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Biocultural heritage preservation relies on ethnobotanical knowledge and the paleoethnobotanical data used in (re)constructing histories of human–biota interactions. Biocultural heritage, defined as the knowledge and practices of Indigenous and local peoples and their biological relatives, is often guarded information, meant for specific audiences and withheld from other social circles. As such, these forms of heritage and knowledge must also be included in the ongoing data sovereignty discussions and movement. In this paper we share the process and design decisions behind creating an online database for ethnobotanical knowledge and associated paleoethnobotanical data, using a content management system designed to foreground Indigenous and local perspectives. Our main purpose is to suggest that the Mukurtu content management system, originally designed for physical items of cultural importance, be considered as a potential tool for digitizing and ethically circulating biocultural heritage, including paleoethnobotanical resources. With this database, we aim to create access to biocultural heritage and paleoethnobotanical considerations for a variety of audiences while also respecting the protected and sensitive natures of Indigenous and local knowledges.

Constructing the 3D objects based on geometric modelling and graphical techniques is a well-known research activity applied in computer graphics. Techniques to process graphical models are widely used in the field of digital heritage and 3D game. Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are technical trends nowadays that can be studied and used in digital high-tech fields like medical training, digital heritage, entertainment industry, digital tourism and museum, etc. In this research, we present a new proposed method for reconstructing the 3D objects of tangible cultural heritages in the virtual environment based on the combination of geometric modelling, computer graphics, VR and AR technologies. The method consists of the following steps: we first collect data of a real object by using a 3D scanner. After processing obtained data, the output is a 3D point cloud. In the next step, we remove noisy data and triangulate the object surface. The novelty point focuses on reconstructing the 3D object by filling the holes. At the end, we build VR and AR applications for visualizing a virtual museum. The contribution of this research leads to open the door for applying in other fields such as 3D Game industry or digital tourism.

Abstract In research and policies, the identification of trends as well as emerging topics and topics in decline is an important source of information for both academic and innovation management. Since at present policy analysis mostly employs qualitative research methods, the following article presents and assesses different approaches – trend analysis based on questionnaires, quantitative bibliometric surveys, the use of computer-linguistic approaches and machine learning and qualitative investigations. Against this backdrop, this article examines digital applications in cultural heritage and, in particular, built heritage via various investigative frameworks to identify topics of relevance and trendlines, mainly for European Union (EU)-based research and policies. Furthermore, this article exemplifies and assesses the specific opportunities and limitations of the different methodical approaches against the backdrop of data-driven vs. data-guided analytical frameworks. As its major findings, our study shows that both research and policies related to digital applications for cultural heritage are mainly driven by the availability of new technologies. Since policies focus on meta-topics such as digitisation, openness or automation, the research descriptors are more granular. In general, data-driven approaches are promising for identifying topics and trendlines and even predicting the development of near future trends. Conversely, qualitative approaches are able to answer “why” questions with regard to whether topics are emerging due to disruptive innovations or due to new terminologies or whether topics are becoming obsolete because they are common knowledge, as is the case for the term “internet”.

Recent worldwide initiatives at world heritage forums, especially UNESCO, have increased the importance of architectural heritage. Architectural heritage includes built structures that are of outstanding value of natural and cultural identity and require conservation, preservation, presentation and transmission to the future generations. In this regard, UNESCO has enlisted six World Heritage Sites in Pakistan that need to be preserved. Moreover, the heritage sites are undergoing theft, vandalism, natural decay and other socio-cultural harms. One of the state-of-the-art methodologies is the digital preservation of the historic sites. Amongst the various available computer technologies, photogrammetry is the quickest and most cost-effective method that can be used for digital preservation. The research will focus on the digital preservation of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which is an emerging trend in an architectural context. Developing countries have limited funds and resources and most historic sites are being neglected by the lack of financial resources. The paper suggests digital preservation as an emerging solution, identifies its challenges and suggests photogrammetry as a cost-effective solution to six UNESCO enlisted historic sites of Pakistan. It also suggests that once digitally recorded, information of historic sites can also be used in diverse applications to generate further finances.

