The long-term objective is to make Europe’s culture available to all its citizens. As a thematic network, E-Culture Net produced a study (Keene, UCL) showing that this is a practical goal achievable by means of a Distributed European Electronic Resource (DEER), which includes a Distributed Repository, Virtual Reference Room and Virtual Agora. While concluding that this is entirely feasible in the future, it was shown that the challenge is so formidable that it cannot be solved in a single IP within the present FP6 scale.

As an interim step, the NoE will create a preliminary DEED (Distributed European Electronic Dynamic) Resource, with 12 modules. This research infrastructure to share resources, research methods and to develop critical thought will be the NoE’s first objective to integrate research communities in digital culture.

As a Thematic Network (TN), E-Culture net has demonstrated the practicality of such a quest through a demonstration with 1,480,000 pages combining manuscript and image materials from three different sources using the concept of Distributed Autonomous Cultural Objects (DACOs). The preliminary version can be achieved through nine workpacakges and will bring closer the vision of a full-blown version of the DEED.