Agencia de Gobierno Electrónico y Sociedad de la Información y del Conocimiento

20 - Digital access strategy to data and cultural assets for the participatory transformation policies in culture

Brief description of the commitment: The National Directorate of Culture (DNC) proposes to design a strategy for transparency and digital access to cultural assets and data through a participatory process involving multiple stakeholders and incorporating new digital tools. This will include an open data process related to the various instruments of cultural policy, such as the funds awarded annually through their different support programs, incorporating a data visualization panel. Additionally, a new open and collaborative tool for managing museum collections will be designed through a process of dialogue and consultation.

Organization leading the commitment: National Directorate of Culture (DNC) - Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC).

Institutions/organizations it endorses: Agency for Electronic Government and the Information Society (Agesic), General Archive of the Nation, DATAUY, Wikimediars, Data and Society Laboratory (Datysoc).

Responsible for the commitment: María Eugenia Vidal, National Director of Culture. Contact: maria.vidal@mec.gub.uy

Technical head: Natalia Ríos, Coordinator of the Cultural Information System. Contact: natalia.rios@mec.gub.uy; For the National Museum System: Veronika Herszhorn, Coordinator of the National Museum System. Contact: herszhorn@mec.gub.uy; Lucía Draper, National Museum System. Contact: ldraper@mec.gub.uy

Stakeholders:

1. Government: Other Executory Units of the Ministry of Education and Culture: National Cultural Heritage Commission, National General Archive and other projects such as MEC Spaces.
2. Civil Society: Cultural agents [6] from the various subsectors of the arts and culture and civil society organizations focused on digital technology.[7]
3. Other actors (Parliament, private sector, etc.): Educational agents, from academia, from journalism, among others.

Implementation period: September 2025 - June 2029.

Problem definition

What problem does the commitment intend to address?

The problem that the project proposes to address is the absence of open digital access to cultural goods and data, as well as the need for stable participatory mechanisms for the design of cultural policies promoted by the DNC.

Specifically, it will focus on, on the one hand, resolving the lack of information available to citizens regarding the results achieved by different instruments of the cultural public policy carried out by the DNC [8] and, on the other hand, the absence of an open and sustainable public digital infrastructure for the management, access and reuse by citizens of the museum collections of Uruguayan museums in general and of the DNC in particular.

In line with the above, efforts will be made to address the need for stable dialogue mechanisms with cultural agents that contribute to deepening the governance of cultural public policies, channeling proposals and demands that contribute to the design and management of public instruments and tools for cultural development and the full exercise of cultural rights.

This problem affects the opportunities for influence that both the general public and cultural professionals in particular—especially in areas far from the capital and in the outskirts of the 19 departments—find for the development of their ideas, projects, careers, or infrastructure. At the same time, this reduces the access to cultural heritage by the citizens.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic exacerbated the difficulties citizens face in developing their projects and careers in the cultural field, while also highlighting the structural limitations of the museum industry in terms of digital heritage management. Changes in government administrations at the national, departmental, and municipal levels also constitute periods of uncertainty regarding the continuity and potential redirection of cultural policies at the various levels discussed previously.

What are the causes of the problem?

The information on the various funding instruments for the DNC's cultural policy is systematized and publicly available. However, it is difficult to access easily, and the data is not available for download in a unified, up-to-date, and consistent format. Furthermore, it lacks visualization formats that would facilitate public interpretation and reflection on this information.

Regarding digital access to museum collections [10], the National Directorate of Culture (DNC), through the National Museum System (SNM), launched the “Mestiza: Digital Platform for Managing Museum Collections” project in 2012. This version was conceived in a different technological context, with a local and centralized architecture, lacking the possibility of updates or interoperability. The platform's design limited its adoption by museums and led to its technical obsolescence. Ultimately, at that time, Mestiza was designed as a local, centralized, and restricted-access system, which hindered its effective implementation and requires the creation of an evolved tool with the same objectives.

Likewise, although both the cultural funding policy and the Mestiza digital tool are geared towards cultural democratization, they lacked sustained participatory mechanisms for design, management and evaluation, as well as processes of openness to the public.

Description of the commitment

What has been done so far to solve the problem?

There is a history of actions implemented by the DNC for all the aspects mentioned above.

