MuseumS Over States And vIrtual Culture

Section II: Description of the feasibility refinement and market validation phase

Section III: Summary and administrative information

It is easy to understand that, if we start to consider which were the original goals of MOSAIC on a ISDN network, we need to refine the identified model to create a stable interaction among the actors of the project. We need to pass through a trial phase in which relationships has to be tested and consolidated to identified the feasibility of the project in all his details.
This means that we have to stress cooperation and integration activities especially among new partners, with new demos on different sites all over the world.
For this reason we think that an extension of the current contract is strongly recommended with same budget and with a new phase of validation as suggested in the other paragraph. New coming from this last phase will consolidate the expected goals for the project.
A very interesting results of this first phase have been:

• high quantity of possible subscribers
• high interest of institutional and private bodies
• good reliability on standards and confidence of structural services to be activated
• strong expectations by a diversified world well ready to accept this kind of solutions as it happened in the case of Internet

• preparing quality grid on services
• facilitate meetings between suppliers and players of the market (strengthen communication between the players - setup the network)
• undertake different approaches for national CSCs
• preparing a methodology for CSC implementation
• implementation issue: „strengthen effort on dividing project into working groups"
• prepare a legal framework

• re-engineering of existing product on Mosaic environment
• Pilot users feedback analysis
• Activation of pilot network of cultural service center in different and strategical countries
• Service start-up - Implementation Phase
• Market plan and contractual agreement refinement
• Pilot results validation
• Promotional demo and dissemination
• Management

• we will setup a legal framework by transforming intentional letter into contractual agreement and enlarging CSC cooperative network in national and International area .
• we will increase the quality of the products disseminating multilingual and multicultural applications.
• we will go on enforcing relationship within the MOU.

• CSC Graz – Pole leader and contractor – JRC and AIT
  The Cultural Service Centre Austria will be constituted as a non-profit association in June 1998.
  AIT GesmbH will play a major part in realising and organising the Cultural Service Centre Austria.
  Future Steps
  We decided to split the realisation of the Cultural Service Centre into three phases. The overall development should be finished in the next few months (service start-up).
• In the first phase all the necessary interoperability, database, search&retrieval devices are being provided. These infrastructure requirements and the local cataloguing system do already exist (CIMI standard, IMDAS).
• The aim of the second phase is to adapt the MOSAIC browser to local demands. This will have to be done in strong connection with the endeavour to establish links and interfaces with libraries, archives, museums and other organisations in the field of cultural heritage. The Cultural Service Centre will seek further relationships with cultural organisations building hereby upon the basis of the already existing connections with CIMI and IMDAS partners. This phase is in process and will, of course, be a continuing one in the future. Several partnerships are being negotiated right now.
• The multimedia services of the MOSAIC network will be established mainly in the third phase. Many of these services will be provided by partners to the CSC Austria. Among these partners count up to now the multimedia provider mediaDesigner and the content and technical provider Artibus. Further partnerships are, as well, under negotiation.
• The CSC Austria will work together with the Austrian National Host Initiative of the European Union (10MB transmission).

• CSC Schloss Schoenbrunn : P.O. of DISET
  It has to be taken in account that Schloss Schoenbrunn would became the Cultural Service Center which will contribute to dissemination of MOSAIC in Austria.

• CSC Paris – Pole leader and Contractor - Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie
• CSC Sophia Antipolis – Pole leader and Contractor - Foundation Sophia Antipolis
• P.O.: Cryo-Networks – Paris and Arenotech – Paris
In the meantime trough Arenotech an engagement has been realized with the Citè de la Science ( Paris ) to deliver the first French center.

All the museal French organization is actively following MOSAIC iniziative and there is a plan in short time to join MOSAIC opportunities in Citè de la Science scenario. As well known also this iniziative is related to the fruition of the cultural heritage through new multimedial technologies with virtual reality.
During a section in the technological center at Sophia Antipolis (France ) this join has been publically declared explaining all contents and added values.



Cite des sciences can be part of most of the achievements of the Mosaic II proposal.
Ressource Centres
Cite des Sciences has already built and deployed a multimedia internal platform (Cite Heart of Network), delivering cultural and scientific services inside the temporary and permanent exhibit.
A Mosaic II ressource center can be identified with the extension of the deployment and accessibility places like the Mediatheque, the multimedia library and Science Actuality site.
These sites are already dedicated to learning and upskilling, in non-commercial conditions.
Networking the centres
Cite des Sciences intends to upgrade the software of its platform so that multilingual and multisites use is allowed and controlled.
A first high bandwidth Network can be built between the three French sites, and extended to foreign ones depending of international links possibility.
This network will be extended and largely disseminated between a " High Bandwidth Multimedia Club " between metropolitan communities and networked cities that cite has created from its experience.
Content production and adaptation
A selection of existing multimedia contents will be adapted and delivered to the different ressource centers. These contents have strong scientific, cultural and pedagogic characteristics.
As an example :
• monthly magazine Science Actuality, in three qualities, internet, medium bandwidth, high bandwidth.
• Virtual Exhibit on Electricity (intended for children of 6 to 12)
• " Relief de l’invisible ", an application and videos about materia structure
• " Regate " a multimedia collective game showing the dynamics of maritime navigation

