University of Rome Tor Vergata has organised an International Conference on Open Data and Open Access, focusing on archives and digital platforms dedicated to performing arts. This is being an opportunity to connect nationally with the work done within the YERUN WG on Open Science, co-chaired by the Open Science champion Eva Mendez @evamen
The Conference, promoted by Donatella Gavrilovich, Professor of History of Theatre, Digital Technologies for the cataloging of the theatrical heritage assets of Tor Vergata University, focused on the best practices of the Open Data and Open Access policy for the preservation, conservation, enhancement and dissemination of the ‘immaterial’ Cultural Heritage, testing its critical aspects, validity and impact.
The first session was dedicated to a general introduction on Open Science and Open Access. Eva Mendez opened the Conference with an amazing speech on Open Science @EUOSPP: a journey from declaration to implementation, providing an extensive and suggestive overview of what Open Science really means, what is going on in Europe and how YERUN is engaging in the OS transition process.
The Open Science WG of the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” presented its Roadmap to Open Science based on its own specificities, on the Italian context, and on the framework of YERUN/Europe. Other presentations focused on: Open Data and Open Access as an opportunity in bioscience research (Starbios2 project); the evaluation of digital scholarship in the humanities in the general framewok on Open Science; the project SITAR on archeological heritage.
Further sessions dedicated to the performing arts, focused on: (i)the use and application of Open Data for the virtual reconstruction of historical theatrical performances; (ii) case studies; (iii) reports on experiences carried out in museums and research centers; (iv) the modeling Linked Open Data from heterogeneous metadata gathered by libraries, archives and museums from the performing arts domain and on the development of Linked Open Data applications. In particularly, the Gavrilovich’s speech focused on the innovative structured cataloging model, Performance Knowledge base (PKb), in order to reconstruct the theatrical performances and their historical context using the data and the material in Open Access.
The conference concluded with a creative workshop to discuss and validate the various approaches presented in modeling data and to propose the application of these methods to make easier the collection and sharing of data in the field of entertainment and performance industry.
On top of the conference, Tor Vergata OS WG had the chance to have an informal meeting with Eva Mendez. The WG acknowledges that it was really productive and inspiring. Tor Vergata OS WG has new ways and ideas on how an affordable journey to OS can be built according to a bottom-up approach, strengthening awareness about critical aspects, but also opportunities of being part of YERUN.
You can watch the video of the conference here.
