Undine LIEBERWIRTH
(Free University Berlin, Germany)
Most archaeological projects are nowadays a potpourri of different subjects working together from different places at different times. If the project is also an international one the difficulties of bringing all researchers physically together for workshops, conferences or just a meeting for exchanging scientific knowledge is normally an unresolvable challenge. Since the interdisciplinary and international project ‘Topoi’, an excellence cluster of the two main universities of Berlin, is due to its great number of member spread around the world, the urgent need of a platform for exchanging information between them time and place-independent came up very quickly. The solution for such network requirements lies in an online, internet-based environment. In this presentation, the ‘Topoi2.0 – virtual research environment’ is introduced. This complex software is best described as a framework for several e-science systems as part of a virtual infrastructure which maps the real world of the Topoi project in the intranet section. The platform acts also as a publication tool in the internet section. We are sure that not only an excellence cluster can take advantage of the VRE-prototype ‘Topoi2.0’ but also all kind of scientific projects which doing online research and work at a distance, providing and storing digital information. Hence, the presentation gives an insight how to adjust the software for your own needs.
Keywords: virtual research environment (VRE), digital infrastructure and services, virtual network