Regarding access to cultural assets such as museum collections, the National Museum System (SNM) of the National Directorate of Culture (DNC), created by Law No. 19.037 of December 2012, is responsible for promoting the reinforcement of museums and their areas of work by fostering integrated and sustainable museums, with a special emphasis on developing accessibility, communication, mediation, preventive conservation, reflection, and critical thinking about the role of museology, contemporary museums, and their connection to society. As mentioned previously, it was within this framework that the Mestiza project was born, representing a first attempt to offer a national system for registering museum collections. This first version of the platform was published in 2014 and tested in 33 Uruguayan museums of diverse types.

Likewise, one of the initial milestones was the Diagnostic Census of Museums in Uruguay (2010) also developed by the SNM, which made it possible to assess the general status of the sector and identify, among other shortcomings, the urgent need to professionalize the sector and to strengthen capacities in the management of collections.

The creation of the National Directorate of Culture's (DNC) Cultural Information System (SIC) in 2016 addressed the lack of readily available information for the public. This office aims to collect, systematize, and process relevant information on cultural activity in Uruguay. To this end, numerous internal reports have been prepared for monitoring actions and programs, as well as reports published on the DNC website and within the Mercosur framework. In addition to online publications such as reports on funding, awards, and calls for proposals, the DNC has also responded to public information requests.

Regarding mechanisms for open dialogue with citizens and processes of participation in the design of cultural policies, the Funds for Culture organized in-person qualitative evaluation sessions in 2010 and 2015. These sessions brought together artists, cultural practitioners, managers, union representatives, representatives from the Departmental Directorates of Culture, the MEC Centers, and the National Directorate of Culture itself. These sessions facilitated the collection of input for the reformulation of the Grant Fund for Culture tool in 2011 and 2016.

Furthermore, as a recent initiative, since 2022 the National Museum System (SNM) has been implementing the annual Regional Museum Meetings, which are forums for exchange on museological topics where museums from different regions of the country participate. Activities are conducted in a workshop format, channeling the needs and concerns of the participating museums. Additionally, a pilot program is currently underway to provide technical assistance to five public museums in the interior of the country, working with their technical teams on their collections.

Finally, it is worth highlighting three experiences driven by DNC with Agesic´s support and which constitute successful initiatives both in terms of participation in the design of cultural policies and in terms of open data and digitization.

Regarding dialogue mechanisms, a relevant example is the National Dance Plan: “a process that has relied on a dynamic and pluralistic model of participation, based on co-responsibility between the State and organized civil society, for the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policies in favor of access to and practice of dance as a field of knowledge, symbolic production, and cultural right” (2023). This initiative was part of Uruguay’s Fourth National Open Government Action Plan (2018–2020).

Regarding digitization and openness, in 2016, the National Museum of Visual Arts (MNAV), endorsed by the National Directorate of Culture (DNC), was recognized by Agesic with the Transparency Award for its online catalog and its commitment to open data. To this day, it is the only DNC department included in the National Open Data Catalog, and it is the only public museum with an online catalog, having one-sixth of its collection available online (Porley, 2020).

Last year, the SIC, in conjunction with Agesic, implemented the workshop "Open Data: For the Identification and Prioritization of Cultural Data," which identified datasets related to culture. Participants included cultural agents from academia, journalism, public institutions, and the data community, engaging in collaborative dialogue to assess the importance of cultural data, prioritize relevant data for open access, and recognize its significance. This workshop generated numerous proposals for datasets, which were collected and analyzed by the SIC. This process led to the initiative to further open access data for the institution's support tools.

What solution does it propose?

The solution proposed through this commitment is to move forward on two lines of work:

• “Open Culture” will consist of establishing mechanisms for dialogue and public consultation with cultural agents from the various subsectors of the cultural field to actively participate in the governance of national cultural policies [11]. This involves convening diverse cultural agents, for example, from the performing arts (theater, circus, puppetry), dance, music, visual arts, literature, audiovisual, video games, arts education, and museums, among others, to address the discussion and debate on funding instruments with a view to a joint evaluation that will provide input for designing new opportunities for culture and the arts. Likewise, the initiative will propose opening data from the various instruments of cultural public policy available, such as the funds that are awarded annually in their different support categories (projects, training and creation, and infrastructure), as well as other relevant cultural data and information of national scope. This openness will be strengthened with technological implementations that allow for the presentation and visualization of data, contributing to its understanding and interpretation.
• “Mestiza: Open and Collaborative Management of Museum Collections in Uruguay” involves the creation and implementation of a new, open, interoperable, and sustainable public digital infrastructure for the management and publication of museum collections in Uruguay, building upon previous experience but with an updated approach. This entails: analysis and lessons learned from the previous system; participatory co-design with museums and various stakeholders outside the specific museum sector; modular and scalable development of a new tool with international standards for traceability, open licenses, and interoperability protocols; pilot projects in representative museums with ongoing support processes; participatory training and evaluation; the creation of a national community of practice in digital collection management; and finally, the publication of data on open platforms and collaboration with educational and cultural stakeholders to enhance the usefulness and use of museum collections in diverse contexts.