• CSC – Pole leader and contractor - ZGDV
• P.O. : Centro de Computacao Grafica – Coimbra
The CSC Germany will be a non-profit association with different types of members. It will be a forum within ZGDV similar to IKTT - Forum for Information and Communication Technology Transfer - with the following goals:
• Support of technological change in cultural heritage
• Technology transfer for information and communication technologies
• Support of IT applications in museums, libraries, and other cultural heritage areas

The CSC will establish a demonstration and competence lab presenting facilities, services and functionalities of MOSAIC’s CSCs. The service center will distribute on network MOSAIC services and products in the national area.
It will

• activate interoperability and distribution of databases
• assist in the conception and implementation of museum’s visitor information systems
• provide specific solutions for museum information management
• develop solutions for distributed management and access to cultural heritage information systems within MOSAIC (design interfaces with libraries, archives and museal areas)
• personalize MOSAIC browser with specific local tasks, ...
• offer services for 3D-reconstruction and 3D-scanning
• offer services for electronic copyright (watermarking)
• and other aspects described in WP 1340 above

There will be a strong relationship with CCG Coimbra/Portugal within the setup of educational initiatives which have a multimedia cultural heritage aspect.

CCG Contribution
WP Technology and Service Center - TSC (new)
This WP focuses mainly on the set-up of the Portuguese TSC. This process will also include the dissemination of project results and ongoing activities among possible Portuguese and Spanish partner institutions like Museums, Universities, Libraries, etc. and their integration into the project.
The Portuguese TSC will also provide special services for computer-based training and teaching along with the provision of specific courseware.
Another focus of CCG’s activities will be laid on the provision of advanced tools and infrastructure in the context of data processing, visualisation and Collaborative Work (see also WP "Re-engineering of existing product on MOSAIC environment").
We consider this WP as an overall and continuos activity.

WP Re-engineering of existing product on MOSAIC environment
As the Portuguese Technology and Service Center we will perform the adequate integration of the existing MOSAIC product(s) into the common MOSAIC environment. Moreover we will evaluate infrastructure and tools already existing and available at CCG for usage and application in the MOSAIC project context, among others:
A new Multimedia Lab which is currently set up at CCG.
A Distributed Lab for Publishing, evenly in the process of being mounted, in collaboration with brother institutes of our International Network of Computer Graphics Institutions (INI-Graphics-Net).
Several CSCW tools which may help
A Virtual Table from BARCO Systems Ltd. Which allows the stereoscopic visualization of 2D- and 3D-data on top of a glass plate of approximately 1.5m x 1 m. The table also supports cooperative work modes.
MTS (Modular Training System), a result from an ongoing DELTA project (IDEALS) and which allows the creation and provision of Distributed Courseware.
Also the specific characteristics of each partner environment will be considered.

WP Activation of Pilot Network of Cultural Service Center
To this WP we will contribute with the establishment of the necessary communication infrastructure, especially with the other project partners, including the provision of advanced tools for distributed management of data, mirroring and country specific content adaptations (see also, but not exclusively, WP "Re-engineering of existing product on MOSAIC environment").

• Contractor - ART+COM
ART+COM – Tourism technology improvement
ART+COM see its role as a partner who develops paradigms to collect, visualize and distribute cultural and historical related content. With our internal structure and overall aims, we are not able to establish and run a physical space (i.e.,. as mentioned: videoconference hall, virtual theater, cybercafe, playroom etc.). On the other hand, we are able to contribute content in terms of virtual reconstructions of historical buildings and museums on the other we would go further and propose the following:
Timetravel to cultural heritage and historical events of a city:
Networked multimedia enables us to bridge distances and enables others to participate on our local cultural heritage. But there is a distance which is much more difficult to overcome and which is even more related to heritage then local distance: distance in time. Therefore, our goal is to communicate Europes cultural heritage by timetravel options. This enables users traveling through time in virtual space to get access to former conditions of cultural objects which disappear or change throughout history.
The networked VR-timetravel approach:
This part of the project enables users to navigate through distributed VR Scenarios, via the internet. (i.e. to travel through historical conditions of Berlin to understand the urban structure; to visit buildings which where destroyed during WWII or to see the former Berlin wall which has completely disappeared now, 10 years after its opening.
Time, like space, is a perfect metaphor to organise historical information. The system will enables us to add information at the place and at the time of it’s occurrence. (i.e., organisation of documentary filmmaterial at the place where - and in the time when - it was shot.)
The local augmented reality approach:
The local augmented reality approach with static interfaces.
The aim thereby is to develop a physical interface which is mounted in front of a historical place, building, sculpture or monument which allows the user to superimpose former conditions over the actual physical scene. ( i.e., a turnable LCD display mounted on a stand ore a binocular. By looking through them the former conditions of this place are superimposed on the actual scenery. A timeslider allows changes in time.)
The local augmented reality approach with moveable interfaces.
Multimedia - Tourbuses will be equipped with a large Display or Projectionscreens. Depending on the buses’ position the former condition of the city and other historical information is superimposedon the windows.
Our goal is to develop and create prototypical applications and interfaces to prove the value of these approaches for communication of city information and cultural heritages.

