Nara Symposium for Digital Silk Roads
Call for Proposal(It closed)
(The second NII International Symposium)



Sponsored by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Hosted by UNESCO, Japanese National Commission for UNESCO,
Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU),
National Institute of Informatics (NII)



December 10 - 12, 2003
At Nara-ken New Public Hall



Nara Symposium for Digital Silk Roads (DSR Nara) aims to provide an opportunity to discuss research on the Silk Roads from a new perspective based on the collaboration of cultural studies and digital technology. It is designed as a follow-up of Tokyo Symposium for Digital Silk Roads in December 2001, where Tokyo Declaration on the Digital Silk Roads was adopted. The Tokyo Declaration calls for global corporation in passing the Silk Roads heritage on to future generations as a common asset of mankind by fully utilizing advanced information technology.

The city of Nara is apparently one of the most suitable places to host this symposium. Nara, an ancient capital of Japan that prospered most in the eighth century, was the easternmost stop of the Silk Roads. Artifacts originating as far away as in ancient Persia and Arabia ended up in the capital after traveling thousands of miles across the Eurasian Continent. One can even observe the influence of ancient Greece on one of the city's oldest temples. Thus, Nara was effectively the final destination of the Silk Roads and Japan's gateway for cultural encounters with other civilizations.

Authors are invited to submit proposals on Silk Roads research in cultural and digital technology fields. Proposals should be sent to the Symposium Secretariat either by e-mail or by post mail postmarked no later than September 30, 2003. The official language in Nara Symposium is English.


TOPICS OF INTEREST
1. Research on Silk Roads in cultural fields
- Language, literature, art, social customs, tradition from the viewpoint of cultural exchanges
- Protection, archiving, preservation of tangible/intangible cultural assets; efforts to organize, manage, and publicize research materials on them

2. Research on digital technology
- Technologies for digital archiving, information retrieval, storage, and display
- New approaches related to the above-mentioned technologies

3. Interdisciplinary research that links cultural studies and digital technology
- Research on the Silk Roads through network collaboration
- Demands for digital technologies from cultural studies, and vice versa.
- Protection, archiving, preservation, and publication of tangible/intangible cultural assets utilizing advanced information technologies

4. Research and case studies on digital capacity building for culture
- Multi-stakeholder cooperation for human resource development
- Advanced training program and curricula in digital technology for culture
- Promotion of sustainable synergy in digital technology applications for culture

VENUE : Nara Prefectural New Public Hall (Nara-ken Shin Kokaido)


PROGRAMME OUTLINE
Dec 10, 2003 Session open to the public
AM: Opening Ceremony and Keynote Address
PM: General Lecture
Dec 11, 2003 Expert session
AM: Current Achievements, New Perspectives
PM: Poster Session
Dec 12, 2003 Expert session
AM: Proposals for the Future, Concluding Remarks of Nara Symposium and Closing Ceremony
PM: Study Tour

BASIC GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

All accepted proposals shall be presented at regular sessions or displayed at a poster session or at an exhibition. Participants in the poster session can make a demonstration using simple equipment.

Applicants are expected to send:
1. Proposal description not exceeding 1,000 words in English

2. Separate cover page (MS-Word) (PDF) which includes:
- Title of the proposal
- Name, affiliation, and complete address with postal code of each author
- Name of presenter marked by circle
- Telephone and fax numbers and email address of the contact person
- Type(s) of presentation (paper presentation, poster session[including demonstration], and/or exhibition)
- Information about equipment in case of using one at the poster session or the exhibition
  • About equipment (ex. number of PCs and displays, projectors)
  • Power consumption (ex. kVA, number of outlets)
  • Required Space (length x breadth)
Participants are expected to shoulder transportation costs of their equipment. The date of carry-in/out will be notified later by the secretariat. It would be greatly appreciated if equipment could be kept as simple and compact as possible because of limited space.

3. Submission Deadline :September 30, 2003


NOTICE OF ACCEPTANCE

Notice of acceptance or rejection will be mailed to the designated contact person by October 15, 2003 after deliberations by the symposium committee.


POST-ACCEPTANCE PROCEDURE

Successful applicants for paper presentation and the poster session shall receive a formal submission form from the symposium secretariat. They are expected to send to the address below a camera-ready file of their presentations using the designated form by November 30, 2003 for the inclusion of the symposium proceedings.

Participants for the exhibition are also expected to send to the address below by November 30, 2003 an outline of their exhibition using a form delivered from the secretariat.

SYMPOSIUM SECRETARIAT ADDRESSES

1. By post mail : DSR Nara Symposium Secretariat,
Publicity and Survey Division,
National Institute of Informatics (NII)
2-1-2, Hitotsubashi
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8430 Japan
2. By Email : dsrnara@nii.ac.jp
Proposal description and cover pages should be formatted in Microsoft word or plain text file and should be sent in an attached file.


NARA SYMPOSIUM FOR DIGITAL SILK ROADS WEB SITE

http://www.nii.ac.jp/dsrnara/
For inquiry , please contact at info-dsrnara@nii.ac.jp



SYMPOSIUM COMMITTEE CHAIR

Prof. Kinji ONO
Executive Director for Research, National Institute of Informatics (NII)


Cover Page

(MS-Word) (PDF)


NII Home
info-dsrnara@nii.ac.jp