Dear Colleague,
The new Serving and Archiving Virtual Environments (SAVE) project has been created with the goals of offering the creators of scientific 3D models of cultural heritage sites the opportunity to have an outlet for the peer-reviewed publication of their work over the Internet; to ensure that their work is preserved for future generations; and to protect the intellectual property rights of the creators as well as the integrity of the models themselves. The project is administered by a collaborative group of computer scientists and humanists and is funded by the National Science Foundation. Our work is presently in the initial phase of feasibility and needs assessment study. We have contacted you because we need your help to answer two essential questions:
- Do scholars creating 3D computer models of cultural heritage sites perceive the need for a peer-reviewed, central online repository for archiving and distributing their work?
- Do scholars perceive a need for improved security for 3D models, particularly models such as scans or hand-made reconstructions of cultural heritage sites and artefacts?
We would be very grateful if you could take the time to fill out the attached survey, which contains 21 questions focused around these two main points. We estimate it will take up to 15 minutes of your time.
Unless otherwise specified, our survey uses the word "data" to refer quite generally to the computer artefacts - databases, 3D geometric meshes, images and texture maps, shader programs, user interfaces, and embedded metadata - in a cultural heritage project. We use the term "models" to refer specifically to the three-dimensional models and associated image data such as texture maps.