Open heritage

The UNESCO World Heritage Convention (WHC) which was developed using open governance methodologies.

Open heritage is the application of open culture solutions and open source software for the academic research, safeguard, and open education of cultural heritage and natural heritage, ^{[1] [2]} including religious heritage ^[3] and sacred natural sites, in compliance with the United Nations Education Science Culture Organization (UNESCO) recommendations on open education ^[4] that regulate the Blue Shield International World Heritage Convention for world heritage sites and the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

UNESCO Heritage Sites Common Heritage of Humanity Emblem.

The movement has just developed the Open Heritage Statement. ^[5]

Blue Shield International protected heritage site or asset emblem.

Institutions

Some of the most prominent networks in the field today, which produce resources and events with collaborators from all around the world, are the:

• European Union (EU) OpenHeritage Platform ^[6]
• Creative Commons (CC) Open Culture Platform.
• ICOM Movement for the International New Museology (MINOM) Digital Resources for Online Public Services (DROPS) Ecomuseology Platform.

World heritage sites map.

Open source software

The movement has developed a series of free libre and open source software (FLOSS) that are the open standard in the field, ^[7] like:

• Protégé
• Getty Research Institute Arches ^{[8] [9]}
• Google Arts & Culture Open Heritage ^[10]
• Open Heritage 3D ^[11]
• Future for Religious Heritage (FRH)
• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Sacred Natural Sites (SNS) International ^[12]

References

1. van Knippenberg, Karim (2020), "Opening up heritage : beyond a conceptualization as object or process", Opening up the planning landscape : 15 years of actor-relational approaches to spatial planning in Flanders, the Netherlands and beyon, InPlanning, pp. 343–350, hdl:1854/LU-8674694, ISBN   978-94-91937-44-6 , retrieved 2025-10-02
2. Iaione, Christian; De Nictolis, Elena; Santagati, Maria Elena (2022-05-26). "Participatory Governance of Culture and Cultural Heritage: Policy, Legal, Economic Insights From Italy". Frontiers in Sustainable Cities. 4 777708. Bibcode:2022FrSC....4.7708I. doi: 10.3389/frsc.2022.777708 . ISSN   2624-9634.
3. "Future for Religious Heritage". Future for Religious Heritage. Retrieved 2025-10-02.
4. "UNESCO Open Educational Resources (OER) Dynamic Coalition". UNESCO OER Dynamic Coalition Portal. Retrieved 2025-10-02.
5. "Open Heritage Statement". Open Heritage Statement. Retrieved 2025-10-02.
6. "OpenHeritage – People. Places. Potential".
7. Harris, Dee (2025-09-18). "The Benefits of Open Heritage in the Digital Environment". Creative Commons. Retrieved 2025-10-02.
8. "Arches Project Open Source Data Management Platform". November 24, 2015.
9. "Standards and Interoperability". Getty Arches Project. 2012-11-25. Retrieved 2025-10-02.
10. "Open Heritage". Google Arts & Culture.
11. "Open Heritage 3D". openheritage3d.org.
12. "Sacred Natural Sites - Conserving Nature and Culture".