Research and Development

A distributed collaborative environment designed to support and accelerate the digital transformation of the Italian cultural sector.

Promoted by the Ministry of Culture, the Directorate-General for Digitalisation and Communication, and the Central Institute for the Digitalisation of Cultural Heritage – Digital Library, Ecomic is positioned as a strategic platform where innovation, sharing and the enhancement of digital heritage converge within an integrated model.

Within Ecomic, participation represents a foundational principle: digital cultural heritage becomes a truly shared resource only when it is activated and embedded within meaningful networks of relationships.

For this reason, the ecosystem adopts an organisational model based on collaborative dynamics, in which diverse stakeholders integrate skills and knowledge to generate innovation and develop new solutions for culture.

@CULT and Ecomic

In this context, the contribution of @CULT is positioned as an external specialist input in the development of some of the most advanced components of the ecosystem, with particular reference to the I.PaC and DPaaS environments.

The intervention has been developed through targeted design and technical support activities, focused on the definition and implementation of semantic models and operational tools for the advanced management of cultural data.

This has enabled interoperability between different domains — bibliographic, archival and museum — and the construction of a coherent, scalable data infrastructure oriented towards reuse.

Through a highly qualified contribution, @CULT has supported the modelling of domain graphs and their harmonisation from a cross-domain perspective, contributing to the simplification of ontologies and their transformation into standard formats for the semantic web.

In parallel, tools have been developed for converting data into RDF format and for its automated validation via SHACL rules, enabling structured processes for quality control, consistency and information reliability.

The contribution has also involved the definition of mapping models between databases and semantic representations, with a specific focus on the main entities of cultural heritage — agents, places, resources, temporal and conceptual dimensions — as well as support for the analysis and configuration of graph-oriented technological environments.

This set of activities aims to strengthen the data ecosystem, making it more integrated, interoperable, and capable of supporting advanced processes of analysis, transformation and enhancement of digital cultural heritage.

Recipients

Ecomic is aimed at a broad and diverse network of stakeholders within the cultural and creative system:

• Public and private cultural heritage organisations, including museums, archives, libraries, superintendencies, ecclesiastical institutions and foundations, engaged in the management of tangible and digital heritage
• Regional, national and international bodies, including central institutes of the Ministry of Culture, Regions and Autonomous Provinces, equipped with active or developing digital cultural platforms and involved in European infrastructures or international projects
• Professionals and enterprises in cultural enhancement, such as curators, art historians, restorers, archaeologists, librarians, cultural designers and digital specialists
• Universities and research centres, engaged in heritage digitalisation and in the development of advanced models for the representation and management of cultural resources, including 3D digital twins
• Cultural, creative and technological enterprises, including startups and innovative SMEs active in fields such as digitalisation, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, interface design and digital services
• Companies in the tourism sector and other economic fields, interested in integrating cultural content into their products and services, enhancing heritage through experiential and territorial approaches

Services

Through an integrated system of advanced technologies and operational services, Ecomic supports the entire lifecycle of digital cultural assets — from production to transformation — enabling new modes of access, use and enhancement of heritage.

Technological core

The core of the ecosystem consists of an integrated set of technological environments designed to address heterogeneous innovation needs: D.PaC, I.PaC and DPaaS.

• D.PaC (Data Platform for Culture): an environment dedicated to the management and orchestration of cultural data, enabling interoperability between systems, information normalisation and the construction of structured flows supporting digital processes
• I.PaC (Cultural Heritage Infrastructure): the central infrastructure of the ecosystem, integrating digital cultural heritage and enabling its advanced management and effective enhancement.
• DPaaS (Data Processing as a Service): a sandbox environment where cultural data are analysed and transformed to generate new content and value-added outputs.

Ecomic website

Within the framework of the Tech4You research and innovation programme – a strategic initiative inspired by the European mission on climate change adaptation and aimed at creating a broad innovation ecosystem – @CULT provided external specialist expertise contributing to the development of several advanced technological solutions envisaged by the project, designed to enhance community resilience and to promote cultural and environmental heritage.

The programme involved a complex and multidisciplinary partnership comprising four public universities, six research centres, nine enterprises, three territorial public bodies (including natural parks and environmental agencies), one NGO and two regional administrations, operating within the priorities of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) under the “Climate, Energy, Sustainable Mobility” area.

