Presenter
Julien Antoine Raemy (@julsraemy)
Slides and Recordings
- Slides: Linked Open Usable Data for Cultural Heritage: Community Building and Semantic Interoperability in Practice
- Recordings: YouTube
Abstract
This presentation shares key findings from my PhD thesis Linked Open Usable Data for Cultural Heritage: Perspectives on Community Practices and Semantic Interoperability defended at the University of Basel in 2024.
My research examined how Linked Open Usable Data (LOUD) specifications like IIIF APIs and Linked Art fostered collaborative knowledge creation in cultural heritage, focusing on implementations in both the Participatory Knowledge Practices in Analogue and Digital Image Archives (PIA) project and Yale’s LUX platform.
Using a framework based on Actor-Network Theory, the analysis revealed multiple dimensions, with this presentation highlighting three critical aspects. First, sustainable development required continuous engagement beyond implementation, with community-led practices providing the socio-technical foundation for specification maintenance. Second, demographic homogeneity perpetuated biases that marginalised diverse perspectives, requiring the transformation of inclusion frameworks. Third, LOUD improved the discoverability of heritage data, while requiring investment in accessibility paradigms that acknowledged technological differences.
The research demonstrates that LOUD methodologies foster collaborative knowledge production through community engagement, confront power dynamics in inclusion frameworks, and provide mechanisms for democratising heritage access while accounting for technological disparities.