Cèsar Carreras

The Roman Transport Network: A Precedent for the Integration of the European Mobility

Abstract In the last years, the use of geographical information systems has been common in many historical and geographical studies. Perhaps one of the least known applications is network analysis, a series of functions related to hydrology and mobility. Since 1994, researchers have used network analyses to understand costs and time expenditure in transportation in Roman times, with the aim of modeling commercial routes. Archaeological objects were employed to confirm those commercial distributions whose quantities were related basically to transport costs. The present articles go far beyond and attempt to understand decisions in building a transport network based on time series. It seems that not all Roman decisions in transport infrastructure were due to economic reasons; some parts of Roman roads were built basically for political reasons and affected later developments.

Project Mus.Cat: a CMS open-source application

Around 98% of museums in Europe are defined as small and medium-size institutions due to their limited human and economic resources. Those memory institutions are getting real difficulties in becoming digital, in other words using ICT applications. In this context, Project Mus.Cat (http://oliba.uoc.edu/muscat), which is funded by the Department of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia, is attempting to address some of these problems by developing museum templates for open-source content management systems (CMSs) such as Joomla 1.5!. Such templates downloaded online allow small and medium size institutions create high quality portals for content dissemination in internet with low economic investment and computer expertise. Curators could easily manage and update contents, include new functionalities, personalise and scale portals and favour the introduction of Web 2.0 applications. Group Oliba is currently developing those open-source templates for Catalan museums and cultural associations, but they will be available online free for any institution. We have already applied Joomla 1.5! to other personalised projects such as Museum of Lleida (http://www.museudelleida.cat), Museum of History of Catalan Immigration (http://www.mhic.net) or Institut Catala d|Arqueologia Classica (http://www.icac.net) with quite successful results in terms of self-management, collaborative work and widespread dissemination.

El diseño urbano de la regio IV de Complutum (Alcalá de Henares). Estudios a partir de la prospección geofísica

The paper shows the research on urban pattern of regio IV of Complutum Roman city: a geophysical survey accompanied by the study of some archaeological remains recently excavated, and the documentation from 19th century excavations. So, it has been possible to generate a regio IV urban design new pattern, and identify different archaeological buildings, specially one of them that might be an urban sanctuary of important dimensions.

A Story of Great Expectations: Past and Present of Online/Virtual Exhibitions

The present paper attempts to discuss the practices of virtual exhibitions covering topics that were not taken into account a decade ago. Topics such as the effort involved in creating an online exhibition, which also affects the time, costs and human resources that are not always available in memory institutions of middle and small size. The best online exhibitions that enjoy international awards demand a high budget only available to large institutions. Therefore, are they good models for the remaining cultural institutions? Another issue is the degree of complementarity between a real and virtual exhibit and fears of competition. Most memory institutions prefer to create their online exhibits once the temporary exhibition is finished. Virtual exhibitions become records of museum activities that are no longer in place. Public participation in content creating was also a wish a decade ago, but new tools have facilitated such cooperation. Both behaviours generate virtual communities (local or distant) around the cultural institution, which is one of the aim of the current development of web 2.0. Of course, technical developments in IT have modified forms and possibilities of current exhibitions (i.e., virtual worlds, video, animations, XML, mobile phones) that should be tested to overcome some of previous drawbacks. The use of participatory technologies in some cases has led not only to bring nearer the museum to its audiences, but rather to subvert the traditional unidirectional relationship between them. This paper combines theoretical discussions of such topics with some empirical data obtained for more than ten years of developing and analysing virtual exhibitions. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology , 2014, 34(2), pp. 87-96. http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/djlit.34.6749

Managing memory institutions portals: from HTML to CMS and towards applications in XML for multi-platforms

Our research group, called Oliba (http: / /oliba.uoc.edu), has been carrying out different projects for museum portals in the past years. There has been evolution in the cultural operators demands, from static HTML in which they did not want any direct involvement to Content Management Systems (CMSs) for direct administration. Actually, dynamic contents such as agenda, activities or exhibitions have brought about such trends towards a more direct management of the website. It was decided to adapt some free software CMS such PhPNuke or Joomla! in order to avoid the enormous effort that is required for every single new development.