Media for Knowledge Creation and Dissemination : Semantic Model and Narrations for a New Accessibility to Cultural Heritage

This paper is the result of the clashing but fruitful collaboration of experts of two different cultures - Computer Science and Archaeology – and reports on the design and development of the T.Arc.H.N.A System, a new system of accessibility towards Cultural Heritage of the Etruscan culture. The first important result of the collaboration is the rise of an interdisciplinary team of cultural operators, which emerged from the confrontation of the different experiences acquired in each proper field of common research. As a consequence of such a confrontation process, the team was in need of new tools of expression, and communication. An ontology was defined as a new medium for communication between Computer Scientists and Archeologists. New media to record the results of the archaeological researches were introduced to disseminate knowledge to a large public in a novel, context adaptive way. The setting of these media are the base for the implementation of the working seed of the T.Arc.H.N.A System. The paper presents this open and participatory system where different actors cooperate to create and disseminate knowledge about cultural assets.