Public Value of Open Cultural Data

Project mission

The project studies the complex ways in which cultural open data solutions could produce ‘public value’. In conceptual terms, it builds on existing research traditions on (public) value creation, links these to work on innovation systems in media industries and investigates how new open data technologies such as the Semantic Web and blockchain could be seen as conditioning the emergence of new kinds of innovation systems. We will study these technologies and experiment with them to develop new tools for understanding how value is produced within these systems. Our work in this project will be conceptual, empirical and applied. The project is international (studying multiple case studies across the world) and interdisciplinary (combining network science and data science with media and innovation economics, media and communications studies and cultural semiotics).

The project is funded by the Estonian Research Council (grant PRG 1641). It combines researchers from Tallinn University’s Baltic Film, Media and Arts School (BFM) (it’s Centre of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture (MEDIT) and Cultural Data Analytics (CUDAN) Open Lab).