The Russian culture ministry has announced a 248-million ruble ($8-million), three-year tender to create a multi-functional portal devoted to Russia's cultural heritage, a ministry official said on Friday.
"Our task is not to create a website about Russian culture. We want to create an online portal offering a variety of resources and integrate existing cultural websites into it, to bring all the best existing resources together," said Oleg Neretin, who heads the culture ministry's science, education and IT department.
The aim of the project, to be completed by 2014, is to help users find the information they need in two or three clicks.
The portal will offer library catalog data, online presentations of museum exhibitions, museum catalogs and information about objects of historical and architectural importance. It will also offer a culture newswire, event schedule, online broadcasts of shows and performances and access to rare movies from the archives of the Federal Agency on Culture and Cinematography.
"The portal should become a gateway into Russian culture," Neretin said, adding that only 1% of all existing Russian-language websites are devoted to culture, and just 0.3% offer high-quality information.