Italy

• CSC Milano – Pole leader and Contractor - DISET
• P.O. – without founding - Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta – Milano, Fondazione Ricci Oddi, Piacenza , Fondazione San Paolo di Torino, Italtel SPA, Provincia di Milano, Assessorato alla Cultura e Tempo Libero, Regione Lombardia, Assessorato alla Cultura e Trasparenza – Milano, Silicon Graphics – Milano, Archivio Storico Diocesano di Milano , Hewlett Packard Europe (Belgium)
• P.O. - Università degli Studi di Trieste - Dipartimento EI – Trieste, Imation S.p.A (borne of 3M Innovation)
Imation plans to customise and offer system/solutions to digitise, archive and manage large databases of photographic images for Cultural Heritage applications, with possibility of integrating other partner contributions.
Museum Original images in whatever format, sheets, print, 35mm negative or slide are digitised following our international know-how and treated using our proprietary colour management, correction and reconstruction software. The digitalisation mode allows to have both low and high resolution images, and to archive and retrieve them in different access allowance. Based on the outcome of Mosaic1 ( WP 1400 Target user profile definition, WP 1600 Study for the reuse of existing applications into defined architecture, WP 2000 CSC model demonstrator ) and after an interview with customers and partners, we will define the compression algorithm, factor and dimension for digital files, and identify the search field and methods for browsing existing databases (Cultural Heritage standard). A standardisation of the layout is also suggested in order to facilitate compatibility with internet applications as virtual museum, image marketing, etc. Our Rainbow(TM) professional printer will provide an high quality digital press service, for both professional and amateur applications.
We intend to build up a prototype for each module, using current products applied to new solutions and working with the other technological partners in order to integrated products compatibility in a fully integrated digital workflow.
Imation will set up a training tool for personnel of the museum/CSC.
Imation could provide a server for managing photographic archives when a local administration is not justified.
• Contribution for Cultural Service Centre

Imation presence in the CSC will offer services for the professional users of the cybertheatre, products for digital fruition of imaging, both for test and for sale, participation to thematic forum.
Key contribution will be providing digital imaging archive to customer as little museum, galleries, schools, etc.
We can provide prepress services to editors and others (Rainbow), virtual museum access for art students, experts and libraries, services to tour operators and tourism industry in general.
We will evaluate the possibility to join the TELEpay distributors with a limited product range and sale data storage solutions and software in the centre.
Our professional know-how could be useful getting customer feedback through the thematic forum, and providing training courses of Colour Management in the Cybercafè.
Imation presence at business imaging international fairs, could contribute to advertise, offering Mosaic presence at Imation boots (Photokina - Koln; Cebit - Hanover; Photoshow - Rome, Milan; SMAU - Milan; etc.)
• Imation tools and products to integrate in Mosaic project

In summary, the Imation tools and products in support to our service are mainly the following:
• Imation international expertise in photo Archive Management (applied to Ritz Camera)
• Professional A3/A4 printer, standard for colour proofing (Rainbow)
• Backup products for large databases (Travan)
• Storage products, drivers and media (SuperDisk 120 MB, CD-R, Diskette)
• Other storage solutions
• Proprietary software for high quality images management (Luminous)

Our solid background in imaging and information, together with our technological vision, fully qualify Imation as a Key partner for a multi-media access to Europe’s Cultural Heritage.

• CSC Bologna – Pole Leader and Contractor – Cineca
• 3^rd party - AIACE - International Association of Computing in Archaeology
• P.O. - Università di Bologna - Department of Historical Disciplines
• P.O. – without funding – Comune di Bologna,OCCAM-UNESCO

• CSC Rome – Pole leader - IBY - Contractor IBY and BDR
• 3^rd party - CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Progetti Museali S.p.A., MUSA
• P.O. – without founding - Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna – Roma, Istituto Italiano per l'Industria Culturale - Roma , Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali - Sopraintendenza per i beni ambientali e storici per l'Abruzzo, L'Aquila, Musei Capitolini - Antiquarium Comunale – Roma , Museo dell’Orto Botanico – Roma, Sovraintendenza delle Antichità e Belle Arti del Comune di Roma, R.I.T.S.E.C. - Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Center – Egypt, CRC Research Institute Inc., Guggenheim Museum - NY (USA), CAD Center Corporation

