1. DEVELOPMENT OF THEORETICAL MODELS FROM PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES

First of all, we will follow up any innovative projects from other countries, which turn up in the main national (Culturtec 2002) and international conferences (Web & Museum, EVA e ICHIM), as well as European reports such as MINERVA, CALLIMERA or DIGICULT. Apart from this analysis of the national and international context, group Òliba has set up an observatory on the ICT introduction in the memory institutions of Catalonia. Such involvement with the local memory institutions has evolved to become advisor of the General Directorate of Heritage of the Generalitat (our autonomous government). Not only the group analyses external experiences but also develops its own applications. It will be from those experiences that we will revise theoretical models used so far in topics such as cultural portals, education interactives and games (Carreras and Munilla, 2005)

2. CREATING NEW PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS IN MEMORY INSTITUTIONS EXPERIMENTING NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND FORMATS

In the last years, most our knowledge relies on adapting suitable technical solutions to specific problems in memory institutions. Inferences obtained from those projects have allowed us to define general theoretical models and generalize applications, which we constantly evaluate. Every time, we realize that keeping alive an online resource requires continuous updating. Lately, updating such contents implies the use of databases in CMS (content management systems) suited to the requirements of curators of these institutions. Other focus of interest are creation of dynamic and semantic webs (objects related by meaning – XML, RDF, SCORM) to personalize navigation. Furthermore, we still wish to work with synthetic models (3D-virtual reality) in educative contexts.

3. WIDESPREADING OUR FIELD OF STUDY TO ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES – Some projects have involved those institutions (i.e. COINE, SEEARCH-WEB)

Multimedia applications developed from databases on-line are closer to an archive or digital library than a museum. We realize that differences between those institutions are quite small, and their limits in the digital world are diffuse. Therefore, we wish to widespread our field of expertise and application to all those institutions that in the digitalization process are facing the same problems and solutions.

4. DISSEMINATION AND POSITIONING OF THE RESOURCES ON-LINE (CyBERMETRICS)

Other topic of some interest to which we have not paid so far too much attention is the dissemination of resources created in Internet and positioning. Some works on the virtual public behavior have produced exceptional results obliged us to changed our evaluation methods. We dispose of login statistics from all our projects provided by two software (Webalizer i Awstats). Besides, we have indivualised data from each portal and exhibition developed, so we have an excellent history of all our resources to understand positioning phenomena in Internet (i.e. Boí valley - http://www.uoc.edu/in3/oliba/boi/portal).

5. COMBINING PRACTICE ICT APPLICATIONS ON-LINE AND OFF-LINE

If most applications of group Òliba has focused so far in Internet, in others words on-line; we have interested lately in applications also off-line. Some of those applications are easily exported or linked to Internet.

One of the research groups at national level that undertakes applications off-line in museum is the one that leads Aukene Alzua-Sorzabal from Deusto University. For this reason, we are working together in the project ARACNÉ (PB-HUM2004-05067-C02/HIST) funded by Dirección General de Investigación Científica y Tecnològica (DGICYT) to compare ICT applications on-line and off-line in museums. We expect exchange of information and experiences that will allow us to relate better our results in ICT applications on-line and off-line.

6. MANAGING RESOURCES AND TUITION: SOCIAL DIMENSION

One of the issues that we did not take into account in our initial applications was the human factor. Most technological applications require a design, documentation; managing and updating that depend on staff of those institutions. Obtained satisfactory results requires a common understanding of the institutions with which we work and the importance technology for cultural communication. Managing those resources (i.e. databases, news...) involves developing interfaces for content managers (CMS) adapted to the institution staff and easy to use. The topic is even more important when content providers are even the general public (Web 2.0). Then, different administration levels should be defined.  

On the other hand, we have realized that communication with staff has not been smooth since they did not know much about technology. That is why, we have given courses and specific tuition to staff of those institutions and curators that wanted to update their knowledge. Respond has been so far quite positive and we wish to continue this experience in the future.