The National Documentation Center (EKT) will start making available what is perhaps the largest online collection of open digital data for culture and research to date in 2014. This is a series of actions funded by the OP "Digital Convergence" (NSRF) and aims to create a common information environment for culture and research.
As stated by the Director of the Hellenic Cultural Foundation, Mrs. Evi Sahini, the open data action aims to make reputable cultural content truly accessible to the end user, as the digital cultural resource accumulation services will allow for the substantial exploitation of the cultural wealth that has been or is to be digitized and documented by the country's cultural organizations that have entered into a relevant framework of cooperation with the Hellenic Cultural Foundation. This includes a multitude of reputable cultural collections, archaeological resources, movable monuments, music collections, films, etc.
"EKT develops those services that will allow the search and discovery of reputable digital cultural content from one place, simply, easily and at no cost to the user-creator. EKT's open digital cultural content services allow the availability of digital cultural resources in an interoperable, reusable manner and with clear terms of use," he explains.
"The most important thing is that they come from bodies of recognized prestige and that the user will be able to access relevant information at their source, that is, at the body of origin itself. This is high-quality information that highlights the role, importance and work of the Greek cultural bodies participating in this action," notes Mrs. Sahini.
The ESF’s Open Cultural Data Action aims to support at least 100 cultural organisations to open up more than 2 million of their digital cultural resources to the public. The organisations will use international standards and be interoperable with each other, with the ESF, as well as with international platforms such as Europeana, the European gateway to culture.
According to Ms. Sahini, open data in the field of culture and research is the raw material with which innovative services, new applications or even business models can be built that can enhance the sustainability of cultural organizations and give impetus to the Greek cultural and creative industry.
To make this a reality, cultural data that is currently “trapped” in older systems will need to be brought to light. An effort will be made to discover data that is digitized but not in a form that allows for its exploitation or reuse.
Furthermore, this data will be documented in such a way that it is searchable by search engines and increases traffic to the collections, both physical and digital, which they describe or of which they are a part.
"Our intention is to enable access to primary data, so that it can be used in productive and creative ways. This new use is a key element of open data and the innovation it brings, and is fully consistent with the statutory purpose of the EKT as a provider of knowledge-intensive services that enhance development and innovation," he continues.
Finally, as Ms. Sahini states, in addition to culture, other sectors also lend themselves to extracting useful data, important for the formulation of development policies, such as statistics on positive sciences, health sciences, etc. "In the era of open knowledge, the role of a National Documentation Center is to serve the science of policy-making for science, culture and innovation based on measurable and open data. And that is exactly what we are doing," she concludes.
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