EURO INNOVANET,

F-MU.S.EU.M. innovative results and

Museum Professionals (MPs) project

Marco Merlini

EURO INNOVANET srl, Rome (Italy)

Kick-of meeting Ankara 29 January 2015

EURO INNOVANET is a research and consultancy private institute based in Rome.•It is specialized in studies and surveys on socio-economic and cultural innovation, in particular: social economy, museums, education and learning, emerging professions, job creation, new forms of entrepreneurship, and local development. •It is also a centre for the promotion of approaches and practices to support innovative policy decision-making.

EURO INNOVANET accomplishes its tasks through the scientific and professional experience accumulated by its senior researchers with international and interdisciplinary back grounds and through consultants associates.

The institute serves public and private agencies, ministries and administrations, local authorities and other research institutes.

It cooperates with international partners, national and local authorities, universities, museums, and social partners.

This is the not very exciting offer to visitors from museums

The framework

- Inefficient infrastructure,

- absence of standards in arranging museums,

- savage privatization in the public area,

- lack of cooperation between the specialized providers that

can offer together complete services to tourists (tourism

agencies, transport companies, hotels, restaurants,

tradesmen, cultural centers, etc.), and

- confuse range of choices

are generating

AN INCONSISTENT CULTURAL TOURISM

Is the virtual museum online a possible answer?

F-MU.S.EU.M. project intended to explore if it is possible the

mobilization of innovative synergies between cultural

heritage / historical and archaeological museums and

internet + digital multimedia devices as to generate social-

economic benefits able to trigger local economic

development.

EURO INNOVANET has the copyright on the F-MU.S.EU.M.

project and the innovative best practices created, developed,

implemented, and promoted by it.

As you know, the Museum professionals project has been

designed and will be implemented through transferring the

innovative best practices of the F-MU.S.EU.M. project.

F-MU.S.EU.M. was a transnational initiative within the LLP–Leonardo da Vinci program. It was addressed mainly to museums, but also to universities, national and local authorities, and citizens.It focused on innovative didactic contents and lifelong learning

methods aimed at fostering the widest access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in museum institutions.

32 national and regional museums have been involved into the F-MU.S.EU.M. European Network from Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Austria, Greece, Hungary…

Trying to “think different”…How to migrate high motivated museum institutions to virtual

museums online, even if they are affected by inadequate ICT competences, low Web presence and penurious financial resources?

How to create a methodology in building such virtual Web exhibitions according to which the participant museums are actually protagonists?

Through what means does such an experience be developed without any expensive software or muscular hardware?

How to concretize the idea that even a frugal virtual museum online should not be just a clone of the real world, instead imagining it as a tool partnering the traditional museum institution by performing distinct expositive and educational duties?

Can the method of learning by doing be effective? How can a museum institution make successful the experience of learning how to deal with the Web and virtual reality while creating a virtual museum online from its collections?

How to generate an international learning community able to develop capacity building within museums on the topic of Web exhibition and 3D virtual reality?

The F-MU.S.EU.M. Portal

www.europeanvirtualmuseum.net

6 main outcomes from F-MU.S.EU.M. that can be

interesting for the new project…...

It has been realized through digital environments and 3-D images so as to give visibility to the most remarkable artifacts from the collections of the partner museums.

The “Virtual Museum of European roots” is available in 4 languages.

Tailored routes design a unique experience of a friendly, highly

accessible visit of the Virtual Museum. In fact, visitors can choose

objects, themes, language and criteria for their virtual journey.

Touristic-cultural itineraries created on purpose have been linked to

the artifacts collected in the “Virtual Museum of European roots”.

Concerning the contents of the Virtual museum, the overall resources

valorized by this innovative product demonstrate and illustrate the

common ancient matrix on which Europe is founded since prehistory,

guiding visitors to discovery our shared European cultural heritage.

