The MuMo project: an open source initiative for environmental conditions' museum monitoring

The MuMo project is an initiative that uses open source solutions (OSS) designed to provide an easy-to-set-up platform for monitoring environmental conditions using multiple sensors that are connected via Internet of Things (IoT). Monitoring environmental conditions in a museum is critical for the preservation of artworks, artifacts, and other cultural objects. MuMo, short for “Museum Monitoring” was initially conceived and prototyped by the Fashion Museum in Antwerp (MoMu). The project is being developed in collaboration with the University of Antwerp’s Department of Product Development.

MuMo is still a project, not a finished product, but it's a significant step toward an end-to-end museum data monitoring solution. We develop our own hardware and firmware, build a dashboard for data visualisation, and work on standardising data streams as Linked Data. Our goal is a complete, open, and flexible monitoring ecosystem, and we're almost there. - Dieter Suls coordinator of the Dries Van Noten Study Center

What are the origins of MuMo, and what are the benefits of it being OS?

The MuMo project originated at Antwerp Fashion Museum, where initial in-house prototypes were developed as the foundation for museum monitoring. Over time, partnerships were formed with the University of Antwerp (Product Development), Imec (ID-Lab at the University of Ghent), and freelance hardware developer Pascal Roobrouck (Strooom). Funded by the Flemish Government, MuMo is being developed for the cultural heritage community. It is currently being refined, tested, and implemented in collaboration with a consortium of Belgian museums and heritage partners.

With its components available on GitHub, the team aimed to share the knowledge gained during development, along with all the benefits of OSS. In the words of Dieter Suls: There is no black box, which is completely different from a proprietary product. And you can keep developing and improving your tool. It is also a modular product, nothing is definitive. You can (re)use elements of our project without having to implement everything. And we are flexible, in the sense that our current setup could also work with other sensors within different environments and use cases. Also, other developers can build on our efforts and take things further. 

What is the licence used and the technical aspects of the project ?

The MuMo team developed a custom hardware and firmware based on consortium needs, sharing it under a “non-commercial reuse”  Creative Commons licence , which allows users to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt a product, as long as the inventor is credited, and it’s not for commercial use.

“So that everyone can rebuild it. The idea is that we share our government-funded work through an open licence. However, even though we still prefer a cooperative model after our funding ends, there is a chance we have to set up an enterprise to keep our ecosystem running. That’s why we use the ‘Non-Commercial Reuse’ CC licence.” -Dieter Suls

MuMo uses The Things Network and  LoRaWAN modules, a long-range, low-power protocol, that securely transmits sensor data across the entire museum area. The data is processed through the MuMo pipeline, transforming it into structured events with details like time, location, and other important readings such as temperature or humidity. MuMo follows the W3C SSN data model for consistency and interoperability. The data is published as Linked Data Event Streams, making it accessible in a web-friendly format for integration with dashboards. Additionally, MuMo uses Solid, an open standard for secure, decentralised data management.

Solid aims to support the creation of the Web as Sir Tim Berners-Lee originally envisioned it when he invented the Web at CERN in 1989. With Solid's Authentication and Authorisation systems, we determine who can access our application and data streams.- Dieter Suls 

The project is currently in its final, third phase and will finish at the end of 2025

 

For more information on the project click here
For MuMo’s GitHub repository click here and here

A heartfelt thank you to Dieter Suls, coordinator of the Dries Van Noten Study Center, for his time and effort in explaining MuMo for this article.

Logo and in-text pictures taken from Wikipedia