Since the 2010s, various national and pan-European public infrastructures have been emerging around aggregation, viewing, and 3D heritage model collection. The purpose of this article is to focus on the current state and ecosystem for 3D models in Europe through (a) a review of published studies on users, objects, and demands (b) and an overview of the ecosystem for 3D heritage data. As part of the German distributed infrastructure, the DFG 3D Viewer Jena experimental repository serves as a testbed for technology prototyping and testing. Based on the findings of the European ecosystem, we used this repository to test a prototypic approach to (c) acquiring 3D data from multiple sources, (d) enriching data quality, and (e) enabling indexing, searching, and viewing functionalities.

Only a select group of countries have systematically surveyed and classified, written and exhibited the history, religion and culture of others. Today, through its Belt and Road Initiative, China begins to join this group. Proclamations to 'revive' the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century have triggered a profusion of cultural sector projects – led in part by the behemoths of China's technology industries, Tencent, Baidu and Huawei – as part of the Belt and Road Initiative cooperation and diplomacy architecture. This paper argues that geocultural power arises from having the capacity to write and map geocultural histories, and that digitalisation and the new cultural economies it creates is fast emerging as a powerful means for achieving this. It demonstrates how Big Earth Data, crowdsourced imagery and VR technologies afford geocultural thinking, and parallels are drawn with nineteenth-century Europe to consider such developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Augmented reality is a mature technology that uses the real world as a substrate and extends it by overlaying computer-generated information. It has been applied to several domains. In particular, the technology was proven to be useful for the management and preservation of Cultural Heritage. This study provides an overview of the last decade of the use of augmented reality in cultural heritage through a detailed review of the scientific papers in the field. We analyzed the applications published on Scopus and Clarivate Web of Science databases over a period of 9 years (2012–2021). Bibliometric data consisted of 1201 documents, and their analysis was performed using various tools, including ScientoPy, VOS Viewer, and Microsoft Excel. The results revealed eight trending topics of applying augmented reality technology to cultural heritage: 3D reconstruction of cultural artifacts, digital heritage, virtual museums, user experience, education, tourism, intangible cultural heritage, and gamification. Each topic is discussed in detail in the article sections, providing insight into existing applications and research trends for each application field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 20 years, museums have made digital technologies key resources for accomplishing and innovating their functions. The current pandemic affirms museums' dependence on digital tools, which have become the only means to reach the public during lockdowns. While the scientific community generally examines information and communication technology as a tool to provide innovative museum functions, it rarely seeks to understand how digital solutions permeate daily organization and management. Through an extensive literature review, this paper aims to consolidate a pre-pandemic body of knowledge from which further investigations and useful suggestions can be developed. By benchmarking heterogeneous literature sources, the study identifies three core topics (business models, digital professions and digital strategy), questioning whether changes driven by digital technology within museums follow radical innovation or gradual adaptation. In the conclusions, the paper underlines major implications for museums, policy makers and scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital heritage is the new sort of presentation on cultural heritage, by using a lot of computer-based materials to generate the information for understanding on the context of urban environment digitally. The permanent value could be kept for future generations, and easily to access in many platforms. Digital heritage derives from different information including geography information, planning, design, and all 3D presentation together. As well as, the outcome of people participation could be maintained in the digital sense, and stakeholder could be understood on the master plan digitally in the same perspective. Moreover, digital materials could be used for enduring value, and requires active preservation approaches. This paper will explain the process of publication of Phra That Phanom's master plan in digital dimension, from collecting geography data, and overall projects development together. The outcome of this paper has published on Universal Resource Locator (URL), for assessor and whom it may concern to access Phra That Phanom's digital heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing the 3D objects based on geometric modelling and graphical techniques is a well-known research activity applied in computer graphics. Techniques to process graphical models are widely used in the field of digital heritage and 3D game. Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are technical trends nowadays that can be studied and used in digital high-tech fields like medical training, digital heritage, entertainment industry, digital tourism and museum, etc. In this research, we present a new proposed method for reconstructing the 3D objects of tangible cultural heritages in the virtual environment based on the combination of geometric modelling, computer graphics, VR and AR technologies. The method consists of the following steps: we first collect data of a real object by using a 3D scanner. After processing obtained data, the output is a 3D point cloud. In the next step, we remove noisy data and triangulate the object surface. The novelty point focuses on reconstructing the 3D object by filling the holes. At the end, we build VR and AR applications for visualizing a virtual museum. The contribution of this research leads to open the door for applying in other fields such as 3D Game industry or digital tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to generate and validate a workflow that allows us to use virtual twins obtained