What is the innovation?

Online web-based Creation and Access for cultural digital tours using geolocation information of cultural assets

What problem does the innovation solve?

Europe, and the western World in general, has entered the Culture 3.0 era, where open communities of practise are blurring the distinction between producers and consumers in the domain of cultural heritage. However, no ICT specialized tools are covering all needs of this new group of cultural heritage curators, who often lack digital skills. There are important initiatives to build applications and repositories for heritage dissemination, which compile collections from museums, libraries and other institutions through virtualization [Europeana, Google Cultural Institute]. However, they have been top-down driven by institutions and haven’t so far succeeded at involving citizens in the creation of heritage communities around them. In contrast, current social media platforms have demonstrated their potential to build networks through the individual and distributed contributions of users. However, their focus was not cultural heritage and this hindered any effort to use them as such.

How does the innovation solve the problem?

PLUGGY developed a cultural heritage centric social platform with a focus on promoting local cultural heritage through the easy narration of stories and their transformation, through state-of-the-art smart phone and web applications, to experiences. Clio Muse P.C focused on the development of a self guided tour suite, which includes both the curation software of the tours and their experience through a responsive web application, available on desktop and mobile devices. The suite, called PLUGGY Pins, enables non-expert users to create tours of, mainly, local cultural heritage sites and share them with the community. The tours are then available on PLUGGY’s social platform providing this way a wide audience with an interest in culture and cultural heritage.

Is there any other existing cutting edge solution? If so, how does yours differ?

Main differentiation point of PLUGGY Pins from similar solutions, e.g. History Pin, is its integration with the overall PLUGGY social platform, providing this way a complete platform for the promotion and dissemination of local cultural heritage. PLUGGY focuses on providing an accessible platform for users to upload their material, while making clear their IP rights/obligations and a straightforward curation process for creating stories around this material. Each application, including PLUGGY Pins, provides both the curation and experience interface through a unified procedure. Furthermore, PLUGGY Pins can motivate both professionals tour guides as also novices to create their own tours and enables them also to connect them with the other applications of PLUGGY, like PLUGGY3D and PLUGGY Soundscapes. Creating a tour with PLUGGY Pins is as easy as walking around, marking the points of interests and narrating their stories.

Tell us about your team?

Since 2012, Clio Muse’s team has been awarded by Europeana, booking.com, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens International Airport and many more global organizations for our innovative business model, the quality of our generated cultural content and our sustainable tourism development practises. The connection between culture and tourism was the means to realize our vision, to highlight the multifaceted nature of the global cultural reserve and to efficiently communicate it to the world. Since 2018 our company is supported by the greek venture capital fund, uni.fund, receiving valuable know-how from successful Greek business people. Currently, the team is composed of 13 people ranging from archeologists to developers, designers and customer care personnel and is currently focusing on putting culture and tourism back on track through these difficult COVID-19 times and also on developing tools and methodologies for sustainable tourism development.

How big is the market for this innovation?

Cultural tourism accounts for around 40% of all European tourism and is not concentrated in cities but spread all over European territories. The cultural tourist has shifted away from the traditional interest in static museums and monuments and requires a more interactive and tangible experience which allows for engagement in local communities. Particular target groups interested in this tourism product include: i) Over 65 years target market - this market is expected to grow to 20% of the population in 2020, who are highly affluent and time rich and ii) Young People - with particular interest in technology. Both target groups are relevant to PLUGGY Pins, since a) the eldelry are characterised by their willingness to contribute with their knowledge to local cultural heritage and b) the younger generation with its digital fluency. Equally important is the educational audience of PLUGGY, since its tools allow for easy creation of educational material free of IPR, yet highly engaging.

What EU-funded research project was this innovation developed in?

Project PLUGGY.