Social Interaction with Cultural Heritage on the Web

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