Annexes to COM(2011)548 - Final evaluationof the implementation of the multiannual Community Programme to make digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2011)548 - Final evaluationof the implementation of the multiannual Community Programme to make digital content in Europe more ... |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2011)548  |
| date | September 9, 2011 |
Best Practice Networks were introduced as a new project type to promote the adoption of standards and specifications for making digital content in Europe more accessible and usable. This was achieved by combining the consensus-building and awareness-raising functions of a network with the large-scale implementation, in a real-life context, of one or more concrete solutions by its members.
Programme impacts
The impact on organisations participating in the Programme can only be estimated, since many projects are still running or have just ended. While most organisations expect increased visibility and exploitation of their digital content in the near future, they already recognise that participation in eContentplus projects has increased international and cross-border collaboration and made them more aware of the economic and cultural value of the digital content they own. eContentplus projects, has supported for example the conversion to digital text of more than 20 million pages of scanned books and newspapers held by national libraries. As a result of this effort, in the near future citizens will be able to full-text search such content through European and the various national libraries' portals. European TV broadcasting archives managed to create a portal through which part of their content can be accessed, allowing citizens to explore the development of television in Europe, but also the televising of cultural and historical events within and across nations.
In the area of digital libraries, the eContentplus Programme is the first programme whose main impact has been to make material directly available to individual citizens on a very large scale. Indeed, rather than influencing stakeholders or making technical adjustments and standards which encourage or permit such availability, europeana.eu has become the access point for European cultural content. The Programme has also highlighted a number of challenges that have to be addressed. Increased public funding is needed to finance large-scale digitisation, alongside initiatives with private partners provided that they allow a general accessibility of Europe's common cultural heritage online. Fragmentation and complexity in the current licensing system also hinders the digitisation of a large part of Europe's recent cultural heritage. Rights clearance must be improved, and the role and responsibilities of private and public organisations for digitising orphan works as well as material that is in-copyright but no longer commercially available should be clarified.
In the area of educational content, a significant increase in the use of the underlying content is expected as a result of programme support. For example the portal lreforschools.eun.org enables teachers and pupils to easily find and use educational content from many different countries through one single access point. In addition, the involvement of national Ministries of Education in many of the projects is also likely to have an impact on the inclusion of eLearning in curricula.
With regard to geographic information, programme support is expected to increase interoperability within a number of thematic areas under the INSPIRE Directive with direct and measurable impacts on the implementation rules of INSPIRE.
Sustainability
Long-term sustainability is difficult to assess at this stage. However, projects report a strong link to national policy makers and most are optimistic that projects will carry on based on funding from public and/or private institutions involved in the project.
4. MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS
There is an increasing demand for quality digital content in Europe from citizens, students, researchers, SMEs and other business users or re-users wishing to exploit digital content resources to create services. This calls for continued support at European level to increase the availability of European digital content, in particular in areas of public interest where progress is likely to be slow and where access to content is limited by language and cultural barriers in particular.
A number of general points have emerged during this evaluation that could be indicative for future actions:
4. Funding should be linked to clear and defined policy objectives. Even if funding actions in other areas have positive outcomes and effects, focusing on areas where the EU has clear and defined policy objectives is likely to produce more sustainable outputs with a higher impact. The link between the target area of cultural content/digital libraries and the i2010 digital library initiative is a particularly good example of this.
5. The Digital Libraries Initiative should continue to receive economic support from the European Commission to ensure the continued development of Europeana and similar services at European level.
6. Although Public Sector Information (PSI) has enormous economic value, it is still not extensively exploited. The implementation of the PSI Directive should continue to be supported by activities that maximise the re-use of PSI in Europe and unlock its full economic potential. This is particularly evident in the area of geographic information where the fragmentation of datasets hampers cross-border use and prevents their exploitation for scientific and commercial purposes.
