http://www.virtualheritage.net Virtual Heritage | News, events, document library | information portal for technology in cultural, natural and world heritage News Sun, 11 May 2008 07:54:07 EST en-us Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:00:00 EST strong a href http://www.vsmm2008.org VSM '08 Website /a /strong br br You are kindly invited to participate to the VSMM 2008 joint conference which will provide an opportunity to exchange research results, opinions, experiences and proposals on the best practice and hi-tech tools from Information and Communications Technology to document, preserve, manage and communicate Cultural Heritage CH . The main goal of the event is not only to illustrate the programs underway but also excellent work wherever it is located and however it is supported, in order to promote a common approach to the tasks of e- documentation of World Cultural Heritage. Furthermore, regional capacities in the area of Cultural Heritage and IT will be facilitated in advancing their know-how through the exchange of information and generation of new ideas and cooperation's, where the world meets the finger prints of several ancient civilizations on earth. br br To reach this ambitious goal the topics covered will include experiences in the use of innovative recording technologies methods and how to take best advantage to integrate the results obtained to build up new tools and/or experiences as well as improved methodologies for documenting, managing and communicating CH. br br The VSMM 2008 joint event will focus on interdisciplinary and multi- disciplinary research concerning both cutting edge Cultural Heritage Informatics and use of technology for the representation, documentation, preservation, archiving and communication of CH knowledge. The scope includes every phase of CH information technology: initial data capture/digitization, information/data processing, reconstruction, visualization and documentation as well as dissemination of results to the scientific and cultural heritage communities and to the general public Multilingua, Multimedia Digital Library . We are also interested in aspects of the wider legal and ethical responsibilities of Cultural Heritage Informatics. Research subjects parallel the interests of VSMM, CIPA, ISPRS and EuroMed including culturally significant monuments, artefacts and sites as well as the activities of museums, libraries, archives, and organizations involved with their care. br br strong Topics: /strong br br Those researchers who wish to participate in this event are invited to submit papers on original and unpublished work addressing the following subjects: br ul li Data Acquisition Technologies focusing on Photogrammetry and Laser scanning li 3D Data Capture and Processing in CH li On-site and remotely sensed data collection li 2D and 3D GIS in Cultural Heritage li CAD and FEM based Digital Reconstructions and 3D Modelling li Reproduction Techniques and Rapid Prototyping in CH li Visualisation Techniques desktop, Virtual and Augmented Reality li Virtual Reality in Archaeology and Historical Research li Multimedia, Multilingua, Data Management and Archiving li Construction and indexing of large scale Multimedia/Multilingua Encyclopaedias in Cultural Heritage li Computer Animation for CH Applications and Virtual Heritage li Game Technologies in Cultural Heritage li Non-Photorealistic Rendering of CH Data li Virtual Museum Applications e-Museums and e-Exhibitions li Digital/Virtual Documentation of Archaeological Excavations li Novel Internet-based Cultural Heritage Applications li Portals of Culture li Usability, Effectiveness and Interface Design for CH Applications li Innovative Graphics Applications and Techniques li Interactive Environments and Applications li e-Libraries and e-Archives in Cultural Heritage li National Digital Libraries as cross-domain systems li Long term availability of content and its long term accessibility li Effective IC-Technologies for the creation, management and reuse of content and knowledge li Storytelling and authoring tools li e-Learning in Cultural Heritage li Tools for Education, Documentation and Training in CH li Archaeological Analysis and Interpretive Design li Standards, Metadata, Ontologies and Semantic Processing in Cultural Heritage li Authentication, Accreditation and Digital Rights Management li Legal issues: Water-Marking, Orphan Works, Copyrights and IPR li Professional and Ethical Guidelines li The Economics of Cultural Informatics and Tourism li Natural and Man initiated deconstruction of Cultural Heritage and prevention techniques. li ICT assistance in monitoring and restoration. /ul strong Submission of Papers: /strong br br Submissions for the joint event are completely electronic, and both the paper and all supplementary material must be submitted through the on-line submission website. The conference accepts only original, unpublished work written in English. We are soliciting three types of contributions: br ul li Full research papers presenting new innovative results. These papers will have a full-length oral presentation and will be published in a high-quality proceedings volume. Each submitted paper must not exceed 8 pages in total. li Project papers focusing on the description of project organization, use of technology, and lesson learned. These papers will have a short oral presentation and will be included in a Projects Short Papers proceedings volume. Each submitted paper must not exceed 8 pages in total. li Short papers presenting preliminary ideas and works-in-progress. These papers will have a short oral presentation and will be available as posters in conference breaks. They will be published in the Projects Short Papers proceedings volume. Each submitted paper must not exceed 6 pages in total. /ul br For information concerning style and format of all submissions, please refer to: br a href http://www.vsmm2008.org www.vsmm2008.org /a and then choose Paper Submissions. br br strong Important Dates: /strong br ul li Abstract full-/project-/short papers : June 2nd, 2008 li Paper submission full papers June 16th, 2008 li Paper submission project/short papers June 30th, 2008 li Notification of Refereeing results July 31st, 2008 li Camera ready FULL papers to printer August 24th, 2008 li Camera ready PROJECT/SHORT papers to printer August 29th, 2008 Proposals for showcases/ demo's June 30th, 2008 /ul br For more information about the joint conference please visit the webpage: br a href http://www.vsmm2008.org/ www.vsmm2008.org /a br or directly contact the chair of the event at: br a href mailto:chairman vsmm2008.org chairman vsmm2008.org /a br The event is in cooperation with the European Commission Projects: ul li MINERVA a href http://www.minervaeurope.org/whatis/minervaplus.htm www.minervaeurope.org /a li MICHAEL a href http://www.michael-culture.org/en/hom www.michael-culture.org /a li The Member States' Expert Group on Digitisation and Digital Preservation. li The European Commission Marie-Curie Project: br ul li Chiron - a href http://www.chiron-training.org/index.html www.chiron-training.org /a /ul /ul strong Marinos Ioannides /strong br Website: a href http://www.vsmm2008.org/ www.vsmm2008.org /a br Email: a href mailto:chairman vsmm2008.org chairman vsmm2008.org /a http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/2511.htm Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:00:00 EST Dear ECAI Affiliate, br br The International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing formerly the Journal of History and Computing is one of the world s premier multi-disciplinary, peer-reviewed forums for research on all aspects of arts and humanities computing. br br It focuses both on conceptual or theoretical approaches and case studies or essays demonstrating how advanced information technologies further scholarly understanding of traditional topics in the arts and humanities. The journal also welcomes submissions on policy, epistemological, and pedagogical issues insofar as they relate directly to computing-based arts and humanities research. br br The Journal is formally supported by three independent world-international organizations promoting arts and humanities computing The International Association for History and Computing, the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative based at UC Berkeley, and Digital Resources in the Humanities and Arts. br br In addition to, and complementing, open calls for papers mentioned above, the Journal, following rigorous peer review, will publish selected proceedings and transactions from these international organisations. The Journal will also be in collaboration with ECAI, and will partner its ongoing e-Publications programme. br br The Journal would like to hear from ECAI affiliates who might wish to publish a paper in the next issue of the Journal due in Summer 2008. Please contact a href mailto:paul.ell qub.ac.uk Paul Ell /a a href mailto:paul.ell qub.ac.uk paul.ell qub.ac.uk /a or a href mailto:intu100 iupui.edu David Bodenhamer /a a href mailto:intu100 iupui.edu intu100 iupui.edu /a , Journal editors, with proposals. br br strong All the best, br Kimberly Carl br ECAI /strong br http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/2512.htm Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:00:00 EST ECAI Director s Report br January 2008 br br The 21st Conference of ECAI and the Tenth Anniversary of the founding of the organization were held in conjunction with PNC at Berkeley in October. There were 182 registered delegates for the three day event. I want to thank Peter Zhou and Deborah Rudolph of the C.V. Starr East Asian Library for their great help in organizing our meeting in coordination with the opening of the new building for the library. br br The ECAI project focused on the Batanes Islands between Taiwan and the Philippines was awarded 30,800 by the UC Berkeley Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines Endowment Fund for continued research and construction of the atlas within the larger Austronesian work being conducted by Co-Director Michael Buckland, Professor David Blundell, and Jeanette Zerneke. br br We are in a period of expansion for the ECAI community and a number of training workshops have been planned to help bring new projects into operation. In August, Howie Lan from Berkeley and Damian Evans from U of Sydney worked with 30 students at the Vietnam Buddhist University in Ho Chi Minh who are constructing an Atlas of Vietnam Buddhism. In December, Damian Evans did a similar training at the Yang Heng Graduate School of Buddhism in Taipei for 18 students who are creating two atlases related to Buddhism in Taiwan. February will find Howie doing a workshop at Fagu University in Taiwan. We are also arranging for such training at the United Nations Vesak Day Celebration in Hanoi in May followed by a special workshop with the Ecole francaise d extreme oriente staff in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and a first ever ECAI working session in India. br br Both the Director and Co-Director have been traveling to various meetings around the world giving lectures. The Director gave keynote addresses at the Chicago Colloquium for Computer and Humanities, the conference in Seoul, Korea jointly sponsored by the Tripitaka Koreana Institute and Nanzen Temple of Kyoto celebrating the joint efforts to digitize images of the Nanzenji Archive, and Computing and Humanities Conference at Vietnam Buddhist University, Ho Chi Minh. br br We look forward to seeing members at the 22nd ECAI Conference, the Fourth Congress of Cultural Atlases being held April 21-25, 2008, on the campus of Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. The Fall 2008 meeting will be held jointly with the Pacific Neighborhood Consortium and the Japanese Geo-Informatics Projects in Hanoi in December. Spring of 2009 will find us in Williamsburg, Virginia meeting jointly with the Computer Applications in Archaeology group. br br Events br br Place and Time Mapping for Information in Religious Studies - Workshop br 2/19/2008 br Location: Fagu University, Taiwan br Description: Howie Lan, UC Berkeley, instructs participants in this one day workshop featured as part of the EBTI after 15 and CBETA at 10 Years: Joint International Conference on Digital Buddhist Studies, February 15-17 with post-conference workshop Feburary 19-20, 2008, Taipei, Taiwan. br See more on this event: br http://www.ddbc.edu.tw/eng/conferences/program.html br br Association for Asian Studies br 4/3/2008-4/6/2008 br Location: Atlanta, Georgia br Description: ECAI will hold a panel discussion at the 2008 meeting. br br ECAI Congress of Cultural Atlases IV br 4/21/2008-4/25/2008 br Location: Curtin Technical University, Perth, Australia br br United Nations Vesak Day Celebration br 5/13/2008-5/17/2008 br Location: Hanoi, Vietnam br Description: ECAI will hold a workshop at the UN br Day of Vesak and the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha. br br ECAI Congress of Cultural Atlases V br 3/22/2009-3/26/2009 br Location: Williamsburg, Virginia, USA br br Funding Announcements br br Text Analysis and Pattern Detection: 3-D and Virtual Reality Environments The National Science Foundation has awarded 99,000 grant for a one year research project that focuses on searching for patterns in the Korean Buddhist canon. This project is part of the ECAI approach that deals with the context of where, when, and who. All of the canonic data is to be searched for these three elements in a surrogate form of colored dots. We will give demonstration of the work at meetings in Taiwan, Vietnam, and Perth. br br Context and relationships: Ireland and Irish Studies ECAI has received a grant of 349,996, one of three awards from the new Advancing Knowledge program administered by the National Endowment for the Humanities and jointly funded by the Endowment and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The award funds a project entitled Context and relationships: Ireland and Irish Studies, which builds directly on our earlier IMLS-funded project Support for the Learner: What, Where, When and Who. The new project is a collaboration between ECAI, the Celtic Studies Program, the Emma Goldman Papers Project at Berkeley and the Queen s University, Belfast. At Belfast, the Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis and the University Library have been funded by the British government JISC to scan and digitize back-files of a hundred journals important for the study of Irish culture an history. ECAI will develop techniques to enable anyone reading these digitized articles to find explanations of persons, places, institutions, events and other topics mentioned in the text. More at http://ecai.org/neh2007/ br br Orchid Island Lan-yu and the Batanes: A Cultural Atlas Over the years the ECAI Austronesia team, led by Dr David Blundell, has benefited from as series of grants to David Bundell and ECAI Co-Director Michael Buckland from the University of California Berkeley Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines Endowment Fund. The largest and most recent of these grants 30,800 is to complete a cultural atlas designed by Jeanette Zerneke of the indigenous cultures and ancient migrations of the inhabitants of the islands in the Bashi channel between Taiwan and the Philippines. For details see http://ecai.org/batanesatlas/ http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/2388.htm Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:00:00 EST The Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation is now soliciting applications from qualified candidates for a 9 months, pre-doctoral CHIRON Marie Curie Fellowship, which includes full time salary, living expenses, and funds for travel and research materials. br br PLEASE NOTE: Because of EU guidelines, candidates from Belgium are not eligible for this fellowship at the Ename Center, but are welcome to apply at CHIRON partner institutions in other EU member states. The Fellowship is for immediate start. br br For more information about this fellowship program, please consult the websites of the Enamecenter and CHIRON. br br If you are interested in this vacancy, please send CV and letter of intent to eva.roels enamecenter.org. br br We would greatly appreciate if you would distribute this announcement to all potential candidates. br For more information on the Ename Center, see www.enamecenter.org or contact info enamecenter.org. br br With Thanks, br br Eva Roels br General Administrator br http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/2389.htm Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:00:00 EST 15th ACM International Symposium on Advances in Geographic Information Systems ACM GIS 2007 Call for Papers ------------------------------------------ November 7-9, 2007 Seattle, Washington, USA In cooperation with ACM SIGMETRICS Corporate Sponsorship by Microsoft http://www.cise.ufl.edu/dept/acmgis2007/ The ACM International Symposium on Advances in Geographic Information Systems in 2007 ACM GIS 2007 is the fifteenth event of a series of symposia and workshops that began in 1993 with the aim of bringing together researchers, developers, users, and practitioners carrying out research and development in novel systems based on geo-spatial data and knowledge, and fostering interdisciplinary discussions and research in all aspects of geographic information systems. The symposium provides a forum for original research contributions covering all conceptual, design, and implementation aspects of GIS and ranging from applications, user interface considerations, and visualization down to storage management and indexing issues. This year, a novelty is that ACM GIS has separated from its long-time host conference in order to become independent and more visible to the GIS community, further expand the spectrum of research topics covered by the symposium, and grow over the next years. TOPICS OF INTEREST Suggested topics include but are not limited to: Modeling and Querying Constraint approach for spatial databases Spatial data quality Image Databases Integration and management of raster and vector data Spatial and spatio-temporal data modeling Spatial and spatio-temporal data mining and knowledge discovery Spatial and spatio-temporal predicates Spatial and spatio-temporal query languages Spatial and spatio-temporal reasoning Spatial and spatio-temporal uncertainty, vagueness, and fuzziness Visual query languages Spatial and spatio-temporal visualization and analysis 3D spatial modeling Systems and Implementation Computational geometry Geospatial data integration Geospatial data versioning Interoperability and standards Large-scale GIS servers and parallel GIS Middleware architectures Multiple representations in spatial databases Performance metrics and issues Query processing Spatial data warehousing and decision support Spatial query processing and optimization Spatial, spatio-temporal, and multidimensional access methods Spatial data mining Stream processing Applications like Earth observation Geosensor networks Geovisualization Image databases Location-based services Mobile and distributed geographic computing and information services Novel and challenging applications Photogrammetry Real-time applications Risk prevention Spatial and spatio-temporal Online Analytical Processing OLAP Traffic telematics Transportation Urban and environmental planning Web applications Wireless networks PAPER FORMATTING GUIDELINES Authors are invited to submit full, original, unpublished research papers that are not being considered for publication in any other forum. Manuscripts should be submitted in PDF format and formatted using the ACM camera-ready templates available at http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html. Papers cannot exceed 8 pages in length. In addition to the regular full-length papers, the Program Committee may accept some as poster papers which may be requested to be shortened. All submitted papers will be refereed for quality, originality, and relevance by the Program Committee. The acceptance/rejection of the papers will be based on the review results. All questions should be addressed to the Program Committee Chair. One author per paper is required to register and attend the conference to present the paper if accepted for publication. PAPER SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Submissions to the conference will be electronically and online only. Authors are asked to submit an Abstract first, and then to upload the full paper in PDF file format. The online submission system will be available from April 30, 2007. IMPORTANT DATES Abstract Submission: June 11, 2007 Full Paper Submission: June 18, 2007 Notification of Acceptance: August 11, 2007 Camera Ready Copy: August 31, 2007 Symposium Date: November 7-9, 2007 ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE General Chairs: Hanan Samet, University of Maryland, USA Cyrus Shahabi, University of Southern California, USA Program Chair: Markus Schneider, University of Florida, USA Local Arrangements Kentaro Toyama, Microsoft Research, India Chairs: Pusheng Zhang, Microsoft Research, USA Treasurer: Yan Huang, University of North Texas, USA Publicity Chair: Chang-Tien Lu, Virginia Tech, USA Proceedings Chair: Alejandro Pauly, University of Florida, USA Poster Chair: Jagan Sankaranarayanan, University of Maryland, USA Program Committee: Peggy Agouris, George Mason University, USA Houman Alborzi, Google, USA Luc Anselin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Walid Aref, Purdue University, USA Lars Arge, University of Aarhus, Denmark Elisa Bertino, Purdue University, USA Michela Bertolotto, University College Dublin, Ireland Thomas Brinkhoff, Oldenburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany Christophe Claramunt, Naval Academy Research Institute, France Eliseo Clementini, University of L'Aquila, Italy Isabel Cruz, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA Leila De Floriani, Universita di Genova, Italy Matt Duckham, University of Melbourne, Australia Peter Fisher, City University of London, UK Andrew Frank, Technical University of Vienna, Austria Le Gruenwald, University of Oklahoma, USA Ralf H. Gueting, FernUniversitaet Hagen, Germany Stephen Hirtle, University of Pittsburgh, USA Erik Hoel, ESRI, USA Yan Huang, University of North Texas, USA Edwin Jacox, National Institutes of Health, USA Christian Jensen, Aalborg University, Denmark Christopher Jones, Cardiff University, UK Craig Knoblock, University of Southern California, USA Marc van Kreveld, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Robert Laurini, National Institute for Applied Sciences, France Scott Leutenegger, University of Denver, USA Ki-Joune Li, Pusan National University, South Korea Mario Lopez, University of Denver, USA Chang-Tien Lu, Virginia Tech, USA Nikos Mamoulis, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Mohamed Mokbel, University of Minnesota, USA Richard Muntz, UCLA, USA Brad Nickerson, University of New Brunswick, Canada Eyal Ofek, Microsoft Research, USA Beng Chin Ooi, National University of Singapore, Singapore Peter van Oosterom, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Dimitris Papadias, HKUST, Hong Kong Alejandro Pauly, University of Florida, USA Dieter Pfoser, CTI, Hellas Sunil Prabhakar, Purdue University, USA Philippe Rigaux, University of Paris-Dauphine, France Alan Saalfeld, Ohio State University, USA Jayant Sharma, Oracle Corporation, USA Timos Sellis, National Technical University of Athens, Hellas Shashi Shekhar, University of Minnesota, USA Emmanuel Stefanakis, Harokopio University of Athens, Greece Egemen Tanin, University of Melbourne, Australia Kentaro Toyama, Microsoft Research, India Vassilis Tsotras, University of California-Riverside, USA E. Lynn Usery, U.S. Geological Survey, USA Agn s Voisard, Fraunhofer ISST and FU Berlin, Germany Peter Widmayer, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Stephan Winter, The University of Melbourne, Australia Ouri Wolfson, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA Michael Worboys, University of Maine, USA May Yuan, University of Oklahoma, USA Donghui Zhang, Northeastern University, USA Pusheng Zhang, Microsoft Corporation, USA http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1839.htm Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:00:00 EST a href http://www.xplored.eu target _blank Xplored Website /a Idea of the project was born after obtaining a book 'Antiquarian and Topographical Cabinet, Containing A Series Of Elegant Views Of The Most Interesting Objects Of Curiosity In Great Britain, Accompanied with Letter-Press Descriptions' published by W. Clarke and J. Carpenter in 10 volumes, London, 1805-11. We have focused subsequent research on the most picturesque, haunted and unusual places of south England, trying to revive and sustain their unique atmosphere. Xplored unearthes abandoned way of experiencing ancient myths and medieval legends like XVIII and XIXth century engravers, antiquaries and historians were experiencing them until their romantic passion had become transformed into the academic disciplines of the modern photography, archaeology and history. Castles, hillforts, abbeys, roman ruins, stone circles, long barrows, caves, etc. are being chosen for their aesthetic qualities. All of the photos are retouched and, in most cases, everything on them what was made after XIXth century or looks like made after XIXth century is erased. As Charles Baudelaire said on romanticism: ' it is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in a way of feeling.' img src images/2.jpg border 0 img src images/2-2.jpg border 0 Paradoxically - the newest technologies had to be involved during the design and development of the Xplored website to emphasize such 'way of feeling' and bring it to the visitor without a hassle. Every engraving is scanned from the genuine source from our own collection at very high resolution and can be viewed at very high resolution on-line in real-time. Easy to use interface allows to see every object from the air - on satellite image which can be panned or zoomed in/out using the mouse and/or keyboard and switched to road map or hybrid view road map and satellite image in one . Every image in every gallery and whole site actually can be instantly switched to and viewed in sepia, black white or standard colour mode. img src images/3.jpg border 0 New galleries are added at least bi-monthly. Xplored covers six counties of south England so far but project definitely isn't limited to these counties nor England as we plan adding places from whole British Isles and, in the future, another countries. As a result of recently initiated collaboration with Iceage Design Squadron, we consider including interactive 3d reconstructions and footages as well. img src images/4.jpg border 0 img src images/5.jpg border 0 img src images/6.jpg border 0 img src images/7.jpg border 0 a href http://www.xplored.eu target _blank Xplored Website /a Lucas Bul Design Development Katarzyna Sadzikowska Photography http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1762.htm Mon, 14 May 2007 12:00:00 EST Call for Papers http://spatial.nvc.cs.vt.edu/sstdm07 October 28, 2007 Omaha, NE, USA Widespread use of sensor networks and location aware devices has resulted in large amounts of spatial and spatio-temporal datasets in a variety of domains. The number and size of these datasets continues to increase rapidly, making their manual processing impossible. It is therefore, imperative that efficient and effective techniques are developed to extract useful information from these datasets. Traditional data mining techniques are ineffective in the spatial domain since they don t incorporate the special features of the spatial domain, e.g. spatial autocorrelation. The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers, developers and practitioners in the field of spatial and spatio-temporal data mining together in order to identify current research foci, vital areas of need, and critical points of synergy. Selected papers will appear in the GeoInformatica journal as a special issue. TOPICS OF INTEREST Topics of interest include but are not limited to: o Theoretical foundations of spatial and spatio-temporal data mining o Novel techniques for spatial and spatio-temporal data mining o Role of uncertainty in spatial and spatio-temporal data mining o Visualization techniques for spatial and spatio-temporal data mining results o Languages and primitives for data mining o Web mining techniques for spatial and spatio-temporal data o Spatial and spatio-temporal data mining at multiple resolutions o Scalable techniques for spatial data mining o Applications and case studies in spatial and spatio-temporal data mining o Data mining techniques for dynamic spatial and spatio-temporal data o Role of spatial analysis in spatial and spatio-temporal data mining o Data structures and indexing methods for spatio-temporal data mining o Data mining from unstructured spatial and spatio-temporal data PAPER SUBMISSION This is an open call-for-papers. Only original, high-quality papers, in-line with the ICDM 07 standard guidelines, will be considered for this workshop. Prospective authors should submit electronically their contributions at the following website: http://wi-lab.com/cyberchair/icdm07/scripts/ws_submit.php IMPORTANT DATES Submission deadline: June 22, 2007 Notification of acceptance: August 1, 2007 Camera-ready version: August 17, 2007 Workshop date: October 28, 2007 ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE Ashok Samal University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA, samal cse.unl.edu Chang-Tien Lu Virginia Tech, Falls Church, VA, USA, ctlu vt.edu Shashi Shekhar University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA, shekhar cs.umn.edu http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1804.htm Mon, 14 May 2007 12:00:00 EST 06th- 17th. November, 2007 Opening: 05th November, 2007, 19:30 o'clock Dear Colleagues, the Stadtarch ologie Wien is planning an poster-exhibition about the