This document discusses challenges and opportunities for linked open data in cultural heritage institutions. It summarizes that while many institutions have digitized collections and data, their "digital mindset" and outdated systems have limited data sharing and reuse. The document outlines recent and ongoing projects by PACKED to address this, such as developing tools to publish structured data on Wikimedia platforms, and a "datahub" and "resolver tool" to facilitate internal data management and linking to external references. Next steps include expanding these projects and conducting a survey to understand demand for cultural heritage data. The overall aim is to make institutions' data and collections more accessible and reusable on the web.

1. Linked Open Data
in limbo
Co-creation as a catalyst for
open cultural heritage resources
Open Belgium 12.03.2018
Sam Donvil Alina Saenko
sam@packed.be alina@packed.be
@PACKEDvzw

2. • 2006 - 2010: Platform for Archiving and Conservation of Art on Electronic
and Digital Media
• 2011 - present: Centre of Expertise Digital Heritage
• Flemish, Belgian and European projects
• Support for ICT-processes at heritage and arts organisations (o.a.
creating, storage, cataloguing, online access, exchange and reuse) and
policy thereof
• Central concern: sustainability (digital heritage is vulnerable)

3. The museum as a changing concept: antiquity >
museion
Role: scholarship
Audience: research
community

4. The museum as a changing concept: renaissance >
cabinet of curiosities
Role: prestige, display of ‘all’
objects
Audience: privileged visitors,
courtiers

5. The museum as a changing concept: enlightenment
and modern era > birth of the modern museum
Role: scholarship & caretaking of objects, not
necessarily display
Audience: research community & privileged
visitors
Role: scholarship & caretaking of objects, national
prestige
Audience: research community, large middle class
audiences

6. The museum as a changing concept: contemporary
era > changing consumer demands

7. The museum as a changing concept: contemporary
era > memory institution as an online knowledge
source
Future
interpretation:
-Share
-Contextualise
-Coordinate
-Facilitate
Conventional
interpretation:
-Control quality
-Control access
Current ICOM definition:
A museum is a non-profit, permanent
institution in the service of society and
its development, open to the public,
which acquires, conserves, researches,
communicates and exhibits the tangible
and intangible heritage of humanity and
its environment for the purposes of
education, study and enjoyment.

8. Accumulation and
registration of data

9. Back-office:
- Not a ‘popular’ topic to invest in
- Often no ‘digital mindset’ inside the institutions > external IT services
Data
- Messy and not complete, but a lot of potential knowledge
- Captured on different carriers (systems, digital and analogue files)
- Often closed (and obsolete) software
Audio-visual material
- Different tools and DAMs, but not good enough
- ‘Analogue mindset’: distributed versions and copies
The situation in the Flemish artmuseums

11. 2012 http://smak.be/collectie_kunstenaar.php?kunstwerk_id=1461&l=a&kunstenaar_id=41

12. Open source tool:
https://github.com/PACKED-vzw/resolver
Resolver-tool

13. Resolver
Persistent URI: 2016 - ... http://resolver.smak.be/collection/work/data/3385
http://smak.be/nl/kunstwerk/75872016
http://newwebsite.be/3542019
http://evenbetterwebsite.be/lod/the-journey2030

14. Enrichment of data via external authorities
External authorities:
- Wikidata, VIAF, RKDartists, ODIS,
Geonames, AAT (Getty Vocabularies),
Iconclass
https://www.projectcest.be/wiki/Publicatie:Project_Persiste
nte_identificatie

15. Visualisations with internally shared data
Acquisition source:
From which source did a museum
acquire artworks? (5 museums)
- Private
- Artist
- Gallery
- Government
- The Monarchy
- The Church

16. https://thedatahub.github.io/

17. Blueprint distributed AV management

18. Making data and images
accessible

19. Open Cultuur Data project

20. Open data on Wikimedia platforms
Why Wikimedia?
● visibility
● reuse
● engagement

21. Wikidata
○ Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (7.798 artworks)
○ Museum of Fine Arts Ghent (6.973 artworks)
○ Groeningemuseum Brugge (2.858 artworks)
○ M - Museum Leuven (3.137 artworks)
○ Mu.ZEE (3.979 artworks)
○ S.M.A.K. (2.579 artworks)

22. Wikimedia Commons

23. Data enrichment and reuse

24. Data enrichment and reuse

25. Data enrichment and reuse

26. Data enrichment and reuse

27. Data enrichment and reuse

28. Data enrichment and reuse

29. Data enrichment and reuse

30. Conclusion and next steps

31. Why Linked Open Data in Limbo?
digital movement <> no digital mindset
reducing costs <> out-of-control IT-budgets
new ‘digital’ audiences <> losing ‘traditional’ audiences
showing off with fancy tools <> locked up in obsolete technology
engaging with the ‘crowd’ <> abandoned web portals

32. - More IT profiles in the cultural heritage sector and less dependence on the providers
- More freedom to play around and test things out
- Better open infrastructures and tools that make better internal workflows and LOD
possible:
- Back office tools: Collection Management Systems, DAMs , Datahubs…
- Publishing online tools: Resolvers, API’s...
- Reusing: Wikimedia art viewers, apps...
- etc...
- Vocal and demanding audience:
- (examples of) reuse
- curating/enriching data
Wishlist

33. - Datahub project fase 2 en 3
- Resolver-tool on Open Summer of Code 2018
- Wikimedia projects:
- Public Domain publication
- Publishing images and more structured data
- Reusing in Wikipedia-articles and outside of the platform
- Networked cultural data
- survey on the current demand for cultural heritage data by various
sectors
Do you see yourself contributing to one of the projects or to the wishlist?
Idea’s or feedback? Please contact us!
PACKED vzw 2018 -...

34. Thank you!
Questions? Feedback?
Sam Donvil Alina Saenko
sam@packed.be alina@packed.be
@PACKEDvzw