THING

The THING project is based on the Thing sites that are the assembly sites spread across North West Europe as a result of the Viking diaspora and Norse settlements. The objective is to exchange knowledge, specify, develop and test new and improved services for sustainable management and business development at the Northern European Thing sites. The project results should also contribute to a future nomination process of a serial inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List of the North Atlantic Thing sites.

Priority:

2. Sustainable development of natural and community resources

Objective:

ii. Urban-rural development and promotion of heritage

Theme:

Tourism, recreation, cultural heritage, languages

Aim & Objectives:

The overall objective will be achieved by implementing a series of surveys, documentation activities, international workshops and seminars held in each involved region. The project will also implement and test interpretation methods and branding, and then combine the results and new knowledge into an ICT web2 based service. The ICT service will promote and support the protection, management and interpretation of the Thing sites and stimulate mobilization and networking between the partners, end users and institutions involved. And lastly the project will deliver a managded and successfully communicated project.

Expected Outcomes:

A variety of interests would benefit from what can be achieved through the project. The main demand is for more in-depth information about the Thing sites and their history and better methods of documentation and dissemination. The outcome of the project will be vital to the tourism industry at local and regional levels.
During the project, regional operational services will be improved, re-implemented also as inter-regional services and evaluated, and the conclusions used to improve practices that will be summed up in the concluding inter-regional service model. The concept «service model» is used to describe the added value and the set of new inter-regional services that is the result of the cooperation.
This THING project will jointly develop a trans-national service model based on the Thing Sites heritage of 6 regions in the Northern Periphery. It will be documented, specified, delivered and marketed in a transnational fashion by the partners.