@CULT and Tech4You

Specifically, @CULT contributed to the activities of Spoke 4, coordinated by the University of Basilicata, focusing on the preservation, management and enhancement of tangible and intangible cultural heritage and local identities in Calabria and Basilicata, with particular attention to sustainability, accessibility, smart tourism and the monitoring of climate change impacts.

The intervention envisaged the development of an advanced digital platform for the management, indexing and access to documentary sources, based on TEI-XML standards and Linked Open Data, structured in four phases:

• analysis, mapping and clustering of data, together with the development of management tools
• implementation of a back-office platform for the creation, normalisation, enrichment and publication of metadata according to interoperable semantic models (BIBFRAME, RDF), with integration of external authoritative sources
• development of an advanced consultation portal for navigating entities (Persons, Works, Events and Items) through enhanced search, indexing and semantic enrichment functionalities, with accessible and multilingual interfaces
• prototyping and testing of innovative tools based on Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing and machine learning for the automation of XML markup processes

Digital Cultural Heritage as a Space for People and Territories

The final outcomes of the entire project contribute to the definition of a scalable and replicable technological model for libraries, archives and museums, capable of strengthening the protection, accessibility and enhancement of cultural heritage within a digital, sustainable and territorially oriented perspective.

Website

The project, developed by @CULT and funded by Sapienza University of Rome under the scientific direction of Prof. Maria Teresa Biagetti, arises from collaboration with ICCU – Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information and ICG – Central Institute for Graphics, involving an ever-expanding interdisciplinary research group.

Scope of study, aims, technologies

LILLIT is a digital infrastructure dedicated to the study of the Italian illustrated book between the 16th and 18th centuries (1501–1800). The portal provides a systematic survey of printed editions with illustrative apparatus, considered both as interpretative tools of the text and as decorative and paratextual elements (title pages, frontispieces, ornaments).The platform integrates cataloguing data from ICCU with enriched data produced by the research group, which has analysed and explored the iconographic, technical, and authorial aspects of the illustrations, enhancing images, engraving techniques, and key figures in the creative process, including designers, engravers, and printers. Thanks to this approach, LILLIT is positioned as an advanced tool for research on the illustrated early printed book and as a reference point for scholars and institutions engaged in visual culture. From a methodological perspective, the system adopts international standards such as BIBFRAME 2.0 (Library of Congress) and the Library Reference Model (IFLA). The data are organised in a model of interconnected entities — persons, corporate bodies, works, and publications — enabling relational navigation and integration with authoritative external resources (ISNI, VIAF, Wikidata, data.bnf.fr, Library of Congress, WorldCat).

Integration of the Iconclass standard

A distinctive feature is thematic iconographic search, based on the Iconclass classification system, which enables users to orient themselves and quickly identify specific subjects and visual motifs within early printed editions.

GLAM ecosystem and the SHARE Family network

LILLIT is part of the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) ecosystem and belongs to the SHARE Family network, contributing to the development of collaborative infrastructures such as Share-VDE, Share-Catalogue, Parsifal, and BDIB.

Access to the portal

LILLIT Italian Illustrated Books 1501–1800

BDIB – Bibliographic Database of Interactive Books is an advanced digital infrastructure for the management and enhancement of complex bibliographic resources, with a focus on interactive books featuring movable components. It integrates structured cataloguing models, international standards such as BIBFRAME 2.0 (Library of Congress), Entity Resolution technologies, and Linked Open Data paradigms, enabling enriched and fully interoperable semantic descriptions.

Development and scientific direction

Developed by @CULT, with the support of Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with ICCU - Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information and ICG - Central Institute for Graphics, the project is grounded in a solid scientific framework and full alignment with international cataloguing standards: the scientific direction of Prof. Gianfranco Crupi has further ensured methodological consistency and innovation in descriptive models.

Integration of the IIIF standard

A key added value is the integration of the IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) standard for the publication and interoperable use of high-resolution digital images, enabling advanced visualisation and analysis features, including ultra-high-definition zoom, multi-level navigation, selection of specific portions, and direct linking between images and metadata, thus enabling new modes of study and content reuse.

