Open data, open knowledge and the internet enable more people to become better acquainted with issues related to culture, society, technology etc. and thus, people have the opportunity to create and share knowledge. Digital technologies are increasingly influencing and transforming the way cultural heritage is perceived providing solutions to crucial issues for the sector, including its sustainability, its openness and its public engagement.
Open knowledge offers the opportunity and capability to people to enrich their knowledge with regards to the value of culture and cultural heritage and to bring nations closer, while fostering mutual appreciation and respect for each other’s culture.
During the last decade, open knowledge has been gaining more and more ground and shapes a crucial role in heritage work. Memory Institutions´ vision to digitize and open up their collections to the public has been at the core of their digital communications plan. The past decade, there have been initiatives by private (e.g. Google Arts & Culture and Wikimedia), public aggregators (e.g. Europeana and Digital Repository of Ireland) and social media (e.g. Facebook and Instagram) that aided Memory Institutions in opening up its collections to the wider public. However, what are open knowledge´s pitfalls? How can the current digital infrastructures improve? To what extend is the data that provided FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable) and how can we also make FAIR platforms too? How can open knowledge facilitate meaningful engagement, interaction and participation of the public to the heritage process?
You can find the full programme for the colloquium “Open Knowledge in the heritage sector: Reflecting dissemination, interpretation & accessibility of knowledge” in the summer term 2019 organized by POEM Fellow Angeliki Tzouganatou here.
