3D Multiuser Domain and Virtual Ecosystems for Transmission and Communication of Cultural Heritage

In the paper we will discuss about virtual reality environments and Multiuser Domain for data sharing and interpretation in the field of virtual heritage. In the last ten years the diffusion of Internet and the use of personal computers have radically changed the communication systems of post-modern societies. This accelerated digital metabolism creates a scenario of "dense" information, passing from older linear systems (like the books for example) to newer reticular systems, like VR or the cyberspace of the virtual communities. Internet 2.0 represents the gateway of the cyber-anthropology, the challenge to make new forms of learning and communication. In this context, it is possible to find virtual communities developed entirely within three-dimensional environments, where the users (represented by avatars) can directly contribute to modify and update the cyberspace. Despite the development and these new metaphors of "virtual aggregation", the state of the art in the field of virtual heritage is still quite pioneering, because there are no Multi-user domains (MuD) specifically for sharing and exchanging cultural and scientific contents. In this field we are developing new research projects oriented to virtual archaeology and to the study and communication of cultural heritage through Multiuser virtual reality applications (off and on line). In this contribution two case studies will be mainly presented: The Virtual Museum of Ancient Via Flaminia, available in the National Roman Museum of Rome since January 2008, and the FIRB project Integrated Technologies of robotics and virtual environment in archaeology (supported by the Italian Ministry of Research), still in progress, but available on the web from next fall 2008.