EP Topic News: 5th July 2001EP Topic News: 5th July 2001
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EuroPrix is the premier European contest for multimedia products and applications, sponsored by the European Commission. Entries are invited for the EuroPrix 2001 contest in the following categories:
- Knowledge, Discovery and Culture;
- Learning and e-Education;
- Interactive Fiction and story telling;
- e-business and Supporting SMEs in the Marketplace;
- Mobile Multimedia;
- Citizens, Democracy and e-Government: Empowerment Improvement;
- First Steps and Bridging Society with Multimedia;
- a Special Competition for Students' Award.
The closing date for registration of entries is 15 July. For further details of the current contest and of previous winners, visit the EuroPrix web site. The winners of EuroPrix are announced at the final EuroPrix Gala in December in Lisbon.
URL: http://www.europrix.org/europrix/99-start/99-index_start.html
We have been requested to circulate the following announcement. The Department of Computer Science of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK is seeking PhD students. The department is looking for students interested in carrying out research in the following areas:
- formal IR models, applied to the web, multimedia data, and structured documents;
- resource selection and data fusion for distributed digital libraries;
- text mining for information discovery and automatic construction of hypermedia;
- advanced interaction models for information access (e.g. speech).
The department has a number of full-time and part-time studentships available for students beginning in October 2001. These include EPSRC studentships and Graduate Teaching Assistant posts, available for UK, EU and Overseas students, providing the payment of fees and a standard maintenance allowance of approximately UK£ 8,500. Since these posts are awarded on a competitive basis, interested students should apply as early as possible. Applicants should enclose a CV, a statement of their research interests, and the names of two references.
Email: enquiries Dr Fabio Crestani mailto:fabioc@cs.strath.ac.uk
URL: http://www.cs.strath.ac.uk/
URL: http://www.dis.strath.ac.uk/
We have been informed that the Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society was published in the Official Journal on 22 June 2001 (OJ No 2001/L 167/010 p. 10) and is available via the Commission's Europa web site
A beta version of Google's image search engine is available for users to try-out. Google claim the engine is the most comprehensive on the web, indexing over 150 million images. Images are searched for using key words, with results being published as pages containing thumbnails, clicking on the thumbnail links to the larger image.
Not another Trade Association or SIG (and with no subscription fee), the XYZ Group was announced at VR World Congress held in Barcelona on 27-29 June, 2001. Due to be launched at SIGGRAPH 2001, "the 'not-for-profit' group will independently and collaboratively promote the successful, commercial adoption of VR/i3D".
Initial activities will include a Market Report ("Who Will Buy?"), an Expert Group (to define future VR/i3D applications and the technologies required to deliver them) and a White Paper ("Business Systems for Visionaries"). It is intended that the XYZ Group will bring the business benefits of VR/i3D to the attention of prospective user companies and share the promotional cost to accelerate and expand market take-up.
Enquiries concerning the announcement to Roger Frampton, the editor of the VR news section of El.pub.
Email: Roger Frampton mailto:roger_frampton@cyber-wizard.com
AuthorIT is used to publish "catalogue-based" business documents such-as training manuals, policies and procedures, user assistance guides and operations manuals. Often referred to as technical documentation, the requirement for such publications is for the core information to be universally updated, with subsequent publication in multiple formats such as print, online-help or via the web.
Emblaze Systems has introduced the Emblaze I, which it describes as "a next-generation carrier grade back-end system for delivery of 3GPP standards-based MPEG4 video over wireless networks". In addition, the company announced that five leading European cellular operators have signed paid trial agreements to test the new systems over GPRS networks over the next year.
The Emblaze I system gives wireless carriers the power to deliver the highest possible quality multimedia services over all networks, including GSM, GPRS, UMTS WCDMA, TDMA, HSCSD, CDMA and CDMA 2000. The carriers using the system plan to test two-way video services as well as live video transmissions and video on demand. Emblaze claim that peer-to-peer messaging (phone-to-phone, PC-to-phone and phone-to-PC) should be possible using camera-equipped phones, allowing users to send real-time video messages from phones to PCs and PDAs.
URL: Emblaze http://www.emblaze.com/
UB Video has released details of its high performance UBStream-MP4 encode/decode software for video streaming applications. Apparently, the latest version of the software allows users "to experience full screen video streaming at a quality that rivals that of broadcast TV". UBStream-MP4 is suitable for applications requiring high-quality video coding at 640x480 resolution, such as streaming live events over the Internet and other packet networks, as well as video on demand.
The second beta release of SmartMode's Rapid Java Server Page (JSP) Development tools are available for download. The tools are aimed at web developers using JSP and Servlet technologies helping in site building by integrating with many application servers and integrated development environments (IDEs).
The latest beta features easier installation, enhanced documentation and compatibility with Linux, Solaris, Windows NT/2000, and Mac OS X. Support has been extended for application servers, to include Borland AppServer, and WebLogic, and databases to include Oracle 8i, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB/2 and PostgreSQL.
