The e-documentation of the Past in 3D: A Challenge and a Risk for the Present and the Future. Presentation at VSMM09 Workshop on 3D Knowledge Technologies for Cultural Heritage Applications.

1. The e-documentation of the Past in 3D
A Challenge and a Risk for the Present and the Future
Marinos IOANNIDES

2. 3D Documentation
Darius Victory - 500BC
(from Prof. Zolfaghari, Iran)

3. Europeana
The European Digital Library
www.europeana.eu

4. Content
• What is that and why do we need it?
• Who has the Information available (Stakeholders)
• Historical Overview
• Public Domain Information
• Public domain material in the digital environment:
Barriers to access and re-use
• The National and European Dimension
• The European Project (Europeana)
• 3D objects in Europeana – when and how?
• The challenges and the risks

5. What is that and why do we need it?
• It is the common access point to the different kind of
collections of European libraries, archives and
museums from all around Europe. The Library has
to provide direct online access in a Multilingua and
Multimedia Form.
(The Archive of all the Digital Libraries)
• Digital Preservation of the Past (Earthquakes, War,
Environment, Human interactions…the case in Köln)
• A European digital library for all researchers,
professionals, students and the public.

6. What is that?... Content
• The digital collection (preservation) of all the
items from all the European Libraries, Archives,
Museums…
• Books, Photos, Magazines, Newspapers, Maps,
Audio-Tapes, Films/Videos, Artifacts,
Monuments, Archeological Sites, etc.
(In a 2D and 3D reconstructed form)
• One of the biggest Challenges in the European
Union.

7. Who has the Information available
(Stakeholders)?
• National Authorities – The Government-
(for example the National Library of xxx or
the state Museum of yyy)
• Other Institutions/organisations
(Vatican,…)

8. Historical Overview
• The Web accessibility policy in Europe: road map 1996-
2008
• Starting from the remark of the gap between Europe and
USA
1996: the Commission adopt The green book Green
Paper on Living and Working in the Information Society:
People First
• 1999, European summit of Helsinki: starting of the
initiative eEurope. An Information Society for All

9. Historical Overview
• The TEL project (TEL stands for The European Library) was co-
financed under the EU's 5th research framework programme. It
sought to provide a gateway to the catalogues of European libraries
and access to their combined resources. The TEL project ended on
31 January 2004.
• 2001, Lund: meeting of all Member States representatives, who edit
the Lund Principles (specific action for a coordination system in
digitisation programmes)
• 2001, The Commission adopts the Communication eEurope 2002:
accessibility of public websites and their content (aiming at
facilitating access to public adeministrations’ website, under the
coordination of the 15 Member States)
• 2002: Action Plan eEurope 2005: An Information Society for All (by
the end of 2004 Member States should have ensured that basic
public services are interactive, accessible to all…)

10. Historical Overview
• 2005: Letter suggesting a virtual European library from six EU
leaders to the Commission and the answer of the Commission.
• 2005: European Commission: COMMUNICATION FROM THE
COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE
COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS ON THE
DIGITISATION AND ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY OF CULTURAL
MATERIAL AND DIGITAL PRESERVATION
• 2005: EC Communication eAccessibility (encourages the Member
States to step up their promotion of initiatives to give improved
access to information and communication technologies, particularly
for people with disabilities and the elderly. The aim is also to foster
industry self-regulation in this area )

11. Historical Overview
• 2006: Ministerial Declaration of Riga (the 34 UE Member
States engage to reduce within 2010 the digital divide,
• 2007: The Commission adopts the Communication i2010
initiative on e-Inclusion. To be part of the information
society (new engagement in promoting e-inclusion and
e-accessibility)
• 2008 Lunch of Europeana under the French Presidency
and European Council Recomendation to the Member
States.
• 2009 Second Recommendation of the European
Commission to the member states  Deadline: 2010/12

