The 9th VAST International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage
Towards Sustainability | Integrated Technological Practices for Human Heritage and Cultural Memory

Call for Participation
VAST2008 continues the tradition of excellence in the VAST symposia for technologies in service of cultural heritage. This year's symposium emphasizes the ephemeral nature of the subject of our disciplines, namely the tangible/intangible cultural heritage artifacts, archaeological remains, buildings, finds, manuscripts, myths, life histories, songs, stories, and the new virtual heritage artifacts we are producing in order to document, analyze, visualize and share our pasts through digital means.

Our community is acutely aware of the concerns and risks as well as the opportunities and innovations for managing cultural and digital heritage. The challenge we propose is to bring to bear the knowledge and expertise of the VAST network of researchers and professionals that will lead to sustainable practices of stewardship for the long term, for tangible, intangible and virtual heritage alike.

We are at a unique point in history, where cultural heritage professionals must work to care for the physical past while assuring that there will be a digital record for the future. Peter Brantley, Executive Director of the Digital Library Foundation, thinks, "the problem of digital preservation is not one for future librarians, but for future archaeologists." If one imagines that the well-intentioned efforts of researchers and scholars in the modern era could be unreadable only fifty years from now, there is tremendous responsibility on individual cultural heritage professionals to insure a future for their digital work.

We see this symposium as a dialogue on the present and future of archaeology in the 21st century. The sessions, papers, tutorials and workshops will explore the wealth of opinions and expertise on this vast topic, ranging from nuts-and-bolts practical information on geographical information systems to producing non-linear narratives and multi-vocal visualizations of the past.

We are seeking contributions that advance the state of the art in the technologies available to support sustainability of human heritage. The following topics are particularly encouraged:

• 2/3/4D Data Capture and Processing in CH
• Augmentation of physical collections with digital presentations
• Data Acquisition Technologies
• Digital capture and annotation of intangible heritage (performance, audio, dance, oral)
• Interactive Environments and Applications for CH
• Long term preservation of digital artefacts
• Metadata, classification schema, ontologies and semantic processing
• Multilingual applications, tools and systems for CH
• Multimedia Data Acquisition, Management and Archiving
• On-site and remotely sensed data collection
• Professional and Ethical Guidelines
• Standards and Documentation
• Storytelling and Design of Heritage Communications
• Tools for Education and Training in CH
• Usability, Effectiveness and Interface Design for CH Applications
• Visualization

Paper, tutorial and workshop submission

We are soliciting four types of contributions:

• Full research papers presenting new innovative results. These papers will be published by Eurographics in a high-quality proceedings volume.
• Project papers focusing on the description of project organization, use of technology, and lesson learned -- not innovative technical content. These papers will have a full-length 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 or will be available as posters in conference breaks. They will be published in the "Projects & Short Papers" proceedings volume.
• Tutorials and Workshops. Half-day and full-day workings sessions that provide an opportunity to educate and share on key topics of interest face-to-face. Tutorial submissions will be published along with the full research papers. Workshops that provide supplemental materials in time for the CD-ROM printing will be included. All materials will be available on the VAST 2008 website.

See detailed information on the VAST 2008 website under Submissions.
All types of submissions will be reviewed and feedback given to the authors.

Important Dates:

• Abstract for all papers (full/project/short/workshops/tutorials) 14 July 2008
• Paper submission for full papers 28 July 2008
• Paper submission for project and short papers 28 July 2008
• Notification for refereeing feedback 15 September 2008
• Camera-ready FULL papers and TUTORIALS to printer 6 October 2008
• Camera-ready SHORT and PROJECT papers and WORKSHOP descriptions to printer 13 October 2008
• Early registration - 29 September

Symposium Dates:

• Workshops, Meetings, Tutorials 2 December
• Symposium 3-5 December
• Excursion to Coa Valley (10th Anniversary UNESCO World Heritage) 5-6 December.

Program Committee:
Michael Ashley, University of California at Berkeley (USA)
Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria, University of Brighton (UK)
Alberto Proença, Universidade do Minho (Portugal)
Sorin Hermon, The Cyprus Institute (Cyprus)

Any enquiries, please forward to the Symposium Program Committee email address, at prog_committee@vast2008.org

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