This document discusses using an "Internet for Culture and People" to connect cultural centers and share cultural events. It describes the Cultural Ring project, which connected local theaters using an IP network and equipped them as audiovisual studios. The project helped share opera performances, increasing audiences. Ongoing challenges include organizing vast cultural repositories and engaging more people. Open living labs are proposed as a way to involve citizens in user-driven cultural innovation. Europeana is discussed as a potential European cultural laboratory.

1. Anella Cultural,
Cultural Ring:
“Think culture”, Future Internet,
and Living labs.
Artur Serra,
i2cat
Head of eCulture at EnoLL
artur.serra@i2cat.net
EUROPEANA PLENARY, Leuven, 14-15 June 2012

2. The Cultural Ring :
an Internet for Culture and People

3. A country of culture

4. The project team:
In collaboration
with
Ajuntament Barcelona

5. La Xarxa Transversal: a network of local
cities interested in sharing culture

6. i2cat Foundation
•The board is composed by 4 public institutions, 3 universities
•and 9 private companies from the telecommunications and media sector.

7. IP experimental Infrastructure

8. Multimedia Experimental Plataform

10. HD Gaudi, 2002
First HD live transmissió between Europa-USA over
Internet at 270 mbps by i2CAT-Research Channel

12. HD Dancing Q from Seoul to Mercat de
les Flors in Barcelona. 2005

14. The Cybertime
Until now we hava Cyberspace (virtual, digital
space).
Now we also have Cybertime (global real time
performing scenario). Global interactive live.
Synchronous,
Delay,...
The Internet as a performing space when we do
things in a concrete slot of time

15. A real challenge:
How to arrive to
cities and citizens?

16. The Cultural Ring (2006)

17. 1. Connecting metropolitan
centers with local theatres
Gran Teatre del Liceu
Teatre Bartrina - Reus
Teatre Principal - Olot
Teatre Monumental - Mataró
Teatre de l’Escorxador - Lleida
•IP network, 34 Mbps symetrics

18. 2. To equip cultural centers as
audiovisual studios
• 2 portable PCs
• 1 audio card
• 1 HD projector
• Power amplifier
• audio system.
• Audio mixer.
• Sony Anycast station

19. 3. Sharing cultural events
Poetry festivals
Guided tours
Master Class
Workshops
Courses
Conferences
Artistic
performances

20. “Difussion is where technology
offers major opportunities to the
opera in the XXI century” J. Matabosch.

21. Opera to the
cities:
first results
5 local theaters connected
3082 new spectators
5 operas from El Liceu
76% of occupancy

23. Metamembrana 2008,
first Cultural Ring production

25. A major lesson:
Bi-directional flow between
cultural centers.

26. Cultural Ring 2012
Theaters
Arts
centers
Museums
Libraries
Archives
Civic
Centers

32. Current problems:
1.Explosion of repositories
2. Engaging more people

33. The archives issue:
How to organize, share, distribute
a huge cultural mediateque?

34. The INDICATE Project,
Digital Heritage eInfrastructure

35. Linked Heritage:
Collaborating with Europeana

37. The people's engagement:
Open living labs

38. What open Lls is all about?
• Engaging citizens, researchers,companies,
public adminstrations in user-driven
innovation processes.
• Learning how to innovate?
• Creating PPPP structures that facilitates such
kind of innovation in any area in any territory.
• Innovation is for everyone.

39. ENoLL: Network and association
• Founding members create the European Network of Living
Labs (ENoLL) under the Finnish Presidency of the European
Union 2006.
• 6 successive ‘Waves’ of ENoLL Call for Memberships has since
2006 been launched with the support of the ‘rotating’ EU
presidencies.
• The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) is
the international, non-profit, independent association of
benchmarked Living Labs in Europe and worldwide (founded
in 2010 as international association).
• ENoLL Office in Brussels (BE) close to EU institutions.

40. Current network

41. Colonia Güell,
cultural heritage and people's memories
25% of the 46 new 6th wave ENoLL members
reported
activities in Culture, creative industries
or Education

43. Some conclusions

44. 1. The future of Internet is culture
 1st. 1970s-80s The Internet of the computer scientists and
technological people ( email,ftp,telnet,...) (6 M personas)
 2nd. 90s-2010s The Internet of scientists and literated
people. ( WWW, Grid, Blogs, Wikipedia...). (1000 M
people)
 3rd. 2010s-2030s The Internet of artists and vocal and visual
communities. (VoIP, HD,videoconf,...) (6.000 M personas)

46. Both Internet and Culture
need to engage people.

47. Europeana as
European cultural laboratory
Museums and
Libraries as
innovation
ecosystems
Smart Cities and Smart
Research Regions as ground for
Institutions experimentation in
promoting living Culture and Creativity
labs for digital
culture research
and
1st Workshop on
experimentation
Digital Cultural
Heritage and Living
Searching tags at Labs, celebrated in
www.openlivinglabs.eu Barcelona Nov.2011
Museum, Cultural
Heritage, Creative
industries, Library, ….

48. Thanks a lot!
artur.serra@i2cat.net
http://www.cccb.org/ca/curs_o_conferencia-i_c_i_ciutats_lab-40762