ARISE heritage platform (Cuenca)
In Sierra y Mancha Conquense, an open-call team joined archaeological sites, 63 local businesses and 148 itineraries in one open-source platform.
What problem did ARISE solve in Sierra y Mancha Conquense, and what did it leave behind for other regions?
Visitor information was fragmented across Roman archaeological sites, rural businesses, routes and services. ARISE joined them in one mobile-first platform with a JackDaw chat guide and a MAAT workspace for local stakeholders (63 businesses, 148 itineraries, 48 registered stakeholders). It left a data-free, Apache-2.0 open-source code base on GitHub for replication.
- Develop-call project: Obsidian Innovation Institute (Portugal) with Xilbi Sistemas de Informacion (Spain)
- Two layers: a public visitor app with a JackDaw chat guide, and a restricted MAAT workspace for stakeholders
- 63 rural businesses, 148 planned itineraries, 199 verified records, 48 MAAT stakeholders in 17 sessions
- Replication basis: data-free source code on GitHub under Apache-2.0
ARISE: Roman heritage, rural businesses and one visitor journey
main tellingexample world: spaindepth: standard2 min markdown
The Spanish pilot wants to use cultural heritage for rural economic development. Its 2040 goal in D7.4 is for Segobriga Archaeological Park to become a centre of cultural tourism that boosts the local economy (Cuenca pilot). The obstacle ARISE tackled was more ordinary: visitor information was fragmented. Roman archaeological sites, rural businesses, multi-stop routes and local services were not connected into one visitor journey.
Who built it
ARISE (Archaeological Routes for Inclusive Synergy & Entrepreneurship) was funded under the Develop open call. The lead was Obsidian Innovation Institute – Associação (Portugal), with Xilbi Sistemas de Informacion SL (Spain). It ran a nine-month plan in five work packages, from co-design to public deployment, consolidation and preparation for replication.
What it built
A dual-layer web platform:
- a public, mobile-first visitor service with an OpenStreetMap map, route planning, business and news listings, and a chat guide powered by JackDaw. Server-side integrations add live AEMET weather data and an indicative renewable-energy forecast;
- a restricted operational layer: a content-management system and an authenticated workspace in the multi-actor approach tool (MAAT). There local actors track initiatives and tasks, co-design routes and monitor KPIs, including New European Bauhaus indicators.
The content is rights-cleared and verified, with image-provenance records and translations into Spanish, English and Portuguese. The data is published as five machine-readable dataset packages (199 verified records) with documented OpenAPI interfaces. The team ran 94 automated feature and integration tests (1,007 assertions).
What came out
D6.3 reports that ARISE met or exceeded all nine of its key performance indicators:
- 63 rural businesses onboarded and 148 planned itineraries hosted;
- 48 registered stakeholders working in the MAAT workspace across 17 collaborative sessions;
- a data-free, general-purpose code base on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 licence, with architecture guides, administrator manuals and database migrations.
The last point matters most for other regions. The platform has no Cuenca content built into its code, so another heritage territory could deploy it with its own sites, businesses and routes. D6.3 calls the architecture “ready for replication”. No second deployment is reported yet.
ARISE shows a hub-like function delivered as a digital service: it gives local businesses visibility and gives local actors a shared place to coordinate, without a new building.
Related
- Builds on: Rural innovation hubs
- Builds on: The Sierra y Mancha Conquense pilot