from unique buildings of our architectural heritage. These twins will guarantee the preservation and dissemination of cultural assets and will promote universal accessibility through new technologies, such as databases, metaverses, virtual reality, augmented reality or gamification. This universal accessibility is based on new metaverses to offer experiences that allow us to overcome physical barriers and reach any user regardless of their economic or physical condition or their location. To obtain this workflow, we worked with digital twins obtained by photogrammetry. Different databases and metaverses were studied, understanding them as new systems for the representation and dissemination of architecture. These metaverses were critically assessed and screened, looking for the most suitable one to be integrated into an effective workflow that satisfies a series of imposed premises, such as being suitable for use in virtual reality and augmented reality environments. The ultimate goal is the aforementioned universal accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, a growing number of museums have adopted digital media, both as an enhancement of exhibitions of real artifacts and as an alternative to traditional display methods. The digital acquisition of artifacts generates accurate 3D replicas that can be displayed via different digital media. With an increase in immersive technologies in the cultural heritage (CH) domain, it is common to see digital artifacts presented in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). This paper presents two user studies conducted in different locations evaluating the use of an AR application in the portrayal of the Mjällby Crucifix artifact. This paper presents the overall results from both user studies evaluating and discussing the AR application on a number of different aspects on a 7-point Likert scale: (1) understanding the artifact, (2) ease of use, (3) object feeling part of reality, (4) perceived visual quality of the object, (5) overall satisfaction experience, and (6) willingness to download the AR application. The results have been compared between genders, age groups, and previous experience with AR. Potential benefits and disadvantages of AR experiences in the context of a museum exhibition were also gathered in free text from the visitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the project VR and AR in the valorisation of cultural and artistic heritage within the New Cinema History framework, aims to combine microhistory related to local cinema theatres and Cinema Heritage, and to investigate the possibilities that digital media – in this case Augmented and Virtual Reality – have in the valorisation and preservation of cultural heritage. The final output of the project is the Virtual Reality reconstruction of the Odeon cinema’s architecture and habits of cinemagoing that, thanks to an immersive experience via the Oculus Rift headset, could evoke and simulate historical spectatorship that dealt both with the moment of watching a movie and its peripheral practice. the development of the project, at least four different perspectives on the Odeon cinema converged to form the basis of the VR reconstruction: the literature on the topic, the consultation of public and private archives, the oral sources, and photographs taken on site. This paper focuses mostly on the documents and sources used in the VR project and it aims to investigate how various and heterogeneous documents can be woven together into a philologically reliable historical reconstruction, and how they can be used in 3D modelling and VR storytelling related to Cinema Heritage.

The aim of this paper is to present the use of 3D models and augmented reality (AR) to study and communicate architectural and urban values and, therefore, favor the development of dedicated forms of “smart heritage”. The study rises from a reflection on the concept of “heritage”, as defined in the international documents, intended as an evolving idea that puts together tangible and intangible aspects. Moreover, digital technologies favor “phygital” applications where the digital dimension support the traditional ones. In this way, AR allows the superimposition of multimedia information to heritage, respecting the historical matter of the artefacts, and supporting a “smart heritage” application. In particular, mobile AR, with real-time and ubiquitous visualizations, offers the opportunity to show past urban and architectural configurations to investigate and describe the transformations that have led to the current configuration, and consequently highlighting the present historical and architectural values of the buildings. Two case studies are presented: the square of St. Basilio Monastery, with its historical transformations, and the Basilica of Collemaggio, a pivotal building in the rites of “Perdonanza Celestiniana”.

Advanced data capture techniques, cost-effective data processing, and visualization technologies provide viable solutions for the documentation and curation of archaeological heritage and material culture. Work at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Çatalhöyük has demonstrated that new digital approaches for capturing, processing, analyzing, and curating stratigraphic data in 3D are now feasible. Real-time visualization engines allow us to simulate the stratigraphy of a site, the three-dimensional surfaces of ancient buildings, as well as the ever-changing morphology of cultural landscapes. Nonetheless, more work needs to be done to address methodological questions such as: can three-dimensional models and stratigraphic relationships, based on 3D surfaces and volumes, be used to perform archaeological interpretation? How can a 3D virtual scenario become the interface to cultural data and metadata stored in external online databases? How can we foster a sense of presence and user embodiment in the simulation of ancient cities and archaeological sites? This article aims to provide viable solutions to the methodological challenge of designing a comprehensive digital archaeological workflow from the data acquisition and interpretation in the field to a three-dimensional digital data curation based on interactive visualization, searchable 3D data, and virtual environments. This work describes the results we achieved developing the application Dig@IT, a multi-platform, scalable virtual reality tool able to foster archaeological data analysis, interpretation, and curation in a realistic and highly-interactive virtual environment.

