This document describes Operation Direct, a project to reinvent how Europeana aggregates cultural heritage data from institutions. It discusses how existing aggregation methods do not allow for fast growth. Operation Direct aims to make the process more efficient through an API-first approach, connecting to existing open data sources, and integrating with content management systems. The document provides examples of how museums in Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands have successfully tested the new approaches. It concludes by discussing next steps to integrate learnings from the tests into the core development.

1. Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Operation Direct:
Reinventing Europeana’s
Aggregation
Pavel Kats, Europeana
pavel.kats@europeana.eu, @PavelKats
Sašo Zagoranski, Semantika
saso.zagoranski@semantika.eu, @SasoZagoranski

2. Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Agenda
● Introduction or Why Innovate?
● Problem Space
● Operation Direct: the Vision
● Strategies (and a demo)
● Use Cases
● What Next
● Q&A

3. Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Introduction
or why innovate?
2010 20202016
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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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But is this at all possible?

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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How platforms grow? Spotify

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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How platforms grow? AirBNB

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Problem Space
or why can’t we now grow as fast?
Aggregator Europeana
1W 1-2W 1-2W
Icons by Sergey Novoselyov, Noun Project

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Operation Direct: Task
re-invent the process so that...
● ... it is quick, transparent and efficient, and creates a
connected ecosystem
● … data quality is not compromised (improved?)
● … it makes the best use of technology
● ... we offer flexible publishing solutions to institutions
● … keep previous investments made by Europeana?

9. Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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STRATEGIES

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Strategy 1: API-first approach
● Scalable and Modern Aggregation platform
● Symmetric EDM-based Read/Write API
● Easy to use for developers

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Strategy 2: Connect to existing data
● Many organizations are already sharing their data using standards
• APIs, IIIF, …
• APEf, DDB, …
● We wanted to utilize these existing sources
● Making Europeana connect to you
● Improve aggregation experience with near-real-time updates

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Strategy 3: Get close to source
● Integrate publishing process into CMS systems
● Make it easy for cultural heritage institutions to work with
Europeana by utilizing existing CMS solutions
● Improve data quality by enabling data-partners to focus on
the data, rather than the workflow
● Scale the number of data-partners

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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DEMO

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Strategy 4: Easy interoperability
● Full compatibility with Europeana Collections
○ Compatibility API for search, records, …
● Compatibility with the current aggregation stack
● Real-time search index updates
○ Index updates as records are added
● Enables gradual transition to the new system

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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USE CASES

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Feedback: SMK, Denmark
● took 2 hours from the start of the project, before SMK
was able to complete manually the first import.
● the SMK could have potentially imported its whole
collection to Europeana after only two full-days of work.
● all in all, importing SMK’s data through Operation Direct’s
interface has been a smooth, easy and straightforward
process.

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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DigitaltMuseum, Norway
● the Europeana Operation Direct API is simple to use, yet
powerful.
● The new API allows us to directly upload objects to
Europeana as they are updated in the DigitaltMuseum
ecosystem. It makes it easy to discover and fix
problems at object level.
● We have implemented the infrastructure needed to
integrate the new API with DigitaltMuseum. We could be
production ready "fairly soon".

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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Atria, the Netherlands
● we’ve been very happy to lend a hand on the idea of
Operation Direct;
● the tier-model, flexibility, simplicity and direct approach
gives a lot of convenience and control to a cross-
domain institute as Atria

19. Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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● Report the results and the learnings
● Decide how to Integrate them into the core development
● Update the product roadmap accordingly
● Stay tuned! (http://pro.europeana.eu/page/operation-
direct)
● (and talk to us)
What next?

20. Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Vision
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21. Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Name of image | Creator
Providing organization|
Country, licence
Name of image | Creator
Providing organization| Country, licence
Updated February 2016

22. Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Operation Direct: Reinventing Europeana’s Aggregation
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Use cases
● DigitaltMuseum:
http://operation-direct.europeana.eu/portal/en/search?q=dataOwner:digitaltmuseum.org
● National Museum in Warsaw:
http://operation-direct.europeana.eu/portal/en/search?q=dataOwner%3AMuzeum+Narodowe+w
+Warszawie
● Archives
http://operation-direct.europeana.eu/portal/en/search?q=dataOwner%3ANationaal+Archief&qf%5B
%5D=thumbnail%3Atrue
● SMK