Abstract
This paper surveys current notions of social and cultural presence as they may help the evaluation of cultural heritage projects. We argue that cultural heritage requires specialized evaluation, as key issues both connect and separate the aims of presence researchers and cultural heritage experts. To support this argument, three case studies of virtual heritage evaluations are summarized, and recommendations made as to how experimental design and evaluation may be improved for future projects.
Acknowledgements
Some of the results presented in this paper have been obtained during the development of the research project CHIRON (Cultural Heritage Informatics Research Oriented Network, 2005-2008, MEST-CT-2004-514539), under the supervision of Dr Maria Economou, assistant professor in Museology and New Technologies at the University of the Aegean. Laia Pujol would like to thank the CNR-ITABC for their kind invitation to collaborate in the first project and all the museums and people involved in the evaluations. Erik Champion would like to thank the University of Melbourne and Lonely Planet Publications.