledge Representation, Web Ontologies and Conceptual Modeling. Furthermore, he has studied and proposed methods of visual knowledge representation (semantic visualization, visual languages, interactive visualization, geo-visualization), as well as knowledge acquisition methods. In the context of his research he has followed a deeply interdisciplinary Digital Humanities approach by studying various knowledge domains, all falling into the Humanities and Social Sciences, such as Filmmaking, Dance, Cultural Heritage and Human Geography. He has worked as a researcher in several funded research projects –among them three European (FP7, Η2020) and one British (ESRC)– where he has conducted deep interdisciplinary research focusing on conceptual analysis and modeling, ontology engineering and semantic visualization.

Markos Konstantakis, University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece

Markos Konstantakis serves as an Adjunct Lecturer and as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean, where he is a member of the Intelligent Interaction research group (ii.aegean.gr) and the I-Lab Intelligent Systems laboratory, active in the research fields of Intelligent Systems, Human Computer Interaction, and Digital Management of Cultural Heritage. He received a Ph.D. in the same department, entitled: "Augmented Cultural User Experience (ACUX)” and a master’s degree in "Specialization in Information Systems, Networks, and Telecommunications" from the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the Hellenic Open University (HOU). Markos completed a degree and a master's degree as a Marine Mechanical Engineer at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). His research on various aspects of intelligent human computer interaction and cultural informatics has been published in more than 25 journal articles and more than 20 papers in conferences and workshops and has been well recognized by the scientific community by being cited more than 380 times with an h-index of 13. He has participated in more than 10 research projects during the past 15 years at the Regional, National and European level as a Researcher and Academic Fellow.

Athanasios Drosopoulos, University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece

Athanasios Drosopoulos received the degree in Computer Science from the University of Ioannina, Greece in 1998, and the PhD in the field of computer vision from the Elec. & Comp. Eng. school of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 2005. He has worked as a senior researcher, software engineer and project manager for NTUA, in more than 20 Greek and EC projects in the fields of neural networks & machine learning, emotion analysis & human-computer interaction, knowledge technologies and digital archives. He is currently involved in research activities and projects concerning metadata modelling and aggregation, interoperability and access to digital cultural heritage content and, semantic web technologies.

Elias Dritsas, University of Patras, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Greece

Elias Dritsas received his Diploma, M.Sc and PhD degrees in Computer Science and Informatics from the Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics, University of Patras, Greece. Also, he received his MBA from the University of Derby, United Kingdom. His research interests focus on AI and Machine Learning, Big Data, Databases, Data Mining, Human-Computer Interaction, Cloud Computing, Security and Trust. He is the author and co-author of publications in the area of Machine Learning and Data Analysis. He participated in many development projects funded by the EC and the Greek Secretariat of Research and Technology. He serves as a regular reviewer for several technical journals and conferences. He is a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece, Association for Computing Machinery, and IEEE.

Georgios Siolas, National Technical University of Athens, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Greece

Georgios Siolas graduated from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 1998. In 1999 he obtained a Master's Degree in Cognitive Science at the Sorbonne Université Campus Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. In 2003 he obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the same university. Since 2007 Dr. Siolas has been a Senior Researcher at the Artificial Intelligence and Learning Systems Laboratory of the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering NTUA. He is the author of one book, two book chapters, 18 journal articles and 40 conference articles. His research interests include: machine learning, text mining, information retrieval, recommender systems, social network analysis, semantic web technologies, computer vision, and design patterns.

Konstantinos Paximadis, University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece

Konstantinos Paximadis received the BSC from the Computer Engineering and Informatics Dept (CEID), University of Patras, Greece in 1989 and the PhD from the same department in 1998. He has served as a faculty adjunct member in University of Patras and Hellenic Open University for more than twenty years and has taughed more than twenty lessons and labs. He also directs a private company in Greece, specializing in computers and communications. His research interests include network planning and performance evaluation in optical networks and ML in computer networks. In his free time he likes to fly, he holds a JAR-PPL license and has over 350 hours on light single engine aircrafts.

Fevronia Rousaki, University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece

Fevronia Rousaki is an experienced project manager specializing in e-learning and classroom-based educational programs. She is a Computer Science Teacher and has served as the Head of the Training Services Unit at the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (iED). Fevronia holds an MSc in ICT Applications on Education and a Bachelor's Degree in Cultural Technology & Communication from the University of the Aegean, focusing on Educational Technology & Intercultural Communication.

George Caridakis , University of the Aegean, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, Greece

 

George Caridakis is an Associate Professor at the University of the Aegean, coordinating the Intelligent Interaction research group, and affiliated with Athena RC and NTUA. His research spans Intelligent Systems and Human-Computer Interaction with applications in Creative and Cultural Heritage. He has over 130 publications and over 3,000 citations with an h-index of 27. He has taught and supervised students at various levels and served on numerous academic boards. Caridakis has participated in over 40 research projects and evaluated multiple European research frameworks, including Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. He is also the Chair of ACM SIGCHI Greek chapter and the National Council for Research, Technology, and Innovation in Tourism, Culture, and Creative Industries.

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