Open data and reuse: Issues and

challenges for cultural institutions.

Conclusions of the pre-event Open
Data and Culture Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid
5th October 2016
 A cultural public institution faces challenge: open data and reuse

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is a Spanish state foundation museum.

800 works of art, mainly paintings since 1993 part of Spain’s heritage
Since 1998 with website and involved in different IT projects

Participation in Europeana: the museum dataset

directly published and mapped to standards
The Museum online
Digital strategy

+ Visitors + Customer bonding + Income

Main goals + Engagement

To reach this

CRM and MKT

goals the

Data analytics
contents and

conversion

advertising
automation
digital strategy services

Digital
should be

Digital
Digital

sustained on 5
key pillars.
 Museum web
Museothyssen.org
On-going Projects
The Museum online

Educational site
Educathyssen.org
Open/Linked Data

Apps and digital

publications
Digital advertising

Online Shop
CRM and Marketing automation

Tienda.museothyssen.or
Data analytics/business intelligence

Online Ticketing
Entradas.museothyssen.org
 Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza: open data and reuse
2015-6: Linked data consultancy to model museum collection data
with LD standards
2016: Two-days training session PSI reuse & Open Data
Pre-event Open Data and Culture
#culturaenabierto
 Shared Key ideas
• Online content availability is not enough to claim
an open data policy
• Open data and PSI reuse are not the same.
• Not all cultural data can be made into Open data
• Open data is the result of strategic, legal, technical
and operational decisions within cultural institutions
• GLAM sector has different different data description
standards (libraries, archives, museums…and other
memory institutions)
 Discussion topics
• Cultural open data
o What can be considered raw data?

• Open access as an alternative for open data:

copyrighted material, non-commercial use, non-
transformative use
• Funding
o Not taken for granted when applying open data policies in countries
where cultural institutions rely only on State budget (vs. Anglo-saxon
countries and North-European with more varied funding sources)
 Conclusions
• Cultural sector requires an specific/tailored
application of the common principles of Open
Data
• Open data is the way forward for cultural sector to
be relevant
 Cultural data and International Data Charter: suggestions
INTERNATIONAL OPEN DATA
CHARTER
Open by default
Timely and Comprehensive
Accesible and usable
Comparable and interoperable
For improved governance and citizen
engagement
For inclusive Development and
innovation
CULTURAL DATA
COMPLIES..
Raw data: still to be agreed
Strategy to Prioritize
Requires data curation to assure quality of data
holdings
Easily discoverable and accessible for end users in
cultural institutions websites
Consistent core metadata in progress
Accountable for cultural policies
Cultural impact of open data
Cultural institutions should also reap the benefits
YES BUT….
IPR issues with digital representations
Data Disaggregation is not always possible
Identify and understand user needs and
promote open data use within cultural
institutions
Data curators need to be incorporated into
cultural institutions: lack of skills
Common standards and interoperability
among cultural sectors require a huge effort
Difficult to compare across geographic
locations and over time due to different
cultural contexts. Important issue of
multilingualism
Promotion of cultural diversity (UNESCO)
Culture for Sustainable Development
(UNESCO)
 Thank you
Credits:
Training course and moderation of pre-event by
César Iglesias. His role has been key to draw these
conclusions

Visual graphics by Elena Urizar

More info:
Datosabiertos.sedic.es
#culturaenabierto
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Visit www.museothyssen.org © VEGAP, Madrid

Soon we will be responsive and eventually open, reusable, both ??