This panel will discuss the great and fundamental questions about human history, behavior, and enterprise that can, for the first time, be posed and answered using cultural heritage data in conjunction with the vast data processing and storage capabilities of the Information Age. It will discuss the advances in heritage preservation that could be made by resources and research emerging from modern data science and information technology.
The mass proliferation of cultural heritage data demands that we recognize that a transformation is under way. Masses of data are now available, from sources ranging from individual cell phones and blogs to CAT scanners and satellites. Tangible and intangible heritage can be documented by imaging, audio recording, and other technologies. The Internet and social media make it possible for individuals across the globe to communicate and collaborate on a daily basis. The World Wide Web and streaming content providers offer channels to reach the general public – in all places and at all socioeconomic levels – to educate and engage them in the study of cultural heritage and its preservation.
However, tools are needed for scholars to make use of the data to create and share new knowledge. These tools increasingly address universal problems and provide solutions applicable to scholarship, to enterprise, and to policy, providing new opportunities for partnerships among academics, policymakers, and businesses. Techniques and infrastructure are needed to preserve data, and methods are needed to access it so that future generations can make use of them in new studies that we have not yet imagined. Data authentication will become ever more important so that future generations can rely on the integrity of the data and knowledge that we pass on.
This panel will seek to outline the broad potentialities of heritage data in a computational age and to define specific actions the community of cultural heritage professionals need to take in order to best make use of these opportunities. The panel will also define challenges for the technical community to assist in preserving and analyzing cultural heritage, and making it accessible to everyone on the planet.
Please note that we would highly value your participation at the Panel “Grand Challenges in Cultural Heritage Data and Information” and invite you to propose presentations in support of the above program.
The Panel is free to attend and its outcome will inform the discussions at the UN Global Colloquium about gaps in research and training and possible focal areas of institutional collaboration. The conclusions of the panel will be presented by a rapporteur to the UN Global Colloquium Plenary on April 13th. The intention will be to film and make the panel discussion available to the public. Please consider this when proposing and preparing presentations.
Contact Holly Rushmeier, Yale Computer Science/IPCH Digitization Lab (holly.rushmeier@yale) with questions regarding this panel.
Planning committee for this event: Holly Rushmeier, Michael Appleby, Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, Euan Cochrane, Matthew Hargraves, Louis King, Peter Leonard, Stefan Simon