The MOSAIC project

MOSAIC is the only European project in the field of cultural heritage within the Tentelecom. It has been recognised by the European Union which has financed it. This program is thus a European pilot at the service of development and promotion of cultural products in the global international market. The creation of technologically advanced cultural centers (video-conference, Web server, virtual reality vision, conference centers, etc.) is aimed at the development of new work opportunities and to find new sources of financing as far as sale of products and services to third parties are concerned.

The research for partners is directed:

• To those who have projects in progress and wish to have them promoted at international level
• To those who need a quick solution for organising and providing value added services on cultural goods
• To those who sponsor and invest in cultural heritage activities
• To those who have files and data banks and wish to make them available and commercialise all or part of their contents.

The service centers

The service centers are the vital element of the project and make up the point of contact distributed with the real public. In the service centers (institutions, galleries, museums, libraries, etc.) there will be the primary elements for access to the MOSAIC context (virtual visual room, cybercafé, video conference, scientific commissions, people in charge of the cultural heritage, etc.). The following centers are being defined:

• The French Service Center (Paris)
• The Austrian Service Center (Schloss Schoenbrunn)
• The Italian Service Center (Bologna)
• The German Service Center (Darmstadt)

MOSAIC Tools

• virtual exhibitor: this Infobyte tool will permit the creation of virtual exhibitions in real or virtual context in order to create preview exhibition space or for the announcement of new forthcoming cultural initiatives or for exposition during a cultural event.
• the on-line culture browser: this tool will allow the access to information in a map-like way within the personalised environment (netscape or explorer) for culture. The selection of various subjects (painting, sculpture, etc.), of the reference period (year), and other parameters, will allow to highlight on the map the areas where to find information. A part of this browser involves the management of the MOSAIC catalogue and the management of the sales of high resolution images. The browser will be at least populated by all the active links with the home page of existing museums, institutions and anything relevant to cultural heritage. There could be the future possibility of managing ticket reservations for museum visits and eventual sales. Even here a permanent thematic area forum is planned as well as a news area (national and international events to promote within the Internet context - broadcasting on the mailing list).
• the MOSAIC search tool: this element is made-up of a metadatabase that updates links concerning information regarding cultural heritage making it available to the search browser.
• authoring tools.
• tools for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) security.
• archiving, cataloguing, and management tools of information and data.
• database information searching tools on CIMI standard.
• high quality multimedia archiving and cataloguing tools.

MOSAIC catalogue:

• titles and VR applications of all the project's partners
• Virtual Museum, Virtual University and Virtual Library of all the project's partners

The products and databanks:

• Connected museums and regional institutions (Milan, Rome and Bologna)
• Austria (superintendence, a precise list is being defined)
• Germany (institutions and museums, a precise list is being defined)
• France (Ministry of Culture, a precise list is being defined)
• Japan (a precise list is being defined)
• more than 1000 museums world wide are being linked to the MOSAIC network
• the data bank of Friuli Venezia Giulia's cultural heritage
• the archaeological sites data bank of the Dept. of Territory and Historical Heritage - University of Jaén - Spain

• A multilanguage home page and museum or gallery references inside the MOSAIC network. In case there is no home page the consortium will provide one and introduce it in the on-line culture browser. With this action the museum improves its world visibility.
• The possibility of non-exclusive selling of scientific-cultural images via MOSAIC's on-line sale service in respect of current regulations and within agreements which take IPR (Intellectual Property Right) into consideration.
• The use of infrastructures and technological areas to launch personalised and autonomously run Internet debates.
• A ready solution for the development of cultural technologically advanced service centers at a reduced cost for those who adhere to MOSAIC. This solution may be limited to the simple feasibility study to be used as a technical-economical prospect for the formulation of requests of regional or community financing.
• The possibility of publication of specifically organised events on cultural issues to all partners, to the list to the adherers of the Memorandum of Understanding on cultural heritage to the users connected to Internet services and afferent on Mosaic.
• Exempla for museums and galleries as IT solutions, multimedia solutions, Visio rooms, electronic hostess, Tele-distance booking for visitors, and so on.
• high speed telecommunication systems, like ISDN, xDSL, ATM and satellite.
• workshops on new technologies, multimedia productions on CD-Rom and on line.
• Memorandum of Understanding and Intellectual Property Rights related problems.
• Visibility on all the international and national cultural events and the insertion of an information-based mailing list for the up-date of the state of technological art and on the new existing tools finalised toward the cultural heritage sector.
• Whoever has an existing project and wants to exploit it internationally within projects of the European Union, Mediterranean or G7 areas.
• For whoever wishes to create a cultural service center: a reference model (cost, technological architecture, realisation times, etc.), a quick, complete, low cost and competitive solution, a number of tools to exploit the work of the experts and to increase the use of the services by final users, a number of services and derived products which will be able to increase the level of involvement of users and aimed at increasing the amount of time spent in the museum infrastructures offering a value added in education and tourism.
• For whoever has the possibility to find programmed funds but does not have a reference plan: the possibility to save the investment and seeing a modular modern and very ambitious project grow at many levels in stages and with fractionated financing.