GLAM ecosystem and the SHARE Family network

BDIB is part of the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) ecosystem and constitutes an integral component of the SHARE Family network, contributing to a collaborative infrastructure that includes initiatives such as Share-VDE, Share-Catalogue, Parsifal, and LILLIT. This network promotes advanced cooperation among libraries, universities, and research centres, aimed at developing innovative models for the management, interoperability, and enhancement of cultural data, with a strong emphasis on semantic interoperability.

Outlook and development

In line with the evolving nature of the project, further development phases are planned, aimed at the creation of a stable public platform designed to ensure broader, more structured, and continuous access for the scientific community, cultural institutions, and end users, with the objective of:

• expanding open and qualified access to bibliographic heritage;
• reducing technological and economic barriers to content access;
• promoting shared standards and interoperability among institutions;
• enabling new scenarios for research, teaching, and enhancement.

Access to the portal

BDIB – Bibliographic Database of Interactive Books (Beta Version)

Goal

VASARI provides the development of an innovative technological platform that integrates and makes accessible the cultural content, the data of the visits and those of context and physical space sensing the belonging to the different sites and museums, in order to:

• to allow unified access to the artistic heritage;
• to keep track of visitor-work interactions;
• to measure and understand cultural enjoyment habits;
• interpreting the data collected by sensors, to obtain context and environmental information.

Purpose

To develop a completely new services, both for visitors and cultural institutions:

• to create new solutions aimed at strengthening and broadening knowledge and access to cultural heritage, encouraging the mobility of people for cultural purposes, creating also the premises for the development of a territorial economy linked to tourist flows;
• to create knowledge models and tools to assess the impact on cultural fruition;
• experimenting models of city-work interaction to promote the sustainable development of the cultural economy open to small and medium-sized enterprises;
• coordination and integration with Project initiatives addressing the theme of accessibility of cultural heritage content to a public with functional limitations.

In addition, VASARI is an open platform, created to promote the development of new services from third parties and to bring ICT innovation to all institutions, even the minor ones that have been excluded from the process of digitisation until now.

Context

As part of an ever-increasing national strategy for the enhancement of the immense artistic and cultural heritage, the VASARI project sets the latest innovations in digital technologies to radically change the activities of Valorization, enjoyment and management of artworks, for both museums and open-air.

The goal is a paradigm shift: to build a new cultural space in which the physical spaces of museums and historical sites with their patrimony of works are integrated into the digital space of Cultural and interconnected content and services in a multi-site logic.

The visitor and the works are at the center of this space where knowledge, fruition and participation of citizens and tourists is encouraged, while the management, the enhancement and the cooperation of cultural institutions is facilitated.

Impacts

VASARI intends to maximise the social and economic impacts linked to the enhancement of the artistic patrimony: the artwork becomes a powerful social aggregator and the visitor is involved in his own process of knowledge that controls directly and continues to develop incrementally thanks to the multiplicity of sites and museums interconnected to the platform.

The proposal emphasizes the need for integration between the physical space and the corresponding digital space of each museum in stark contrast with recent attempts to build digital platforms that favour a passive navigation of the only cultural content.

In VASARI, only through the on-site visit the visitor has access to the vast ecosystem of digital services and content that promotes cultural tourism on the territory, thus encouraging the development of a territorial economy of the support industries.

In addition, the VASARI platform will be designed to be open and promote the development of an economy based on SMEs specializing in the provision of cultural services linked to the heritage of its territory (associations, guides, cultural publishing).

Partners

• Santer Reply SpA (Coordinator)
• @CULT Srl
• Databenc S.c.a.r.l
• Heritage Srl
• Illogic Srl
• Officine Rambaldi Srl
• Risorse Srl
• Polytechnic University of Bari (National Interuniversity Consortium for Informatics - CINI)
• University of L'Aquila (National Interuniversity Consortium for Informatics - CINI)
• University of Milan
• University of Molise
• University of Palermo (National Interuniversity Consortium for Informatics - CINI)
• University of Salerno
• University of Sannio (National Interuniversity Consortium for Informatics - CINI)

PNR 2015-2020: ARS01_00456 | Specialization Area: Cultural Heritage
Period: September 2018 / February 2022

POR FESR 2007/2013 – Regione Lazio/Asse I – Ricerca, innovazione e rafforzamento della base produttiva

Context

The reference domain is that of the Extended Enterprise: a reengineering of organisational structural models capable of:

• improving efficiency in order to optimise the production of goods / services;
• “extending” the interaction between the business areas to seize opportunities for new “collaborative spaces”;
• being integrated into a stable architecture and easily maintainable.

