a.o.Univ.-Prof. em. Dr. Walter Koch received a PhD in Mathematics and Physics from University of Graz in 1970. He is director of AIT Ltd. (Angewandte Informationstechnik Forschungsgesellschaft mbH) and lecturer at the University of Graz (European Masters programme for “European Heritage, Digital Media and the Information Society” – EuroMACHS). He is chairperson of CSC – Content Service Centre Austria and head of the Steinbeis Innovation Transferzentrum (IMCHI – Information Management and Cultural Heritage Informatics).
Prof. Koch’s relevant experience includes:
From 1981 to 2011: professor for “Machine Documentation and Information Services” (habilitation) at the Graz Technical University. From 1976 to 1998: head of different research institutes at JOANNEUM RESEARCH Ltd and Rechenzentrum Graz in Austria. Consultant and contractor to different national and international organizations (UNESCO, DFG – Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, EC – European Commission, ESA – European Space Agency, Austrian ministries, Graz municipality). Member of several national and international scientific associations (member of CIDOC/ICOM, chair of the CIDOC working group MPI, member of VÖB (Vereinigung Österreichischer Bibliothekare), DGI (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Informationswissenschaft).
Project experience (here enlisted: past years till 2014 with focus on cultural heritage): bibliographic information, information systems, IT-management, EU Projects (TAP, Raphael, TenTelecom, IST – Information Society Technologies, Interreg IIIB, EUREKA – a pan-European network for market-oriented, industrial R&D). Project examples: IST: COVAX -Contemporary Culture Virtual Archives in XML, OpenHeritage -Enabling the European Culture Economy, CULTIVATE -Cultural Heritage Application Network, REGNET – Cultural Heritage in REGional NETworks (Coordinator); Interreg IIIB: MEDIA.ALP; econtentplus, DISMARC DIScovering Music ARChives, EuropeanaLocal; ICT PSP: Europeanav01, EuropeanaConnect, BHL Europe, OpenUp!, and LoCloud Local content in a Europeana cloud. Cooperation with CIMI (Consortium for the Interchange of Museum Information) in different projects. Project management and scientific consulting of the cataloguing and digitising project for cultural heritage in South Tyrol (Italian Region).