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High-fidelity imaging methods such as laser scanning and digital photogrammetry have captured public and professional audiences in a flurry of optimistic discourse about their capacities as forms of preservation and of archaeological recording and interpretation. With technical finesse and mastery, endangered heritage can, it is argued, be captured, re-materialized, and recovered from the forces that threaten it. As the plot concerning our ‘digital futures’ thickens, we discuss here an experimental project that offers an oblique approach to the practice of 3D visualization, one that subverts the dominance of neutral, technical field engagements. We examine digital materiality by exploring digital heritage objects as both method and site of ethnographic encounter. Orbiting the ruins of Asinou, an abandoned village in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus, with our ‘low-tech’ equipment, we sought to observe the conditions of the ‘in-between’ of two makeshift forms, each as ‘real’ as the other. We focus our thinking on the tensions of translation that play on the surface of our technically crude digital assemblages, as spaces of generative potential for speculations about encounters with emerging digital materialities, their affective capacities and status as future heritage objects.

The academic literature contains an increasing quantity of references to Smart Heritage. These references are at the intersection of the smart city and heritage disciplines and primarily within informative, interpretative, and governance applications. The literature indicates the future expansion of the Smart Heritage discourse into additional applications as researchers apply smart technology to more complex cultural environments. The Smart Heritage discourse signals an advancement in the literature beyond Digital Heritage and Virtual Heritage discourses as Smart Heritage pivots on the active curatorship of heritage experiences by automated and autonomous technologies, rather than technology as a passive digital tool for human-curated experiences. The article comprehensively reviews the emergent Smart Heritage discourse for the first time in the academic literature, and then offers a contemporary definition that considers the literature to date. The review and definition draw on literature across the contributing disciplines to understand the discourse’s development and current state. The article finds that Smart Heritage is an independent discourse that intertwines the autonomous and automatic capabilities and innovation of smart technologies with the contextual and subjective interpretation of the past. Smart Heritage is likely the future vanguard for research between the technology and heritage disciplines.

Architectural heritage surveying plays a fundamental role in the preservation of historic buildings for scientific research, education and tourism. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Terrestrial Laser Scanning techniques are essential for architectural heritage surveying and mapping. In recent years, the combination of Building Information Modelling (BIM) with heritage studies has been presented as Historic BIM (HBIM) which, integrated with UVA and TLS, is a technique that is able to deal more efficiently with the management and protection of historic buildings. This paper focuses on the integration of UVA images and point clouds from laser scanning to build a 3D architectural model for the documentation of Chinese historic buildings. In particular, the method, tested in the case study of the traditional village, Hexinwu, China, can contribute further to the analysis, evaluation and heritage planning of this remarkable architectural structure, thus increasing its historical significance for the future.

Presently, social cohesion (SC) is a priority at different levels. Cultural heritage is an ideal context to promote SC through interactive digital technologies designed to engage groups of visitors. The purpose of the present study is to identify how to design digital heritage applications for SC and how to measure it. The results are based on the design of a cultural probe kit used to identify the design elements on top of which a collaborative and hybrid prototype, the Brancacci POV, was developed. Here, we analysed the results of this prototype, which included 107 visitors with respective groups of 5 participants and guided by an expert. From this analysis, the possibility of strengthening SC when collaborative tasks are included emerged. Additionally, it appeared to be possible to shorten the distance between citizens and cultural institutions if “mediated dialogue” approaches were adopted and if focus, motivation, trust and “in-group” perception of inclusion emerge when digital heritage experiences were set in intimate and quiet environments.