Simkin is a high-level lightweight embeddable scripting language which works with Java or C++ and XML. According to its UK-based developers, "Simkin enables you to hand over control of part or all of your application to your users. The language has been designed to be easy enough for non-programmers to use, and easy for you to supply a simple API for them to write to".
Simkin for Java and C++ is a free Open-Source product which its developers believe "could revolutionise the way your system gets developed - you provide the mechanism, others can decide the policy". There is an article explaining the software in more detail, entitled: "Views from Abroad: Simkin, A New Breed of Scripting Language", by respected XML expert, Benoît Marchal on the developer.com web site.
URL: http://www.simkin.co.uk/
URL: article http://softwaredev.earthweb.com/java/article/0,,12082_771841,00.html
Macromedia's Sitespring, is a new web-based application for managing the web site production process. Offering an integrated, server-based approach, the software aims to provide web-based team collaboration, file management and client communications. Central to the system is "transparent file versioning and archiving" ensuring that a web team is always working on the correct file versions, thus preventing costly rework. The production version is expected to ship in early autumn of 2001 for Windows 2000 / NT Server with prices starting at £1,299 (+ VAT) for the Sitespring Server plus 3-user licenses. A public beta programme will launch in July, details via the web site below.
URL: http://www.macromedia.com/software/sitespring/early_reg/
By taking advantage of Bluetooth wireless technology and GPRS networks, Ericsson's digital pen, Chatpen (CHA-30), can apparently transfer handwritten text and interact with mobile phones, computers and the Internet. The Chatpen technology is currently under development and is scheduled for trial release towards the end of 2001 in Sweden with a full launch in early 2002. Ericsson believes that the pen, and BlueTooth-based products in general, offers tremendous potential for operators and their customers by creating or enhancing a broad range of new SMS, fax, e-mail and data services.
A new application, Vodafone Moso, developed by the Ericsson Microsoft Mobile Venture, will enable Vodaphone users in New Zealand to access Microsoft Outlook functionality including e-mail, calendar, contacts, "to do" lists and shared public folders on any Ericsson R380, R320 phone or most other WAP enabled mobile devices. Genesis Power, a major electricity generation company, has signed-up as the first corporate user.
"Multimedia Tools and Applications. An International Journal" Volume 14, Issue 2, June 2001 is a special issue on "Content-Based Multimedia Indexing and Retrieval". Published by Kluwer, (and available by subscription the issue includes studies and experiments in: content analysis of audiovisual data and feature extractions; content description; meta-data creation on the basis of the normative form - MPEG7.
A project is under development within the KnoW (Knowledge on the Web) initiative that will study the relationships, overlaps, differences and complementarities between a number of specifications that are relevant to knowledge on the web, including Topic Maps, RDF, DAML, EXIST and NewsML.
The project is likely to be completed within the next few months, when the results will be made public. If any El.pub readers are interested in finding out more about this project and the KnoW initiative, or in joining it to participate actively in and contribute to its research, then further information may be found at the website below.
In order to exact as many responses as possible, the first round of the DigiCULT online survey on challenges cultural institutions face today has been extended until July 30. The survey is being undertaken within the framework of the study "Technological Landscapes for Tomorrow's Cultural Economy - DigiCULT" funded by the European Commission.
This study aims to "provide cultural institutions and cultural players with a tool to get prepared and plan their technological and organisational future". The survey which can be accessed via the URL below explores five key areas: organisational and financial issues, services and demands, technology, (commercial) exploitation, and finally, national policies and initiatives.
Each survey participant will receive the Executive Summary of the final report on technological landscapes in the cultural economy. This report will be available at the end of December 2001.
Xara Online have released a new range of animated Text Effects Modules for the web. The company claim that the Text Effect Modules remove the technical barriers often associated with authoring animations of the web, "allowing anyone to create top quality, animated text". A demo of the types of effects possible is available on the web.
URL: demo http://preview.xaraonline.com/xo/groups/texteffects/
URL: Xara Online http://www.xara.com/
MCB University Press has changed its name to Emerald and is aiming to lead the field in the supply of online full text articles. At the same time the company has announced that a new version of the Library Link site which aims to "facilitate the global dissemination of information for librarians". Subject categories covered include:
- library collection development and management;
- library management and information services;
- library technology.
The site features a news section, virtual workshops and links to the Emerald library journals, paid-for journals which support the site.
The June, 2001 issue of RLG DigiNews is now available online, featured articles include: "3D Culture on the Web" and "A Project on Preservation of Digital Data". There is also a calendar of events and other announcements. RLG DigiNews is a bimonthly web-based newsletter which focuses on issues of particular interest and value to managers of digital initiatives with a preservation component or rationale. For more information about the US-based RLG or PRESERV, RLG's preservation community, please contact Robin Dale.
Email: Robin Dale mailto:Robin.Dale@notes.rlg.org
URL: http://www.ohio.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/
The Mobile Services Initiative (M-Services) aims to introduce open software and hardware guidelines within the mobile Internet industry in a bid to "avoid the fiasco that surrounded the first attempt at mobile Internet, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)". This list provides a discussion forum for this initiative recently announced by the GSM Association.
URL: Subscription Instructions http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mservices/join/
Email: mailto:mservices-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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