[ Enter the Past ] Vienna - Austria, 8-12 April 2003
 
ID_person: 138
ID_paper: 113
 

A. Corns1, E. Kilfeather2
1 The Discovery Programme, Dublin, Ireland
2 Institute of Technology, Digital Media Centre, Dublin, Ireland
 
CIPHER (Communities of Interest to Promote Heritage of European Regions)- Internet cultural portals and the development of an Irish Cultural Heritage Forum
 

This paper outlines explores the concept of heritage forums and introduces the CIPHER project which aims to encourage public participation in heritage through the provision of bodies of Internet data. By developing multi level web sites ('Cultural Portals') CIPHER aims to provide meaningful, access tailored information to a wide range of interest levels. The system involves descriptive and interpretive assessments combining elements such as text, mapping, photography, documents, drawings and reconstruction models CIPHER within an ontological narrative structure.
One example of the CIPHER project is the Irish Cultural Heritage Forum (www.explorer.ie), which aims to provide an Internet access point that will help to guide both public and professional interests to a greater understanding of Irish heritage information. The forum will enable users from novice to professional level to explore archaeological narratives and search for relevant artefacts and monuments. The forum will utilise an ontological database to store all narrative and archaeological information. The forum will also contain a three-dimensional VRML interface for users to explore Irish monuments and their related narratives
Keywords: Heritage Forum, Heritage Portal, Online learning, VRML

[gor]11-02-2003