V-MUST.NET Uros Damnjanovic The Cyprus Institute u.damnjanovic@cyi.ac.cy

1. V-MUST is funded by the European Commission under the Community's Seventh Framework Programme, contract no. GA 270404. V-MUST.NET Uros Damnjanovic The Cyprus Institute u.damnjanovic@cyi.ac.cy

2. V-MUST.NET Virtual MUSeum Transnational NETwork A network dedicated to Virtual Museums It is a Network of Excellence financed by the FP7 4 years: February 2011 – February 2015 18 Partners coming from 13 countries

3. Partners geographical distribution

4. Italy Italy UK Bosnia-Herzegovina France Sweden Cyprus Italy Partners CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ITABC – ISTI – ITD) APRE: Agenzia Per La Promozione Della Ricerca Europea King’s College London, Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King’s Visualisation Lab University of Sarajevo, Dept. Computer Science Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique (INRIA-IPARLA Joint Research Team) Lund University, Department of Design Sciences STARC, Cyprus Institute CINECA Foundation of the Hellenic World Allard Pirson Museum, University of Amsterdam Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage Comune di Roma, Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali, Museo dei Fori Imperiali Fraunhofer Institute für Graphische Datenverarbeitung Virtualware Visual Dimension Sociedad Española de Arqueología Virtual Noho LTD University of Brighton, University of Brighton’s Business School Greece Netherlands Egypt Italy Germany Spain Belgium Spain Ireland UK

5. Associate Members Bologna Archaeological Museum • Museo Civico del Risorgimento/Certosa, Bologna • Music Museum, Bologna • Polo Museale Fiorentino, Galleria dell’ Accademia • Provincia di Napoli, Direzione Cultura Roman National Museum, Terme di Diocleziano museum Teramo Archaeological Museum Exposición Galiciadixital • Ayuntamiento de la Rinconada • Museo de Artes Tradiciones Populares, Madrid Fundación Atapuerca Fundación Marq-Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Alicante • Museo y Parque Arqueológico Cueva Pintada Museums and Visitor Centers • Cyprus Department of Antiquities Muzej Hercegovine Muzej Sarajeva • Zemaljski muzej Bosne i Hercegovine Nubian Museum, Aswan • Waterford Museum of Treasures, Dublinia and the Viking World Museum Victoria, Melbourne Historiska Museet Lund Kulturen (Kulturhistoriska foreningen for sodra Sverige)

6. Companies CadLand s.r.l. MakeBelieve design & consulting Playable Fiction Zero Creative Industry HP Italy NVIDIA South Europe International Institutions UNESCO ICOM Associate Members Research Institutions Applied Laboratory of Interactive Visualization and Embodiment, Hong Kong CNR ISTC, Rome CNR IBAM, Lecce TU Delft (Technical University Delft) University of Padova, Dept. Archaeology University of California, Merced

7. Map of Virtual Museums Network

8. Virtual Museums Virtual Museums are a new model of communication aimed at creating a personalized, immersive, interactive way to enhance the understanding of our Cultural Heritage. Virtual Museum is a “short-cut” commonly used to identify different digital creations (i.e. VR applications, CG animations, multimedia, web-based presentations, etc.). VMs, as formulated at the beginning of the 90s, are aimed at creating a bridge to the remains of our past and their knowledge. A fundamental requirement is therefore the focus VM should have on users.

9. Virtual Museum: expectations Creation of a personalized, immersive, interactive way to enhance our understanding of our Cultural Heritage. Identify different potential “realities” of the information, reaching to a cognitive increment of the heritage. ”Experience” is therefore the key word: interaction, immersion, narration Research in virtual heritage move from visual oriented towards cybernetic-oriented (multi-user shared interaction)

10. Time for a Network of Excellence Will study and assess the current technologies and methodologies for VMs future preservation and the impact on the lifecycle of VMs, trying to bring digital preservation to a more practical level and fostering the adoption of these technologies in this specific domain. The main expectation is to create a wide consensus, that will be a “stimulus” for the creation of the next generation Virtual Museum. It will be based on sharing a common language and a common practical experience, acquired “on the ground” during a challenging 4-years experiment (Interactive Lab). The next generation Virtual Museum will be more communicative and effective, more sustainable (re-usable, exchangeable), more accessible and visible.

11. Requirements • Identify needs, problems and requirements of VM domain, through surveys and debates. • Specific objectives are: • Specification of a VM common language • Identification of needs, expectations and problems/gaps in the different research areas and also with regard to end-user integration; • Identification of interconnections among different researches, with respect to methodologies and re-usability procedures • Identification of new researches needed by VM domain

12. Conceptual framework of a virtual museum Defining the conceptual framework of activities of a “virtual museum”, by understanding the nature of relationships between user – narrative – technology in given contexts. Designing the optimal methodology for VMs and their related ontology, for optimal operation in collaborative environments, relation with Europeana and maximum exploitation of stored data. Defining a “theory of virtual museum”, a common glossary – taxonomy, an ontology for interaction with contents. Formulate “hypothesis” of a virtual museum and predictions upon functionalities

13. Service platform Identifying a service platform with its infrastructural components to be used by V-MusT.net partners and in the future to be expanded, adapted and used by a broader VM community. Creation of the V-Must Development Camp, launching a call for the selection and integration in the platform of external applications/tools/services, in order to extend the numbers of tools and functionalities available to V-MusT.net The major characteristics of such a platform is the flexibility and openness in order to respond to the evolving needs of both end user as well as stakeholders of Virtual Museums.

14. Visual Presentation and Interaction Technologies Research on a new scalable framework which is being designed for: • research efforts to enable a seamless integration, composition and of 3D content • enhancing the users level of experience • new forms of interaction with virtual objects • reflecting cognitive and perceptive capabilities of the users and enhancing the level of experience of the VH • an integration of new mixed reality interfaces • a wider dissemination of VH objects, • introducing pro-active user interfaces and its methodologies instead of symbolic/iconic systems

15. Opportunities for young researchers V-MusTer Class Training program V-MusT.net Development Camp: The Development Camp is conceived as an instrument that will allow the consortium to stay open to new ideas, technologies or requirements that could emerge during the lifetime of the project; it will be an instrument oriented to both the project partners and to the contribution and inclusion of the external world. V-Move program (intern-ship) Calls for micro-projects

16. THANK YOU