FAQ

Yes. OpenCulturas can be operated entirely on your own servers in Germany. There is no dependency on US cloud services or the like. Users also have control over the storage of their personal data. Tracking of behavior on the platform does not take place by default.

Both versions are possible. From the start, OpenCulturas supports central installations with multiple sub-organizations. Also already solved: filtered calendars or an overview of all member organizations for placement across all existing individual websites, independent of technology. OpenCulturas can be extended with little effort for decentralized setups with a shared interface – feel free to reach out with your specific ideas!

Not necessarily. OpenCulturas is scalable – even small institutions or projects can start with a manageable setup. Growth isn't excluded. Your advantage: you don't need to deal with importing large amounts of data. If you grow, OpenCulturas grows with you. If you stay a small team, the platform will also look exactly the right size from the outside. Overview pages you don't need can simply be deactivated until you need them.

Not necessarily. OpenCulturas can be set up and operated by a service provider (or by OpenCulturas e. V.). For day-to-day operation you don't need developers – but it helps to have someone on the team who isn't afraid of a CMS.

It depends on your starting situation. For a realistic overview, we're happy to talk with you – with no sales pitch, just concrete assessments. For orientation: High degree of practice-oriented preconfiguration; setup effort for customization: a few hours Initial import from tabular data structures possible (e.g. importing a list of cultural institutions from CSV/Excel) Low training effort

Several interfaces for OpenCulturas have already been built, including importers for Open Data Germany, Eventim, and Reservix. The technical foundation exists, but since requirements always differ and contracts with data providers are usually required, we haven't made these interfaces freely available. Get in touch with us if this is relevant for you.

Yes, various interfaces have already been developed. However, there's no "Swiss Army knife" in this area; we need to look at each case individually — which data needs to move between which platforms. An OpenCulturas-savvy service provider can put together a proposal for this, potentially building on interfaces that already exist.

You can handle this yourselves, through an IT service provider of your choice, or by having a member of the OpenCulturas network take it on. There is no obligation to get hosting or maintenance through us. However, it's possible – and perhaps the simplest way to get started – to book a Managed OpenCulturas package through the association, including maintenance and hosting.

This is a common and very important question, quite independent of OpenCulturas. The software was specifically designed for such situations and can be operated beyond the funding period even with a modest hosting budget. Because standard open-source software is in use, there's no direct dependency on a single agency. Avoiding dependencies A common pitfall is ambitious custom development of a web portal, often carried out by an agency focused on modern design and new interaction concepts. There's nothing wrong with that in principle, but it means a single agency ends up with in-depth knowledge ...

Here are our suggestions for a typical OpenCulturas installation as a general platform for arts + culture events Concert Conference Exhibition Festival For children Guided tour Lecture Market Performance Reading Workshop Just as an inspiration. For your use case other terms might make more sense. Recommendations: Do not add any "Other" type. Nobody is required to select a type, the field may be empty. Avoid adding too many! When many types are only tagged by 1-3 entries the filter becomes a frustration raiser. And in case you use linked tags the landing page would look like an accident. How ...

Here are our suggestions for a typical OpenCulturas installation as a general platform for arts + culture events Theater Museum Concert hall Open-air stage Gastronomy Club Congress center Public space Fairground Marketplace Festival site Monument Tourist attraction Multifunctional site Educational institution Hotel Just as an inspiration. For your use case other terms might make more sense. Recommendations: Do not add any "Other" type. Nobody is required to select a type, the field may be empty. Avoid adding too many! When many types are only tagged by 1-3 entries the filter becomes a ...

Short derivation: CMS Garden came up with the idea while testing OpenCulturas. Actually, articles are perfect for adding press releases, position papers and the like. However, a distinguishing feature on this level was missing to be able to create aggregation pages (e.g. Press > Press releases). So, based on the same principle as "Event type", the vocabularies "Article type" and "Page type" were created, which provide the aggregation pages right away. For pages, the contribution was created for consistency. CMS Garden will use this for aggregation of other content (see below). CMS Garden ...