With funding from the O.P. Information Society, more than 140 projects for the documentation, utilization and promotion of our cultural reserve are completed. It is estimated that the majority of these project will fully operate in the first half of 2007 proving the Greek citizens (and not only Greek since access to collections will be effected through the Internet) with the opportunity of getting to know and appreciate the rich cultural reserve of the country.

We are referring to projects of digitization and scientific documentation of the Greek culture, i.e. museum objects, audiovisual and other archive exhibits. The projects are financed by the Special Secretariat for the IS with € 49.5 million within the framework of Invitation No. 65. The objective of the Special Secretariat is not only to save the cultural reserve of the country by using new technologies but also to promote and utilize the cultural material, to update and develop digital products and value added services.

During the one-day conference that was recently organized by the Special Secretariat for the Information Society with the aim to present the first results from the projects relating to “Documentation, utilization and promotion of Greek Culture through the use of Information and Communications Technologies”, more than 150 cultural institutions and organizations (Public and Private Law Bodies Corporate), Public institutions, private non-profitable institutions and Academic Research Foundations that own or manage significant in terms of number and value collections and archives of cultural exhibits of the Greek Culture or develop significant cultural activity.

Representatives from the Benaki Museum, the E. Averoff Gallery of Metsovo in Ioannina, the Holly Monastery of Vatopedio, the Foundation of the Hellenic World, the Goulandris Natural History Museum, etc. participated in the panel and in presentations who presented the progress of their works and the know how they have developed.

During the event, the public had the opportunity to watch the first digitization results that are already in operation.

It should be noted that the E. Averoff Gallery operating in Metsovo in Ioannina, digitized under the finance of the Special Secretariat for the Information Society its significant collection. Any citizen has the opportunity of admiring paintings from Gizis, Litras, Moralis, Gikas and other important artists through the internet at the electronic address www.averoffmuseum.gr. In addition, within the framework of the same intervention, educational CD-ROMs will be distributed in the primary and secondary education which will contain games based on art works from the gallery’s collection so as pupils get familiar with the world of art.

Significant work was presented by the Foundation of the Hellenic World (find more at the Foundation’s website at http://www.fhw.gr). By means of Virtual Reality exhibits, the citizens will be capable of getting to know the country’s culture and approach the past in a live and vivid manner at a specially configured room in the foundation. Moreover, they will be able of experiencing history, exploring geography and discovering the architecture of cities through touch screens, stereoscopic glasses, 3-dimensional projection machines, etc.

Apart from the larger and widely known institutions, special reference was made the Secretary Special for the Information Society, Prof. Vas. Assimakopoulos to the smaller institutions that despite of their small size achieved great results.

A characteristic example is the Folk Theater Studies Center that has digitized and uploaded in the Internet the entire history of Greek costumes. The citizens by visiting the electronic address www.costumeandtime.gr may watch through photographs of the 1800-1960 period the evolution of the clothing habits of the modern Greek history in the 19th and 20th century.

In the context of the event, Mr. Assimakopoulos took the commitment of supporting such activities within the framework of the 4th CSF whilst he announced the planning of a new Invitation for projects promoting Greek culture through technology “especially for those institutions that have worked effectively”. The new invitation will pertain only to the institutions of Invitation No. 65 that have already completed the work of digitization and promotion of their cultural reserve or are in the final stage of implementation.