VIDEO ACTIVE

Creating Access to Europe’s Television Heritage

Winner Museums and the WebBest of the Web Award 2009

Goal

• Giving access to television heritage– Reflecting the cultural and historical similiarities and

differences of television across the European Union– Targeting different user groups

• Education • General Public • Cultural Heritage • Creative industries

The Project

• eContentplus programme• 36 months

– Start date: September 2006– Launch first version of the portal: November 2007

• Proven technology: Birth of TV(http://www.birth-of-TV.org )

• 10.000 items on-line by August 2009 (http://www.videoactive.eu)

The consortium

14 members from 10 countries11 content providers / 10 languages

Associate members

• VRT (B)

• Moving Images Communications (UK)

Advisory board

• IASA

• FIAT

• EBU

• BFI

• Joanneum Research

• University of Madrid

Content selection strategy

• Framework designed in collaboration with academics (London conference April 07)

• Historical axis (e.g. “technology developements”)

• Themes and genres (e.g. sports, game shows, education, celebrity, TV on TV, National Holidays, etc.)

Video Active Architecture

• The Video Active system comprises of various modules, all using web technologies.

Multilinguality and Semantic Web

• Video Active provides multilingual annotation, search and retrieval of the digital assets using the ThesauriX technology

• ThesauriX is a web-based multilingual thesauri tool based on the IPTC standard

• Semantic Web technologies are enabling automation, sophisticated query services and semantic interoperability with other heterogeneous digital archives.

Semantic Technologies

• A semantic layer has been added through the representation of its metadata in Resource Description Framework (RDF)

• The expressive power of RDF enables light reasoning services, merging/aligning metadata from heterogeneous sources and sophisticated query facility based on SPARQL RDF query language

Annotation Process…

• In the Video Active system each archive has the ability to either insert the metadata manually using the web annotation tool or semi-automatically using a uniform (common for all the archives) XML schema.

• The Video Active metadata schema has been based on the Dublin Core metadata schema with additional elements essential in capturing the cultural heritage aspect of the resources.

Storing and Exchanging Metadata

• We used the Sesame metadata store

• In order to transform the XML documents into RDF triples, we used the Jena Semantic Web Framework

• All the metadata stored in Sesame, with the help of an OAI compliant repository are exposed to external systems/archives

Additional development

• Translate the thesaurus in SKOS

• Thesaurus alignment & Metadata Enrichment

• Faceted browser (from Simile project)

• Additional viewing services– Use Google Maps– Timeline services (Simile based)

Follow-up project

EUscreen

• eContentplus 2008 programme• 36 months

– Start date: September 2009

• Extended consortium– 20 Archives, 3 Universities, 2 umbrella organisations,

1 software company

• Based on the Video Active technology

EUscreen objectives

• Increase interoperability: EBUcore schema• Deliver services to Europeana to support

audiovisual content• Provide audiovisual content• Best Practices for use

– Including remix and creative re-use

• Support Network of Practitioners

Thank you

… Questions?!

Johan Oomen <JOomen@beeldengeluid.nl>

Marco Rendina <m.rendina@cinecittaluce.it>

Vassilis Tzouvaras <tzouvaras@image.ntua.gr>