The workshop will provide an introduction to Virtual Environments (VEs) and Virtual Humans technologies applied for communications, in particular on the Internet. These topics have been capturing attention of researchers for nearly two decades. Recently, companies have been exploring commercial applications and adding new excitement to the field.

In the introductory part, we will provide a classification of technical areas related to VEs, ranging from Computer Graphics at the highest level, to special fields like Virtual Reality.
We will then introduce concepts and challenges of Networked Collaborative Virtual Environments (NCVEs). NCVEs allow multiple geographically distant participants to meet and collaborate in the virtual space visualized on their local workstations. The participants will have the possibility of experiencing such an environment on their PC workstations and view other examples on the video.

In the final part of the workshop we will concentrate on Virtual Humans, starting from basic concepts of simulating humans on a computer. Virtual Humans on the Web will then be introduced through potential applications, technical issues and problems, as well as practical examples.
The workshop is intended for technically aware participants with interest in new technologies and applications, and does not suppose any particular background knowledge.