**4. Discussion**

#### **4.1 Back-office capabilities**

The research results identified several novel digital transformation approaches to improve the preservation of cultural heritage in the back-office. Focal point is the digital preservation of cultural heritage.

#### *4.1.1 Digitisation and archiving*

Digitisation and archiving constitute the foundations for the development of virtual heritage applications and services. Recent advancements in information and communication technologies have made it possible for heritage artefacts to be preserved and made available in digital form. Already in 2011, the European Commission's Recommendation on the Digitisation and Online Accessibility of Cultural Material (2011/711/EU) emphasised [30] the importance of bringing Europe's cultural heritage online, for improving access to and promoting the re-use of digitised cultural heritage material, e.g. by the creative sector. Recent years have seen a growing trend towards the **digitisation** of museum collections, library and archival cultural resources (such as manuscripts, books, and journals), sound and audiovisual heritage, immovable cultural heritage (such as monuments, historical buildings and archaeological sites), as well as **intangible** cultural assets, such as the living arts, and traditional folklore culture (traditional dances and folk customs) [31].

Cloud computing technologies facilitate the aggregation, storage and reuse of digital content. A wide array of national and international, thematic or domainspecific cultural heritage **aggregators** have emerged, allowing for joined up access to cultural resources. This includes digital platforms, applications and repositories that bring together cultural collections from cultural institutions through virtualisation. Europe's digital platform for cultural heritage, **Europeana** provides access to over 50 million items, (including image, text, sound, video and 3D material) from the collections of over 3000 libraries, archives, museums, galleries and audiovisual collections from all over Europe. Similarly, the **Google Cultural Institute** provides access to cultural artefacts from 1400 cultural institutions in 70 countries and to more than 3000 online exhibitions curated by experts. Its services include

*Novel Ways of Discovering, Capturing and Experiencing Cultural Heritage: A Review… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99170*

1800 Street View captures of famous museums and landmarks that allow users to immerse themselves and get a 360° view of these places from anywhere, using their PCs, laptops or mobile devices.

Nonetheless, challenges to aggregation continue to persist, referring to issues that range from the lack of granular and rich descriptive metadata [32], to technical interoperability and copyright [33, 34].

Organised memory institutions (e.g. museums, libraries, archives) hold disparate collections of heritage resources, in terms of format, organisation and storage. Digitisation efforts are often fragmented and ineffective, with smaller organisations lacking the knowledge and resources needed, and further being unable to attract significant visibility to impact tourism and the local economy. To ensure the quality of digitised materials, digitisation standards and specifications, as well as guidelines concerning interoperability and metadata descriptions. Several domainspecific standards have been adopted, such as LIDO for museums, EAD for archives and METS for digital libraries. Led by Europeana, standardisation and common approaches for content and metadata management represent an on-going priority for Europe. The Europeana Data Model (EDM) is a cross-domain metadata standard that enables content interoperability, exchange and aggregation.

The need to improve the quality of cultural heritage metadata and collection management systems (CMSs) is stressed [35]. Metadata enrichment through crowdsourcing annotation services [32] and machine learning techniques [36–39] is recommended.

Digitisation goes beyond the transposition of analog objects into the digital space. A key concern is the **digital readiness** of cultural heritage institutions, concerning their capacity to adapt and adopt disruptive technologies in their practices. This implies a profound transformation of their internal processes and calls for a holistic approach at different levels in the institutions (organisational, operational, human resources, etc).

Cultural heritage is not limited to culture repositories and digital collections. Intangible cultural assets include the living arts, traditional folklore culture and crafts [40]. Furthermore, the largely untapped potential of cultural heritage embedded in individual memory needs to be harnessed through citizen's collection and interpretation of digital heritage [41–43]. Nowadays, we are witnessing a transition towards social engagement in culture that is driven by the rise of digital content production and digital connectivity. Crowdsourcing and digital storytelling can help capture the **living cultural heritage** of different communities or groups, in terms of practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills [43, 44]. The collection and archiving of a community's or region's cultural memory further involve raising public awareness about the importance of their cultural heritage and gearing up citizens' knowledge about and access to this heritage. **Social platforms** can provide the means for citizens to share their local knowledge and everyday experience with others, together with the contribution of cultural institutions [41, 42].

#### *4.1.2 Advanced digitisation technologies*

In recent years, numerous initiatives have been launched, involving the modelling and rendering of digital cultural heritage in 3D for research and preservation and/or communication purposes. Cultural heritage artefacts that traditionally were presented in two-dimensional form are increasingly captured, modelled and visualised in three dimensions and/or in 3D virtual environments [45]. The 3-D model can be realised from physical objects (according to a "reverse modelling" process) or directly assembling 3-D digital forms. It could provide a photorealistic image or

a symbolic representation of the original artefact, depending on the object and the scope of the representation. Advanced digitisation technologies have been instrumental in transforming conservation and scientific research methods in cultural heritage, as well as people's experience of cultural heritage relics, monuments and events [28, 29, 46–49].

New technologies and techniques, such as photogrammetry [50] and laser scanning [51], allow for more accurate digital capture of 3-dimensional objects and surfaces. Early efforts included modelling and rendering of artefacts and architecture from photographs (e.g. [52]). Current applications employ advanced non-contact close or long range scanning, modelling, analysis and computer-based visualisation tools to produce: three-dimensional (3D) recordings of archaeological sites and buildings (e.g. [53]) and of small objects (e.g. [54]) and three-dimensional visualisations of cultural heritage sites, using airborne scanning and imaging [55] or from geospatial information [56].

Digitisation technologies are already in use in the field of heritage (e.g. in museums or monuments). Limited research and solutions can be found regarding the interaction between cultural heritage, scan/photo and immersive technologies, potential customers and visitors' experiences in the cultural tourism locations, events and attractions. The use of advanced 2D/3D digital scanning of small and large-scale objects and surroundings and the valorisation of the digital spatial models produced has the potential to create unique, immersive cultural experiences, using affordable consumer electronics.