12. Public domain material in the digital environment:
Barriers to access and re-use
What is the public domain?
• Material that is not/no longer covered by intellectual
property rights
• Copyrights: 70 years after the death of the author
• Can therefore be accessed and re-used
no authorisation necessary
no costs for rights clearance, no limitations
(e.g. territorial limitations)
• Can be digitised and made available online

13. Barriers to Access Public Domain Digital Data
• Copyrights of the work (IPR)
• Orphan Work
• Provision of information and advice
services
– National copyright offices, websites, publications
• Missing “copyright” legislation

14. Barriers to Access Public Domain Digital Data
Establish UNIFORM approaches for:
• Classification of outputs
• Definition of indicators
• Data collection by national institutions
• Unified Metadata Structure for Multimedia
applications (incl. 3D)

15. Europeana
The European Digital Library
www.europeana.eu

16. Europeana´s Value Proposition
Aggregator of Interoperable European
Content
image Europeana

17. Descartes

19. 1596

22. Europeana: the successes in 2009
o Over 150 network members
o ALL EU countries
o ALL sectors represented
o Over 4 million items accessible
o Standards being agreed & applied
o Enormous publicity

23. The EDL Foundation
Purpose:
• to provide cross-domain access to Europe’s
cultural heritage.
The Foundation will:
• facilitate formal agreement across museums, archives,
audio-visual archives and libraries on how to
cooperate in the delivery and sustainability of a joint
portal.
• provide a legal framework for use by the EU for
funding purposes and as a springboard for future
governance.

24. The universe of Europeana
Projects 2009
o Europeana Local, EFG, ATHENA, APEnet
o PrestoPrime, STERNA
o Europeana v1.0
o EuropeanaConnect
o BHLEurope
o EUScreen
o EuropeanaTravel
o MIMO, JUDEICA

25. The Europeana Universe of Projects
2009
Judaeica MIMO
BHL Museum A Archive A Library A ARROW
Library Culture.fr
X National Digital Library
CulturaItalia
BAM Film Archive 1 STERNA
Archive X National Digital Libray Film Archive 2
Fnland EFG
ACE
ACE Film Archive 3
Film Archive X
Europeana EuropeanaLocal
ConnectMuseum X
EDL
v1.0 ICOM Museum 1
Europe Museum 2
ATHENA IMPACT
MICHAEL
The European Library
CENL
APEnet
Eurbica National
Archive 1
National Archive 2
NL 1 NL 2 NL 3
IASA VideoActive
FIAT National Archive 3
Europeana Sound Sound
Travel Archive 1 Archive n Television Television
Trebleclef
Archive 1 Archive n
PrestoPrime EUScreen

26. The Challenges
• The acquisition of the 3D “information” (the
combination of points, colors, material, images, etc)
• The real time management of the 3D data and their
computer internal structure
• The logical and physical relation between different
3D objects having different attributes (a collection of
objects related to one theme…)
• Glossaries/ Treasuries
• 3D Semantics/Ontologies and their relation to
Multilingual and Multimedia documents

27. The Challenges
• The Semantic (3D-) Web and 3D TV  mobiles
• The real time knowledge representation and
visualization (for everybody)
• Indexing and watermarking
• 3D compression (including all the above
information)
• 3D Object Retrieval
• The evolution in Standards for Metadata in
combination with the revolution in computer
hardware and software
• The long-term e-preservation of the data

28. How much time do we need?...
How much time do we have?
In the race against the time ...

29. Risks
By Alonzo Addison, 2007
(Amazon - books)

30. Risks
.

31. Risks
• Visit the Museum of Louvre
• Visit the divided Island of Cyprus

32. ASINOU Monument
UNESCO Heritage List
Main temple and altar first built in 1005AD
Frescoes painted in 1055AD
Narthex added in late 12th c.
•Since 1986 Included in UNESCO World Heritage list

33. Orthophotomosaics (1/2)

34. Financial Support
Marie-Curie Actions
The PEOPLE Initiative
http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/

35. Thank you for your attention
For any further questions :
Marinos.Ioannides@ec.europa.eu