1. F-MU.S.EU.M. provides access to the

“Virtual Museum of European roots”

Main menu of the Virtual museum of the European roots

The narrative model as main fruition option for the

visitor

a) Chronological voyage

b) Geographical travelling

c) Single museum journey

d) From museum to museum surfing

e) Object type inquiry

The three-dimensionality of the Berlin Golden Hat from Hallstatt A-B period (held at the Museum for Pre- and Early History) is one of the fundaments for a better understanding of it.

The 3D view makes noticeable that it is not just an imposing headdress of a chieftain or a priest with highly decorative discs, rings and concentrically circles.

Firstly, one can fully comprehend that it is a masterpiece made by a specialized gold-smith in embossed work.

Secondly and more significantly, one can discover that it is a lunar-solar calendarestablished 3000 years ago and based on 1739 symbols systematically arranged along 19 horizontal registers.

Augmented comprehension from 3D view

Any artifact is

not only

viewed in 3D,

but has a

complete

identity card –

established

and put online

by the related

museum -

with photo

details and

textual

information

Multimedia deepening

for interpretation and

contextualization done

by any museum and via

collaboration among

museums

VIDEO

INTERVIEWWITH THE

ARCHAEOLOGIST

F-MU.S.EU.M. video production

3D photo making processLunisolar calendar on a 6800 years old checkerboardA mignon “celestial globe” depicting constellations 7000 years agoA Calendar on a prehistoric astronomical buildingAn amazing ancient burial ritualKyustendil Regional History Museum

Civilization, gift from the river

Trade and early exchanges in prehistoric societies

The religious places

Cult and religion in the earliest human societies

Thermal baths and sacred water places in ancient times

Fashion in prehistoric times

Ancient wine regions: The savior of a drink-food for Gods

Agriculture in prehistoric times

Clay house models

The beginning of metallurgy

Communication in Neolithic and Copper Age, from symbols to

script

The modern way of making music in Prehistory

Sport and role games in prehistoric times

The Hidden Roots of Europe: Thracians, Dacians and Etruscan

Ritual connected to the burn of the old year

How will build up an exhibition.

Thematic Routes = What do the associated museums have in common?

Which is the legacy of the Danube civilization?

Thematic surfing is associated to touristic-

cultural itineraries that start from museums to

explore the territory

Example of downloadable

and printable

touristic-cultural itinerary

with related GIS map

From the 6500 years old temple

reconstructed in the museum of

Timisoara with original materials to

the wooden Churches just now

restored in the mountain area

The F-MU.S.EU.M. network is aimed to give to the associated museum institutions all necessary knowledge and skills to create and implement one’s own virtual exhibition provided on the Web.

4 - Technical challenge / goal:

making museum protagonists

The hart of the Virtual museum of European roots that makes the associated museums protagonists

A dedicated database which organizes the information directly uploaded in the system by each partner.

A platform to insert contents in a uniform way and to guarantee the output communication according to standardized patterns.

A reserved uploading and updating area that is accessible – in different languages - by each associated museum through password.

An operational and cultural forum where each museum contributes to implement the project, following the principles of a “social group network”.

The Content Management System (CMS) is the “meeting point” among training experience, networking, communication and technology.

It is source of:

Management of the information by each museum through the Reserved Area

The Identity card sheet has to be filled through Reserved Area for any artifact to be shown in the Virtual museum.It is structured as follows:

WHERE IT ISMAIN CHARACTERISTICSSTATEDIMENSIONSPERIOD OF USEDISCOVERYANALYSES AND

DETERMINATIONSIN-DEPTH ANALYSISTHEMATIC ROUTECOMMENTSFILLED IN BY

Virtual Museum Identity Card - Structure

The possibilities: to prepare data, fill up Access forms,

upload papers, insert 2D and 3D images, and check the output

Thematic Route Structure

The Routes have been conceived and narrated working in cooperation among the partnership.

