Abstract
Topic: Virtual museums are powerful tools for preserving and promoting cultural heritage (CH) while enhancing accessibility and engagement. Yet, many focus on digitised artefacts without fully capturing their socio-cultural relevance or their connection to sustainable development. The Virtual European Rural Artisans (VERA) Platform addresses this gap by creating digital cultural landscapes that connect heritage, community, and sustainable development. It links the public with artisans and cultural institutions, encouraging a holistic understanding of heritage as a dynamic socio-cultural phenomenon.
Context: The development of European Data Spaces enables broader sharing of heritage data. Projects such as Europeana and the ECCCH demonstrate the potential of interoperable, open-access cultural data and services. VERA aligns with these by
embedding ‘sociodata’ – a new layer of contextual data that captures the relationship between the community and the heritage artefact, sustainability aspects, and evolving narratives surrounding heritage objects.
Relevance: Sustainable development and CH are deeply interconnected. The SDGs emphasise safeguarding CH (SDG11.4), inclusive economic growth (SDG8) and quality education (SDG4). However, many virtual heritage initiatives lack a direct link to socio-economic sustainability. By allowing community groups to interact within a shared digital space, the VERA Platform promotes cultural sustainability, creative heritage tourism, and economic development. Its integration with EU data spaces ensures open, reusable cultural data for research, education, and policy.
Innovation: The unique contribution of this research is the emphasis on social metadata collected through a holistic sustainability-oriented virtual museum infrastructure. This research introduces ‘sociodata’ which captures threats and actions
that promote sustainable development within cultural landscapes. The VERA Platform is an example of sociodata being utilised in a digital cultural space. This article illustrates how various stakeholders are utilising VERA to share knowledge, showcase
craftsmanship, and promote sustainable practices.
Context: The development of European Data Spaces enables broader sharing of heritage data. Projects such as Europeana and the ECCCH demonstrate the potential of interoperable, open-access cultural data and services. VERA aligns with these by
embedding ‘sociodata’ – a new layer of contextual data that captures the relationship between the community and the heritage artefact, sustainability aspects, and evolving narratives surrounding heritage objects.
Relevance: Sustainable development and CH are deeply interconnected. The SDGs emphasise safeguarding CH (SDG11.4), inclusive economic growth (SDG8) and quality education (SDG4). However, many virtual heritage initiatives lack a direct link to socio-economic sustainability. By allowing community groups to interact within a shared digital space, the VERA Platform promotes cultural sustainability, creative heritage tourism, and economic development. Its integration with EU data spaces ensures open, reusable cultural data for research, education, and policy.
Innovation: The unique contribution of this research is the emphasis on social metadata collected through a holistic sustainability-oriented virtual museum infrastructure. This research introduces ‘sociodata’ which captures threats and actions
that promote sustainable development within cultural landscapes. The VERA Platform is an example of sociodata being utilised in a digital cultural space. This article illustrates how various stakeholders are utilising VERA to share knowledge, showcase
craftsmanship, and promote sustainable practices.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Digital heritage international congress 2025 |
| Subtitle of host publication | 8-13 September 2025 | Siena, Italy |
| Editors | Stefano Campana, Daniele Ferdani, Holger Graf, Gabriele Guidi, Zackary Hegarty, Sofia Pescarin, Fabio Remondino |
| Place of Publication | Goslar, Germany |
| Publisher | The Eurographics Association |
| Pages | 1-10 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9783038682776 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 8 Sept 2025 |
| Event | Digital Heritage 2025: 4th International Congress & Expo - Siena, Italy Duration: 8 Sept 2025 → 13 Sept 2025 Conference number: 4 https://digitalheritage2025.unisi.it/ |
Publication series
| Name | Digital heritage |
|---|
Conference
| Conference | Digital Heritage 2025 |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | DH25 |
| Country/Territory | Italy |
| City | Siena |
| Period | 8/09/25 → 13/09/25 |
| Internet address |
Access to Document
- Pisani-et-al-2025-Introducing-sociodata-Digital-Heritage-dh20253079-CCBY
Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Proceedings published by Eurographics - The European Association for Computer Graphics. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.