This monograph presents findings from original research on urban heritage transformations and advances existing scholarship on three grounds: (1) it offers tested combinations of methods to capture the social values of heritage; (2) it distils the complex, diverse social values generated by urban heritage and revealed by the use of these methods; and (3) it discusses the implications and potential applications of these methods for urban planning. Cities are multi-layered deposits of tangible historic features and intangible meanings, memories, practices and associated values. These dense socio-material assemblages have been conceptualised as the 'deep city', a concept that recognises dynamic relationships between past, present and future, whilst simultaneously repositioning heritage at the heart of sustainable transformation. However, methods for understanding people's relationships with urban heritage are mostly applied piecemeal in urban planning and heritage management. Here, we introduce research involving a suite of social and digital research methods, which can be deployed rapidly in online and offline spaces to examine the social values generated by urban heritage. Three in-depth case studies, in Edinburgh, London, and Florence, reveal how these values are involved in urban place-making. Failure to take them into account in development and regeneration projects can result in fragmentation and/or marginalisation of communities and their place attachments. The research has important implications for urban planning, offering methods and tools for working with communities to create more socially sustainable urban futures. • Social values linked to heritage are currently neglected in urban planning. • Our innovative, mixed methods approach enables rapid value assessment online and offline. • Diverse, complex value assemblages are produced in different online and offline arenas. • These values mediate people's spatial and temporal relationships with the dynamic city. • Values are therefore key in creating socially sustainable urban transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital interpretation in wild and remote landscapes is hugely challenging, yet offers enormous potential for widening access to heritage in these settings. We provide a critical evaluation of the Walking with Romans app, developed by the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority, to interpret two Scheduled Ancient Monuments: Y Pigwn Roman marching camp and Waun Ddu Fortlet (c. AD78). Analysis of digital interpretation has paid less attention to social and multimodal interactions, the spatial experience of digital technologies, and the challenges of achieving successful visits at remote sites. We explore how visitor talk responds to interpretive content while also accomplishing everyday social interactions, such as demonstrating togetherness, by analysing video footage from visits. We find that visitors do a considerable amount of shared work to interpret archaeological features, including the use of talk and other multimodal resources of embodied conduct and the app itself. Visitors demonstrate that terrain underfoot is an important resource for interpreting features and remembering earlier interpretive content. Heritage interpreters could consider how everyday sociability and subtle responses to landscape and terrain are woven into the experience of interpreting landscapes to enhance visitors' experiences of outdoor heritage sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technologies are essential tools for the implementation of physical and virtual museums due to the advantages they provide to generate and transmit knowledge. This article shows the process for the implementation of an interactive didactic museum of the Valdivia, Puruhá and Upano III Cultures in Ecuador, for which the fundamentals and applications of the technological tools to be used were identified, the contents to be disseminated in the museum were designed, and the processes of technological implementation for interactive didactic museums were studied, using the methods of scientific induction, synthetic, analytical and scientific observation, in addition to the types of applied, exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research. Through which the IntiKilla museum was implemented using various technological tools such as Coespaces Edu, Blender 3D and Unitag QR, in order to offer enriched cultural experiences and permanent learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the concepts, methodology, technology, and practice of a user-centric and historical space-oriented approach towards Historical and Cultural Learning (HCL). The Future Memory project pursues the unifying hypothesis that physical space can play a critical role in the authentication and education of this singular historical event, or space as a frame for memory formation and a source of authentication. We illustrate these aspects in the context of concrete Future Memory projects realized over the last ten years in collaboration with several memorial sites, museums, and archives. Based on these experiences, we subsequently analyze the lessons learned and future challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Many new arrival registration cards and official administration records drawn from the Bonegilla Migrant Reception Centre when it closed were digitised and placed on a National Archives of Australia website in 2020. This expansion of the digital archive is important to family historians and to immigration scholars from a variety of disciplines. Now online, both these sets of records trigger further investigations into reception arrangements and newcomer arrival experiences. They extend the ways onsite and online visitors to Bonegilla look for family and personal connections and try to make sense of place and time. This expansion of the digital archive illustrates how Bonegilla has developed as both a designated National Heritage Place and a public memory place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing weather patterns, increasing frequency and intensity of natural hazards, and rising sea levels associated with global climate change have the potential to threaten cultural heritage sites worldwide. This is especially the