As forecast at the beginning, a good occasion to stress in a practical, some new intuitions of the project will be a new technological museum based on real and virtual opportunities in Rome, via del Corso 321, with the new enterprise generated by Banca di Roma, Ente Cassa di Risparmio, Progetti Museali and other partners. A new company named MUS.A has been created and a new exhibition espace is going to be activated. This new museal area will be based on the usage of new technologies shared in a network with other museal actors, just as designed trough the specific highlighted by MOSAIC.
This will represent a new strong cultural and technological window on the turistical world in the very center of one of the most representative city of Europe and of the world: Rome.
This project has been approved and delivered by the Bank and works are in progress for new structures in the building with specifics devices ( Internet area, virtual presentation area, etc.).
The executive activities of the project are already in place added value of this enterprise:
• this virtual museum will represent the real and tangible effect of MOSAIC project creating the fruition of cultural services in a position of high visibility for the world.
• this represents a unique occasion for a start of this project with the valorization of the European cultural heritage.
• this iniziative will be emphasized by the coincidence with the Jubilar event of the 2000 year.
• this premises will represent the first " brik " of the whole network MOSAIC.
• this first step will be the show and demonstration that this new added value services can create new opportunities for new services and new job opportunities in the XXI Century cities.
  In this premises Banca di Roma will continue the walk already started in the cultural sustain with his support to the Colosseum studies: already available virtual reality walk through the Colosseum in the Centuries.

• CSC – Pole leader and Contractor - Consortium Geira ( IPM+UM+UTAD) Museu Regional De Arqueuologia D. Diogo De Sousa – Braga, Universidade de Tras-os-montes e Alto Douro

The Portuguese CSC will be the central node of the network of the Portuguese Museums, aiming at including all State Owned Museums, County Museums, Private Museums, Collections and other Cultural Heritage relevant organisations.
The Portuguese CSC will promote the use of the information and communication technologies by the museums, namely in four areas:
• Computer Network Connections (namely WEB);
• Databases;
• Multimedia;
• Virtual reality technologies.
The use of these technologies by the museums is obviously related to their stage of development and does usually require some training.
The Portuguese CSC will be a "Non Profit Organisation". It will be founded by the Portuguese organisations participating in MOSAIC 2: Museu D. Diogo de Sousa/IPM, UM, CCG and UTAD. At first it will establish / consolidate the network in the areas surrounding the physical location of the founding members:

• Museu D. Diogo de Sousa/IPM and UM - Region of "Entre Douro e Minho";
• UTAD - Region of "Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro";
• CCG - Regions of "Beiras" ("Beira Alta", "Beira Baixa" and "Beira Litoral")
The experience and contacts gained by all the Portuguese partners, namely within the GEIRA Project in the regions of "Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro" and "Entre Douro e Minho", will be used for the creation of the Portuguese CSC.
At present 9 museums have joined the initiative in the region of "Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro" (2 more are in the process of joining):
1. Paços da Seda - Macedo de Cavaleiros
2. Museu Abade de Baçal - Bragança
3. Museu do Ferro e da Região de Moncorvo - Torre de Moncorvo
4. Museu Municipal Armindo Teixeira Lopes - Mirandela
5. Sala-Museu Municipal de Arqueologia - Mogadouro
6. Museu da Região Flaviense - Chaves
7. Museu Municipal de Vila Flor - Vila Flor
8. Museu de Vila Real - Vila Real
9. Museu Terra de Miranda - Miranda do Douro
In this region a very well known manor house has also joined:

• Casa de Mateus - Vila Real

• Museu D. Diogo de Sousa - Braga
• Museu Nogueira da Silva - Braga
• Museu de Viana - Viana do Castelo
• Museu de Esposende - Esposende

The WEB pages of these museums can be found at http://www.geira.pt/paginas/cultura.htm The institutions that are in the process of joining are:
• Casa Museu Camilo Castelo Branco - Vila Nova de Famalicão
• Museu das Rendas - Vila do Conde
• Museu dos Bombeiros - Vila do Conde
• Museu da Comutação Manual - Vila do Conde
• Museu da Industria Têxtil - Vila Nova de Famalicão
• Museu Monográfico da Mamôa de Lamas - Braga
• Museu dos Oleiros - Barcelos
• Museu Militar - Bragança
• Museu dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses (CP) - Bragança

• CSC – Pole leader and Contractor - Göteborg University - Department of Environmental Science and Conservation - Institute of Conservation
• 3^rd party - Metimur Company (technical Partner)

This section describes the breakdown of the project phase into workpackages. Each workpackage is described using FORM 9, (one per work package).
The MOSAIC phase II validation and verification trial phase workbreakdown is the following:
WP 1100 Re-Engineering of existing products on MOSAIC environment
WP 1200 Pilot users feedback analysis
WP 1300 Activation of pilot network of cultural service center

Project's Activities, Work package Deliverables:

The mailestones of the MOSAIC second phase are the following:

• Kick-off (T0)
• CSC’s trial phase preliminary feedback (T0+6 months)
• Assessment on trial CSC operation (T0+10 months)
• Implementation start-up (T0+12 months)

See annex B.

