EP Topic News: 19 April 2001

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Networked knowledge systems

The April edition of the web based Journal of Digital Information is A SPECIAL ISSUE on Networked Knowledge Organization Systems. Guest Editor, Traugott Koch of Lund University, Sweden writes: "Knowledge Organization Systems can comprise thesauri and other controlled lists of keywords, ontologies, classification systems, clustering approaches, taxonomies, gazetteers, dictionaries, lexical databases, concept maps/spaces, semantic road maps, etc. These schemas enable knowledge structuring and management, knowledge-based data processing and systematic access to knowledge structures in individual collections and digital libraries. Used as interactive information services on the Internet they have an increased potential to support the description, discovery and retrieval of heterogeneous information resources and to contribute to an overall resource discovery infrastructure." There are five papers and an editorial on the subject.19/04/01

US gov e-dissem policy

The US Government Accounting Office has published a study of the present and future of the dissemination of government information by the Government Printing Office. The report includes discussion of a move to electronic-only dissemination and a transfer of some responsibilitites to the Library of Congress. The report considers the pros and cons of the alternatives. A second report "Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination" by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science considers broader policy issues. The study was commissioned in response to problems of self-financing of some US govt. publishing operations at a time when many clients are picking up reports on the web for free. The report calls on the govt. to treat government information as a strategic resource. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d01428.pdf
URL: http://www.nclis.gov/govt/assess/assess.execsum.pdf

e-mail overload - solution space

The US Congress has published a report on the problems that they are having with e-mail oveload to legislators and possible solutions. The report should be of interest to anyone dealing with a large amount of e-mail from the public that needs to be responded to. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.congressonlineproject.org/email.html

Online teaching resources

University of Maryland and Bell Atlantic have created a Virtual Resource Site for Teaching with Technology. The site consists of two modules, and each explores key issues in developing and teaching online courses with the use of technology. Module 1 provides information about the selection and use of various Web-based media, such as text, audio, video, still images, animated graphics, applets, and scripts, to accomplish a number of different learning strategies. Module 2 focuses on delivery and features faculty interviews about realities and successful practices in online course delivery. Particular attention is paid to ways of encouraging interactivity as a key influence on students' learning styles.19/04/01

URL: http://www.umuc.edu/virtualteaching/

Java multimedia mobile video

helloNetwork, a developer and supplier of interactive, live, and recorded streaming media software and solutions for internal and external corporate communications, has unveiled the first mobile delivery platform aimed at today’s wireless networks. helloMobile Media is a lightweight, software-based application suite for content creation, distribution, and playback that runs on every Java™-enabled device. This platform-independent solution currently functions on cell phones, mobile information devices, PDAs, set-top boxes, and desktop PCs. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.hellonetwork.com/

LinuxTV

German company Convergence have developed a number of MPEG-2 and DVB compliant services and products for video under the Linux open-source system. They have also developed a Linux DVD system that they are currently trying to license with the DVD consortium. In the meantime they have software for embedded Linux, Multimedia Home Platform and other video applications. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.convergence.de/
URL: http://www.linuxtv.org/projects.xml

E Ink demos high- res display

E Ink Corporation, the leading developer and marketer of electronic ink technology, announced that it has demonstrated the world's first active matrix electronic ink display capable of producing high resolution illustrations and text. This innovative research and development milestone for electronic ink is a step toward a new generation of highly mobile devices such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and reader devices with screens as easy to read as ink on paper. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.eink.com/

Wholesale e-book service

Content Reserve is a secure wholesale and DRM distribution center for publishers seeking to sell their eBook and Print-on-Demand titles through a growing network of Book and eBooksellers. After completing the application form, publishers will receive notice of acceptance. Member Publishers may then upload their eBook titles in Microsoft Reader and Acrobat eBook Reader formats, Print-on-Demand files, and marketing data to create their wholesale digital book repository. Content Reserve provides publishers a single location to manage their wholesale inventory and update marketing, digital rights and pricing information. The web site alos provides free copies of eBook Industry Survival Guide in a variety of formats. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.contentreserve.com/