case for maritime heritage sites located in the low-lying coastal and delta regions of Asia. Maritime heritage can reflect both highly localized cultural products based on the coupling of people and maritime environments and the historic footprints of complex maritime networks that connect people, ideas, and material over vast distances, creating unique cultural spheres. Furthermore, maritime heritage sites potentially serve as or contain records of how past societies have been impacted by and adapted to past environmental stress. Therefore, their degradation threatens local/regional/global cultural patrimony as well as evidence of human resilience and fragility in the face of environmental change. This makes a strong case for urgent preservation. However, the possible damage caused by climate change and the scale of vulnerable maritime heritage pose seemingly insurmountable challenges. In this paper, we present the ways in which maritime heritage sites across Asia are vulnerable to environmental stresses, such as changing sea levels, coastal erosion, flooding, and storm surges. Our objective is to draw upon our experience documenting endangered cultural heritage across South and Southeast Asia to illustrate that there are unique conceptual and practical characteristics of maritime heritage that complicate effective management and conservation efforts on the scale required to prevent massive loss by climate change. We conclude by stressing the need to reconceptualize debates about the custody and stewardship of maritime heritage and the urgency of employing a wide range of innovative preservation solutions to ensure maritime patrimony is not lost to the rising tides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reification of 'community' and community engagement by professional curators of material culture has recently been critiqued in ways which highlight the diversity of cultural identities and priorities among the general public. When not acting as coherent local communities under professional supervision, people are otherwise curating culture in public space within frameworks of spiritual and creative expression, place significance and identity. Employing primarily secondary sources, I address recent outdoor public curation practices in the West, and consider such deposits in relation to cultural-heritage management, a perspective in which they have hitherto been little addressed. Although these practices typically use accumulations of themed objects to achieve visibility and audience, I conclude that they are ultimately more focused on the individual than on the community, with linkages within and between them highly digitally enabled. Apparently intensified by the effects of recent COVID-19 travel lockdowns, the practices are also linked by their typical colonization of transit spaces (thereby accessing audiences who are also expected participants), by their conscious ephemerality (with deliberate innocence about end destinations of the objects used), and by their use of mundane consumer artefacts. All these features pose challenges to their management, and curated deposits are often contested or removed by official curators or managers of public space, even as the same entities appropriate similar tropes to engage customers. With resurgent interest in tangible culture and physical place following pandemic-era overloading in the virtual domain, with travel habits potentially using different routes, at altered times, and with use of social media continuing to grow, such activities may see increased participation. This analysis suggests that imaginative proactive official treatment of these curations (e.g. by municipal authorities, heritage site curators, rangers or other property owners/managers) could avoid conflict with creators and also help reduce enduring public 'innocence' about the disposability of consumer objects. Treatment could involve encouraging ongoing adaptation (digitally recorded and disseminated) of the curated objects in situ by their transitory public audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates conflicts in retrospective Facebook groups, i.e., groups created with a particular interest and focus on the past, to analyse how members of these groups understand the past and how they negotiate, resist and challenge each other's notions of the past. The data comes from a netnographic fieldwork within six such retrospective groups. Theoretical inspiration is drawn from Actor-Network-Theory (Harrison 2013, Latour 2005). The analysis thusly focuses on human (the members of the groups) as well as non-human actors (the operative logic of Facebook) and study how these produce associations between the past and the present. An overall result of the study is that the retrospective Facebook groups are not characterised by conflict. Instead, they are produced as places of sanctuary, where associations with the past becomes a basis for a nostalgic feel-good culture. However, the analysis also shows that the sanctuaries build on the production of a discontinuity and a conflict between the past and the present. Using Boym's concept of ruinophilia, as well as Bauman's concept of retrotopia, the article discusses how the conflicted discontinuity between the past and the present produces an us-and-them relationship where group members can come together in a nostalgic as well as a critical care for the world as it (in their perspectives) was supposed to be. The analysis also illustrates how members' use of sources and references becomes a mere stylistic performance of authority, as the operative logic of Facebook not only enables but also constrains group interactions, reducing the members' possibilities of having profound interactions and negotiations based on their memories and notions of the past. The article hereby contributes to the emerging research on digital memories in general, and memory work on Facebook in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the ambitions of international and national policy makers to digitalize the cultural heritage sector, a growing research field that deals with digitalization and cultural heritage has emerged. However, it has been argued that too much focus has been placed on technology and information policy issues and that research on how