Due to the complexity of the project structure and the number of partners involved, a complete Management Plan based on well-defined procedures of proven efficacy will be worked out to ensure in-depth monitoring of project activities on a close schedule and a clear definition of responsibilities within the Consortium. Some general principles of self-assessment will be applied to the Project Management activity throughout the project life cycle, to which the Management Plan will conform. In particular:

• each Consortium member will be held responsible for the technical quality of results to be obtained under their responsibility;
• each task to be completed within the project will result in the production of one or more deliverables, in the form of printed matter (Reports) or software deliverables (Demonstrators and Support Tools).

• the Project Management Board (PMB);
• the Validation Committee (VC).

• coordination and supervision of all technical and professional activities;
• timetable, quality of project development and achievements;
• supervision of activities with respect to quality assurance, scientific validity and conformance to the Tentelecom programme;
• distribution of results to all project contractors;
• administrative and organisational problems;
• red flag procedure in case of delay.

• Assessment of user needs and updating of user requirements: this involves a deep and critical verification of the user needs emerged from the feasibility study
• Verification of CH applications
• Verification of transparent networking to digitised images (distributed database and interoperability)

• make the services available for the whole period of the project
• promote and stimulate their usage
• closely monitor the operational aspects
• gather usage statistics
• gather information from those directly involved and also those not directly involved (chance users), by interviews and questionnaires

• Periodic Progress Reports
• Annual Reports, including publishable versions
• Periodic and final Cost Statements
• Final Project Report, including a publishable version

• major achievements during the reporting period (WP progress and status);
• major problems identified;
• deviations from the project plan;
• resources consumed during the period
• open points and contractual issue
• action list

A final report will be provided at the end of the project phase. This report summarises the work achieved and indicates the intentions of the project consortium concerning the deployment phase.

• A final cost statement will be produced at the end of the project phase. An intermediate cost statement will be attached to the periodic progress report (each six months) covering the same reporting period.

Mosaic is subscriber of Multimedia Access to Europe’s Cultural Heritage – and it can appear as one of the operating branches of the Memorandum of Understanding promoted by the European Commission.

We have considered the progress and the activities of the following projects :

Aquarell (TAP IE 2005) Sharing Cultural Heritage through Multimedia Telematics - needed results: CIMI activities of the project and multilingual solution offered by the project

VISEUM (ACTS 10111) - Virtual Museum International - needed results: ATM network infrastructures for creating a virtual museum

MAGNETS (TAP AD 1101) - Museums and Galleries New Technologies Study - here the results of the deliverables has been taken into account within the MOSAIC deliverables

VASARI (ESPRIT EP 2649) - Visual Arts Systems for Archiving and Retrieval of Images - perhaps needed results (question to Infobyte or DISET): high quality image digitalisation process and high resolution scanner

IMPRIMATUR (ESPRIT EP 20676) - Intellectual Multimedia Property Rights Model and Terminology for Universal Reference - needed results: a demonstrator based on the architecture which is referenced in WP1500 of MOSAIC

DEDICATED (DELTA-Project)

IDEALS (TAP Education Project) - Integration of DEDICATED for Advanced Training Linked to Small and Medium Enterprises and Institutes for Higher Education - results of the project could be used for courseware creation and delivery support

MOMENTS (ACTS AC002) - Mobile Media and Entertainment Services - results could be used for attention to mobile users when creating content on cultural heritage

VANGUARD (ACTS ) - Visualisation Across Networks using Graphics and Uncalibrated Acquisition of Real

Data

VANGUARD aims at the development of a powerful tool for automated reconstruction of real-life objects by

applying methods from image processing, computer vision and computer graphics on image sequences taken with uncalibrated cameras.

VIP (ESPRIT ) - Virtual Plane - The aim of the project is to develop industrial rear-projection horizontal screens (planes), used to display 3-D interactive images. The VIP technology will be tested and validated a.o. in an architecture application: Presentations of architectural projects, especially for large areas, as in city planning projects. Thus it can be used also in archaeological applications.

OKAPI (ACTS AC051) - Open Kernel for Access to Protected Interoperable interactive services

TALISMAN (ACTS AC019) - Tracing Authors’ rights by Labelling Image Services and Monitoring Access Network

OCTALIS (ACTS AC10119) - Offer of Content through Trusted Access LInkS

Infobyte has been involved in the CD-NET project in the INFO2000 program. In particular the quality related to the multimedia application has been outlined.

Infobyte participation is proposed also into the ESPRIT project CYBERMONUMENT.

