An environment for a Virtual Hypermedia Factory

The Advanced Information System group of the National Research Council (CNR) Computer Science Department at the Cybernetics Institute has become involved in research concerning hypermedia systems in the field of cultural heritage. This activity takes place within the three-year project "An Environment for a Virtual Hypermedia Factory" (VHF). The European Commission funded the project within the 4th RTD Framework, Information Technologies (Multimedia Systems domain). The project aims mainly to develop an integrated environment equipped with services and applications for producing, archiving, and spreading information about cultural heritage, tourism, and publishing through the Internet. This environment encourages content integration by stimulating cooperation among information providers in different but correlated knowledge domains. The paper discusses the Virtual Hypermedia Factory consortium and platform requirements.