to achieve administrative effectiveness and preservation has taken precedence over studies of different actors' engagement, participation and access to cultural heritage. Previous studies have also tended to problematize the "hows" rather than the "whys" of processes associated with digital heritage and digitalization. In addition, research has shown that collections documenting minorities and marginalized groups have been excluded from national strategies concerning the digitalization of cultural heritage. Therefore, the aim of this article is to investigate why and under what conditions digital heritage about and with migrants has been initiated, created and curated. We study the motives and the roles of different stakeholders in the digitization and patrimonialization processes of one collection containing life stories from migrants. Furthermore, in the article we understand stakeholders not only as decision makers, owners or managers, but also as any person or organization that feels affected by whatever happens to the object or piece defined as heritage. Consequently, a central element in the methodology of this research was the interviews conducted with crucial actors in relation to their engagements with the studied collection. During the interviews, we paid specific attention to the different motives of the involved stakeholders and why it was important to them that the collection was created and digitized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the challenge of collecting the heritage of present-day global protest movements, which are shaped and influenced by digital practices. In focus of the analysis are the mass-street demonstrations which took place in cities all over Poland in 2020 and 2021 to denounce the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal imposing a near-total ban on abortion (the "women's rebellion"). Considered as the largest social protests since the fall of communism in 1989, they have engendered several spontaneous documenting and collecting initiatives. The aims and outcomes of such projects, launched by Polish museums, NGOs, artistic collectives, etc. will be juxtaposed in this article with similar ventures aimed at collecting and archiving the global social movements of the twenty-first century and examined as the first Polish examples of Rapid Response Collecting (RRC). This article, by analysing the recent RRC projects of the 2020/21 protests against the abortion ban in Poland, aims to inscribe them in the current discussions on the preservation of digital heritage. While pointing out definitional issues with digital heritage, my analysis also demonstrates the need to integrate and interrelate digital heritage within the wider framework of cultural heritage, its preservation and institutionalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts such as wars, rebellions and revolutions often give rise to songs that pass on from one generation to another. This applies also to the bloody 1918 Finnish Civil War, which led to the death of nearly 37 000 people (about 1% of the population), of whom the majority 27 000 belonged to the defeated, the Reds, and affected Finnish society on every level and in long-lasting ways, some of which can still be acknowledged today. For decades after the war official and public commemoration of the war dead applied only to the winners, the Whites, whereas the Reds were forced to mourn and honour their dead in the private sphere. On both sides, songs were first a popular way of keeping up spirits and then after the war to commemorate the war. These songs were sung at funerals, parades as well as to mock the enemy. Today some of these songs as well as new ones on the topic are still popular and circulate in various versions on YouTube and other social media sites. These music videos are often remixes of original footage and photos used together with images from other sources. The most popular videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. In this article, we explore the digital heritage of the 1918 Finnish Civil War by giving first an overview of the musical legacy of the war and then analyse how and why this musical legacy continues to flourish on YouTube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, massive digitisation of cultural heritage (CH) assets has become a focus of European programmes and initiatives. Among CH settings, attention is reserved to the immense and precious museum collections, whose digital 3D reproduction can support broader non-invasive analyses and stimulate the realisation of more attractive and interactive exhibitions. The reconstruction pipeline typically includes numerous processing steps when passive techniques are selected to deal with object digitisation. This article presents some insights on critical operations, which, based on our experience, can rule the quality of the final models and the reconstruction times for delivering 3D heritage results, while boosting the sustainability of digital cultural contents. The depth of field (DoF) problem is explored in the acquisition phase when surveying medium and small-sized objects. Techniques for deblurring images and masking object backgrounds are examined relative to the pre-processing stage. Some point cloud denoising and mesh simplification procedures are analysed in data post-processing. Hints on physically-based rendering (PBR) materials are also presented as closing operations of the reconstruction pipeline. This paper explores these processes mainly through experiments, providing a practical guide, tricks, and suggestions when tackling museum digitisation projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free hosting services have contributed to the development of the Internet or even acted as a catalyst thereof. This paper aims to answer the questions of what free hosting services represent for Internet users and why initiatives exist to archive content published on free servers. The empirical part of this study attempts to verify whether websites on free servers were designed in an archaic way, which could justify their discontinuation. Initiatives to preserve the content of vanishing web hosting sites are characterized based on a review of various source materials, including the academic literature and Internet