AquaRing
objectives
- to bring together existing online collections on marine and aquatic sciences, showing the rich contribution Europe has made in this area
- to improve what science centres can offer, with a greater collection of digital material which allows museum visitors to learn online as well as in person
- to provide the definitive online resource for research and education in marine and aquatic sciences
- to support improved education and informal learning experiences, for individual learners and groups
- to raise awareness about aquatic environments, and how they can be conserved.
In order to achieve these objectives, the AquaRing project was launched in 2006, funded by the European Commission’s eContentplus programme. The consortium of nine partners was brought together on the strength of their previous work in the domain. The five prestigious institutions from across the European Union whose digital documents would provide a starting point for the content of the AquaRing portal also provided scientific expertise and know-how on managing documents. Two high-profile technological partners were designated in order to bring the semantic web technology together with the infrastructure to support it. An academic partner was assigned the evaluation of the project, and the European network of science centres and museums took care of the dissemination.
This project is distinct in that the scientific partners responsible for the portal’s content have been working very closely with the technological partners at all stages of the development of the portal. An analysis of user needs, demand and intellectual property rights was launched, while partners analysed their existing collection of digital documents. Decisions were made on the way the documents would be tagged and the way the digital content would be structured, as well as what the key features of the site would be. Work is then focused around the development and feeding of the portal itself. Meanwhile, a dissemination campaign was launched which focused around the promotional website, two project workshops and a final event in March 2009 for the public launch of the portal. Evaluation is carried out at several key milestones, providing guidance for the project.
