Integrating distributed heterogeneous information sources for cultural heritage: the DICE approach

We present the first results of an ongoing Italian research project named DICE (distributed infrastructure for cultural heritage). DICE aims at developing an innovative methodology and a technological infrastructure for integrating heterogeneous information belonging to different sources and allowing a more effective access to the immense cultural heritage in Italy by means of a Web interface. DICE addresses professional operators (tour operators, editors, directorates, researchers, etc.) who use DICE as unique source for discovering interesting pieces of information and act as "cultural mediators" towards the final users. From an architectural point of view, DICE is based on a peer-to-peer network in which each peer owns some information potentially interesting for the DICE community and participating to the network it "exposes" its database allowing other users accessing them through a unified navigational interface. From the organizational point of view, DICE supposes the community agrees on a common "representation model" and a sharing policy.