7. In order to continue boosting the sharing of spatial information between public sector organisations and citizens, eContentplus follow-on activities should support projects helping to create a more standardised electronic environment for storing and harmonising spatial datasets covering one or more of the topics mentioned in Annex I-III of the INSPIRE Directive. Projects such as EURADIN, the European Addresses Infrastructure, and EGN (EuroGeoNames) are showcases in this respect.
8. Both the multilingual and the multicultural dimensions of the Programme have been highly appreciated and the European Commission should continue to emphasise such aspects.
9. Simplifications in the eContentplus grant agreement have been perceived to be very efficient, in particular the introduction of a flat rate for overheads and the payment of the Community contribution as pre-financing in instalments. The publication of a clear mapping of programme objectives and award criteria as well as the two-stage evaluation process have had very positive effects on the submission and selection of high-quality proposals. They should be considered for grant agreements implementing future funding programmes.
10. Best Practice Networks have proved to have had a significant impact on networking and practical testing by providing the most appropriate solutions and involving all relevant stakeholders. This funding instrument should be considered for funding activities that seek to achieve competitive and innovative solutions.
11. In the educational content area, continuous action is needed to support the implementation of efficient context-aware brokerage systems and learning technologies standardisation. Actions carried out should focus on the use of educational content by specific groups (e.g. SMEs) in specific educational contexts while still contributing to global standardisation of learning technologies.
5. CONCLUSIONS
In recognition of the need for further support at European level to increase the availability of European digital content, particularly in areas of public interest, measures to make digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable have been continued under the ICT PSP since 2009.
The themes included in the ICT PSP 2009 and 2010 work programmes as eContentplus follow-up activities are in line with the evaluators’ recommendation that funding actions should be linked to clearly defined policy objectives. The objectives for these themes seek to foster projects in support of Commission policy in the following fields: digital libraries; digitisation and online accessibility of cultural content, and digital preservation; access, dissemination and preservation of scientific information in the digital age and re-use of Public Sector Information.
These areas have also been recognised among the priorities for action of the Digital Agenda for Europe[5]. The ICT PSP will continue to be used to support the policy objective of strengthening Europeana and supporting initiatives allowing improved accessibility of Europe's cultural heritage online.
In line with the recommendations of the reflection group on bringing Europe's cultural heritage online[6], ICT PSP will be used to encourage the digitisation and online availability of cultural material - including books, maps, newspapers, sound, archival material, photographs, museum objects, films[7] and audiovisual material – in order to make it more accessible for Europe's citizens and easier to use for leisure, work and study.
Funding will be used to encourage public bodies to realise the objective of stimulating content markets by making their information available on transparent, effective, non-discriminatory terms.
The Digital Agenda for Europe also sets out the policy objective of mainstreaming eLearning in the national policies in order to modernise education and training. eContentplus results in the area of educational content could become a major building block on the way towards achieving this objective. Within the Digital Agenda for Europe pillar of "Enhancing digital literacy, skills and inclusion" eLearning will foster the acquisition of the digital skills necessary for innovation and growth in a knowledge-based society.
The Commission invites the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions to:
12. take note that the Programme has been successfully implemented;
13. continue to assist the Commission in its work of increasing the visibility of the initiatives aimed at making digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable and stimulate a continued dialogue on digital content issues.
[1] Decision No 456/2005/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, OJ L 79 of 24.3.2005, p.1.
[2] Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, OJ L345 of 31.12.2003, p. 90.
[3] Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, OJ L 108, 25.4.2007, p.1.
[4] Some of these activities were complemented by the MEDIA 2007 programme which comprises a scheme supporting video on demand platforms and digitisation of cinemas. Decision No 1718/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 November 2006
[5] COM(2010) 245, A Digital Agenda for Europe, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions
[6] "Comité des Sages" on Bringing Europe's Cultural Heritage On-line http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/comite_des_sages/index_en.htm
[7] Commission Communication on opportunities and challenges for European cinema in the digital era, COM(2010) 487 final