Aims

To create a tool based on the integration of the most advanced technologies of knowledge management with those of E-Learning and the Web Semantic, to introduce an innovative production, acquisition and sharing of knowledge mechanism that businesses could turn into tangible business results.

Result

The project realised an innovative platform for e-Learning that is:

• modular;
• web-based;
• open (add / remove function modules according to specific requirements);
• extensible;
• social (enriched environments for social networking - Web 2.0);
• semantics and Open Data compatible.

Thanks to this feature, the product is highly scalable and can easily be declined even in fields and domains different from the one for which it was designed.

Innovative aspects

i-LIKE, integrating exposed systems, is emerging as a tool that can build knowledge bases through the collection, classification, analysis, development and distribution of relevant knowledge in a timely and accurate manner;

• combining and integrating different methodological approaches and technological environments to offer an innovative solution of immediate fruition that allows for the customisation of the learning paths, making them leaner and faster (Personal Learning Environment);
• through the Web 2.0 technological applications, collaboration plays a key role and, thus, becomes the ideal training setting for integration between formal and informal (Technology Enhanced Learning);
• semantic technologies, allowing for the use and development of new knowledge through the sharing of objectives and participation distributed, determining a training model applicable in various areas (from the school to the company) and extensible "for life" (Lifelong Learning).

In a networked economy in which the propagation of knowledge proceeds through mechanisms of exploration (new), extraction (from existing knowledge bases) and exploitation (re-use), i-LIKE represents the optimal solution to cope and govern a deep change process: to transform organisations into “learning organisations”.

SME Initiative on Analytics (FP-ICT-2013-SME-DCA)

@CULT Srl (I), ScanBit (E), Tecnalia (E), ARTIUM - Centro Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo (E), Szépmuvészeti Múzeum (H)

Context

The ALIADA European project is at the frontier of advanced web semantics and linked open data technologies, harnessing the potential for enhancing the information assets of organisations and institutions that operate in the context of historical and cultural assets.

Aims

To develop a framework based on the use of open source products capable of automating the entire process of creating and publishing linked open data, regardless of the data source format.

A tool that is easy for all users to use without the need for specific technical know-how and technology to enable those working in the Culture sector to offer the public new and innovative viewing experiences.

Result

A technical/technology model was engineered to achieve, through a pipeline, the most important best practices inherent in the LOD:

• modelling and analysis of a dataset;
• selection of open licenses;
• definition of appropriate URI to identify resources;
• selection (or processing) of domain ontologies;
• converting data in RDF;
• publication of datasets on authoritative domains to make them usable by automated agents.

The framework has seen, over the course of development, a number of intermediate releases connoted by its work package.

Each was tested – for usability and performance - and measured through specific evaluation criteria:

• effectiveness (quality of use);
• efficiency (quality of performance);
• satisfaction (quality of interaction with users).

The tool, even though created in the context of Cultural Heritage, may be used by everyone - public or private organisations - regardless of the sector in which they operate.

The scalability and high potential for customisation and configuration allowed by the open source components make the product:

• perfectly adaptable to the needs of every type and size of user;
• easily integrated into existing systems and architectures.

ALIADA, already integrated in the management systems of libraries and museums participating in the Consortium, is now available in a release that includes the publication module, the last step after converting data into RDF and linking to other datasets.

POR FESR Lazio 2007-2013 Asse I / CO-RESEARCH

Temporary Business Association / purpose: @CULT Srl, PRIMA-S Srl, Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale

Context

Company business models and strategic and organisational solutions with which businesses operate in the market are and must be constantly evolving in order to react quickly to external input.

As a result, ICT technologies are continuously evolving to accompany that change, managing complexity and the growing body of information to be processed.

Aims

To develop a new generation hybrid, to remedy the discontinuity that arises between different business applications, making data flow between them problematic (information silos).

A “deconstructed suite” driven by user characterised by:

• functional modules no longer belonging to a single product but selected among different solutions and subsequently integrated;
• modules present both on premise and in the cloud;
• semantic layer primarily established for operations of market intelligence, using the informational power of linked data.

