Gemapt' is a geotemporal platform for sharing, presenting and using digital heritage collections in function of a participatory heritage work. This project is developed with a focus on Ghent: 'Ghent Gemapt'. It breaks through the barriers between the storage institutions, reunites fragmented collections and connects them with histories and stories of Ghent and its inhabitants. With the city library De Krook as its centre, the map spreads out over the whole of Ghent.
Thanks to the digitisation efforts of recent years, a critical mass of digital heritage collections is available. This project explores what institutions and users can do with them and what the challenges are. Ghent Gemapt places archive and heritage collections on a digital city map to reconnect them with each other, with the city and with the inhabitants of Ghent. The starting point is that all types of data and heritage can be localised and that geo-referencing and annotation are attractive forms of access for the user. Phase 1 will deliver a proof of concept for a geotemporal presentation platform, grafted onto the area around De Krook. In phase 2 and 3, Gent Gemapt will be rolled out across the city and connected to participatory activities by the partners.
The technical story is a cocktail of IIIF, Linked Open Data, Omeka, MADOC, Neatline, an urban gazetteer...
Ghent Gemapt is a team effort of developers, heritage workers and public historians from the Boekentoren, Archief Gent, STAM Gent, Erfgoedcel Gent, Huis van Alijn, Industriemuseum, Amsab-Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Liberas and the Ghent Centre for Digital Humanities. The development and coordination are done by GhentCDH of UGent.
Ghent Gemapt is funded by a project grant for cultural heritage cooperation by Flanders and through an investment by CLARIAH-Flanders - Open Humanities Service Infrastructure. The project started in September 2020 and will last until August 2023. After three years, Ghent Gemapt will pass to the partners.