Online cultural heritage as a social machine: a socio-technical approach to digital infrastructure and ecosystems.

Abstract

The advent of digital technologies has profoundly transformed cultural and heritage sectors, providing new avenues for broader access and interactions with digital collections. This shift has enabled Online Cultural Heritage (OCH) to evolve into an extensive ecosystem. Given the complexity that emerges from these networks and stakeholders, it is crucial to develop a clearer understanding of the extensive terminology used in the sector and establish pathways to deconstruct this complexity. Therefore, this article's aim is threefold: 1) it examines how OCH ecosystems foster the ongoing reinterpretation and recontextualisation of cultural heritage collections through technologic innovations and the Web. In doing so, it highlights the relevance of policy development and the establishment of ethical frameworks that address both human and technical complexities of Cultural Heritage (CH) knowledge; 2) using the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) as a framework and its terminology, the article maps the workflows and socio-technical actors of the OCH ecosystem; and 3) the article applies Callon's Process of Translation, a methodology for understanding how socio-technical networks evolve and use it to critically deconstruct digital infrastructures in OCH. This methodology enables the contextualisation and reinterpretation of cultural narratives across digital platforms, both online and offline, underscoring the dynamic interplay between technology, human agency, and cultural context. We explore how OCH ecosystems and other infrastructural ecosystems aid in preserving and facilitating engagement with open knowledge and research, and function as complex networks of cultural institutions interconnected through knowledge infrastructures. Whilst the paper places the primary approach within UK infrastructures, it provides alternative perspectives from the Global South, particularly Latin America, to contrast and further illustrate a reflection on the current and future challenges behind a sustainable OCH ecosystem, its implications for further networks, and its potential as a model beyond the CH sector. Furthermore, this framework can become paramount to identifying obstacles and opportunities for digital infrastructures, establishing a nuanced understanding of OCH as a core infrastructural element in the generation of knowledge from digital collections or digital infrastructures around the world. Finally, we provide a glossary of terms to establish a common ground between the wide range of parties involved in OCH. CCS CONCEPTS • Digital libraries and archives • Information Integration • Cultural characteristics.