Do virtual museums really provide added value to end-users, or do they just contribute to the abundance of images? Does the World Wide Web save endangered cultural heritage, or does it foster a society with less variety? How can information technology help to preserve the diversity of cultures in our fast-changing world? These are the questions that are raised and answered in this book, the result of a long path across the digital heritage landscape.

Alfredo M. Ronchi, Secretary of the EC MEDICI Cooperation Framework, gives a broad overview of eCulture and digital heritage. His presentation is divided into three main sections: the first one devoted to the main issues and general guidelines, the second to technological fundamentals and the main solutions, and the third to applications and services, including a wide range of case studies.

Starting from the basics the reader will be introduced to virtual museums issues and achievements, cataloguing, digitizing, publishing, and sustainable exploitation of cultural content, all exemplified by real-world case studies and applications. Taking into account more than 15 years of experience and results in digital cultural content research, the author provides a comprehensive view on issues and achievements in digital collections and cultural content for "memory institutions", developers of digital content and digital libraries, cultural content managers, publishers, librarians, and museum curators.

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Alfredo M. Ronchi is co-founder and coordinator of the Computer Aided Architectural Design Laboratory (1984 - 1990) and founding Director of the HyperMediaGroup Laboratory (1990 - today) at the Politecnico di Milano. He is currently Secretary of the EC MEDICI Cooperation Framework, a consultant of the Council of Europe, member of the UNESCO OCCAM Mediterranean Programme, Infopoverty, Global Forum, Fondazione Italiana Nuove Comunicazioni, Sacred World Foundation Scientific Committee.

Inhalt
Cultural Content and the Information Society.- Digital Content.- e-Society and the Social Divide.- Quality Content.- Digital Content and Creativity.- Cultural Content.- Digital Communication: the Role of Context.- Cultural Diversity and Cultural Models.- Content, Communication and Tools.- The General Technological Framework.- Native Digital Content.- Datasets and Formats.- Data Visualisation and Display Technologies.- Interaction Design.- Computer Games, Edutainment and Theme Parks.- Customer Relationship Management.- Smart Labels, Smart Tags and RFID.- Standards and Protocols for Interoperability.- Data Tags and the Semantic Web.- Ambient Intelligence.- Long-Term Preservation of Digital Archives.- The Future: the Weave of the Digital Fabric.- Exploitation, Applications and Services.- Content, Communication and Tools.- Exploitation, Applications and Services.- Prioritisation in Digitalisation.- Cataloguing Standards and Archiving Tools.- Virtual Museum Networks.- Unique Object ID.- Different Channels and Platforms.- Intellectual Property Rights.- Technology and Privacy.- Usability, Accessibility and Platforms.- Content Repackaging.- Experiencing Cultural Content.- Cultural Tourism.- Games and Edutainment Applications.- Hands-On and Interactive Museums.- Educational Market.- Culture Counts: the Economic Dimension.- Quality.- Conclusions and Future Trends.