Monday 12 May 2014

eCult Skills at EVA2014 Florence

EVA 2014 Florence - Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts - is 'the Foremost European Electronic Imaging Events in the Visual Arts'.

Created by James Hemsley some 25 years ago out of an ESPRIT project, the EVA International Conferences bring successfully together arts and technology. Vito Cappellini, Professor at the University of Florence, is the "spiritus rector" of EVA Florence who pulls all strings to populate the event with highest level participants and presentations.

eCultSkills, through EMF Secretary General Margaretha Mazura, was presented with a paper: "Linking a bipolar world: new jobs to bring ICT to museums", emphasising the  need to speak "both languages" to communicate between culture and technology (see presentation). Dr Mazura referred specifically to the Role Profiles that will be developed via eCult Skills to meet the demand of the market for technology-savvy professionals working in cultural heritage institutions and museums. The Osaka Museums (Japan) have already put into practice what eCult Skills tries to identify: Cultural "Communicators"; that is to say, young people that know about their cultural collection and the technology used to give visitors a new experience. "It is of absolute importance not to forget education and training, thanks for this initiative" said Marialuisa Stringa, president emeritus of the UNESCO Centres of Italy.

After this presentation, Margaretha Mazura chaired the session on EU projects and related networks and initiatives. Susan Hazan presented asa "premiere" the first official definition of a "Virtual Museum" at Wikipedia, stemming from the V-Must project. Dov Winer presented the Europeana Judaica, the Jewish contribution to Europe's Cultural Heritage, emphasising the use of LOD - Linked Open Data and the importance to use interoperable formats for this purpose. At the Thursday networking session, James Hemsley pointed out the Tagcloud project and the potential a European culture cloud might offer.


The proceedings of the EVA 2014 Florence conference and workshops are published by Firenze University Press and will be soon available here.

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