🌍 Centralizing 3.2 Million Works on a Single Platform
In 2019, the Ministry of Culture launched the POP project (Open Heritage Platform) to centralize and make accessible more than 3.2 million cultural assets through a single, intuitive platform, designed for both the general public and professionals.
🏔️ Creating a National Cultural Platform in 12 Months
In just 12 months, a team of two developers created a national platform in partnership with BetaGouv and Selego. POP integrated +3.2 million heritage data from museums and local authorities, while ensuring information security and accessibility. The main challenges included:
- Massive data migration: Integration of millions of cultural assets from various sources, including museums and local authorities.
- Accessibility and performance: Design of a platform capable of serving millions of annual visitors, with a simple interface for the general public while being robust enough for professionals and researchers.
- Adaptability: Enabling more than 180 agents from the Ministry of Culture and French museums to feed the platform in real-time, while ensuring that the tools provided increase their operational efficiency.
To meet these challenges, the POP team adopted an agile approach, developing an MVP within weeks. Several iterations helped refine the features, ensuring a high-performing platform adapted to the needs of its millions of users.
📈 A Continuously Expanding Platform for French Heritage
Since POP's launch in June 2019, the platform has become the main digital resource for consulting French heritage, with more than 25,000 monthly users. The platform currently hosts more than 4 million documents and continues to grow thanks to the active contribution of Ministry agents and connected museums.
This success demonstrates the effectiveness of the collaboration between BetaGouv and Selego, as well as POP's lasting impact on the preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage in France.