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European Union funds ambitious Presence MEC Methods Study,
M.I.N.D. Labs in Portugal and Finland play role

September 18, 2002
East Lansing, MI

The European Commission's IST (Information Societies Technology) program under the Presence Initiative has awarded the MEC (Measurement, Effects, Conditions) funding for methods research work at five European Universities including the M.I.N.D. labs in Helsinki and Porto.

The duration of the project will be 36 months starting October 1,2002. MEC will address three major issues of Presence research that are closely connected to each other: the conceptualization and measurement of Presence, a comparative investigation of the appropriateness of different measurement approaches and contribute to a methodology of Presence research. This way, MEC will lay the foundations for subsequent studies on learning effects and psychological conditions of Presence.

The project will be completed by looking at the psychological conditions of Presence, namely the motivations and capabilities of the users. Overall, MEC will produce a significant body of interdisciplinary, multi-theory and multi-method research on the nature of Presence, its effects and determinants that will help those projects within the Presence initiative focused on technology and engineering to conduct usability tests.

Participants include Dr. Frank Biocca, Director of the M.I.N.D. Labs and Ameritech Professor of Telecommunication, Information and Media
at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A., Dr. Timo Saari, Associate Director of the M.I.N.D. Lab at the Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research at the Helsinki School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland and Dr. Feliz Ribeiro Gouveia, Associate Director of the M.I.N.D. Lab at Fernando Pessoa University in Porto, Portugal.

The M.I.N.D. Labs are a network of seven international labs working together to collaborate on research projects, combining their individual specialties and strengths to create a research body stronger than the simple sum of its parts.