Case study: Groningen museums

Towards a knowledge network

These four cultural heritage organisations wish to make share the knowledge in the broadest possible way, among other things through each other's websites. In this way the searchability of their own collection/knowledge is increased and access is provided to the (complementary) expertise of others.

The RNA project shares the local databases and reference structures of the four cultural heritage organisations on the basis of the RDF standard. This is done, among other things, with the help of a translation mechanism and by applying a 'wrapper' to the databases. After that, the reference structures and object descriptions can be linked so that a knowledge network is created.

Users can now use the website of any of these knowledge organisation to search for information and form that location view all relevant knowledge without having to visit the website of each organisation. Users can search from various perspectives, such as a touristic or educational perspective.

The RNA project links the local databases and reference structures of the four organisations in such a way that no specialist expertise is lost. In this way, users are able to search the specialist thesauri of the individual organisations from a single website.

The RNA partners in Groningen are small organisations that wish to use contributions from experts that do not form part of their organisation. Although they do not want to accommodate all these experts in a single editorial board for practical reasons, there is an urgent need for their expert contribution.

The systems that editors use to create websites are often relatively complex. A web editor does not have to be a webmaster, but still. Moreover, such a content management system (CMS) is oftentimes shielded by a complicated access control mechanism. For the RNA partners in Groningen who wish to receive intrinsic contributions to their website from various third-party experts in a flexible way, regular content management systems are consequently unsuitable.

For this reason the RNA project plans to experiment with so-called create-and-link tools. This are light tools using which content can be created and added to websites in a simple way, without the need for a heavy CMS. These tools also make sure the content is linked to the available reference structures.

The organisations wish to offer the public the possibility to plan a day out that includes a visit to one or more museums or monuments in different locations. The target group varies from teachers who want to arrange an excursion for their class to day trippers who want to cycle along a number of tourist sites.

The RNA project experiments with structuring methods that enable the four organisations to service various target groups with tailored knowledge without having to do the same work twice.

Visitors can consult the entire knowledge network through each of the four websites without having to visit the website of each organisation separately.

The RNA project uses tools that assist users in their search for information, e.g. user profiles and predefined search queries.