They are structured in:

-Text description

-2D and 3D images of the related items (with the possibility to enlarge them)

- Videos, drawings, interviews…

In the left menu:

- Deepenings →

- Active images of the objects linked to this route →

F-MU.S.EU.M courseware online

and training laboratories

– through the Restricted Area -

This tool gives to user museums all necessary know-how to manage the Reserved Area of each museum in order to create and

implement one's own virtual exhibition.

It explains and accompanies in detail all stages of the management of data from museum partners.

Courses are available in four different languages (Bulgarian,

English, Italian, and Romanian), to guide experts, museum

professionals and students in achieving, through a unique and

dedicated e-training model, the skills needed for establishing and

managing a Virtual Museum.

F-MU.S.EU.M. training paths deal with four key professionals:

Manager for Virtual Museums

Content expert for Virtual Museums (in our case

the archaeologist)

Webmaster and designer for Virtual Museums

Communication Experts for Virtual Museums

3. Four e-learning courses related to the key-

competences for Virtual Museums delivered online

4. A CD-Rom for training purposes

Contents of the CD-Rom:

3-D rotating pictures and descriptions of masterpieces from the “Virtual Museum of the European Roots”

The Training Laboratories to provide skills and competences necessary to manage the “Virtual Museum of the European Roots”, from the creation and the uploading of the contents (pictures, texts) to the publishing and the management of the data

The F-MU.S.EU.M. Learning Model, focused on a learning methodology “on the job”

Research reports investigating the actual, complex relation between Museums, local economic development and the new technologies of Virtual Reality

5. A book, Routes and itineraries from

the Virtual Museum of the European Roots

It collects thematic routes and tourist itineraries, also available

online, associated to manageable key-points of the F-MU.S.EU.M.

Learning Model.

Sixteen thematic routes guide visitors to discover “the actuality of

prehistoric cultures”: from the ancient cults to the invention of

wine, from the start of agriculture to the planning of the first

“condominiums”, from the primitive luxury trade to the making of

the first writing systems.

Five tourist cultural itineraries follow paths of millenniums among

art, archaeology and nature in Bulgaria, Italy and Romania.

The original idea of the exhibition is to disseminate toward a wide audience the acknowledgment that prehistoric people developed high communicative skills and were able to store and transmit complex messages.

An effective system of communication worked by the means of ritualistic marks; emblematic decorations; magic-religious symbols; divinity insignia; accountancy annotations; calendric annotations; sky maps; personal and family identification marks; lineage recognition or community affiliation identifiers, and a rudimentary script.

In order to overcome the language barrier and to make available the inscribed Romanian and Bulgarian findings, the University Lucian Blaga Sibiu and the Animi Foundation have instituted a grant for young scholars to collect and translate in English articles and part of the books on communication in prehistory.

6. The exhibition

Prehistoric people, Masters in Communication

F-MU.S.EU.M. proposal is not the best way in general to manage

Web exhibitions and 3D virtual reality having museums as

protagonists. New technologies have the potentiality to

generate much more appealing results.

However, it is an ambitiously realistic approach after a SWOT

analysis aimed to point out the know-how of the associated

museum institutions to migrate to a Virtual Museum:

ICT skills, Web competences and financial

resources were quite low.

This is the usual situation of the European museums.

F-MU.S.EU.M project was preceeded bythe MU.S.EU.M. project and

was followed by the MU.COM. project.

MU.S.EU.M. project involved 7 national museums.

It created the “Virtual museum of European roots” as an e-service.

The “Virtual museum of European roots” and its engine were also the main support for an innovative vocational training model online that the museums can follow to build, step by step, their own virtual museum. It was based on a map of the professional figures in the field of the virtual museums and, contextually, an analysis and forecast of the professional needs.

MU.COM. project adapted, refined and transferred as systemic innovation some results accomplished by F-MU.S.EU.M. In particular, it defined job opportunities, map of expertise, and a distinctive training path (architecture, modules and units) for the Museum Communicator. It also realized a proper and recognized training online of this emerging professional profile.

http://www.museumcommunicator.eu/it

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION