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PLUGGY provides a social platform and a series of pluggable applications that enable European citizens to create, discover, curate and modify cultural heritage. This initiative aims at satisfying the need of being actively involved in cultural heritage activities. A need that has been risen in the digital era we are living in.
PLUGGY was developed with the collaboration of 9 partners from 5 countries. The Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, the Technical University of Kosice, the independent design studio, Vianet, The University of Málaga, the Imperial College London, the software company XTEAM, the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, the East Slovakian University and Clio Muse Tours joined forces to develop a user-friendly platform that will tell, celebrate and share the cultural heritage.
Through four apps (Augmented Reality App, geolocation mobile App, 3D sonic narratives App and video game authoring App), PLUGGY aims at having a strong and positive impact on the society and the environment, economic growth and sustainability, as well as to empower the heritage and the European Agenda for Culture.
Find out the potential of the PLUGGY platform through five questions.
What problem is our innovation solving?
As the Western world is entering the 3.0 culture era, communities of practice blur the distinction between creators and consumers in the domain of cultural heritage. However, until now, there isn’t an information and communication technology tool (ICT) that is adjustable and scalable enough to meet the needs of this new type of curators of cultural heritage. Many of them who lack computer skills don’t have access to an easy-to-use platform that will allow them to adjust their exhibition in this new digital era. And even though there are important initiatives to build applications and repositories for heritage dissemination, none of them has succeeded at involving citizens in the creation of heritage communities around them.
How do we aim to solve it?
PLUGGY’s cultural heritage-centric social platform aims at promoting local cultural heritage through stories with easy narration as well as by transforming them into experiences through state-of-the-art smartphone and web applications.
The suite, PLUGGY, enables non-expert users to create digital exhibitions and games mainly for local cultural heritage sites and to share them with the community. The produced exhibitions become available on PLUGGY’s social platform providing in this way a wide audience with an interest in culture and cultural heritage. One might compare it to already existing social platforms but unlike Facebook or Instagram, PLUGGY promotes the cultural heritage by making the stories the central piece of the platform instead of the users themselves. Moreover, through the collective creation enabled by PLUGGY, including PLUGGY Pins, the stories can be continuously enriched.
How does our innovation differ from other solutions?
The main differentiating point of PLUGGY from similar solutions is its integration with the overall PLUGGY social platform. The audience has access to a complete platform, which serves the promotion and dissemination of local cultural heritage. Moreover, users can upload their material while they are fully aware of their IP rights and obligations and they are offered a straightforward curation process for creating stories around this material. Each application provides both the curation and the experience interface through a unified procedure. Furthermore, PLUGGY motivates both professional and novice tour guides to create their own tours while also enabling them to connect with other applications of PLUGGY, such as PLUGGY3D, PLUGGY Soundscapes and PLUGGY Pins.
How big is the market for this innovation?
Initiatives like PLUGGY have great potential. While cultural tourism accounts for around 40% of all European tourism, the cultural tourist has shifted away from the traditional museums and monuments and requires a more interactive and tangible experience. For the new generation, culture isn’t just colossal monuments and historical museums. Culture is the visual arts, the graffiti painting, the local stories and places. Therefore now more than ever before local communities can and must engage in the promotion of cultural heritage.
Particular target groups interested in this tourism product include affluent and time-rich people aged 65 and a younger audience with an interest in technology. On the one hand, the elderly are characterized by their willingness to contribute to local cultural heritage with their knowledge and on the other, the digitally savvy younger generation looks for more innovative ways to explore cultural heritage.
Last but not least PLUGGY is addressed to the academic audience since it offers tools that can be easily used for the creation of highly engaging and IPR-free material.