The role of foresight in culture digitisation policies in the Mediterranean

Abstract

The Mediterranean was always the cradle of civilization and cultural heritage abounds in all of the countries that surround it. Recent efforts of digitization of this cultural heritage are trying to conserve in digital format what has been. in the hope that future generations will have access to it even if the original ceases to exist clue to disasters. war. theft or other reasons. Many efforts have been clone in this respect but policies need to be developed and harmonized for the proper conservation of this treasure of all mankind. This research has focused on identifying existing policies and projects in this area and understanding the underlying innovative concepts. It has compared and contrasted policies and projects of EU member states with Mediterranean countries. Thanks to the results from questionnaires and focus groups. it concludes that there is scope for working together in this field with all the relevant countries involved. using a common tool - foresight - as the way to identify priorities. areas. exploitation potentials and ultimately giving input to policy makers whilst keeping innovation paramount. Foresight has already been used in other areas in some of the 11 Mediterranean (non-EU member states) countries that were targeted in this research. but no direct use of it has been for looking at the digitization of cultural heritage to elate. The results of this research give an encouraging view of the future and of the benefits to be reaped by using foresight as a tool that binds together people from very diverse countries with a common vision - whereby we can still hope to have Mediterranean heritage at hand - even if in digital format.