Introducing Sociodata in Virtual Museums: A Holistic Approach for Sustainable Development in Cultural Landscapes
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Date
2025
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Eurographics Association
Abstract
Topic: Virtual museums are powerful tools for preserving and promoting cultural heritage (CH) while enhancing accessibility and engagement. Yet, many focus on digitised artefacts without fully capturing their socio-cultural relevance or their connection to sustainable development. The Virtual European Rural Artisans (VERA) Platform addresses this gap by creating digital cultural landscapes that connect heritage, community, and sustainable development. It links the public with artisans and cultural institutions, encouraging a holistic understanding of heritage as a dynamic socio-cultural phenomenon. Context: The development of European Data Spaces enables broader sharing of heritage data. Projects such as Europeana and the ECCCH demonstrate the potential of interoperable, open-access cultural data and services. VERA aligns with these by embedding `sociodata' -- a new layer of contextual data that captures the relationship between the community and the heritage artefact, sustainability aspects, and evolving narratives surrounding heritage objects. Relevance: Sustainable development and CH are deeply interconnected. The SDGs emphasise safeguarding CH (SDG11.4), inclusive economic growth (SDG8) and quality education (SDG4). However, many virtual heritage initiatives lack a direct link to socio-economic sustainability. By allowing community groups to interact within a shared digital space, the VERA Platform promotes cultural sustainability, creative heritage tourism, and economic development. Its integration with EU data spaces ensures open, reusable cultural data for research, education, and policy. Innovation: The unique contribution of this research is the emphasis on social metadata collected through a holistic sustainability-oriented virtual museum infrastructure. This research introduces `sociodata' which captures threats and actions that promote sustainable development within cultural landscapes. The VERA Platform is an example of sociodata being utilised in a digital cultural space. This article illustrates how various stakeholders are utilising VERA to share knowledge, showcase craftsmanship, and promote sustainable practices.
Description
CCS Concepts: Applied computing → Digital libraries and archives; Document metadata; General and reference → Design; Software and its engineering → Organizing principles for web applications; Interoperability
@inproceedings{10.2312:dh.20253079,
booktitle = {Digital Heritage},
editor = {Campana, Stefano and Ferdani, Daniele and Graf, Holger and Guidi, Gabriele and Hegarty, Zackary and Pescarin, Sofia and Remondino, Fabio},
title = {{Introducing Sociodata in Virtual Museums: A Holistic Approach for Sustainable Development in Cultural Landscapes}},
author = {Pisani, Sharon and Miller, Alan and Cassidy, Catherine and Clarke, Loraine and Oliver, Iain and Gomes, Goncalo},
year = {2025},
publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
ISBN = {978-3-03868-277-6},
DOI = {10.2312/dh.20253079}
}