Heritage Key is a content-orientated online community aimed at those with an interest in history and culture. It features both media resources and an interactive experience.

Available content includes podcasts, streaming videos, news articles, interviews, discussion groups and blogs. The content is often created in conjunction with archaeologists and historians, such as the Egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass

Zahi Hawass

Zahi Hawass is an Egyptian archaeologist, an Egyptologist, and former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs. He has also worked at archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, the Western Desert, and the Upper Nile Valley....

 and John Julius Norwich

John Julius Norwich

John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich CVO — known as John Julius Norwich — is an English historian, travel writer and television personality.-Early life:...

. Heritage Key combines this content with an online 3D virtual experience, or virtual world

Virtual world

A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of...

, that recreates artefacts and archaeological sites.

The Virtual Experience

The Heritage Key Virtual Experience (VX) allows users to explore virtual reconstructions of historical sites from around the world. Users navigate through these virtual worlds by creating avatars, enabling them to interact with each other and to explore in groups.

All artefacts and historical sites are reproduced in 3D modelling applications using measurements and photographs of the actual sites and artefacts.

Digital content creation is handled by Rezzable, a London-based team of digital artists.

Open source approach

Heritage Key uses a range of open source software, including content management system, Drupal

Drupal

Drupal is a free and open-source content management system and content management framework written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. It is used as a back-end system for at least 1.5% of all websites worldwide ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and...

, and online 3D simulation software, OpenSimulator

OpenSimulator

OpenSimulator is an open-source server platform for hosting virtual worlds. It is compatible with the client for Second Life and can host alternative worlds with differing feature sets with multiple protocols.-Features:...

.

Content delivery

Heritage Key uses a variety of existing social media platforms to for sharing and viewing content, including Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

, Flickr

Flickr

Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...

, Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

, instant messaging

Instant messaging

Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...

 and RSS feeds.

User generated content is also accepted through the sharing of photos via Flickr, posting blog entries or helping to create some of the digital items in the VX.

Potential in education

Heritage Key also acts as a Virtual Learning Environment

Virtual learning environment

Defined largely by usage, the term virtual learning environment has most, if not all, of the following salient properties:* It is Web-based* It uses Web 2.0 tools for rich 2-way interaction* It includes a content management system...

.
Educational institutions can use Heritage Key to develop experiences for their students inside the virtual world. Teachers can select content and choose how to deliver it in the most appropriate way. The Heritage Key VX supports real-time communication through messaging and live conversations via Skype

Skype

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...

.

Virtual tourism

Three-Dimensional Virtual Tourism

Three-Dimensional Virtual Tourism

3DVT refers to the street-level navigation of virtual reality environments for purposes of exploring physical places in space and time without physically traveling there...

 allows travellers to see and explore virtual reality

Virtual reality

Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...

environments for the purpose of experiencing physical places in space and time without physically traveling there.

Heritage Key’s VX provides an environment where travellers can explore historic sites, meet and interact online and share advice or recommendations for potential destinations.