Knowledge Webs: The Rafael Roth Learning Centre of the Jewish Museum Berlin as example for the creation of dynamic learning environments
Hans-Dieter Hahn, Pandora Neue Medien GmbH, Germany
Gudrun Wiedmann, Pandora Neue Medien GmbH, Germany
Bettina Schoch, Pandora Neue Medien GmbH, Germany
http://www.jmberlin.de

Session: Knowledge Models

Museums are places for accessing knowledge, for learning about the past and the present. They are presenting not only history, art and culture but they are telling stories. They are moving the visitor into an active position of self-experiencing and self-exploring. They invite him for asking questions and for getting involved. Based on the multimedia project with the Jewish Museum Berlin we will give a contribution how new ways of knowledge transfer can be established for the individual visitors as well as with partners and other cultural institutions.

With its opening in September 2001, the Jewish Museum Berlin takes over an important responsibility for the past and the future of the German-Jewish history. For their communication strategy the museum focuses on the one hand on classical exhibition forms and pedagogical concepts. On the other hand new strategies for knowledge management and visitor experience have been established by introducing innovative multimedia technology and web applications. The Rafael Roth Learning Center is the "heart" of the knowledge and learning infrastructure of the museum for imparting knowledge about the various facts, the intellectual power and richness of German-Jewish history. The Center is a place of remembrance and critical thinking over the history. Here, the presentation of cultural heritage is turning into a dynamic learning process, into a sustainable growing knowledge web.

The multimedia project of the Jewish Museum Berlin describes since its first planning steps in 1999 an ambitious intention in building a dynamic information and media infrastructure. "We explicitly decided in favour of innovative technology and new media for museums", said Michael W. Blumenthal, director of the Jewish Museum Berlin and former Secretary of the Treasury in the US. The main objective was the development and implementation of a technical and organizational concept which enables the museum:

- To answer the expectations and various needs of museum visitors in defining didactic and technical principles, which are integrated in the ongoing practice inside the museum.

- To provide the scientific and production employees an efficient and user-friendly software toolset in order to support the complete content enrichment and publishing process up to cross-media distribution channels.

- To ensure the development of cooperative publication and communication strategies together with national and international partners.

Based on the actual results and user feedback of the Rafael Roth Learning Center the following aspects will be presented:

- Usage scenarios of dynamic knowledge webs for different user groups

- Collaborative backend processes: distributed content enrichment and content enlargement workflows within the museums and in cooperation with partners and other institutions

- Technologies and software tools for establishing intelligent knowledge infrastructures