archaeology of the beer in November 2007. We liek to show the history from the prehistory until today. From the 16th century onwards we have material about beer in Vienna, but in former times most of the people in Vienna drank wine. So we have less findings. So I like to ask you if you have pictures / photos from excavations, from reliefs aso about beer from different countries and times. It would be great if you could support this exhibition with this material please mind the copyright . If you have stories about beer or other informations for example of the oldest beer which should have been brewed in Africa, it would be very good for this exhibition. I hope that I will get many informations from you and I like to say thank you in advance. Best wishes Wolfgang B rner http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1805.htm Tue, 08 May 2007 12:00:00 EST Call for Papers: Embodying Virtual Architecture Third International Conference of The Arab Society for Computer Aided Architectural Design Hosted by: The Library of Alexandria Bibliotheca Alexandrina Alexandria, Egypt 26 - 28 November 2007 The Organizing Committee warmly welcomes you to contribute to the ASCAAD2007 conference through participation or presentation of papers. More details of the key information can be found in the conference website: http://www.ascaad.org/conference/2007/ We would be grateful if you could help us introduce ASCAAD2007 to the world by kindly forwarding this Call for Papers to your contacts. b Theme /b The increasing speed of technological improvements outpaced many design issues. Nowadays, architecture is accepting digital design tools and technologies as a feature integrated in design process and in spaces of our everyday Being-in-the-World . The consequences of this integration result in many changing and expanding forms of interaction. Space features prominently in narratives about everyday life, modulated by the spread of digital media to create ever-expanding narratives of communication, containment, boundaries, thresholds, and transgressions. Interactive digital media enables advanced investigation on themes of embodiment and perception by providing an excellent means of testing, comparing, validating and challenging theories about perception. Virtual architecture introduces an interesting mode of interaction deploying space as a major metaphor. The capability of creating a 3D virtual world and filling it with artefacts from our more familiar environments is possible due to the ever increasing power of computer processing. In a sense the theme of this conference examines two particular metaphors. The first metaphor addresses aspects of virtual environments that resemble our physical world; In other words, the computer model as physical model and the digital world as material world. The second metaphor looks into the means of interaction and modes between our bodies and such virtual environment. b Topics of Interest: /b The conference encourages submission of papers on topics including but not limited to the following: - 3D/4D Modelling Systems - Building Information Modelling BIM - CAAD Curriculum: education, research and practice - Creative Visualisation - Design Methods and Representations - Digital Design Tools - Future Virtual Design and Construction - GIS in Architecture - Human-Computer Interaction - Information Visualization - Intelligent Design and Case Reasoning - Mass Customisation - Revolutionary Architecture and Generative Form - Simulation and Virtual Prototyping - Synthetic Methods of 3D Visualisation - Tools for Collaborative Design - Urban City Modelling - Virtual Environment and Knowledge Management - Virtual Architecture - Virtual Reality - Web-Based Design and Networking b Keynote Speakers /b Will be announced soon on the Conference website b Important Dates /b Deadline for abstracts submission Monday 21 May 2007 Notification of abstract acceptance Monday 04 June 2007 Full paper submission Monday 16 July 2007 Notification of full paper acceptance Monday 20 August 2007 Camera-ready revised paper submission Monday 17 September 2007 Conference starts Monday 26 November 2007 b Submission and Languages /b Two types of papers could be submitted: papers that describe well-developed or completed research max 7000 words and short papers that describe research in progress max 3000 words . Abstract submission must be in English with no more than 500 words. Full paper submission could be either in English, French or Arabic. b Scientific Committee /b Dr. Ahmad Okeil, The British University of Dubai, UAE Mr. Aghlab Al-attili, University of Edinburgh, UK Dr. Zaki Mallasi, Perkins Will, USA b Organizing Committee /b Prof. Mohammed Assem, University of Alexandria, Egypt Dr. Dina Taha, University of Alexandria, Egypt Dr. Amar Bennadji, The Robert Gordon University, UK Kind Regards, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Ahmad Okeil Honorary Fellow Institute of the Built Environment Welsh School of Architecture The British University in Dubai Cardiff University, UK PO Box 502216, Dubai United Arab Emirates Office: 971-4-3671960, Mobile: 971-50-6192548, Fax: 971-4-366 4698 e-mail: ahmad.okeil buid.ac.ae e-mail: a_okeil yahoo.com URL: www.okeil.com/ahmad/ http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1775.htm Sun, 31 Dec 2006 07:17:25 EST PLACE HAMPI augmented stereographic panoramas of Vijayanagara, India Background: communities of interaction in a cultural landscape PLACE-Hampi is highly significant for promoting dialogues of engagement with the imagery of a cultural landscape and activating the embedded knowledge contained there. Hampi today continues to be an active pilgrim site, not simply an historic and touristic place. Each day its landscape and temples are activated through various rituals and tapas specific to time, place and to discrete locations in the complex. As part of a living tradition, the interpretation of the site by pilgrims is in a constant state of re-definition within the broad tenants of south Indian, Karnataka tradition Hinduism. A conversation takes place between mythological characters and the sacred objects/sites/natural features permeated with the contemporary folkloric imagination of the pilgrims.2 Hindi priests and pilgrims are not the only ones to enliven these Hindu images and temples. Bringing with them different religious assumptions, political agendas and economic motivations, others may animate the same objects or sovereignty as polytheistic idols , as devils as potentially lucrative commodities, as objects of sculptural art, as archaeological and historical relics. As Davies points out the location of an object plays a constitutive role in the act of looking and appropriation, relocation and redisplay of an object will dramatically alter its significance for new audiences. The frame of reference designates the historically grounded and socially shared understandings of systems. 3 PLACE-Hampi reconstitutes the landscape for these interpretations of mythological narratives in the form of co-presence, enabling a new mode of interpretation accessible for diverse cultural audiences. 1 Robert Roberts, Landscape Archaeology in Landscape and Culture: Geographical and Archaeological Perspectives, ed. J. M. Wagstaff Oxford, Blackwell, 1987 : 83. 2 Nancy Adajania, Kapital and Karma, eds. Kunsthalle Wien, Angelika Fitz, 2002, p. 47. 3 Davis, R. H. 1997, Lives of Indian Images. Princeton New Jersey: Princeton University Press. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1695.htm Wed, 13 Dec 2006 12:00:00 EST The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative - ECAI Congress of Cultural Atlases III: Time Space in Eurasia Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow May 29 June 1, 2007 ECAI invites you to participate in the 3rd Congress of Cultural Atlases: Time Space in Eurasia. The congress will be held at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, in conjunction with the 7th International Conference of the Historical Sources of Eurasian and North African Civilisations: Computer Approaches. The conference will include workshops on Geographic Information Systems GIS and Virtual Reality VR applied to the study of culture and history, Humanities Computing in the 21st Century and sessions on the development of cultural atlases. We invite submissions for papers, sessions and posters on: Digital Cultural Atlases: projects and prototypes Cultural Atlas Components: gazetteers, time-periods, biography and social networks, thesauri, technical infrastructure, content sources and display models Humanities GIS Visualization in the Humanities Digital deluge: Humanities e-Science and e-resource management Abstracts for individual papers and poster/demo presentations should be 250-300 words. Panel proposals should include 3-4 papers, and the name of a chair, discussant, and contact person. Please submit ECAI proposals directly to Kimberly Carl kcarl berkeley.edu. The deadline for submitting is 10 March, 2007. A conference website is available at: http://ecai.ras.ru The registration cost is 80Euro, or approximately 100USD The absolute deadline to register is 23 March, 2007. Travel to Russia requires an entry visa. All visa applications must be supported by an official letter of invitation. For this conference, the letters will be coming from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition to registering for the conference at the above website, you will be required to fill out an additional online form requesting an invitation letter. That form is also available from the conference web site. The registration deadline reflects the time taken for the Russian authorities to process visa applications. Information about obtaining a travel visa in the U.S. can be found at: http ://www.ruscon.org/ We look forward to seeing many of you in Moscow. Best wishes, Paul Ell, Chair, ECAI Program Committee paul.ell qub.ac.uk http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1688.htm Wed, 13 Dec 2006 12:00:00 EST The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative - ECAI Congress of Cultural Atlases III: Time Space in Eurasia Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow May 29 June 1, 2007 ECAI invites you to participate in the 3rd Congress of Cultural Atlases: Time Space in Eurasia. The congress will be held at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, in conjunction with the 7th International Conference of the Historical Sources of Eurasian and North African Civilisations: Computer Approaches. The conference will include workshops on Geographic Information Systems GIS and Virtual Reality VR applied to the study of culture and history, Humanities Computing in the 21st Century and sessions on the development of cultural atlases. We invite submissions for papers, sessions and posters on: Digital Cultural Atlases: projects and prototypes Cultural Atlas Components: gazetteers, time-periods, biography and social networks, thesauri, technical infrastructure, content sources and display models Humanities GIS Visualization in the Humanities Digital deluge: Humanities e-Science and e-resource management Abstracts for individual papers and poster/demo presentations should be 250-300 words. Panel proposals should include 3-4 papers, and the name of a chair, discussant, and contact person. Please submit ECAI proposals directly to Kimberly Carl kcarl berkeley.edu. The deadline for submitting is 10 March, 2007. A conference website is available at: http://ecai.ras.ru The registration cost is 80Euro, or approximately 100USD The absolute deadline to register is 23 March, 2007. Travel to Russia requires an entry visa. All visa applications must be supported by an official letter of invitation. For this conference, the letters will be coming from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition to registering for the conference at the above website, you will be required to fill out an additional online form requesting an invitation letter. That form is also available from the conference web site. The registration deadline reflects the time taken for the Russian authorities to process visa applications. Information about obtaining a travel visa in the U.S. can be found at: http ://www.ruscon.org/ We look forward to seeing many of you in Moscow. Best wishes, Paul Ell, Chair, ECAI Program Committee paul.ell qub.ac.uk http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1689.htm Thu, 07 Dec 2006 12:00:00 EST THE FUTURE OF HERITAGE Changing Visions, Attitudes, and Contexts in the 21st Century will provide a unique global forum for sharing predictions, projections, and warnings about how the field of heritage will look in the coming decades. As in previous years, we look forward to hosting a wide range of scholars, heritage professionals, educators, and community leaders for two and a half days of stimulating discussions, workshops, and reflections on the current and future state of heritage. Plenary speakers for this year s colloquium will include: Nezzar Al-Sayyed University of California, Berkeley USA on the Transformation of Tradition in the Developed and Developing Worlds Gilles Nourissier Ecole d Avignon, France on New Policy Challenges for Heritage Administration Fran oise Benhamou Universit de Rouen, France on the Evolving Economics of Heritage Alberto De Tagle Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage on Emerging Technologies of Conservation Maurizio Forte Italian National Research Council on the Future of Virtual Heritage Nancy Morgan and Laura Gates Cane River National Heritage Area, USA on Communities and their Changing Pasts in the 21st Century Both the plenary sessions and specialized workshops will focus on the colloquium s major themes: Philosophy and Public Policy Economics Technologies Community Participation If you have a unique vision or prediction about the future of heritage in your region or research field, we encourage you to submit an abstract for a short paper 10 min. or research paper 20 min. on one of the main colloquium themes. We would like to announce that the deadline for the submission of abstracts has been extended to 15 January 2007. Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words, in English, and sent by fax to 32-55-303-519 or by email to colloquium program coordinator Claudia Liuzza at claudia.liuzza enamecenter.org. All authors should include full contact information name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, phone, fax and e-mail address . Notification of acceptance will be sent by 1 February 2007. For questions or further information on registration for this event, please visit our website www.enamecenter.org or contact Eva Roels at colloquium enamecenter.org. Please feel free to distribute this announcement to any interested colleagues. We hope you will find this colloquium to be of interest and look forward to seeing you in Ghent next year! The Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation This event is sponsored by: the Province of East-Flanders, the Provincial Archaeological Museum Ename, the Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation In collaboration with: ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Interpretation and Presentation, and the Alliance of National Heritage Areas USA http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1683.htm Thu, 07 Dec 2006 12:00:00 EST THE FUTURE OF HERITAGE Changing Visions, Attitudes, and Contexts in the 21st Century will provide a unique global forum for sharing predictions, projections, and warnings about how the field of heritage will look in the coming decades. As in previous years, we look forward to hosting a wide range of scholars, heritage professionals, educators, and community leaders for two and a half days of stimulating discussions, workshops, and reflections on the current and future state of heritage. Plenary speakers for this year s colloquium will include: Nezzar Al-Sayyed University of California, Berkeley USA on the Transformation of Tradition in the Developed and Developing Worlds Gilles Nourissier Ecole d Avignon, France on New Policy Challenges for Heritage Administration Fran oise Benhamou Universit de Rouen, France on the Evolving Economics of Heritage Alberto De Tagle Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage on Emerging Technologies of Conservation Maurizio Forte Italian National Research Council on the Future of Virtual Heritage Nancy Morgan and Laura Gates Cane River National Heritage Area, USA on Communities and their Changing Pasts in the 21st Century Both the plenary sessions and specialized workshops will focus on the colloquium s major themes: Philosophy and Public Policy Economics Technologies Community Participation If you have a unique vision or prediction about the future of heritage in your region or research field, we encourage you to submit an abstract for a short paper 10 min. or research paper 20 min. on one of the main colloquium themes. We would like to announce that the deadline for the submission of abstracts has been extended to 15 January 2007. Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words, in English, and sent by fax to 32-55-303-519 or by email to colloquium program coordinator Claudia Liuzza at claudia.liuzza enamecenter.org. All authors should include full contact information name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, phone, fax and e-mail address . Notification of acceptance will be sent by 1 February 2007. For questions or further information on registration for this event, please visit our website www.enamecenter.org or contact Eva Roels at colloquium enamecenter.org. Please feel free to distribute this announcement to any interested colleagues. We hope you will find this colloquium to be of interest and look forward to seeing you in Ghent next year! The Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation This event is sponsored by: the Province of East-Flanders, the Provincial Archaeological Museum Ename, the Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation In collaboration with: ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Interpretation and Presentation, and the Alliance of National Heritage Areas USA http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1684.htm Thu, 07 Dec 2006 12:00:00 EST Registration open: ICDL 2006 - International Conference on Digital Libraries, 5-8 December 2006, New Delhi, INDIA. International Conference on Digital Libraries ICDL 2006 eill be held from 5-8 December 2006 in Association with TIFP, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India and UNESCO and in cooperation with ACM SIGCHI at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Ministry of Culture and Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Govt. of India have also agreed in principle to associate with this conference. The theme of the conference is Digital Libraries: Information Management for Global Access and it will focus on creation, adoption, implementation and utilization of digital libraries DL , e-learning and knowledge society. For detail information about the conference please visit the website www.teriin.org/events/icdl You are invited to attend and register to the 2nd International Conference on Digital Libraries, to be held in New Delhi, India 5-8 December, 2006. This conference is going to be a very high standard. We have invited many world renowned digital library experts. About 50 renowned and experienced speakers from India and abroad has already accepted to share their experiences. The papers we have received so far are all cutting edge researches and practical experiences. We believe you and your colleagues will be benefited tremendously from this conference. We encourage you and your colleagues and students to attend and share experiences with others in the conference. Registration Information : For details about the conference registration fee for all presenters and participants and other registration information, please refer to the conference website www.teriin.org/events/icdl For any queries contact at Debal C Kar Organising Secretary ICDL2006 Conference Secretariat TERI, Darbari Seth Block IHC Complex, Lodhi Road New Delhi - 110 003, India Phone - 91-11-24682141, 24682111 or 24682100 Fax - 91-11-24682144, 2468 2145 E-mail ICDL teri.res.in Website: www.teriin.org/events/icdl http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1685.htm Thu, 07 Dec 2006 12:00:00 EST Dear Colleagues, Call for Session If you are interested in organizing a session, please submit a proposal of 300 to 400 words on a well-defined theme. A session typically consists of six to eight presentations and a short discussion, either of each individual paper or of the whole session. Session organizers may suggest a list of papers and/or authors for their sessions. All session proposals will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee. Deadline: January 31th, 2007. After acceptance, the proposal will be placed on the conference web page, inviting additional papers for this session as indicated in the Call for Papers. Session organizers will be responsible for accepting or rejecting papers for their sessions and for scheduling the order of presentations. Call for Workshops If you are interested in organizing a workshop please submit a proposal of 300 to 400 words, describing the objectives of the workshop. The proposal must include information about the expected experience level of the participants. The duration of a workshop will be half a day 3 hours . The structure of workshop consists of several short introductory presentations followed by a longer discussion and exchange of experience. Along with the proposal, a list of the presenters and their affiliations is suggested. All workshop proposals will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee. Deadline: January 31th, 2007. After acceptance, the proposal will be placed on the conference web page, inviting additional presentations for the workshop as indicated in the Call for Papers. Workshop organizers will be responsible for accepting or rejecting papers for their workshops and for scheduling the order of presentations. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1686.htm Wed, 06 Dec 2006 12:00:00 EST In Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage, experts offer a critical and theoretical appraisal of the uses of digital media by cultural heritage institutions. Previous discussions of cultural heritage and digital technology have left the subject largely unmapped in terms of critical theory; the essays in this volume offer this long-missing perspective on the challenges of using digital media in the research, preservation, management, interpretation, and representation of cultural heritage. The contributors--scholars and practitioners from a range of relevant disciplines--ground theory in practice, considering how digital technology might be used to transform institutional cultures, methods, and relationships with audiences. The contributors examine the relationship between material and digital objects in collections of art and indigenous artifacts; the implications of digital technology for knowledge creation, documentation, and the concept of authority; and the possibilities for virtual cultural heritage --the preservation and interpretation of cultural and natural heritage through real-time, immersive, and interactive techniques. The essays in Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage will serve as a resource for professionals, academics, and students in all fields of cultural heritage, including museums, libraries, galleries, archives, and archaeology, as well as those in education and information technology. The range of issues considered and the diverse disciplines and viewpoints represented point to new directions for an emerging field. Contributors: Nadia Arbach, Juan Antonio Barcel , Deidre Brown, Fiona Cameron, Erik Champion, Sarah Cook, Jim Cooley, Bharat Dave, Suhas Deshpande, Bernadette Flynn, Maurizio Forte, Kati Geber, Beryl Graham, Susan Hazan, Sarah Kenderdine, Jos Ripper K s, Harald Kraemer, Ingrid Mason, Gavan McCarthy, Slavko Milekic, Rodrigo Paraizo, Ross Parry, Scot T. Refsland, Helena Robinson, Angelina Russo, Corey Timpson, Marc Tuters, Peter Walsh, Jerry Watkins, Andrea Witcomb Fiona Cameron is a Research Fellow in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies at the Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney. Sarah Kenderdine is Director of Special Projects, Museum Victoria, Melbourne. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1682.htm Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:00:00 EST The Growing Virtual Heritage projects of New Zealand Virtual heritage is on the move in New Zealand. There have been several large 3D projects created over the last 36 months. They include a film about the historic forts of North Head as well as the Guns of Motutapu film project created for the Motutapu Restoration Trust working in cooperation with the New Zealand Department of Conservation DOC . The government has been very supportive of these digital interpretive projects and the countries Prime Minister, Helen Clark, spoke at the launching of both films. img src http://www.virtualheritage.net/images/vhncms.jpg align right alt VHN CMS The North Head film originated out of a pilot project created by Auckland based 3D visualization experts, 4D Canvas. DOC became interested in the technology after Chris Keenan, founder of 4D Canvas, funded a six month project to research and build a virtual model of Fort Takapuna, circa 1895. Having been heavily involved in virtual heritage projects for the State of California, the Fort Takapuna animation was created to develop interest from the NZ Government. This had the desired effect and we are building an increasing number of sites in 3D. We see a great future for virtual heritage in this country. We have taken on a new DOC project and have just received a Conservation Achievement Award from Chris Carter, Cabinet Minister in charge of Conservation, Housing and Ethnic Affairs. DOC historian Sarah Macready and DOC archaeologist Dave Veart were key to the North Head films success. Sarah is a believer in virtual heritage. The department was keen to improve the quality of its interpretation, most of which consists of static interpretation panels, and having seen an example of Chris's work Fort Takapuna and the disappearing guns recognized the potential of this kind of 3D animated reconstruction in bringing the past to life for visitors. We think the film has been very successful in bringing colour, movement, interest and a far better understanding of what the fort looked like in the 19th century to our interpretation of North Head. Virtual heritage created an effective restoration of these 1890 era forts without disturbing the fabric from other periods. This history includes early Maori settlements as well as WWI, WWII and post war military history. 3D animation was the only viable way to give context to the existing site as it had operated in the 1890's with its unusual configuration of rare disappearing guns. Dave Veart, the DOC archaeologist who also co-wrote and narrated the North Head film, has watched the reactions of hundreds of visitors as they view the film. The project has been very successful. People varying in age from 8 to 80 have viewed the 16 minute film and the responses have been universally positive. Restoration of the forts in the virtual world has also had the effect of allowing us to understand these sites more completely, helping us to manage them more effectively. The largest virtual heritage project completed in NZ is the 20 minute 3D film The Guns of Motutapu . It is a story about Motutapu Island and NZ's most important WWII gun battery at the time of an anticipated Japanese attack. As one of the largest 3D heritage projects of its type in the world, it features an intensely detailed simulation of a 6 MK21 counter bombardment battery firing into the Hauraki Gulf. One lucky aspect of the project is that Major Derek Thorburn, who came to Motutapu in 1942 and rose to become commander of the guns, acted as a technical advisor to the project. As an actual eye witness to the history, he worked with the 3D artists to achieve a level of visual accuracy that was in danger of being lost forever. The film has proven hugely effective as a fund raising tool for the Motutapu Restoration Trust and its efforts to restore the island. As a result of this success the trust again contracted with 4D Canvas and a second Motutapu film has just been released. img src http://www.virtualheritage.net/images/vhncms2.jpg align left alt VHN CMS2 Emerging Projects 4D Canvas has created these projects with interactivity in mind. As the funding becomes available these large 3D models can be re-purposed. There have been discussions to create multi-user educational games where students hunt for lost artefacts as they move forwards and backwards in time exploring the sites history, geology and ecology. Other potential projects under consideration include: The Maori stone fields of Auckland, Various Maori Pa fortification sites including Ruapekapeka Pa, site of a last major battle between Maori and British forces, the huge Stony Batter 9.2 gun battery, Mansion House, site of Governors Greys early NZ island paradise and early whaling stations of the South Island. The project currently under development includes an historic look at Rangitoto, the countries remarkable volcanic island. New Zealand may be in a far corner of the globe but it is determined to help raise the visual quality standard of virtual heritage. In fact, with the country's exceptional 3D capability, it expects to attract heritage projects from overseas. The future of virtual heritage projects in NZ looks very bright indeed. Further information: www.4dcanvas.com Chris Keenan 4D Canvas tel: 64 9 445 1480 / mob: 64 21 39 3900 email: chris 4dcanvas.com address: 4D Canvas P.O. Box 32 290, Devonport, Auckland 0744 New Zealand http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1681.htm Tue, 24 Oct 2006 12:00:00 EST Call for Participation The e-volution of