1 A Hypermedia Afghan Sites and Monuments Database Ralf Klamma 1 , Marc Spaniol 1 , Matthias Jarke 1 , Yiwei Cao 1 , Michael Jansen 2 , Georgios Toubekis 2 Lehrstuhl Informatik V, RWTH Aachen, Ahornstr. 55, 52072 Aachen, Germany 1 Lehr- und Forschungsgebiet Stadtbaugeschichte, RWTH Aachen, Schinkelstr. 1, 52062 Aachen, Germany 2 klamma@cs.rwth-aachen.de , mspaniol@cs.rwth-aachen.de , jarke@cs.rwth-aaachen.de , cao@i5.cs.rwth-aachen.de , jansen@sbg.rwth-aachen.de , toubekis@sbg.rwth-aachen.de . Abstract Cultural heritage management is an excellent application domain for geographical hypermedia information systems. Many people with different tasks and levels of profession like fieldworkers, researchers, project and campaign officers, cultural bureaucrats etc. collaboratively producing and consuming different media like photographs, video, drawings, books, etc. must deal with exact geographic information about moveable or unmovable objects of interest. Implemented information systems must obey all standards in the different domains to overcome classical failures of isolated solutions which do not scale beyond the scope of a single project. We present a conceptual approach which integrates geographic information, multimedia information, cultural heritage information and collaborative aspects in a single information model. This conceptual approach was used to design and implement a web-based information system on top of a single commercial database covering all mentioned aspects. This information system was deployed for a project in the conservation of cultural heritage in Afghanistan to prove the validity of the concepts. 1. Introduction Due to coverage by global media people all over the world have become heightened aware of disasters taking place even at remote spots around the globe. This reaches from draught catastrophes in Africa, to (civil) wars as in Afghanistan up to natural catastrophes like the Asian Tsunami. Similarly, an increased social responsibility can be recognized by e.g. big world-wide spending campaigns. However, these actions are very often of short term effect only. The reason is that the shift in the focus of global media after the strike of a disaster commonly leads to decline in perception and thus in a decreasing support for the affected. In this aspect, this paper proposes a trust building community approach that provides users in whatever country all over the world an option for a sustainable relief work by means of information systems. The aim is to provide communities with a cheap, long- lasting, and flexible mobile environment of geographic information system with hypermedia. It allows them to build up the disaster struck area more or less self-organizing. Additionally, networked experts from all over the world may contribute to the overall process without requiring them to be physically present. 1.1 Motivations and Problems Afghanistan is a country with a long history and rich cultural heritage. Cultural heritage worldwide faces damages resulted from the nature and human. This problem is especially severe in Afghanistan during the civil war and Taliban regime in the last 20 years. Under the UNESCO guidelines of the International Coordination Committee (ICC 1 ) for the Safeguarding of Afghanistan Cultural Heritage, several governmental and non- governmental organizations around the world actively engage with national institutions and experts. Within this framework the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS 2 ) cooperates with both Aachen Center for Documentation and Conservation (Prof. Dr. Michael Jansen) and Department of Information Systems (Prof. Dr. Matthias Jarke) of RWTH Aachen University with funds from the German Foreign Office. Together with local partners as the Society of the Preservation of Afghanistan Cultural Heritage (SPACH 3 ) capacity building activities are organized for the Departments of Archaeology and Historical Monuments of the Afghan Ministry of Culture with participation of a new generation of scholars and students from the Kabul University. Cultural Heritage Management consists of documentation of sites with significant interest, evaluation of appropriate conservation measures and the monitoring of the means applied. For the effective preservation of the Cultural Heritage the use of suitable modern technologies become a key question for archaeologists, historian 1 seehttp://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=25163&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html 2 see http://www.icomos.org/germany/german.html 3 see http://www.spach.info