Open Cultural Data and MediaWiki Software for a Museum: The Use Case of Musée Saint-Raymond (Toulouse, France)

Abstract

Freely accessible online databases developed by cultural and artistic institutions (e.g., museums, libraries, universities, studios, etc.) enable the transnational dissemination of catalogues of cultural and creative works, exploiting the advantages of modern technologies. Intelligent tools, which use advanced algorithms to classify and contextualize data, can foster knowledge mainly in two ways: (1) providing a stable and accessible basis for large amounts of data; (2) promoting cultural heritage. A case of skillful use of such tools is the Saint-Raymond Museum, the archaeological museum of Toulouse. For several years it has been working on the open data front and on putting its catalogue online on Wikimedia platforms, in various forms.