Information Technology in Cultural Heritage. Where Hi-Tech Touches the Past: Risks and Challenges for the 21st Century October 30 November 4, 2006 Hilton-Cyprus Hotel - Nicosia, Cyprus Invitation: You are kindly invited to attend the 2006 joint conference which will provide an opportunity to exchange research results, opinions, experiences and proposals on the best practice and hi-tech tools from Information and Communications Technology to document, preserve, manage and communicate Cultural Heritage CH . The main goal of the event is not only to illustrate the programs underway but also excellent work wherever it is located and however it is supported, in order to promote a common approach to the tasks of e-documentation of World Cultural Heritage. Furthermore, regional capacities in the area of Cultural Heritage and IT will be facilitated in advancing their know-how through the exchange of information and generation of new ideas and cooperation s, where the world meets the finger prints of several ancient civilizations on earth. To reach this ambitious goal the topics covered will include experiences in the use of innovative recording technologies methods and how to take best advantage to integrate the results obtained to build up new tools and/or experiences as well as improved methodologies for documenting, managing and communicating CH. The 2006 joint event will focus on interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research concerning both cutting edge Cultural Heritage Informatics and use of technology for the representation, documentation, archiving and communication of CH knowledge. The scope includes every phase of CH information technology: initial data capture/digitization, information/data processing, reconstruction, visualization and documentation as well as dissemination of results to the scientific and cultural heritage communities and to the general public. You will also come in contact with aspects of the wider legal and ethical responsibilities of Cultural Heritage Informatics. Research subjects parallel the interests of CIPA, ISPRS, UNESCO, ICOMOS, VAST, Eurographics and EPOCH EU Network, including culturally significant monuments, artefacts and sites as well as the activities of museums, libraries, archives, and organizations involved with their care. Topics: Attendees will come in contact with first hand unpublished work addressing the following subjects: 2D and 3D GIS in CH 3D Data Capture and Processing in CH Archaeological Analysis and Interpretive Design Augmentation of Museum Artefacts Display CAD and FEM based Digital Reconstructions and 3D Modelling Computer Animation for CH Applications and Virtual Heritage Data Acquisition Technologies focusing on Photogrammetry and Scanning, Data Management and Archiving e-Learning in CH e-Libraries in Cultural Heritage Economics of Cultural Informatics and Tourism Innovative Graphics Applications and Techniques Interactive Environments and Applications for CH Multilingual applications, tools and systems for CH Multimedia in CH, Natural and Man initiated destruction of Cultural Heritage and prevention techniques. Non-Photorealistic Rendering of CH Data Novel Internet-based CH Applications Professional and Ethical Guidelines Reproduction Techniques and Rapid Prototyping in CH Standards and Documentation Storytelling and authoring tools Tools for Education and Training in CH Tools to assist Interpretation of Cultural Heritage Data Usability, Effectiveness and Interface Design for CH Applications Virtual Museum Applications e-Museums and e-Exhibitions Visualisation Techniques desktop, VR, AR Water-marking, copyright and ownership protection assistance via ICT Papers: There will be a variety of different papers presented at the joint event. The three types of contributions are as follows: Full research papers presenting new innovative results. These papers will have a full-length oral presentation and will be published in a high-quality proceedings volume. Project papers focusing on the description of project organization, use of technology, and lesson learned. These papers will have a short oral presentation and will be included in a Projects Short Papers proceedings volume. Short papers presenting preliminary ideas and works-in-progress. These papers will have a short oral presentation and will be available as posters in conference breaks. They will be published in the Projects Short Papers proceedings volume. For more information concerning the joint event, please refer to: http://www.vast2006.org/ or http://www.cipa2006.org/ or directly contact the chair of the event at: chairman cipa2006.org Important Dates: Extended early registration before 22 September 2006 Registration for exhibitors before 29 September 2006 Parallel to our joint event there is the Virtual Reality Software Technology 2006 VRST 2006 symposium in Limassol, Cyprus. Special daily registration rates are offered to registered participants of our joint event. For more information see our joint event program and please visit the official website of the VRST 2006: http://www.vrst.ploegos.com. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1637.htm Sat, 14 Oct 2006 06:52:38 EST We invite you to submit a paper/abstract to The 4th International Conference on Cybernetics and Information Technologies, Systems and Applications CITSA 2007 jointly with The 5th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies CCCT 2007 http://www.info-cyber.org/citsa2007 . IT will take place in Orlando, Florida, USA, from July 12-15, 2007. We are emphasizing the area of Information Systems and Computing which, we think, is related to your specific academic or professional area. All submitted papers will have an extensive reviewing process. A multi-methodological review will be applied in the selection process of this multi-disciplinary conference. Submitted papers or extended abstracts will have three kinds of reviews: double-blind by at least three reviewers , non-blind, and participative peer-to-peer review. These three reviews will support the selection process of those that will be accepted for their presentation at the conference, as well as those to be selected for their publication in JSCI Journal. Details are given in the conference web site. Of the papers presented, the best 10 -20 of the papers will be published in Volume 6 of JSCI Journal www.iiisci.org/Journal/SCI and sent free to over 200 university and research libraries Also, we would like to invite you to organize an invited session related to a topic of your research interest. If you are interested in organizing an invited session, please, fill out the respective form provided in the conference web page. We will send you a password, so you can include and modify papers in your invited session. More details about the reviewing process, organizing invited sessions and submissions deadlines can be found at our web site. http://www.info-cyber.org/citsa2007 If the deadlines are tight and you need more time, let us know about a suitable time for you and I will inform you if it is feasible for us. Again, we invite you to participate in The 4th International Conference on Cybernetics and Information Technologies, Systems and Applications CITSA 2007 jointly with The 5th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies CCCT 2007 which in the past has had participants from over 80 countries. Best regards, Professor Jos Aguilar CITSA 2007 General Chair Address: Torre Profesional La California, Av. Francisco de Miranda, Caracas, Venezuela. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1636.htm Sat, 14 Oct 2006 05:49:43 EST Virtual Scylla The Fusion of Virtual Reality and Artificial Life for Reconstructing Marine Ecosystems. Data Collecting Expedition for Scylla Researchers from the School of Engineering have recently taken part in a new survey of Europe s first artificial wreck, the Leander Class Frigate HMS Scylla, resting on the sea bed off Whitsand Bay near Plymouth. Prof. Bob Stone and Eugene Ch ng joined forces with colleagues from the University of Plymouth, the National Marine Aquarium NMA and the Marine Biological Association MBA . The group departed for the wreck site from Plymouth s historic Barbican onboard the UK National, a boat skippered by Prof. Richard Linford, Head of the University of Plymouth s Department of Communication Electronic Engineering Prof. Stone is currently a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Integrated Systems Design within this Department . On arrival at the wreck site, the NMA and MBA diving teams set to work collecting marine life samples and new photographic records from the reef. Over 140 marine species have been recorded to date, including spiny starfish, pouting shoals of which showed up extremely well on the UK National s echo sounder , queen scallops, sea squirts, various species of anemone and algae, mussels, starfish and sea urchins. Whilst this was underway, the Birmingham team helped with the deployment of the NMA s VideoRay remotely operated vehicle ROV . The ROV was used to gain access to areas of the ship where more detail was required for the ongoing construction of the virtual model, including the bridge, helicopter hangar and landing pad at the stern of the vessel. The ROV also captured an excellent video sequence of a cuttlefish, disturbed in the vicinity of the Scylla s bow. The opportunity was also taken to obtain digital images of the Whitsand Bay coastline. In due course these new images will be imported into the computer games engine technology being exploited for the Virtual Scylla research and will be used to add visual detail to a recent three-dimensional model of the area constructed using digital terrain mapping data and medium-resolution aerial photographs. The evening following the visit to the Scylla site, Prof. Stone and Dr. Keith Hiscock of the MBA presented on their organisation s projects at a special Scylla Month evening event at the NMA. Scylla Month has been designed to encourage divers to visit the wreck and help to generate as comprehensive a marine species catalogue as possible. All of these records, together with those collected on this recent successful visit will provide essential data for the University s ongoing research into marine life simulation and virtual environments. About Virtual Scylla Our research plans aim to apply the research to the colonisation of artificial subsea reefs by marine life. In support of this, and in collaboration with the UK s National Marine Aquarium NMA , we are currently extending and modifying the SeederEngine research to provide predictive visualisations of what one particular reef might look like tens of years and longer into the future. It is our eventual aim to assess the impact of possible global climate changes on the sea and to model other factors, such as the effects of pollution or other short-term environmental variations. The project involves NMA subject matter experts, particularly in respect of the marine flora and fauna that will eventually inhabit the reef, their growth and reproduction patterns, their responses to subsea environmental changes pollution, temperature, etc. . It will be possible to collect regular validational information from the reef over time via subsea webcams or regular dives on the reef using remotely operated or manned submersibles . Currently, an optimised low polygon 3D model of the Scylla has been created and algorithms are being developed from extensions of the SeederEngine to accommodate artificial marine life forms. At present, data is being gathered for an early investigation to visualise the outcome in a real-time virtual environment. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1635.htm Thu, 05 Oct 2006 09:46:56 EST Project Lead: Sarah Kenderdine Museum Victoria in collaboration with APSARA-Authority, Cambodia These striking stereographic panoramas capture the potent sacred space of Angkorean temple architecture and relief sculpture. Travel through a 3-D landscape of celestial palaces, rich with Khmer iconography illustrating the narratives of Hindu and Buddhist mythologies. Angkor was capital of the medieval Khmer empire in Cambodia 9th 17th C and it continues to capture the world s imagination with its immense scale and beauty. Panoramic vision has been a mode of virtual travel for hundreds of years. This compelling work uses a sophisticated combination of technologies to bring panoramic scenes and viewers into a new degree of intimacy. The combination of 3-D landscapes with spatial sound, audio spotlights, animations and real-world video brings new life to each scene. This is a groundbreaking and exceptional work which paves the way for heritage visualisation. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1626.htm Sun, 10 Sep 2006 10:47:30 EST The Growing Virtual Heritage projects of New Zealand Virtual heritage is on the move in New Zealand. There have been three large projects initiated over the last 24 months. They include the animated Fort Takapuna project by 4D Canvas, The New Zealand Department of Conservation DOC film on historic North Head and The Guns of Motutapu film currently under production for the Motutapu Restoration Trust in cooperation with DOC. The North Head film project was based on a pilot project created by the Auckland based visualization experts, 4D Canvas. DOC became interested in the 3D technology after Chris Keenan, the founder of 4D Canvas, funded a six month project to research and build a 3D model of Fort Takapuna, circa 1895. Having been very involved in virtual heritage projects for the State of California I developed the Fort Takapuna animation to create interest from the New Zealand Government. This had the desired effect and we have gone on to develop both the North Head film and the current Guns of Motutapu project. DOC historian Sarah Macready and DOC archeologist Dave Veart co-wrote the script and were key to the North Head films success. Sarah is a believer in virtual heritage. The department was keen to improve the quality of its interpretation, most of which consists of static interpretation panels, and having seen an example of Chris's work Fort Takapuna and the disappearing guns recognized the potential of this kind of 3D animated reconstruction in bringing the past to life for visitors. We think the film has been very successful in bringing colour, movement, interest and a far better understanding of what the fort looked like in the 19th century to our interpretation of North Head. Virtual heritage created an effective restoration of these 1890 era forts without disturbing any of the fabric from other periods. This history, includes early Maori settlements as well as WWI, WWII and post war military history. 