Siberian Federal University Scientists Make Siberiana Digital Platform

SibFU scientists have developed Siberiana digital platform within the Priority 2030 program. The Platform will accumulate information about the historical, cultural and natural heritage of the Yenisey Siberia. The geography of the project covers Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Republics of Khakassia and Tyva and part of Irkutsk Region. RIA Novosti was the first to tell about the project.

Siberiana is organized on the principle of a global data aggregator — the aggregator of text and media files. The collected information will give everyone an opportunity to get acquainted with the historical, archaeological, ethnographic, literary and cultural features of the region, as well as information about its nature reserves, unique landscapes and recreational areas.

The platform has a two-level access structure. The first level is intended for a wide audience. The content is available for free download and can be used for educational purposes, as well as for self-education and sightseeing. The second level of access is given to professional researchers and museum workers and requires authorization.

“According to our plan, Siberiana is a large project — a site of sites, reminiscent of aggregators like Europeana or the Metropolitan Museum of Art website. With the exception that those have the digital cultural heritage of Europe, and we have the heritage of vast territories united economically and culturally around the Yenisey River in the heart of Siberia. The demo version that we are currently launching works for free, an additional service of paid subscriptions will appear in the future,” said Polina Senotrusova, co-head of the project and senior researcher of the Laboratory of archeology of the Yenisey Siberia (Siberian Federal University), to RIA Novosti.

Today, the project team is working on digitized content, overcoming such problems as the disunity of museum funds and archaeological collections, the slow pace of digital technologies in the history and local history domains. According to Ms. Senotrusova, SibFU has already implemented successful projects related to the digitization of Siberian and capital art collections. Now, Siberiana will become something like a treasure chest that will collect all the developments and achievements in one place.

“Our target audience is students, designers, and artists who often turn to cultural heritage and do not know where to get comprehensive information. Tourists are interested in natural heritage. Let’s say that each of the 15 Russian specially protected natural areas has its own website. If we choose what to visit, we do not browse all 15 sites, we want to find it all in one place. And here Siberiana will come to help us,” noted the researcher.

Over a year of work the scientist managed to build an effective network of interactions with museums and nature sanctuaries, and cultural heritage protection authorities of the objects of Krasnoyarsk Territory which are ready to provide data from official registers. In turn, the platform developers got involved in local history projects related to city anniversaries, archaeological finds and some other.

The creators of Siberiana have already prepared a large section on archeology and separate sections dedicated to the historical cities of Krasnoyarsk Territory — Yeniseysk and Minusinsk. They also digitized the extensive library of Nikolai Martyanov, botanist, philanthropist and educator, honorary resident of Minusinsk. In the near future, the experts plan to compile a database on the settlements of the former Yeniseysk Governorate.

“A huge problem of the East Siberian territories is the settlements flooded during the construction of the Krasnoyarsk and Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power stations. It is not that easy to find out how many of them are flooded as there is no any single exact list published in the public domain. This is a big research challenge — we are launching it next year,” added Polina Senotrusova.

To work with regional museums, the scientists plan monthly visits with the participation of students of the School for the Humanities. Digitization of data will be the topic of their course papers and theses. An important part of the project will be the creation of a collection of audio files.

“We have successfully developed our own engine and continue to improve the technical stuffing of the site. The project is technically complicated due to the huge amount of data and the desire to make the resource less cumbersome so that it loads quickly,” Oleslav Antamoshkin, co-head of the project and head of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SibFU), told RIA Novosti.

The Siberiana creators plan to involve not only professionals. Ordinary citizens will also participate in the project in the format of the so-called citizen science when volunteers collect photo and video sources, letters, and material evidence from various eras, helping experts in the formation of collections.

“The goal of our project is to present and store data and serve as an educational resource for scientists. Not all students and specialist-historians are aware of the importance of virtual technologies and the prospects for their application in historical research,” concluded Polina Senotrusova.

Siberian Federal University participates in the development of the region within the framework of the Priority 2030 program.