Dear museum collegues,
excuse me for posting this message to the list, being principally a
European issue, but the development of the following ideas could be of
general interest in future.
Having considered, on the one hand, the rich and vast cultural heritage
entrusted to European museums, and, on the other, the opportunities
provided by the new multimedia technologies in terms of communicating this
heritage to the general public, we would like to share briefly with you our
thoughts on this issue.
We believe the greatest problem to be that most museums cannot afford (in
terms of human and financial resources) to harness these new technologies
directly. We, at the Laboratorio dell'Immaginario Scientifico, have
therefore thought of undertaking a project for the creation of a European
Multimedia Facility (within the framework of INFO2000, RAPHAEL and other
European programmes), aiming to link multimedia developers and content
providers.
This Facility will consist in a physical location endowed with the
technical and technological equipment and with the human resources required
to produce high-quality multimedia titles. Far from competing with museums
in the production of multimedia products, the Facility will allow them to
use state of the art multimedia technology without having to undertake
large-scale financial efforts (but rather, paying for received services
alone). Ideally, this will, lead to the exchange of know-how and experience
in this sector and to the improvement of the European content industry as a
whole.
We look forward to hearing whether you would  be interested in
participating in such a project. Any comments and suggestions will also be
welcome.

Best regards,



Francisco Soto
Multimedia & Video Development

Laboratorio dell'Immaginario Scientifico
P.le De Gasperi, 1
34139 Trieste - ITALY
fax. +39-40-395423
E-mail: [log in to unmask]