3D animation was the only viable way to give context to the existing site as it had operated in the 1890's with its unusual configuration of rare disappearing guns. Dave Veart, the DOC archaeologist who also narrated the North Head film, has watched the reactions of hundreds of visitors as they view the film. The project has been very successful. People varying in age from 8 to 80 have viewed the 16 minute film and the responses have been universally positive. The animated sequences allow us to explain a very difficult cultural landscape more easily and as a result our visitors' experience of the site has been enhanced. Restoration of the forts in the virtual world has also had the effect of allowing us to understand these sites more completely, helping us to manage them more effectively. The largest current virtual heritage project underway in New Zealand is the short 3D film The Guns of Motutapu . It is a story about Motutapu Island and New Zealand's most important WWII gun battery at the time of an anticipated Japanese attack. 4D Canvas is making the film for the Motutapu Restoration Trust in cooperation with DOC. It is one of the largest 3D modeling heritage projects of its type in the world and features an intensely detailed simulation of a six inch MK21 Counter Bombardment Battery. One unique aspect of the project is that the Derek Thorburn, one of the actual commanders of the guns during WWII, is acting as a technical advisor to the project. It is allowing the 3D artists to achieve a level of historical accuracy that will not be possible in the future. 4D Canvas has created these projects with interactivity in mind. As the funding becomes available the large task of creating 3D models of large forts can be re-purposed to create multi-user educational games where students hunt for lost artifacts as they move forwards and backwards in time to explore the sites history, geology and ecology. New Zealand may be in a far corner of the globe but it is determined to help raise the visual quality standard of virtual heritage. In fact, with the country's exceptional 3D capability, it expects to attract heritage projects from overseas. The future of virtual heritage projects in New Zealand looks very bright indeed. Further information: Chris Keenan 4D Canvas tel: 64 9 445 1480 / mob: 64 21 39 3900 email: chris 4dcanvas.com 4D Canvas P.O. Box 32 290, Devonport, Auckland 1309 New Zealand http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1638.htm Thu, 11 Mar 2004 12:00:00 EST Date: 3rd-5th of November 2004 Place: Vienna, City-Hall In the past years the advance of modern EDP has turned more and more archaeologists from mere computer users to developers of tailor-made computer applications. However, it turned out that there was a clear lack of co-ordination and co-operation on these issues in Austrian archaeology. Therefore an initiative was started to establish a platform for experts to exchange information on the development of single-standard applications, to solve problems, and to intensify cooperation in this field. The Workshop on Archaeology and Computers was founded in 1996 by the Vienna Research Society on Urban Archaeology, the Urban Archaeology Division of Municipal Department 7 Cultural Affairs , and Municipal Department 14 Automated Electronic Data Processing, Information and Communications Technologies . Since then the workshop has been held in Vienna in autumn every year. In addition to archaeologists, the workshop soon attracted experts from many other fields and various countries in Europe, such as computer specialists, public sector representatives from municipal institutions and private sector representatives. For their 30-minute lectures, most speakers used PCs to present their work more effectively. All presentations have been published in the documentation for the corresponding workshop documentation. Since the third workshop in 1998 the documentation has been available on CD. Our main topics are 1 Cultural Heritage - Tourism - EDP Session chairmen: Oleg Missikoff, Rome/Wolfgang B rner, Vienna 2 LOOTED PAST - DIGITALIZED FUTURE? Hot spots in the Near East and the protection of cultural property - how can computers help? initiated by the Institute of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Vienna, Friedrich T. Schipper/Gebhard J. Selz, Vienna powered by the Austrian initiative for the Iraqi world cultural heritage 3. Digital Elevation Models Session chairman: Willem Beex, Amsterdam 4. XML Session Chairmen: Jon Kenny/William Kilbride, London 5. Open Session GIS, CAD, Internet, VR, Statistics, Databases aso.... If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me: mailto:kongrarchae m07.magwien.gv.at Magistrat der Stadt Wien Magistratsabteilung 7 - Kultur Referat Kulturelles Erbe - Stadtarch ologie Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz 5/1, A-1080 Wien Tel. 0043 0 1 4000 81176 Fax: 0043 0 1 4000 99 81177 mailto:bor m07.magwien.gv.at mailto:cultherit m07.magwien.gv.at http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1625.htm Wed, 03 Mar 2004 12:00:00 EST A Global Forum on Internet Governance will be held on 25-26 March 2004 at United Nations Headquarters in New York, to bring together leading actors and all relevant stakeholders, including Member States, civil society and the private sector, interested in Internet governance issues. Organized under the auspices of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies ICT Task Force, the Global Forum will be an opportunity to engage in an open discussion on all aspects of Internet governance. The views expressed from around the world in on-line discussions to be organized with other partners in the weeks ahead will contribute to the Forum to ensure as broad and comprehensive a reflection of perspectives and ideas on the issues to be addressed. The Global Forum will contribute to the world-wide consultation process to be organized by the Secretary-General. The Plan of Action adopted at the Geneva phase of the World Summit on the Information Society WSIS in December 2003, requested the United Nations Secretary-General ?to set up a working group on Internet governance, in an open and inclusive process that ensures a mechanism for the full and active participation of governments, the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed countries, involving relevant intergovernmental and international organizations and forums, to investigate and make proposals for action, as appropriate, on the governance of Internet by 2005?. Among the principal issues that the group will address are a working definition of Internet governance, identification of relevant public policy issues, and the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders. While the Secretary-General has yet to make a final decision on how to organize a Working Group on Internet Governance, he expressed his view that this Global Forum ?will be of great utility? for any future consultation process. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1610.htm Wed, 03 Mar 2004 12:00:00 EST UNESCO and the Panos Institute West Africa PIWA have just concluded the Oral Testimony training and production project, resulting in 12 radio documentaries produced and broadcast through some 300 community radio stations in eight Western African countries. Oral testimonies are radio documentaries that treat several topics depicting different ethnic and religious groups: how they interface, integrate and reconcile in a changing environment. The methodology of oral testimony is based on a specific interview method using testimonies of the local populations. The training and production project focused on the life of young people in a complex and multicultural surrounding. Through the radio programmes, the views of the young people themselves, often ignored by traditional urban media, are expressed. The main objective of the initiative was to increase intercultural awareness and sensitising young generations on humanity?s need for tolerance, dialogue and peace. The project was supported within the framework of UNESCO?s international venture ?Intensifying the Dialogue among Communities, Cultures and Civilizations?. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1611.htm Wed, 03 Mar 2004 12:00:00 EST For its coming June special issue, the Leonardo Electronic Almanac LEA invites artists, musicians, academics, researchers, practitioners, curators and critics in the field of new media, electronic music and digital art practices, to submit contributions addressing regional networking competence problems and realities in the Asia Pacific cultures. This idea was initiated from the international colloquium Old pathways/New travellers: new media, electronic music and digital art practices in the Asia Pacific region that took place on 4 and 5 December 2003 at the Sarai Center for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi, India with the support of the UNESCO Digi-Arts Portal. The colloquium sought to launch a media arts and electronic music initiative sponsored by UNESCO Digi-Arts and Sarai, to promote and develop research, networking, mutual cooperation, training and knowledge in these fields within the region. It also aimed to point out the role and place of media and technology in a social, cultural and economic landscape and paths that internally connect Asia and the island cultures of the Pacific regions, its impact on young people and its potential as a unique tool to promote cultural diversity. More information on the contributions to LEA, which shoud be submitted by 31 March 2004 with a 300 word abstract/synopsis, a brief author biography and contact details, can be obtained from Fatima Lasay, LEA Guest Editor fats up.edu.ph or Nisar Keshvani, LEA Editor-in-Chief lea mitpress.mit.edu . Established in 1993, the Leonardo Electronic Almanac is the electronic arm of the art journal Leonardo - Journal of Art, Science Technology that is jointly produced by Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology ISAST and published under the auspices of MIT Press. UNESCO's Digi-Arts portal aims at researching and disseminating different computer practices in the field of art and music through diversified networks. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1612.htm Wed, 03 Mar 2004 12:00:00 EST Congress of Cultural Atlases: The Human Record May 7-10, 2004 University of California, Berkeley http://www.ecai.org/Activities/Congress2004/congress_home.html In an increasingly digital age, scholars and institutions documenting the human record have turned to geographical information, virtual reality, and the Internet to create cultural atlases. Under the sponsorship of the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative ECAI , the Congress of Cultural Atlases offers an opportunity for those involved in creating digital atlases and digital representations of cultural heritage sites to come together for presentations, demonstrations, discussions, and training. Delegates will have the opportunity to participate in workshops pertaining to specific issues in atlas development: Digital Gazetteers for Cultural Atlases, including a case study of database development for Chinese religious geography; Reconstructing Archaeological Landscapes Using the New Technology, a virtual reality and GIS workshop, Training Workshop in using GIS and other strategies for building and managing a cultural atlas. David Rumsey, director of Cartography Associates, will be the keynote speaker. The David Rumsey Map Collection, with over 8,800 historical maps on line, is a pioneering effort to use new technologies to envision the geography of the human past. Other projects presented at the plenary session will include major cultural atlases already under development concerning the history and heritage of Tibet, Ireland, Korea, Italy, and more. People who wish to present a poster or demonstration are invited to do so. There is no cost for the Congress, however a registration of USD 100 is required for attending the training session in cultural atlas development. Payment of the training workshop fee can be made by check or cash at the reception, plenary or workshop. We regret that credit card payment will not be accepted. Cosponsors include the UC Berkeley GIS Center, the Committee for Information Technology Research in the Interests of Society, the Henry Luce Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. For more information, please contact ecai socrates.berkeley.edu. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1614.htm Wed, 03 Mar 2004 12:00:00 EST Here is the overview on the eight DigiCULT Projects selected following the first FP6 call in an eCulture special issue. It gives information on objectives, workpackages, project partners and project types: http://www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_e/digicult/newsletter.htm For those who want to bookmark a specific project, the same information is available from our pages on CORDIS; please type - http://www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_e/digicult/ - then the name of the project i.e. bricks, presto, calimera - and finally add the extension .htm . And this is what you should get: http://www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_e/digicult/bricks.htm As always, the information is available for download in .pdf format as well as in .doc. Should you wish to obtain more information on these projects, please contact their project coordinator. Best regards Christine Michaut --------------------------------------------------------------- Information Communication Officer Preservation and Enhancement of Cultural Heritage Directorate-General Information Society European Commission Rue Alcide de Gasperi, EUFO 2255 Phone 352-4301-34071 / Fax 352 4301 33530 Website: www.cordis.lu/digicult http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1616.htm Wed, 03 Mar 2004 12:00:00 EST By M. Usman Choudhry January 26-29 New Convention Center, Washington D.C In its 26th year, COMNET 2004 is first major networking conference on the calendar. How ever once an event that overflowed the Old Washington Convention Center's 381,000 square feet now uses about one-third of that space at the new convention center. COMNET this year has 76 exhibitors listed on its Web site, down from last year's 141.The conference continues to slide, with little to celebrate in the sessions or on the exhibit floor. Now a low down on the key notes, feature presentations and the exhibit floor. Key Notes and Presentations: Information Security on its 100th Birthday: Dr. Whitfield Diffie, Chief Security Officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. Diffie is best known for his 1975 discovery of the concept of public key cryptography, for which he was awarded a Doctorate in Technical Sciences Honoris Causa by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1992. The main points of his presentation Information security as we know it today dates from the introduction of radio by Marconi in 1903. Cryptography, which was the major research challenge for most of the 20th century, is now the well-developed segment within the field. Early 20th century had electromechanical devices dominating cryptography. Although cryptography was employed during World War I, two of the more notable machines were employed during World War II: the Germans? Enigma machine, developed by Arthur Scherbius, and the Japanese Purple Machine not built out