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Republic of Korea

Disclosure of Cultural Heritage Resources (KR0045)

Overview

At-a-Glance

Action Plan: Republic of Korea Action Plan 2018-2020

Action Plan Cycle: 2018

Status:

Institutions

Lead Institution: Division of ICT Management, Culture Heritage Administration

Support Institution(s): Culture Heritage Administration, those in charge of preservation and management of cultural assets at metropolitan and local governments, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, those in charge of 3D related industries and technologies at the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education and those in charge of field learning at metropolitan and provincial offices of education, those in charge of exhibitions at public and private museums nationwide, researchers at research institutes and/or academic societies specialized in cultural assets, those majoring in cultural assets or related subjects at university or graduate school, the 3D Printing Industrial Association, the Korea 3D Printing Association, the 3D Printing Teachers Association, the Gamers Foundation.

Policy Areas

Infrastructure & Transport, Private Sector, Public Service Delivery, Science & Technology

IRM Review

IRM Report: Republic of Korea Transitional Results Report 2018-2020, Republic of Korea Design Report 2018-2020

Early Results: No IRM Data

Design i

Verifiable: Yes

Relevant to OGP Values: Yes

Ambition (see definition): Low

Implementation i

Completion:

Description

Culture Heritage Administration, those in charge of preservation and management
of cultural assets at metropolitan and local governments, the Ministry of Trade,
Industry and Energy, those in charge of 3D related industries and technologies at the
Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education and those in charge
of field learning at metropolitan and provincial offices of education, those in charge
of exhibitions at public and private museums nationwide, researchers at research
institutes and/or academic societies specialized in cultural assets, those majoring in
cultural assets or related subjects at university or graduate school, the 3D Printing
Industrial Association, the Korea 3D Printing Association, the 3D Printing Teachers
Association, the Gamers Foundation.

IRM Midterm Status Summary

9. Disclosure of the Cultural Heritage Resources for New Industries in the Private Sector

Commitment Text:

"Disclosure of the cultural Heritage Resources for New Industries in the Private Sector"

The purpose of this commitment is to help the private sector build high value-added industries such as a 3D printing industry through converting the raw data derived by using a high precision 3D scanner to restore the original form of cultural heritage in case of loss or damage due to an earthquake or fire into offering ready-to-use data for 3D printing.

The detailed implementation methods are as follows:

1) to build and operate a cultural heritage 3D web portal (Dec, 2018~) by collecting and converting 3D scanner raw data created by the Culture Heritage Administration, its affiliated organizations and local governments in order to allow citizens to access all cultural heritage 3D data; to disclose 1,000 sets of various data including 264 sets of 3D scanned data, 100 sets of printing data, 5 sets of braille data and 3D modeling data within 2018 through the web portal; to disclose additional 50 sets of 3D printing data, thereby disclosing about 1,500 sets of public data in 2019 and accumulatively increase the number to 2,000 in 2020;

2) to create and distribute 3D content tailored to diverse sectors through an industry-university-research institute-government partnership involving 3D printing related associations, metropolitan and provincial Offices of Education, universities, museums and research institutes;

3) to strengthen the quality management of 3D data such as developing a production guideline on 3D scanned data.

Milestones:

  • Building a 2018 cultural heritage 3D database – 50 sets of 3D scanning and 50 sets of printing.
  • Building a cultural heritage 3D web portal.
  • Hosting a cultural heritage themed 3D printing competition (the 3rd 3D Printing Korea Expo, Gumi, Korea)
  • Hosting a special exhibition using 3D content as part of HERITAGE KOREA 2018 (Gyeongju Hwabaek International Convention Center, HICO)
  • Delivering a presentation on best practices on exchanges of advanced technologies at the Digital Heritage 2018 (San Francisco) - 3D scanning and printing of cultural heritage)
  • Disclosing 1,000 sets of public data including 3D modeling data of cultural heritage.
  • Building a 2019 cultural heritage 3D database - disclosing 1,500 sets of accumulated public data including 50 sets of 3D printing data
  • Building a 2020 cultural heritage 3D database - disclosing 2,000 sets of accumulated public data including 50 sets of 3D printing data

Start Date: 1 September 2018 End Date: 31 August 2020

Editorial Note: For the full text of the commitment, please see Korea's 4th National Action Plan 2018-2020 at https://bit.ly/2JvQr98.

