Improving Dissemination and Localization of Cultural Heritage Through Multimedia Maps - The Case of Lipari Island

Most of the maps in tourist information websites show only the position of the Points of Interest (PoIs)—providing sometime a link to a webpage—making choices difficult. Multimedia maps, instead, could support users in satisfying the traveler needs giving links to information about the PoIs. The developed application supports improved connections between documents and the places they refer to because the user could select PoIs to visit through previews of its multimedia documents. PoIs could also be filtered through their categories and types, accessibility status and time line, thus improving the system usability. This article describes a multimedia map developed as sample for the Lipari Island, the largest of the Aeolian Islands (in Sicily), inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List

The continuing saga around arts funding and the cultural wars in Australia

Cultural policy, and arts funding in particular, has been a site of much contention and discussion in Australia over the past decade. The events of the past two years took this to another level showing major ideological schisms in the present political approach. While the established arts sector was protected and consolidated, the emerging sector, individual artists, and small organisations were all negatively affected. The policy changes demonstrate the implicit challenges of direct political intervention in arts funding. What this period highlights also though is the vulnerability of artists and the philosophical contradictions around the nature of arts funding