GreenGLAM in the beautiful Wachau region

On September 9, 2025, the project team met in the beautiful Wachau region—not only for a relaxed exchange during a boat trip with a picnic, but also for an intensive day of work full of technical insights, discussions, and concrete planning.

The focus was on current progress in technical implementation: webLyzard presented the status of the dashboard, initial visualizations, and new approaches to user guidance, while VRVis presented the data sculptures. Sylvia (openGlam.at) provided an overview of the requirements from the culture hackathon and the stakeholder forum - an important step in further developing the platform in line with real needs.

International impetus, for example from the workshop in Zaragozabroadened the perspective. The work packages were also updated and aligned with the next milestones.

A year full of progress – and many exciting steps ahead

After the first year of the project, we can proudly say that GreenGLAM is on track! Together with our partners from research, technology, and cultural institutions, we have laid a solid foundation for achieving the sustainability goals (SDGs) with Austria's GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums).

Review of the first year

  • Virtual data sculptures:An initial design concept was developed—inspired by the SDG color wheels and linked to GLAM data. In the future, these sculptures will be dynamically created from live data and can be experienced in AR/VR.
  • Dashboard & Storypact:The web-based dashboard already provides GLAMs with valuable insights into their SDG references. In addition, Storypact launched an AI-powered text editor that helps GLAMs communicate their sustainability achievements.
  • Data Space for culture:Modern NLP and knowledge graph methods have been used to tap into extensive data sources – from museum websites to Europeana metadata. Step by step, this is creating a comprehensive picture of how GLAMs contribute to the SDGs.
  • Culture Hackathon 2025Our first hackathon took place in January—and it was a resounding success! Innovative concepts were developed in collaboration with regional museums and archives, including the project CONNECTAthat makes data sculptures about “heritage vending machines” accessible to the public.

What comes next?

The second year of the project promises exciting developments:

  • the first dynamic data sculptures,
  • advanced deep learning models for detecting GLAM events,
  • the first version of the GLAM Explorer app,
  • as well as the further development of the dashboard into a comprehensive authoring and decision-making tool.

 

GreenGLAM is growing—not only technically, but also as a collaborative project between culture, technology, and sustainability. The next steps are already being planned, and we look forward to showing you more soon.