Contact is an annual interdisciplinary conference that brings together renowned social and space scientists, science fiction writers and artists to exchange ideas, stimulate new perspectives and encourage serious, creative speculation about humanity's future. The intent of Contact is to promote the integration of human factors into space research and policy, to explore the intersection of science and art, and to develop ethical approaches to cross-cultural contact. Since its beginnings, the Contact conference has fostered interdisciplinary inquiries into art, literature, exploration and scientific investigation. Contact was conceived by anthropologist Jim Funaro in 1979, and the first formal conference was held in 1983 in Santa Cruz, California. Almost two dozen annual events have followed, several held at NASA Ames Research Center. In recent years, the COTI HI project has involved teams of High School students in the creation of scientifically accurate extraterrestrial beings, and in simulated encounters between two such races. Many spinoff organizations have formed, on line, and as far away as Japan. One such organization is the Contact consortium which is focused on the medium of contact in multi-user virtual worlds on the Internet. Contact has been closely allied with the SETI Institute, and its early participants created the hypothetical planet Epona. After a hiatus in 2007, the 24th Contact conference will be held in April 2008 at NASA Ames.
