DBIS

Image generated with AI

Background

The cultural sector is increasingly reliant on digital technologies for data management, collaboration, and audience engagement. However, traditional centralized systems often lead to challenges such as data silos, limited user control, and privacy concerns. Solid Pods, developed as part of the Solid framework by Tim Berners-Lee, offer a decentralized and user-centric approach to data management. By allowing individuals and organizations to store and control their own data while selectively sharing it with others, Solid Pods provide a promising solution to these issues. In the context of the cultural sector, where data about audiences, collections, and collaborations are critical, adopting such technologies could foster greater transparency, interoperability, and innovation. This thesis aims to explore how Solid Pods can address these challenges and unlock new opportunities for the cultural industry.

Objectives

• Analyze the specific data management and sharing needs of stakeholders in the cultural and creative sector.
• Investigate the technical capabilities and limitations of Solid Pods in addressing these needs.
• Design potential use cases for demonstrating the application of Solid Pods in the cultural and creative sector.
• Develop a prototype and evaluate its impact on data sovereignty, interoperability, and privacy within cultural organizations as subdomain of the cultural and creative sector.
• Provide recommendations for adopting Solid Pods to enhance collaboration and innovation in the cultural and creative sectors.

Tasks

• • Literature Review
    • Research the cultural sector’s current data management practices and challenges.
    • Study the principles and technical architecture of Solid Pods and related decentralized technologies.
  • Requirements Analysis
    • Identify key stakeholders in the cultural sector and their specific data-related needs.
    • Map challenges like data silos, interoperability, and user privacy to possible Solid Pod solutions.
  • Prototype Development
    • Design and implement one or more prototypes demonstrating Solid Pod use cases in the cultural sector.
    • Focus on practical applications such as collaborative data sharing or audience engagement scenarios.
  • Evaluation
    • Test prototypes with real-world data or stakeholder feedback to assess usability and effectiveness.
    • Analyze the impact of Solid Pods on data sovereignty, privacy, and collaboration outcomes.

• Documentation and Recommendations
  • Summarize findings in a clear and structured manner.
  • Provide actionable recommendations for cultural organizations to adopt Solid Pods effectively.