Breaking out of the Bubble: the Europeana Project Group Meeting

On 10-11 September, representatives from almost 30 Europeana-related projects met at the National Library of the Netherlands (the KB).

The two-day event, coordinated by Programme Manager Breandán Knowlton and Programme Assistant Dasha Moskalenko, brought projects closer together, facilitating communication and a greater understanding of the wider Europeana picture. Attendees commented that the meeting helped them to break out of their ‘bubbles’ and to realise that the experiences and challenges that one project manager faces are shared by others too. Communicating with other projects can prevent us all reinventing the wheel! Breandán commented,

‘We’re all on the same team. 29 simultaneous projects across Europe are digitising cultural heritage and sending data into the Europeana repository. With such a massive scale of work, the opportunities for collaboration are equally massive.’

Delegates to the event discussed and shaped the Europeana Product Roadmap, the 2013 Europeana Business Plan, and the ongoing development of the Europeana Professional website. One session launched this very blog with attendees contributing some great ideas – watch this space for their guest blog posts!

A recurring theme throughout the event was the impact of opening up Europeana’s dataset and the opportunities for its exploitation via the Europeana API. Jon Purday, Head of Communications, said,

‘Content is now breaking free of the portal and moving in new directions. It is crossing borders, formats, institutions and platforms. The Europeana API pours the content into all sorts of different spaces.’

Other topics covered included promotion and dissemination, communications and branding, technical research and development, product development, legal issues, post-project planning (which saw the group develop a sustainability plan for a hypothetical and mouth-watering project called Europeana Food), and preparing for European Commission project reviews. Further blog posts on some of these topics to follow.

It wasn’t all work – there was plenty of time for networking and making new contacts, and chance for a spot of hard-earned dinner at a good restaurant in the Hague’s historic Plein square.

The projects team is keen to put on another similar event in the future, so if you attended and have highlights or comments to share, or if you’d like to be involved in the future, please get in touch or leave a comment below.