The Regional Director for Culture, Nuno Lopes stated today at the ceremony to relaunch the Azorean Cultural Agenda, held in Angra do Heroísmo, that it is necessary to avoid the "overlaps" in the programming of events. In this regard, the government official called for "committed" participation of cultural agents in this "new opportunity" to disseminate the cultural activities developed throughout the archipelago.
The "Azores Culture" portal, an initiative developed by the Regional Directorate for Culture, has included the Cultural Agenda since 2011. Three years after being launched, Nuno Lopes stressed "the needs of adapting this highly visible content for the promotion and dissemination of Azorean culture inside and outside the archipelago to the new technical requirements for programming and web navigation."
Nuno Lopes stressed that following the contacts established between the Regional Directorate for Culture and all the agents in the sector on a regular basis, we concluded that "we need to assume a coordinating role" in the dissemination of cultural events.
From now onwards, the Cultural Agenda will be available at http://www.culturacores.azores.gov.pt/. It will be soon presented to the cultural agents on all islands with the purpose of emphasising "the advantages of this medium of communication," stressed Nuno Lopes.
According to the Regional Director, the Cultural Agenda, which is "a free public service," is not intended to "replace similar projects with defined territorial expression and other forms of dissemination."
The users of the Cultural Agenda will have further access to contents from mobile devices. This new features takes into account the current trends of users.
With the provision of several solutions, the Government aims to facilitate the access of users to the platform and, simultaneously, gain their loyalty.
The development of this project, headed by an Azorean specialty company, was developed in three phases.
Initially, the Agenda began to announce the events organised by the Regional Directorate for Culture and its External Services as well as all the events organised by partner organisations.
Despite being based on the existing Internet page, the first phase represented a very important evolution since it allowed users to have a more precise idea of the initiatives that will take place on a particular island or venue.
In the second phase, which entered into operation in April, several codes are added, commonly known as "QRCodes," to the places where the events were being held.
These codes are very useful on mobile devices, allowing any user to have immediate access to the events scheduled for a specific venue.
The third phase, which was concluded on May 8, comprises the possibility of creating a custom newsletter, which allows the targeting of specific information. This feature can be selected automatically.
Among the many goals of this initiative, one should stress the improvement in the organisation of information.
By congregating the information of the Cultural Agenda in a single area, users will have easier access to more contents.
With the phased implementation of the project, the Regional Secretariat for Education, Science and Culture, through the Regional Directorate for Culture, intends to provide useful information not only to regional audiences, but also to tourists visiting the Azores.