Social interaction with cultural heritage on the web

Abstract

This research proposal aims at bridging some of the current trends regarding Cultural Heritage institution's usage of Web based technologies. These trends include the increased use of Social Web principles with respect to traditional Web presences and the employment of Web3D technologies for single- or multi-user 3D environments for entertainment and education. Seen individually, each of these topics has already been covered by a number of different research projects, but relatively little work has been done on finding ways to elaborate these approaches by combining them within a common framework. The latter can also be observed in the practical usage patterns of these technologies, being usually limited to rather self-contained projects. Therefore, the aim is to provide a framework for the presentation of cultural heritage artefacts in a 3D virtual collaborative environment where visitors are able to participate using both synchronous and asynchronous means of communication. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.