Projects in relation to the MOSAIC project (in the field of cultural heritage) in which Joanneum Research is involved

CIMI

Five Key Organizations Will Test Z39.50 with CIMI (Press Release, 24th April, 1997)

An overwhelming number of International organizations working with cultural heritage information responded to CIMI's call for participation in its test of the Z39.50 standard for data search and retrieval. As museums and libraries throughout the world adopt this standard, cultural heritage information-including text, audio, and video-now held in "islands of information" will become uniformly available to anyone who has access to a computer terminal.

CIMI (the Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information) consists of 16 member organizations working cooperatively to solve problems that restrict the electronic interchange of museum information. To create truly easy interchange of information requires adopting standards, which is why Z39.50 is such an important part of the effort to disseminate cultural heritage information. This mature standard represents the culmination of two decades of thinking and debate within libraries and museums about how information retrieval can be carried out in a distributed environment, one where people in different places using different systems can exchange information at a deep and meaningful level. This standard has also been an important factor in the effort to create digital libraries that can truly mimic the capabilities that traditional libraries offer for finding information.

The strong response to CIMI's call for participation confirmed the pressing need for CIMI's work on interoperability-enabling information to be interchanged regardless of the systems used to store or retrieve the information. CIMI's test will be carried out with participation from the largest museum collections management vendor in North America, from several groups involved in enormous cultural databanks throughout Europe, and from a vitally important national museum project in Taiwan.

CIMI was able to choose 5 participants and 2 alternates to take part in the CIMI Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed Project after painstaking review of applications from 42 highly qualified organizations. The chosen groups will work together with CIMI to develop an application of this International standard for search and retrieval appropriate to cultural heritage information. They will also receive training in the use of the standard and CIMI's particular application. Finally, they will receive tools and assistance in implementing the standard on information from their own local systems. The test project is being carried out with support from the United States National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The groups carrying out the test include:

Intermuse Willoughby Associates, Ltd., of Winnetka, Illinois-North America's largest museum collections management vendor.

Databasix Information Systems-a Dutch producer and vendor of the ADLIB library management system that just recently installed a collections management system in six British museums and also works for the Royal Belgian Institute for Art Heritage and RKD, the Dutch National Institute for Documentation of Art.

Finsiel S.p.A.-the largest Italian provider of information technology to the cultural heritage sector and a key participant in the European Union's Aquarelle Project, the G7's Hypermuseum project, several national information access projects (including data from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence), and other Europe- wide initiatives in information access.

Crossnet Systems Ltd. and Joanneum Research-a British system developer and an Austrian museum research group that have worked with many museums and libraries throughout Europe and who will apply the standards test to information from national museums in Germany, Hungary, and Austria.

The Information Systems and Software Technology Group of the Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology-a Greek systems developer whose applications are used in the management of vast amounts of data on Greek antiquities and who is also a key participant in the Aquarelle project.

The alternates include:

Center for Excellence for Research in Computer Systems, National Taiwan University-which is working on the National Taiwan University Digital Library/Museum Project, a massive effort to digitize and disseminate historical documents and artifacts on the cultural heritage of Taiwan.

Geac Computers Ltd.-a Canadian supplier of library automation systems with over 1200 customers worldwide, including many museums and art galleries, such as the Louvre and the Musee d'Art Moderne.

Blue Angel Technologies, a software company specializing in Z39.50 applications, will also be taking part in the project under separate sponsorship in order to build a Java-based system that can work with Z39.50 and is optimized for CIMI.

Each of the participating groups indicated the strong need for CIMI's work on applying a standard for ease of search and retrieval. "The availability of cultural resources to the widest possible audience is a benefit to society far beyond the mere access to the data," according to Willoughby's Larry Mills-Gahl. He goes on to say that "Z39.50 is a another tool in the quest to unlock the treasures to be found in museum data."

After an extensive government-funded search for the best way to make ist data available, the National Taiwan University chose CIMI because ist standards were seen to be those over the long term would give the information the largest possible access worldwide. Databasix summed up ist feelings about the project by saying that information providers must realize how important it is that data be easy to access and exchange, because today no organization can be left "living in an isolated world."

Participants will attend an Interoperability Training Workshop in Washington, DC, in May or June. They will also participate in three or four subsequent meetings between now and October. CIMI will publicize the results of this work as it becomes available.

Organizations involved in the CIMI "Distributed Search And Retrieve Interoperability Testbed Project"

Five organizations were selected for funded participation in the CIMI interoperability testbed:

Intermuse Willoughby Associates (US)

Databasix Information Systems (Holland)

Finsiel S.p.A (Italy)

Crossnet Systems Ltd. (UK) & Joanneum Research (Austria)

Information Systems and Software Technology Group of the Institute of Computer

Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology (Greece).

In addition, CIMI has entered into an agreement with Blue Angel Technologies (US) to develop a CIMI client for interoperability testing, and Blue Angel will participate in the interoperability testbed.