resources. This empirical study involved 168 archaic websites, which were analyzed in three dimensions. Marketing components and design were assessed as well. Each assessment dimension was assigned diagnostic variables. The values of the diagnostic variables were standardized using zero unitarization. It was found that the owners of discontinued servers were not interested in creating and maintaining archives. Hence, numerous grassroots initiatives have emerged to salvage their content, although enthusiasm among the archive community seems to have dwindled. Many grassroots archives are available, but a considerable number are no longer supported. In this context, this paper proposes the term 'vanishing hosting'. It provides a nostalgic and sentimental perspective on the termination of free hosting services. The authors noted that free hosting services have largely lost their past import. It is demonstrated that free servers traditionally hosted archaic websites, which justified their deletion from a business perspective. Moreover, the paper presents an outline of a method to revitalize the tourism sector based on changes brought about by global technology to the digital ecosystem. It is proposed that changes in search engine algorithms vicariously contribute to the revitalization of the tourism sector since they often drive the replacement of old websites with newer versions (latest technology and better quality). This leads to the improved online presentation of tourism service portfolios and the general quality of the content in search engine results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research project “Mouseion Topos” (in English: “Museums Place”), focusing on traditional local settlements situated at three Aegean islands, aims to contribute to the promotion of their physiognomy and intangible cultural heritage by connecting regional museums with each settlement. The present article, part of the project’s initial phase, via the application of the HERMeS methodology (version 1 and 2) and the development of the associate digital documentation tools, identifies and records the architectural and urban elements influenced by each settlement’s intangible cultural heritage as listed by UNESCO and presented by their corresponding museums. The research findings revealed connections between the museums’ content and the documented tangible heritage based on the formulated conceptual and heatmaps, which can be used at the early design stages of the current project’s interactive applications, especially in mobile tours. Finally, the research findings verify that despite the limitations and issues for further research, the introduced HERMeS methodology and digital tools are reliable and contribute to the respective field’s theory. The paper also provides beneficial deliberation on digital architectural heritage documentation methods and interactive technologies, highlighting points and areas of interest that the tourist industry, technology designers, museum curators, and architects can employ.

The issue of acquiring large amounts of data and creating large sets of digital data, and then processing and analyzing them (Big Data) for the needs of generating artificial intelligence (AI) solutions is one of the key challenges to the development of economy and national security. Data have become a resource that will determine the power and geopolitical and geoeconomic position of countries and regions in the 21st century. The layout of data storage and processing in distributed databases has changed in recent years. Since the appearance of hosting services in the range of ICT services, we are talking about a new type of ASP (Applications Service Providers) – provision of the ICT networks as part of an application). Cloud Computing is therefore one of the versions of the ASP services. The ASP guarantees the customer access to a dedicated application running on a server. Cloud Computing, on the other hand, gives the opportunity to use the resources of a shared infrastructure for many users simultaneously (Murphy n.d.). The use of the CC model is more effective in many aspects. Cloud Computing offers the opportunity to use three basic services: data storage in the cloud (cloud storage), applications in the cloud (cloud applications) and computing in the cloud (compute cloud). Website hosting and electronic mail are still the most frequently chosen services in Cloud Computing. The article attempts to explain the responsibility for content stored in the Cloud Computing.

Following the ambitions of international and national policy makers to digitalize the cultural heritage sector, a growing research field that deals with digitalization and cultural heritage has emerged. However, it has been argued that too much focus has been placed on technology and information policy issues and that research on how to achieve administrative effectiveness and preservation has taken precedence over studies of different actors’ engagement, participation and access to cultural heritage. Previous studies have also tended to problematize the “hows” rather than the “whys” of processes associated with digital heritage and digitalization. In addition, research has shown that collections documenting minorities and marginalized groups have been excluded from national strategies concerning the digitalization of cultural heritage. Therefore, the aim of this article is to investigate why and under what conditions digital heritage about and with migrants has been initiated, created and curated. We study the motives and the roles of different stakeholders in the digitization and patrimonialization processes of one collection containing life stories from migrants. Furthermore, in the article we understand stakeholders not only as decision makers, owners or managers, but also as any person or organization that feels affected by whatever happens to the object or piece defined as heritage. Consequently, a central element in the methodology of this research was the interviews conducted with crucial actors in relation to their engagements with the studied collection. During the interviews, we paid specific attention to the different motives of the involved stakeholders and why it was important to them that the collection was created and digitized.