European museums network -EMN-. Final summary report. RACE application pilot project R1078

The project was an application pilot in which the objectives was to develop an advanced application of telecommunications in the cultural field. A full digital multimedia alpha-system was developed based on an Apple Macintosh IIfx platform and following the client-server concept. It was installed in 8 museums, their staff built a common multimedia data pool of 800 museum objects, each of them representing a multimedia data-document including a great number of related multimedia documents. One application is an authoring tool allowing the museum staff to edit and compose their own multimedia documents. The second application is a presentation system for lay museum visitors which allows them to navigate from object led by keywords representing the visitors individual associations and impressions. Experiments with 2 Mbit/s links have been conducted successfully, but because of high telecommunication cost, data updating is organised through dispatching storage media (re-writable magneto-op tical cartidges). Affordable telecommunication links are urgently needed to support this service. The project shows that new telecommunications technologies can contribute to cultural integration amongst European Countries. A novel kind of service to the museum world has been developed.