What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment?

Implementing this commitment will help generate mechanisms for open digital access to both cultural goods and data, as well as establish areas of participation sustained over time for the design of cultural public policy instruments and tools.

This commitment is expected to strengthen existing support mechanisms and/or generate new ones through the active involvement and participation of cultural stakeholders. The aim is to deepen and strengthen the governance of national cultural policies and promote democratization in the processes of formulating and evaluating public policies.

At the same time, within the specific field of museums, in addition to making collections more visible to the public, technical capacities in the digital management of collections will be strengthened, with all its implications regarding work protocols, licensing, documentation, and cataloging, among others. Furthermore, by implementing the participatory design process with museums, we will be contributing to democratization by establishing a participatory and collaborative culture within the museum community.

Institutional responsibility for accountability and transparency will also be strengthened through data dissemination and the promotion of public engagement with this data. This will be crucial once museum collections are digitized, as they represent heritage that can be reused in educational, academic, and cultural settings.

In the long term, cultural policies will be strengthened - in their quality and legitimacy - by having been enriched both by open data and by the demands and proposals of the protagonists of these policies, which will guarantee the exercise of cultural rights by assuming an active role in the governance of cultural policies.

Commitment analysis

How will the commitment promote transparency?

The commitment promotes transparency in its two lines of work.

At Open culture, this implies:

• Making more and better information available about instruments to support culture, by opening up data that is currently public, but not in open format.
• Publishing data in a unified, consistent and up-to-date manner, providing visualizations that facilitate interpretation and reflection on the data.
• Dissemination of data both in institutional communication strategies and in instances of participation with cultural agents where said data will be the basis for discussion.
• Promoting positive changes in the institutional culture regarding data management.

In Mestiza, this implies:

• Making online collection catalogs available to all citizens, with structured, traceable and reusable data.
• Publication of open data on cultural heritage, following international standards of interoperability and open licensing.
• Clear access to public information contained in museum collections, in compliance with Law No. 18.381 and the Museums Law No. 19.037.
• Strengthening the role of the State as guarantor of the right of access to heritage.

How will the commitment help foster accountability?

This commitment fosters deeper accountability by promoting active citizen participation. Institutional responsibility increases as it will be required to channel the demands and proposals that emerge from the participatory process, both for the review of support mechanisms and for the design of the tool for digitizing museum collections. The participation of civil society organizations also guarantees mechanisms for citizen oversight and external monitoring. Furthermore, open data will allow citizens to track and verify its evolution.

How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing, and monitoring solutions? 

In Abrí Cultura, the call will address the citizens in general, with a focus on cultural agents. Representatives from organized civil society across the various subsectors of the arts and culture will be invited to participate in the established mechanisms. Specifically, the aim is to achieve representation from those subsectors currently included in the application categories of existing funding programs: performing arts (theater, circus, puppetry), dance, music, visual arts, literature, audiovisual media, video games, arts education, museums, cultural infrastructure, and others. Special attention will also be given to providing a space for subsectors not currently included that may be incorporated. This participation of key civil society organizations in the arts and culture field will ensure democratic co-responsibility.

Mestiza incorporates citizen participation by promoting a participatory design process, with workshops involving museums from diverse regions, types, and departments, as well as stakeholders from the cultural and educational ecosystem. Territorial and sectoral representation is guaranteed in defining the tool's technical and functional requirements. Collaboration with civil society organizations (Data Uruguay, Datysoc, Wikimedia Uruguay) allows non-governmental voices to actively contribute to decision-making. Furthermore, the development of an open community of practice will be pursued, and participatory evaluation activities will be promoted during the co-implementation phase.