In the past year, CIMI also worked with Systems Simulation Ltd. (UK) to develop a toolkit for Z39.50 server implementation that supports the CIMI specifications. SSL will provide the toolkit for the interoperability testing as well as participating in the testbed with the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Several CIMI members will also be participating in the interoperability testbed including:

Canadian Heritage Information Network (Canada)

Systems Simulation Ltd. (UK)

DeMontfort University/ELISE (UK)

University of California, Office of the President

(US)

Museum Informatics Project, Berkeley (US)

A number of other organizations have stated their interest in participating in the interoperability testbed including:

Center for Excellence for Research in Computer

Systems (Taiwan)

GEAC (UK)

Institute of Systems Science, National University

of Singapore

Questor (US)

JOANNEUM RESEARCH takes part in this project as systems integrator together with Crossnet (JR's partner in the

ONE Project) and the MUSoNET partners: German Historical Museum/Berlin, Hungarian National Museum/Budapest, Municipal Museum Feldbach. For more information, contact John Perkins, CIMI's Executive Director at jperkins@fox.nstn.ns.ca or by fax (902)826-1337. http://www.cimi.org/cimi/introduction.html

MusoNet

Project Summary:

The interconnection of digital collections by means of regional, national and International networks raises the problem of using standards within different areas of computerized information systems. For museums there have been developed recommendations to apply standards on a technical basis as well for the content related work (data entry). These recommendations have been published by International consortia (CIMI) and organisations (ICOM) and are already used in a few demonstration projects. The most relevant standards refer to data capturing (ICOM/CIDOC-information categories), catalogue production (SGML) and networked search and retrieval (Z39.50/ISO-10162,63).

The MUSoNET project demonstrates how these standards can be used within a heterogeneous network of different museums of different sizes and different types of collections.

To build up a demonstrator system the work is divided in two lines:

The application sites (Deutsches Historisches Museum, National Hungarian Museum, Municipial Museum Feldbach) are setting up or are providing demonstration collections following International standards. In addition they design a set of generic information (WWW) pages that can be used for referencing services within the MUSoNET network.

The system integrator provides the application sites with the necessary software components which include the standards for the interconnection and interrogation of museum data bases and the generation of information products (e.g.: catalogues). These components can be used on a low cost PC either integrated or in front of existing local systems or at a Central Service Site.

The application sites are setting up a trial service to demonstrate the interoperability of the connected systems and the use of Central Services (generation of printed or electronic information products like catalogues or CD-ROMs).

One important outcome of the project lies in the fact, that modern information technology is not only limited to (large) museums having a high scale budget, but can also be used by small to medium sized museums. This enables even very small museums to take active part in the International networked based museum business. To make use of the outcome of MUSoNET on an European scale it is foreseen to offer the MUSoNET components on a regional (Styria), national (Hungary) and International (Central Europe ICOM Group) basis to other museums.

MUSoNET also demonstrates the benefits when using International standards to improve access to museum collections in networked systems. In addition the project introduces the concept of a "public thesaurus" which acts as a reference tool to different museums and collections within the network.

The partner of MUSoNET are coming from three European countries (Germany, Austria and Hungary).

User benefits refers to the unified access (unique query formulation and result representation) to different collections within a network, since this takes the burden from her/him to learn the handling of different information systems because the set of all museum collections appear to him/her as one single virtual collection. The museums are benefiting from MUSoNET since they are getting low cost tools to offer modern information and high quality services and products to raise their income.

JOANNEUM RESEARCH coordinates the MUSoNET project which is cofinanced by the European Commission, DG-X (Pre-Raphael Program). The MUSoNET consortium is also involved in the CIMI Interoperability Testbed Project (CIMI: Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information).

COINET

Project Summary

The scientific description of finds and hoards of ancient coins is an important means to provide fundamental elements for the historical sciences. During past years some progress has been made in cataloguing and describing these special items of coins. But - as it has been proved in many cases - the existing documentation of finds and hoards of ancient coins only has limited value for the scientific community, even for experts in numismatics. The evaluation of these coin finds should not be done following the actual political and geographical status as it is done nowadays, but should follow the political boundaries and situations which have existed in Roman times. So, scientific evaluations should refer to that time, when the coins, which have been found were used. It would be very interesting to make scientific evaluations for example for the Roman provinces Noricum and Pannonia. This could be enabled if the collections of all countries at the geographical sites of the former Roman provinces like: Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia (Pannonia) or Austria, Slovenia and Italy (Noricum) would be accessible via an International (computer) network and the methodologies for the description and cataloguing of finds and hoards of ancient coins will be harmonized. Once the different sites containing relevant coin collections have the possibility to communicate via modern communication technology (based on the fast growing internet), different services and operations are made possible as there are: e-mail, ftp (file transfer protocol)-access to a common document server for cooperate publishing, distributed data base access (search and retrieval services), W3 (world wibe web) pointer page to interesting topics for numismatic research, etc. Having a networked facility using state of the art computer technology and data interchange standards at hands, new research activities would be possible to investigate historical interdependencies - not only from the fiscal view - but also related to socio-oeconomics aspects and so on.

