The Philatelic and Postal Museum is entering the world of digital reality of the 21st century thanks to the project ‘Digital Management of its cultural repository’, implemented by ‘Information Society’.
More specifically, in late February, visitors to the website https://ft-museum.gr/ will be able to use the new digital services provided by the portal.
The most important service is presenting in electronic format thousands of stamps from the modern philatelic history of Greece, from the very first one, depicting the head of the god Hermes, released back in 1861, to current ones.
The major axes of implementation, co-funded by the Operational Programme ‘Public Sector Reform 2014-2020’ under the NSRF 2014-2020, were recently presented in a workshop held at the Ministry of Digital Governance.
The event was addressed by the Deputy Minister of Digital Governance, Mr Konstantinos Kyranakis, who stressed the cultural value and other aspects of the project, whereas the technical details of the digitisation of the Museum were developed on behalf of contractor-company NextCom by Mrs. Paulina Daskari.
Speaking on behalf of ‘Information Society’, the Director-General for Projects, Mr Dimitris Giantsis, who introduced the workshop, said: ‘All of us at ‘Information Society’ are very happy whenever we deliver a project. Our Society has been specialising in this field for 22 years now, but the last 5 years have seen a rapid increase in the number of digital projects we are called upon to handle and develop. Our portfolio includes more than 350 projects worth €3 billion. I wish to thank both the Ministry of Digital Governance for their trust and the companies involved for their cooperation. As regards the project of digitising the Philatelic and Postal Museum, I believe that it contributes to the added value of Greek culture and I invite both the young and old alike to browse its new digital services.’
The axes analysed concern:

• The New Digital Portal, as digitisation allows ‘the Philatelic and Postal Museum to preserve and maintain unchanged over time a very important part of its history and cultural heritage, seeking to communicate this historical repository to the general public easily and quickly on the Internet,’ as explained. Thanks to the Portal, the Museum’s repository and its multimedia applications will become accessible to the general public. It was also stressed that the project will result in the creation of a digital repository and the development of applications that will allow easy access for all citizens and for the educational and academic community to historical exhibits, knowledge and information that marked the postal history of Greece. It is noteworthy that the Museum has rare exhibits from important Greek engravers, which are classified as works of art, as well as ledgers and loose documents covering the fields of social and cultural activity of the period from 1901 to 1930.
• Digitisation, which took place at the premises of the Philatelic and Postal Museum and included the scanning of documents and the taking of specialised photographs of documents, with more than 85,000 shots.
• Digital Applications, with the creation of two educational applications (a timeline and an interactive map), which will be available on the new website of the Museum in Greek and English. By playing the online game ‘Postal Stamp – Witness of History and Geography’, one is able to place the stamps on an interactive map after associating them with prefectural capitals, Greek islands and archaeological sites.
• Also, the Augmented Reality application ‘Philatelic and Postal Journey’ was implemented, allowing visitors to have a different experience in the Museum’s rooms. The app will also be available free of charge for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) on Google Play/Apple Store.