Collections of Ghent (CoGhent)

Most cities in Europe are digitizing their cultural heritage but often lack the tools to leverage this rich data to engage their citizens. Because:

• Data is stuck within the institutional silos, giving a limited view on a certain topic
• The data is used on digital platforms that don’ reach out to new audiences
• Citizens are not engaged in re-using the data or to provide more context where available

With CoGhent we will focus on improving cultural participation and social cohesion in public and third places through the use of linked (open) data and visualizing it in an immersive digital experience room. We will make this work by:

• Linking and connecting the available cultural data and thus provide a full picture of our city’ heritage
• Creating tools and methods to speed up opening collection data
• Visualizing the data in a White Space, a hi-tech immersive digital experience room
• By providing the tools to citizens to crowdsource stories and knowledge on our shared cultural heritage
• By testing this White Space in 3 different neighborhoods in the city to measure its social impact

By linking heritage on a city level and using it to capture and show stories in cultural public spaces, we leverage digitized heritage to be used in an engaging and purposeful way as a shared connection amongst citizens. The resulting White Space will be given a permanent place in the future wing of the Design Museum Gent named DING, a permanent cultural third place.

Keywords:crowdsourcing, city, digital platform, patrimony collection

Disciplines:Urban and regional development, Urban and regional design, development and planning not elsewhere classified, Other computer engineering, information technology and mathematical engineering not elsewhere classified