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The best starting point for discussing the question of OPEN ACCESS to Heritage Collections is ECHOhttp://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/ECHO/homeMotivationThe ECHO initiative has been motivated by the observation that, at present, information relevant to cultural heritage still plays only a marginal role in the Internet: the number one medium for current and future scientific work, communication and general archiving.Basic ideaThe basic idea of the ECHO-initiative therefore is to establish an open-source culture of the public and scholarly exploitation of cultural heritage on the Internet. This idea comprises the promotion of content-driven technology in information management.AimThe aim is to create an Agora, a community of producers and users of culturally relevant information, who are willing to freely exchange this in order to build a joint portal and a common infrastructure.Several digitized collections are online on the mentioned website!