Hack4Europe!

What are the benefits of making cultural heritage data open and reusable? How can it support the development of new content markets, generate new jobs and enrich people’s life? Europeana and its partners Collections Trust, Museu Picasso, Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center and Swedish National Heritage Board are organising a series of hack days for developers across Europe in the week 6 – 12 June 2011 to explore possible practical answers of these questions. We are in the midst of the preparations and not ready to share all the details yet; however, here some hints of what you can expect:

• 4 hot spots in London, Barcelona, Poznan and Stockholm

• 30 high-profile developers from creative industries, open data communities, cultural heritage institutions (per event)

• Cool venues with all-in facilities for work, fun and networking

• Access to a diverse, rich and dynamic content: 17 million items in the Europeana collections, of which 3 million Europeana records available under a CC0 license (“No Rights Reserved”) in the Europeana Linked Open Data Pilot datasets

• Comfort zone to try out ideas and build prototypes showcasing the social and business value of open cultural data

• Awards! for the best projects at each hackathon

• Invitation for the four finalists to the special award ceremony during the  Digital Agenda Assembly on 16 -17 June in Brussels led by the Commissioner Ms. Neelie Kroes

A lot of work ahead for us but we feel excited and keep you posted about all the Hack4Europe! prep bubbling, onsite news, and outcomes!