Multiple streaming format tools

FlipFactory Publish encodes media into multiple streaming formats and delivers those files to streaming servers, asset management systems and CDNs. FlipFactory Pro is a powerful transcoding engine for the professional broadcast facility. Now you can flip media directly to/from your broadcast server, providing file format independence and allowing you to move media between the broadcast server and archives, editing systems, and streaming servers. You can automatically transcode source video into multiple streaming formats and bit rates, and send it to FTP and streaming servers, distribution networks and individual mailboxes. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.telestream.net/

Adobe Acrobat for Palm

Adding to its vision of Network Publishing - "Publish anything, anywhere, on any device" - Adobe has released the beta version of Acrobat Reader for Palm OS for download. In addition to being able to view .pdf files on the move, Palm handheld users will be able to synchronise these files between a PC or laptop and the PDA using HotSync. "Tagged Adobe PDF files created with Adobe Acrobat 5.0 provide the best reading experience on handheld devices because the contents can be easily reflowed to fit the screen size." they say of their latest version of Acrobat. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readerforpalm.html

Credit card penetration

The Bank for International Settlements has published its statistical review of payment systems in the G-10 countries for 1999 which includes information on credit card penetration. These show the following for the number of credit/debit cards per '000 inhabitants:

• USA 2793
• Canada 2482
• UK 1529
• Netherlands 1527
• Germany 1297
• Belgium 1308
• Switzerland 1142
• Sweden 799
• France 567
• Italy 565

The figures clearly have implications for online transaction systems. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.bis.org/publ/cpss44.htm for full report

New report on US ISP market

Cahners In-Stat Group have released a new report "Hooked on Dial-up: Consumer ISP Trends and Market Share". The report points out that despite strong forecasted growth in broadband access by In-Stat and others, most households will still be using dial-up access in the year 2005. The report also notes that 30% of US households state that they still have no need or desire for Internet access; e-mail is the number one use for Internet access in the home; and AOL continues to be the market leader in consumer ISP services. Not exciting but easily forgotten in the continual fog of hype. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.instat.com/pr/2001/is0102es_pr.htm

Earliest colour photos recreated

In the early 1900s Russian photographer Prokudin-Gorskii formulated an ambitious plan for a photographic survey of the Russian Empire that won the support of Tsar Nicholas II. Between 1909-1912, and again in 1915, he completed surveys of eleven regions, traveling in a specially equipped railroad car provided by the Ministry of Transportation. His own original research yielded patents for producing color film slides and for projecting color motion pictures. The US Library of Congress acquired the plates in 1948 and have now recreated the images with a digital process called “Digichromatography”. The results are in a current exhibition and can be seen on the web site with an explanation of the process. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/

High capacity pocket storage

Iomega are launching the Peerless, a portable storage device with 10/20GB cartridges that connects to PC/MAC with Firewire, USB or SCSI. Pre-launch orders are being accepted on their web site for June delivery.

Digital wallet is another recent product, from Minds@Work. It is a micro-computer driven 6GB hard drive that is battery / AC powered and accepts the sort of media that are used in digicams such as memory sticks and flash cards. Files can be transferred to the wallet which also interfaces to PC/MACs via USB. The wallet only allows complete transfers of files/folders so is essentially a mobile storage device. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.iomega.com/
URL: http://www.mindsatwork.net/

Undergrad digital library service

A US startup, Questia, has set up a digital library of books in the liberal arts for web access by undergradutates. Currently containing 35,000+ books (but aiming for 250,000+) the service allows free text search of the complete library, and tools for bookmarking, creating citations and writing reports. Publishers who make books available are paid on a page view basis. Searches are free but access to the full text and tools is by subscription. 19/04/01

URL: http://www.questia.com/

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