Abstract
Openness has thrived in recent years, not only in the Linked Open Data space, but also in
Open Science, Open Access, Open Education, Open Educational Resources... but where do we
go from here? How could we make the most of all this knowledge sharing over the web?
With the diffusion of open-source software and publishing technologies, contributing to the
web today is both easy and inexpensive. But how do we go from making content openly
available to harnessing the web’s most powerful feature —links— to connect, contextualise,
and ultimately make resources more discoverable?
As cultural heritage organisations around the world digitised their collections, they have also
built idiosyncratic web applications and digital repositories that are largely disconnected from
the rest of the web.
While open publishing practices and increased accessibility are generally positive,
discoverability remains a challenge. Moreover, for libraries and cultural heritage
organisations, the mission of disseminating knowledge is only half complete if their resources
are not easily found and used.
Greater awareness of this need to connect and contextualise resources has led to a growing
number of online repositories and digital collections being built with shared ontologies and
linked open data in mind. These developments represent concrete steps towards greater
interoperability between collections. This creates new opportunities for inter-linking readily
available digital resources for enhanced discoverability.
In this talk, André Avorio will investigate the emerging landscape of open and interconnected
digital collections from cultural heritage organisations around the world. He will present the
challenges and experiences involved in building the Open Music Library (OML), the world’s
largest free index of digital resources for the study of music. The Open Music Library is a real
professional application that leverages shared ontologies, linked open data and principles of
the semantic web to connect disparate music collections and to establish meaningful links
between the items they hold.
By aggregating, enriching and integrating valuable digital resources, the Open Music Library
aims not only to advance the state of the art in knowledge discovery over the web, but also to
create opportunities for creative reuse, and to promote new possibilities for research and
collaboration. The initiative currently includes digital music collections from the Bibliothèque
nationale de France, Biblioteca Nacional de España, British Library, the Library of Congress,
the National Library of Poland, and others.
#### Auteurs/Autrices
**André Avorio** is a digital innovator specialising in online collaboration and open platforms.
Working in the intersection of business strategy, digital technologies and user experience,
André has led digital transformation and product development projects in Brazil, US and the
UK. He heads the Open Music Library initiative at Alexander Street, pairing open access and
for-fee multimedia content with cutting-edge digital technologies to transform the way people
research, learn and teach. André is a graduate of the University of Oxford’s Internet Institute
with a focus on the strategic challenges faced by the education and publishing sectors
catalysed by the emergence of digital technologies. Learn more about him at
andreavorio.com.