Project description

Ancient coins found in an archaeological context or by chance are always very important historical documents not only for numismatists but also for archeologists, historians and others. The importance lays in the unique historical background of the coins, which can be dated very exactly and which are able to inform us about the economical background of the times in which they have been used. Also other results they are able to offer, like duration, heights and deeps of a settlement and the number of inhabitants of an ancient city or village. Scattered finds of coins can show us the routes of ancient streets etc.

Though the scientific description of ancient coins which have been found in the last decades is now going on in several countries of Europe, there exists in general a listing of these found coins only, which was worked out and published by scientist of the country where the finds were made. In some countries they also tried to start the interpretation of their coin finds. But the results never will be sufficient because in case of the coins of the Roman Empire we need to make an interpretation of the money circulation of the former Roman Province and compare it with an other one. Only in this way these sorts of interpretations can be successful.

The coin finds of the former Roman provinces Noricum and Pannonia are partly published (listed) and partly the publications are in preparation. The territories of these former provinces belong today to Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia (=Pannonia) and to Austria, Slovenia and Italy (= Noricum). If there would be developed a data network for International communication within these countries, the demanded form (enough data available) of interpretation of the founden coins would be possible. This will be a sort of pilot project, which furtheron can be used not only for all other provinces of the former Roman world but also for coin finds of other times, like the Greek antiquity, the Celtic world or also medieval or early modern find coins.

One important factor of this project will also be - because of the photo documentation of all find coins - that if coins documented in this way they will be available also for further generations and to a broader user community.

From the technical point of view the project is based on state of the art technology using client/server architecture and information retrieval standards for multiserver environment over a digital network. The overall concept of this networked information system comprized all relevant domains: data base creation using multimedia data entry station, data base management based on relational data base technology, and information server (based on World Wide Web) with integrated (Z39.50) gateway to the data bases. By this means COINET provides an efficient and modern toolset to the researcher community in the numismatic field and to the broad public interested in coin collections. This application, centered around the Greco-Roman period can easily adapted to other periods and even more to other types of objects.

JOANNEUM RESEARCH is the main technical partner within COINET which is coordinated by the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Münzkabinett) and cofinanced by the European Commission, DG-X (Pre-Raphael Program).

ONE

Project ONE: Taking a further step towards a Europe-wide information network

OPAC Network in Europe - ONE - is a major new project which will provide library users with better ways to access library OPACs and national catalogues (OPAC: On-line Public Access Catalogue) and which will stimulate and facilitate interworking between libraries in Europe.

ONE is a collaborative project involving 15 organisations in 8 European countries. ONE began on January 30th 1995 and will last for 30 months. The total budget is 2.4 million ECU. The project is cofinanced by the European Commission's Libraries Programme

Most of the participants have a long tradition of providing services to libraries in a distributed (or networked) environment. Some already offer operational services based on Z39.50 and/or SR. The project does not intend to start a completely new software development, but aims at building on existing software available to the project.

The project will also produce new systems for user assistance which will make it easier for users in one country to access catalogues in another. Entry point software will also be produced which will allow users to dial-in to a single point to access any of the participants' OPACs. The project is based on the application of International standards and will produce high-quality software which will be put into the public domain to encourage the interworking of libraries in Europe. The results of the project will be used in a trial service based on the catalogues of the participants and involving a wide range of users across Europe.

The standards on which the project is based are the SR/Z39.50 protocols which enable users to search widely different computer systems across networks. SR/Z39.50 offer end-users the promise of greater ease of use through a solution to the proliferation of different user interfaces to library catalogues.

The software produced within ONE will also address issues of diverse record formats and character sets which are currently barriers to seamless access across distributed databases. ONE will also contribute to the development and enhancement of the SR/Z39.50 standards.

The participants in the project are:

Austria: Joanneum Research,

Steiermärkische Landesbibliothek and

the Steiermärkisches Landesmuseum

Joanneum

Denmark: Dansk Biblioteks Center,

Nationalmuseet

Finland: Helsinki University Library -

TKAY

Germany: Die Deutsche Bibliothek

The Netherlands: Pica

Norway: BIBSYS, Nasjonalbiblioteket,

Universitetsbiblioteket Oslo

Sweden: LIBRIS,

UK: The British Library, Crossnet Ltd

The Coordinator of the project is Oslo College - unit BRODD, Norway.

JOANNEUM RESEARCH is contractor and full partner within the ONE Project. Dr.Koch acts as chairman of the Project ManagementTeam.

JR is responsible for the development of the local Z39.50 target systems, the definition of the Explain Services and for the RPN2SQL Convertor included in the ONE Tool Box.

The local developments for the Styrian Landesbibliothek and the Landesmuseum Joanneum is supported by the government of Styria.