of rotors but of telephone stepping switches , developed using techniques first discovered by Herbert O. Yardley. U.S Military and secret services have been using cryptography for a long time before Public cryptographic standards were put in place examples being SigSally, the digital secure phone in the 1940s, based on 2400 bits/sec vocoder , with racks of equipment 37 ft long and each weighing a ton. By the end of 1960s time sharing became more common; more secure computing issues arose, how ever the decade saw some interesting stuff like Blacker network security system that used cryptography to maintain integrity and Java language. In the 1970s, Dr. Horst Feistel established the precursor to today?s Data Encryption Standard DES . In 1976, The National Security Agency NSA worked to establish FIPS PUB-46, known today as DES. While Cryptography configuration was the major issue in the 20th century, the main issue for the 21st century is Cryptography and Process confinement. Take the example of a classic hotel versus a modern one, the classic one having a landlady sitting by the only door so that you won?t leave without paying her and the modern one with many open doors and you can come and go as you please any time you want with no security checks any where, the only difference being that they got your credit card information before you checked in. Security is changing on a multilevel the same way. Whitfield summarized his views at the end with ?Information security is moving from parameter to infrastructure?. The Next Five Years: Howard Anderson, Senior Managing Director, YankeeTek Ventures Howard Anderson founded The Yankee Group, a technology research and consulting firm, where he served as President and CEO from 1970 until 2000. He had an interesting presentation with the audiences deciding how the next five years will be for their company and the IT World. Each Attendee was given 5 Cards 1, 2,3,4,5 printed on them and in answer to every question they were asked to vote based on 1 Strongly agree .....5 Strongly disagree Howard made brief comments on the verdicts which are as follows. My company will move its Call Center off shore in the next five years The verdict: 1 Moving the Company Call centers offshore to Asia helps reduce costs thanks to the cheap labor there so most of the companies are working in that direction or at least thinking what applications they can move offshore to reduce budget. Our total communication cost Local, long distance and wireless will be 3 or less in 2004 assume level employee count The verdict: 3 The Odds that our Corporate Headquarters will go VoIP by 2006 is less than 10 The verdict: 2 Our PBX infrastructure is aging and hopefully by the end of 2004 5-10 U.S employees will have VoIP. How ever there will be security issues involved here. By the beginning of 2005 we will have substantially eliminated the Spam problem in Corporate America The verdict: 5 According to an estimate 60 Billion emails are sent and received every day. Bill Gates suggestion to the Spam problem has been that we should charge people for sending email. The total IT Budget at your firm from Last year 1: 5 increase 2: 0-4 increase 3: even 4: 1-4 decrease 5: more than 4 decrease The verdict: 3 and 4 The importance given to the following issue at my company the next five years. 1 Important ... 5 Not Important Antispam, Viruses, Trojans: 1 VoIP: 2.5 Wireless: 3 Linux: 3 RFID: 4 Panel Discussion Surviving and innovating in the tough IT Market: Host: John Gallant, President Editorial Director, Network World, Inc. Panelists: Robert Galey, Chief Information Officer, AMTRAK David Swartz, Chief Information Officer - Information Systems and Services, George Washington University John Gallant started the discussion by recalling the ?Do IT? mantra in the early 90s, the subsequent crash later in the mid 90s and the changing times now as the IT stock is picking up again. His discussion with the panelists proceeded as follows. Organizational view of IT in your organization Robert Galey said that the 90s dotcom crash really didn?t have a major effect on Amtrak as they were not working on a lot of centralized IT projects at that time. How ever now they are spending more money on the company?s IT department, the main focus being equipment replacement every 3 years and web site maintenance. The email traffic at Amtrak has increased 5 times in the past two years. David Swartz said that the technical research work funding at George Washington University is provided by student tuition and now it is harder to get funding for new IT based projects than it was a few years earlier. Is the Big Budget Mentality coming back soon? Robert Galey said that their 31 year old company is more interested in smaller projects as compares to big ones. David Swartz said that the big budget mentality is not coming back any time soon but it is no cause of alarm as before the big leap in 90s, it had been a rather steady slope of development and the progress in the IT field has been quite steady over the last few years. Challenges in Security Robert Galey said that according to a Government Study post 9/11, a virus/worm attack by terrorists will a big concern in the future and he thinks that security should be implemented at the server level. David Swartz said that the good way to counter harmful downloads at an organization would be to come up with a model that keeps check on the desktops? updates in the system Is your IT Budget up from last year Robert Galey said that now 30 of their business is through the website even more than the through the call center. How ever their budget, with some adjustments, is still the same. David Swartz said that the IT budget at their university has gone up from last year. 5 years from now Robert said that at Amtrak things will be much more network oriented in the future. According to David Swartz ?Not one size fits all?, how ever he sees higher speed connection between points at his organization. Panel Discussion How is a government-based move to VoIP different than a private sector move? Moderator: Richard Grigonis, Editor-in-Chief, VON Magazine Panelists: Ronald I. Koenig, President CEO, VIACK Corporation Doug Mohney, Consultant Highlights of the Koenig?s presentation 92 of Government agencies detected computer security breaches within the last 12 months. Are you at Risk? 4 out of 5 IT Related crimes are committed from within an organization Is your staff snooping? 75 of Government agencies acknowledged financial losses due to computer breaches Are you prepared? The government is responding to these questions by using cyber alerts, setting up computer incident supports centers and by using a reactive not proactive approach to the problems. How ever next on the agenda is e-gov initiatives making use of all types of cyber activities , cyber security legislation, Buy versus Build Due to budget constraints it is good idea to use an existent application that can feed government needs instead of building a new one and maximizing wired infrastructure Adding CAT5 wiring to the infrastructure . Mohney?s presentation goes as follows Is VoIP is really considered telephony? It is considered more as an application than telephony but if it looks like a telephone, quacks like a telephone then it must be a telephone. FCC Chairman Powell?s policy about it is like, that it is not really a phone it just talks to a phone some times so we don?t really need to regulate it as much. The drawback though is that recording bits is not considered as big a deal it is not like we are wiretapping any one, it is only bits . The other issue is Quality of service as basic IP is not designed for scaling, broadcast or QoS prioritizing. MPLS and IPv6 provide some QoS but there is no universal date of adoption for IPv6. The National Communication System is working on IPS Internet Priority Service which will ensure assured communication and enhanced priority to government officials in the case of an emergency. A brief introduction to Enum, a phone number to IP address mapping protocol was given at the end. For more information about Enum check the site http://www.enum.com/index.jsp Can Security survive the onslaught of wireless Networks: An interesting presentation by Sondra Schneider, Founder CEO, Security University. Check out the survey sheets. Computer Emergency Response Team Report Online security ?incidents? 52,658 in 2001 21,756 in 2000 9,859 in 1999 ICSA Virus Prevalence Survey 2002 1.2 million Virus incidents in 2002 74 of respondents said ?getting worse? 81,000 dollars in cleanup costs MessageLab VirusEye Report 2003 372,000 copies of Yaha 343,000 copies of Palyh 293,000 copies of Klez ..... And 1 in every 145 emails contained a virus Symantec Internet Security Threat Report-February 2003 In 2003 50 new vulnerabilities each week 1,200 new 32 bit windows viruses in 2002 The bottom line is ?Things are getting worse, twice as likely each year as previous. The basic rules are to install Anti-Virus Software, keep it up to date, make regular backups and use personal firewalls. However existing security technologies are failing. Signature based solutions missing new and modified threats, security alerts confusing users, users turning off security that interferes with functionality, and current security products not designed to detect Trojans are just a few of the issues here. Recommendation Use Secure Logon with Out of Band Authentication Suggestions for wireless network security -Schedule access point discovery and security audits, -Connect access points to switches -Use VLANs to segment wireless traffic -Configure mutual authentication for clients and access points against the server Making Wireless Work: Secure and Effective Enterprise Applications: The speakers present were Craig Mathias, Principal, Farpoint Communications Tim Scannell, President and Chief Analyst, Shoreline Research Dave Juitt, Bluesocket, Inc. Jim Baker, COO, Alereon, Inc. Tim Scanell gave the introduction and overview of the agenda. Craig Mathias said that the main wireless challenges are the economics of scale; improvements in coverage and throughput, WWAN Wireless WAN Reliability/Availability and improving WWAN Performance. He brought the following question going forward; Cellular Messaging versus Internet Messaging, Which technology will predominate? And the forecast is that email wins. Bottom-line is that wireless messaging will be as important as voice and a standard capability of all networks and subscriber units. Dave Juitt said that when data is denser we need to manage Bandwidth and avoid unnecessary encryption overhead. He predicted that Voice over WLAN will be widely used in the future. Jim Baker covered the history of wireless from Government Radio Regulations 1912 to the UWB Ultra Wide Band -Patents 1960s to FCC Approval 2002. The summary of his discussion was that UWB is not WiFi or Bluetooth replacement but a solution to the real problems with more than 10 times the throughput of 802.11a/g, more than 25 times reduction in power and a 1B semiconductor market within 5 years. The security recommendations given were 802.1x if you are using Layer 2 security , IPSec Be sure not to forget mobility , VLAN Deploy per-user VLAN Policy if your network supports it and EAP Consider EAP-TLS if client certificates infrastructure is in place On the Expo Floor: Opnet Technologies: A fancy booth publicizing two software suites OPNET IT Guru Has the ability to model the entire network and helps diagnose application performance problems, validate changes to the server and router configurations. OPNET SP Guru SP Guru is for service providers migrating from circuit-switched to packet networks, deploying 3G wireless services or VPNs, or implementing MPLS-based traffic engineering. It understands Layer 2/3 networks and helps in troubleshooting, operational validation, planning, and engineering of service provider networks. http://www.opnet.com/ Avocent: Avocent is a supplier of keyboard, video and mouse switching solutions. Two new products on display were: SwitchView SC Lets you switch between classified and unclassified networks, automatically clears the keyboard buffer after data is transmitted through the switch, access up to four attached servers using one keyboard, monitor, and mouse. It is priced at 349. DSR4010 KVM over IP switch supports multi-platform, multi-location, multi-device installations, over a standard IP connection. It combines digital and analog access in a 16-port KVM switch, providing simultaneous access for up to 4 users all 4 being remote or 3 remote and 1 local . It uses Avocent?s DSView centralized management software for remote IP-based access. User software for 1 user is 750; User software for 5 users is 2,500. http://www.avocent.com/ AdventNet: They had a demonstration of their new software ManageEngine OpManager 4, a Network, System and Application monitor that offers network monitoring functionality with a live view of Routers, Switches, Servers and Printers using maps which show the status of interfaces / ports and services. Fault Management capabilities include Event-alarm correlation, color-coded alarms, SNMP trap support and Email / SMS based notifications. Operators get alarm handling functionality like acknowledging alarms, alarm suppression and alarm escalation rules. The unit prices for single, two and five user editions respectively are 795, 1295 and 2495 respectively. Annual Maintenance Support Fees for single, two and five user editions respectively are 159, 259 and 499 respectively. http://www.adventnet.com/ Western Telematic: The highlight of their booth was CMS-16 Console Port Management Switch that provides in-band and/or out-of-band access to RS232 console ports and maintenance ports on UNIX servers, routers and other network equipment. When inquired about its features and pricing, the following data was provided: Sixteen RS232 DB-9 Serial Ports 10Base-T Ethernet Port Modem Auto-Setup Command Strings User Definable Data Rate Conversion, 300 to 115K bps No Software Required AC and 48V DC Powered Models Eight Port and 32-Port Units Also Available CMS-16 is priced at 1,295. http://www.wti.com/ http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1619.htm Wed, 03 Mar 2004 12:00:00 EST Two workshops fostering major developments under the project? Strengthening ICT in Schools and SchoolNet Project in the South East Asian Setting? were held recently in Bangkok. The UNESCO project aims at the information-rich and well equipped ASEAN countries to share their resources with information-poor and ill-equipped countries in the region through an ASEAN SchoolNet. The project focuses on south-south cooperation, using the full range of ICTs and partnerships to enhance education and prepare students fully for life. National SchoolNets will also be developed to support the specific educational needs of each country. The project attempts to demonstrate that the use of ICT in education will make a difference in improving the teaching/learning process through the systematic integration of the use of ICT into existing educational curricula on science, mathematics and language. The South East Asian ICT Advocacy and Planning Workshop for Policy Makers and National ICT Coordinators, 15 December 2003 provided the foundation for implementing the launching of the project. It is only through the commitment and support given by the High Officials from the Ministries of Education that the successful achievement of the goals and objectives set forth in the project can materialize. Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao PDR and Viet Nam committed to pilot testing the project for three years. The Sub-Regional Meeting of National ICT Coordinators on Project Planning and Management 16-18 December 2003 was organized back to back with this Policy Makers? workshop. To follow up on the decisions and agreements made on the 15th, this Meeting fleshed out and detailed the Memorandum of Agreement and the set of recommendations arrived at into a more workable master plan/work plan for implementation at the national level. The ICT Coordinators participating in this Meeting translated the commitment made by their policy makers into an actual set of activities in order to pave the way for the implementation in their respective countries. But before this could be undertaken, the Meeting first set the necessary regional frameworks and parameters, which the national projects will be based on. Such overall frameworks will provide benchmarks for comparing progress and developments among the countries. Thirty participants from Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam took part in the presentations and dynamic discussions. The participants were those responsible for the ICT Unit, SchoolNet, and the curriculum development of science, maths and language in the Ministry of Education. SchoolNets differ widely from country to country. At worse, they may involve a simple resource base for students and teachers of one school, perhaps with a simple level of interactivity, such as a question and answer service by e-mail. At best they include nationwide or international networks of schools, teachers, parents and resources; forums; databases; teacher training; interaction among students and teachers; collaborative projects between schools and nations and more. Students become engaged in real exploration and simulation instead of remaining passive recipients of information. Teachers can use ICTs for administrative and assessment purposes. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1622.htm Wed, 03 Mar 2004 12:00:00 EST Recordings of traditional Chinese music held by the Music Research Institute MRI of the Chinese Academy of Arts in Being will soon be digitally available. The collections which have has been included in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 1997, contain unique field recordings from the 1950s onward, which are in frequent demand. The Music Research Institute is the most important institution of its kind in China collecting and studying Chinese traditional music. Its archives holds 40,000 gramophone records and a collection of several thousand tapes with 7,000 hours' traditional music recordings collected from different nationalities all over the country. The project that is mainly funded by UNESCO will follow the principles of IASA TC-03 International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives, Standards, Recommended Practices and Strategies: The Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage: Ethics, Principles, and Preservation Strategy . Experts from the Austrian Research Sound Archives Phonogrammarchiv , a similarly structured research sound archive that has gained considerable experience in digital archiving over the past years will provide technical assistance. The project includes the purchase and installation of equipment, the digitization itself and the creation of a website that will provide access to the digitised collections. Basic equipment will include a stand-alone, high quality analogue-to-digital converter and a PC with a high clock frequency and adequate amount of memory to serve as the digital audio workstation. For intermediary storage of the digitised signals a SCSI hard disk of highest available storage capacity will be used. The digitised sound recordings will be permanently stored on tapes, recorded on an external HP SureStore 230 Ultrium drive. Two parallel tapes of all material will be produced to be stored in different locations. User copies for the Library as well as for the MRI will be burned on audio or data CDs and transferred conventionally to the MRI, before fast network connections become available. http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1623.htm Wed, 03 Mar 2004 12:00:00 EST Scientists at the University of Birmingham are using seismic data to reveal a spectacular prehistoric landscape previously unknown to science where early man roamed more than 10,000 years ago, deep beneath the North Sea. br br With the aid of new high-powered computing facilities at the University's HP VISTA Visualisation and Spatial Technology Centre, a team of archaeologists, geologists and engineers are beginning to explore and visualise this hidden landscape, which, during the period from 8000 - 18,000 years before the present day, was a large plain on which humans hunted animals gathered plants. br br The team is revealing some amazing secrets as they reconstruct the lost environment, including evidence of a large river comparable in size to the Thames or Rhine, which was buried when its valley was flooded some 7,000 years ago due to glacial melting. The river channel, which has provisionally been named the Shotton River after the University's pioneering geologist and archaeologist Professor Fred Shotton, is over 600 metres wide and has so far been traced for a length of 27.5 kilometres travelling in a north west-south easterly direction. br br Engineers have produced preliminary virtual reconstruction images of the river and its surrounding environment prior to the area becoming flooded. Professor Bob Stone, Head of Engineering's Human Interface Technology Team and a Director of the International Virtual Heritage Network said, This is the most exciting and challenging virtual reality project since Virtual Stonehenge in 1996. Not only are we working with our colleagues in Archaeology to ensure the visual accuracy of this very rich environment, we are basing the topography of the virtual landscape on actual seismic data and the computer-generated flora on pollen and plant traces extracted from geological core samples retrieved from the sea bed . br br Dr Vincent Gaffney, Director of the University's Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity and lead investigator on the project comments, This pilot project has great significance to the whole of the quaternary research community, both in its environmental, geological archaeological forms. We intend to extend the project to visualise the whole of the now submerged land bridge that previously joined Britain to Northern Europe as one land mass, providing scientists with a new insight into the previous human occupation of the North Sea. br br In addition to the 3D virtual images of the landscape, an industrial collaboration with HP Vista Centre partners, Reachin Technologies, has aided the development of a tactile haptic interface, greatly assisting scientists by combining the sense of touch and sight to interpret and explore the intricate landscape. br br The North Sea Visualisation Team from the University of Birmingham br comprises: br Dr Vincent Gaffney - Director, Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity Dr Ken Thomson - Lecturer in Basin Dynamics, School of Geography, Earth Environmental Sciences Professor Robert Stone - Chair in Interactive Multimedia Systems, Department of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering Simon Fitch - Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity Eugene Ch'ng - Department of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering br br The seismic data has been supplied courtesy of the PGS Southern North Sea Mega Survey, and was originally carried out for oil prospection. More information on a href http://www.pgs.com/ PGS is available online /a . br br The initial study area covers a landscape 140x70 kilometres in size. br br Professor Fred Shotton 1906-1990 dedicated much of his varied career to the study of Pleistocene Ice Age geology archaeology and was a pioneer of multidisciplinary Pleistocene research at the University of Birmingham. br A a href http://www.arch-ant.bham.ac.uk/shottonproject/profshotton.htm target _blank brief biography of Professor Shotton /a is available online. br br br br The Quaternary is a subdivision of geological time the Quaternary Period covering the last two million years up to the present day. The exact duration is a matter of debate with estimates of the onset of the Quaternary Period placed at between 1.8 million years and 2.6 million years by different authors The Quaternary and the Tertiary Periods together form the Cenozoic Era. The Quaternary can be subdivided into two epochs; the Pleistocene two million years to ten thousand years ago and the Holocene ten thousand years ago to the present day . br br The preliminary virtual reconstruction images are based upon the present scientific understanding of the area - these are likely to be revised as the project reveals valuable new information to the scientific community about the evolution of the area. br br a href ../images/pics/Stone_location_map 2.jpg target _blank img src ../images/pics/pics/Stone_location_map2_400.jpg alt width 400 height 262 border 0 /a br Location map of study area with bathymetry - green areas were lowland, brown areas were highland br br a href ../images/pics/Stone_Shotton_and_tribs.jpg.jpg target _blank img src ../images/pics/pics/Stone_Shotton_and_tribs_400.jpg alt width 400 height 246 border 0 /a br The River Shotton - this image shows the clear outline of a large river the Shotton on the right hand side. Changes in geology reverse the image colours on the left where one can see a dendritic stream system br br a href ../images/pics/Stone_reconstruction2.jpg target _blank img src ../images/pics/Stone_reconstruction2_400.jpg alt width 400 height 300 border 0 /a br Reconstruction of mesolithic landscape of the North Sea showing original terrain derived from seismics and contemporary vegetation br br a href ../images/pics/Stone_reconstruction2.jpg target _blank img src ../images/pics/Stone_reconstruction2_400.jpg alt width 400 height 300 border 0 /a br Reconstruction of mesolithic landscape of the North Sea showing original terrain derived from seismics and contemporary vegetation. br br Further information: br Rachel Robson - Press Officer, University of Birmingham br tel: 0121 414 6681 / mob: 07789 921165 br email: r.a.robson bham.ac.uk br br Rachel Robson br Press Officer br University of Birmingham br Edgbaston br Birmingham br B15 2TT br br br tel: 44 0 121 414 6681 br mob: 44 0 7789 921165 http://www.virtualheritage.net/news_blogs/1624.htm Sun, 08 Feb 2004 12:00:00 EST ECAI Director s Report br br January 2008 br br The 21st Conference of ECAI and the Tenth Anniversary of the founding of the organization were held in conjunction with PNC at Berkeley in October. There were 182 registered delegates for the three day event. I want to thank Peter Zhou and Deborah Rudolph of the C.V. Starr East Asian Library for their great help in organizing our meeting in coordination with the opening of the new building for the library. br The ECAI project focused on the Batanes Islands between Taiwan and the Philippines was awarded 30,800 by the UC Berkeley Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines Endowment Fund for continued research and construction of the atlas within the larger Austronesian work being conducted by Co-Director Michael Buckland, Professor David Blundell, and Jeanette Zerneke. br We are in a period of expansion for the ECAI community and a number of training workshops have been planned to help bring new projects into operation. In August, Howie Lan from Berkeley and Damian Evans from U of Sydney worked with 30 students at the Vietnam Buddhist University in Ho Chi Minh who are constructing an Atlas of Vietnam Buddhism. In December, Damian Evans did a similar training at the Yang Heng Graduate School of Buddhism in Taipei for 18 students who are creating two atlases related to Buddhism in Taiwan. February will find Howie doing a workshop at Fagu University in Taiwan. We are also arranging for such training at the United Nations Vesak Day Celebration in Hanoi in May followed by a special workshop with the Ecole francaise d extreme oriente staff in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and a first ever ECAI working session in India. br Both the Director and Co-Director have been traveling to various meetings around the world giving lectures. The Director gave keynote addresses at the Chicago Colloquium for Computer and Humanities, the conference in Seoul, Korea jointly sponsored by the Tripitaka Koreana Institute and Nanzen Temple of Kyoto celebrating the joint efforts to digitize images of the Nanzenji Archive, and Computing and Humanities Conference at Vietnam Buddhist University, Ho Chi Minh. br We look forward to seeing members at the 22nd ECAI Conference, the Fourth Congress of Cultural Atlases being held April 21-25, 2008, on the campus of Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. The Fall 2008 meeting will be held jointly with the Pacific Neighborhood Consortium and the Japanese Geo-Informatics Projects in Hanoi in December. Spring of 2009 will find us in Williamsburg, Virginia meeting jointly with the Computer Applications in Archaeology group. br br Events br br Place and Time Mapping for Information in Religious Studies - Workshop br br 2/19/2008 br Location: Fagu University, Taiwan br Description: Howie Lan, UC Berkeley, instructs participants in this one day workshop featured as part of the EBTI after 15 and CBETA at 10 Years: Joint International Conference on Digital Buddhist Studies, February 15-17 with post-conference workshop Feburary 19-20, 2008, Taipei, Taiwan. br See more on this event: http://www.ddbc.edu.tw/eng/conferences/program.html br br Association for Asian Studies br 4/3/2008-4/6/2008 br Location: Atlanta, Georgia br Description: ECAI will hold a panel discussion at the 2008 meeting. br br ECAI Congress of Cultural Atlases IV br 4/21/2008-4/25/2008 br Location: Curtin Technical University, Perth, Australia br br United Nations Vesak Day Celebration br 5/13/2008-5/17/2008 br Location: Hanoi, Vietnam br Description: ECAI will hold a workshop at the UN Day of Vesak and the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha. br br ECAI Congress of Cultural Atlases V br 3/22/2009-3/26/2009 br Location: Williamsburg, Virginia, USA br br Funding Announcements br br Text Analysis and Pattern Detection: 3-D and Virtual Reality Environments The National Science Foundation has awarded 99,000 grant for a one year research project that focu