Commitment Overview

Verifiability

OGP Value Relevance (as written)

Potential Impact

Completion

Did It Open Government?

Not specific enough to be verifiable

Specific enough to be verifiable

Access to Information

Civic Participation

Public Accountability

Technology & Innovation for Transparency & Accountability

None

Minor

Moderate

Transformative

Not Started

Limited

Substantial

Completed

Worsened

Did Not Change

Marginal

Major

Outstanding

9. Overall

Assessed at the end of the action plan cycle.

Assessed at the end of the action plan cycle.

Context and Objectives

The purpose of this commitment is to increase access to scanned, high-precision, 3D data on cultural heritage resources. This data can be used by the 3D-printing industry to recreate items in the case of loss or damage due to earthquakes or fires. [41] The application of 3D scanning and printing allows this replication without having to use traditional techniques that could be too invasive for often delicate cultural heritage artifacts.

The commitment will offer public access to this 3D data via a web portal [42] with the ultimate goal of disclosing 2,000 sets of scanned 3D data, creating and distributing sector-tailored 3D content through a multistakeholder partnership, and strengthening the management and quality-control of 3D data. In addition, the commitment proposes other activities, such as hosting a competition, an exhibition, and a presentation on 3D content and printing to raise awareness and build capacity.

This commitment is specific enough to be verifiable as it identifies several measurable milestones such as the development of a 3D web portal, the disclosure of a specific number of datasets, and the hosting of special events. The commitment is relevant to the OGP value of access to information as it aims to facilitate public access to 3D data on cultural heritage resources by converting raw data into a ready-to-use format using a high-precision 3D scanner. The action plan suggests that the web portal will allow all citizens to access this data indiscriminately. The use of a web portal means that this commitment is also relevant to the value of technology and innovation for transparency.

This commitment has a minor potential impact on public access to ready-to-use 3D data on cultural heritage resources. The regularly updated web portal is a departure from the status quo as 3D data was previously inaccessible for public use. [43] Prior to this commitment, 3D scanning was used for accumulating basic data for prototype restoration, and only circulated within the government.

The government also notes that through competitions, presentations, and special exhibitions, along with the commercialization of 5G communication, public awareness and demand for 3D data will expand significantly. 3D data can be used, for instance, to produce realistic entertainment content, such as virtual reality and holograms. However, at present, the 3D data—being technical—is most likely to be used by a niche segment of society (i.e., 3D printers and other related industries) and have limited appeal to citizens at large. This commitment is thus limited in scope.

Next steps

As this commitment stands to primarily appeal to and benefit a specialized segment of society, the IRM does not recommend that this commitment is carried forward into future action plans in its current form.

[41] According to a representative of the Cultural Heritage Administration, there is a long history of damage or destruction of cultural heritage resources due to historic wars and natural disasters. In 2017, for instance, the Pohang earthquake damaged 31 valuable cultural artifacts, while the Gangwon-do forest fire in 2005 significantly damaged the 15th century Naksansa Temple and wooden artifacts contained within it.
[42] Cultural Heritage Administration, "3D 문화유산 소개" [Introduction to 3D Cultural Heritage] (accessed Jul. 2020), https://bit.ly/3cz54pm.
[43] Cultural Heritage Administration representative, interview by IRM, June 2020.

IRM End of Term Status Summary

9. Disclosure of the Cultural Heritage Resources for New Industries in the Private Sector

Substantial:

A cultural heritage 3D web portal was launched, and 299 datasets were published. The goal of publishing 2,000 public datasets was not achieved during implementation; only 1,521 were published. There is no information on participation in best practice exchange activities as outlined in the action plan. According to government information, changes in availability and data quality were made following public input.


Commitments

Open Government Partnership