Result

The project developed an integration platform prototype (iPaaS), based on an ESB engine to integrate business applications, coordinating the flow of information through synchronisation and interoperability mechanisms:

• based on open source components;
• modular;
• multiplatform;
• web-based;
• open;
• extensible;
• compatible with innovative semantic technologies.

The selection of open source products has been carried out on the basis of an evaluation grid specially crafted according to criteria such as: leadership in the segment, authoritative comparative studies, technological platform, ease of installation and use, functional power, availability of APIs and web services with BSE systems present on the market, scalability, reference community and availability of support and assistance.

The creation of the integration model and exchange of information flows produced/used by business processes, standardising and establishing the information needs of each process for its operation was based on the PCF framework: Process Classification Framework of the APQC organisation: an authoritative reference point in the world of comparative business process analysis.

POR FESR Lazio 2007-2013 / OPEN DATA

Context

The reference universe is multi-domain. On the one hand, there’s the informational/IT technological development that has characterised the building blocks of this project. On the other, the redefinition of the role of galleries, libraries, archives and museums (acronym: GLAM) that increasingly constitute the nodes in a network made up of culture providers and creators.

Aims

MINERV@ has been focused on the need to facilitate interaction, the exchange and reuse of knowledge between information systems that are not homogeneous for the optimal management / use of Cultural Heritage.

Result

Through the project, which involved collaboration between @CULT and the Museo Galileo in Florence, a data set was created according to the principles of Linked Open Data (LOD): “Banca dati Museo Galileo: strumenti, libri, fotografie, documenti”.

The data selected for conversion into LOD (RDF) was part of the museum’s Cumulative Database and concerned:

• the catalogue for the collections of tools and machines on display in the museum;
• the catalogue of the library, archive material and photographic collections;
• the Italian bibliography of the history of science;
• the Galilean Bibliography.

Following best practices and the rules for the treatment and release of data, as suggested by the LOD paradigm, the activities were:

• the identification and selection of data, among the approximately 250,000 bibliographic and authority records from the museum;
• analysis and modelling; each item was analysed to identify the use factor within the record and catalogue;
• choice of ontologies; selecting ontologies used for the mapping and conversion of records in RDF, which was driven by the study of related national and international projects and similar thematic areas;
• output production and its validation; data mapping was used to implement the conversion rules, resulting in the conversion framework of data in RDF/XML. The resulting file was then analysed to verify the formal and syntax accuracy of the output and the correct implementation of the application rules for the selected ontologies;
• publication; the dataset was published in the DataHub, the Open Knowledge Foundation portal and Tuscan Regional Government’s OpenData portal.

POR FESR Lazio 2007-2013 Asse I / MICROINNOVAZIONE

Context

The scope is the entire information complex produced by organisations and institutions connected to Cultural Heritage (libraries, archives, museums, tourist offices...), but extensible to related, adjacent or similar fields.

The guiding principles of the project were:

• the integrated enhancement of resources in an area, especially those with tourist appeal, related to the use of cultural heritage in evolved and competitive organisational forms within the global economy;
• to increase the efficiency of the regional (specifically Lazio), tourism / economic industry, in other words, the chain through synergistic relationships between technology, cultural resources and market.

Aims

To design a technological system with web semantic methods aimed at qualifying cultural resources and facilitating its spread.

Requirements:

• ability to collect, translate and manage data more efficiently;
• ability to combine data from different sources to allow for sharing among multiple users and applications, both regionally and nationally and internationally.

Result

Through the Project, the “Linked Open Data Framework” (OpLiDaF) was developed. It’s a new generation of open source framework for creating and displaying data in RDF/XML (XML syntax for RDF) in different formats.

With the tool, you can generate (or translate) documents that can be read by humans but also accessed and interpreted by automated search agents (machine understandable).

OpLiDaF, operating with methodologies pertaining to the web semantic, responds effectively to the emerging need for integration between different systems through the creation of data infrastructures.

Innovation is mainly about:

• resource management;
• control procedures and quality assurance for results;
• control of the durability of the results.

At the architectural level, the competitiveness of the product is represented by:

• high and easy adaptability to different domains;
• ease of use for the production of the final result (usability);
• multiple and diverse uses;
• technological modularity and scalability (hyperscale);
• achieving results with maximum economy and quality.