MaDiH: Mapping Digital Heritage in Jordan

MaDiH: Mapping Digital Cultural Heritage in Jordan, will contribute to the long-term sustainable development of Jordan's digital cultural heritage, identifying key systems, datasets, standards, and policies, and aligning them to government digital infrastructure capabilities and strategies. Defining a robust technical and operational architecture for digital cultural heritage will assist the Department of Antiquities in their planning processes, help product development teams develop their systems, facilitate the aggregation of valuable datasets held in disparate repositories, and ensure data generated from research activity is properly stored and widely accessible. Analysis will also result in the identification of infrastructural gaps and opportunities for further development, including system development, data aggregation, and online learning. Practical prototyping will ensure analysis and lessons learned are cost-effective and aligned to real-world scenarios, and a series of workshops with stakeholders from the cultural heritage, research, government, and technology sectors, will ensure the project fulfils the needs of the local community. A hackathon, led by the Jordanian Open Source Association will ensure analysis and lessons learned are aligned to educational and commercial opportunities. Key outputs from MaDiH, which will be made available online, will include:

- A policy white paper, identifying relevant national and international policies, frameworks, and standards and making recommendations for their future adoption and/or implementation.
- A technical white paper, listing requirements for improvements to existing infrastructure, systems, and tools and make recommendations for their future implementation.
- A prototype National Data Catalogue, listing the datasets found over the course of the project.
- A prototype National Heritage Portal, indicating the potential for future systems development and data aggregation.
- Training in Research Software Engineering, delivered by King's Digital Lab (King's College London).

This project places Jordanian cultural heritage sector professionals, and the wider government, technology and open source sectors that support them, at its centre. With three key partners outside HEIs, and events designed to engage and tighten existing networks across the government and technology sectors, impact is expected to be wide and continue after the end of the project. Four work packages (Knowledge Transfer; Training and Capacity Building; Research Outputs; Digital Publications) will deliver a range of outcomes that will deliver impacts detailed below:

The high-level objectives and specific measurable indicators (with sources where relevant) of MaDiH within its project lifetime are:

1. Cultural heritage / early career research staff trained in Research Software Engineering: 7 Jordanian, 2 UK.
2. Jordanian datasets identified and added to a prototype national data catalogue: 50.
3. Jordanian cultural heritage stakeholders exposed to digital cultural heritage research software engineering techniques: 80 via workshops.
4. Jordanian students exposed to digital cultural heritage research software engineering techniques: 50 via workshops and hackathon, 100 via online course.
5. Jordanian technology companies exposed to digital cultural heritage datasets and product development requirements: 20.
6. Global digital cultural heritage professionals exposed to Jordanian digital cultural heritage activities / opportunities via MaDiH website, conferences, journal articles, white papers: 1000.

Additional impact around these goals is expected beyond the lifetime of the project. Impact for the following goals will be achieved in the longer term through participation and outputs arising from the project:

1. Jordanian datasets identified and added to a prototype national data catalogue: 200.
2. Jordanian datasets converted to international standards and made available online: 20.
3. Jordanian students exposed to digital cultural heritage research software engineering techniques: 200 via online course.

The project team will maintain a dashboard focused around the development, delivery and measurement of impact. A range of mechanisms, impact track record and management approach to achieve these outcomes for the relevant beneficiaries are outlined in the 'pathways to impact'. The resources required have been budgeted and are indicated in the attached 'justification of resources'. Evidence for impact will be captured and recorded in relevant systems such as Researchfish or the forthcoming Knowledge Exchange Network system.