EP Topic News: 31st October 2002EP Topic News: 31st October 2002
| About topic news We publish topic news occasionally with a separate page for each update, ensuring that links to our email alerter service continue to remain current. |
El.pub News A free email alerter of the latest news items and associated URLs |
 |
Forward to next week |
Back to previous week |
 |
|
Contents |
We attended both the IEP sector concertation meeting and an Information Days on the early stages of implementation of the IST programme 2002-2006 (Framework Programme 6) held in Luxembourg on 23-24 October, 2002. Instead of compiling a full report, we have attempted to provide clippings under separate headings to enable readers to pick and choose quickly the items of interest. Through following the headlines we hope to have provided a reasonably coherent "map" of themes of most interest to those active in the interactive electronic publishing sphere.
The European Commission's Information Society Directorate General ran this event entitled: "Information Day on the early stages of implementation of the IST programme within FP6" in Luxembourg, 23-24 October 2002. The purpose of these Information Days were to provide participants with first-hand information on the likely scope and content of the calls for proposals that will be launched in the first year of operation of the new programme.
The Information Days consisted of two sessions, addressing RTD topics relating to Interface Technologies and Cognitive Systems on day 1, and Knowledge Technologies and Cross-media Digital Content on day 2.
We have published on El.pub the brief agenda and, where appropriate, links to further information. The comprehensive slides from the meeting provide an excellent starting point for all those interested in being involved in a proposal submission to the Programme. Please note, however, that the views expressed were classed by most speakers as "provisional" in a programme that is very likely to change prior to final implementation.
Further information concerning the meeting is available from Joseph Kirsch, via the email below.
URL: Information Day resources http://www.elpub.org/agenda25.htm
Email: Joseph Kirsch mailto:Joseph.Kirsch@cec.eu.int
A project concertation meeting for the Interactive Electronic Publishing (IEP) sector was held on October 23, 2002 in Luxembourg. The meeting provided:
• a platform to introduce the latest projects (from Call 8) to be funded within the sector
• briefings on management and administrative issues related to projects
• a wide ranging discussion of how the IEP sector would be evolved to address the requirements of the 6th Framework Programme.URL: IEP concertation meeting agenda http://www.elpub.org/agenda24.htm
Of particular interest to El.pub readers actively involved in IEP projects was the the announcement that there is the opportunity for projects to promote their work at the Imagina event to be held in Monaco in February 2003. The Commission have a stand available, and projects interested in exhibiting should contact Pascal Jacques, Head of IEP sector, in the first instance.
Email: Pascal Jacques pascal.jacques@cec.eu.int
Details of eight projects let under the 8th Call of the 5th Framework Programme and administered under the Interactive Electronic Publishing sector were presented. These are summarised on the meeting agenda page. Where we have them, we have included links to project web sites for further information.
URL: IEP concertation meeting agenda http://www.elpub.org/agenda24.htm
Also at the IEP concertation meeting a session entitled "The future in FP6" which provided a wide ranging discussion based on the results from the call for expressions of interest (EoI). A number of discussion papers were presented, and are available for download as PowerPoint (.ppt) presentations from El.pub, including:
• "FP6 Matters" which presented the current state of play and the new organisation of DG INFSO as we move towards the 6th Framework Programme by Pascal Jacques, Head of IEP sector.
URL: http://www.elpub.org/lux2002/jacques.ppt• "Leisure and entertainment" - a discussion paper which considers the term "leisure" and how it may be applied in a meaningful context to research and development programmes, by Geoffrey Stephenson, Managing Director, KET.
URL: http://www.elpub.org/lux2002/steph.ppt• "NETlab, INTER-FACES & Innovation in the Creative and Cultural Sectors", a paper which highlights the potential for the creative arts to work alongside technical developers to build meaningful applications, by Dr Lizbeth Goodman, Director, SMARTlab
URL: http://www.elpub.org/lux2002/good.ppt• "Future of the Entertainment Industry - What industry, what future?" which considers the potential for digital cinema (D-Cinema), by Tom Evans, Director, Wavecrest Systems.
URL: http://www.elpub.org/lux2002/evans.ppt• "The Future of Multimedia in a Networked World" which was based on an Expression of Interest (EoI) submitted by Geoff Morrison, of BTexact Technologies.
URL: http://eoi.cordis.lu/dsp_details.cfm?ID=31979There are links to all these papers from the meeting agenda page on El.pub.
URL: IEP concertation meeting agenda http://www.elpub.org/agenda24.htm
It was confirmed at the meeting that should the FP6 programme be adopted according to the current timetable then the first call for proposals should be launched around the 18 December, 2002. The closing date is likely to be around mid-April 2003. Project evaluations are currently expected to start in mid-May with potential start dates for the first selected projects possible by October 2003.
Opencola were until recently on our creative technology pages, but have now released a product, 'Opencola' that is a unified search application that enables knowledge seekers to search, acquire, manage and collaborate on information from distributed sources including the Internet, news feeds, peers and selected databases. The aim is to minimise replication of searches within a group by using P2P technology to find relevant information already picked up by other group members. Beta version available for download.
Picture Coding Symposium (PCS) is an international forum for the picture coding community: industry, research, academia and users. The 23rd PCS will be held in Saint-Malo, France on 23-25 April 2003, in the week prior to the 13th International Packet Video Workshop that will take place in Nantes. A call for papers is open until December 1, 2002.
Areas of interest include: feature extraction and picture processing; motion estimation and object segmentation; coding for still and moving pictures; coding of stereo and multiview images/sequences; content-based or object-oriented coding; modeling and synthetic coding; very high res. imaging and processing; joint video-audio processing and coding; coding for mobile and IP communications; coding and indexing for database applications; virtual reality and telepresence.
The XML Europe 2003 Conference is taking place in London on May 5-8, 2003. The Chair of the Programme Committee is Edd Dumbill, editor of the excellent XML industry resource, XML.com. This year's conference takes as its theme "Powering the Information Society", and a general call is open for those wishing to present papers, tutorials, vendor-presentations, or technology posters. The paper call closes on December 13, 2002 and covers areas such as: case studies, content management, core technologies, databases, electronic business, government, legal, graphics and multimedia, knowledge technologies, publishing, web services.
URL: paper call http://www.xmleurope.com/2003/call.asp
URL: presentations http://www.xmleurope.com/2003/presentations.asp
URL: tutorial call http://www.xmleurope.com/2003/tutorials.asp
The Khronos Group is a consortium of companies that "recognise the urgent need for a cross-platform graphics API with advanced 2D and scalable 3D capabilities, through the development and deployment of OpenGL ES and OpenML; royalty-free, open standard APIs that enable authoring and playback of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices". A wide variety of companies are involved in the initiative including: Superscape, Symbian and Texas Instruments, 3d4W, 3Dlabs, ARM, ATI Technologies, Discreet, DVS, Imagination Technologies, Motorola, Nokia, RealVision and SGI.
DDD Group plc has received notification of allowance of a US patent relating to the tracking of a viewer's eyes for use in conjunction with a variety of 3D displays. The patent extends DDD's coverage of technologies that support the presentation of content in 3D without the need for the viewer to wear special glasses.
According to the company, The Eye Tracker is able to identify the position of the viewer's head by locating and following the movement of the viewer's eyes. This positional information is fed to the 3D display system that responds to movements in the viewer's head to ensure that the viewer always remains in the optimal position for 3D viewing. Flexible enough to accommodate viewers wearing spectacles, the eye tracker follows the head movements without requiring the viewer to wear or attach any type of registration or tracking device that is common in alternative approaches, allowing completely unencumbered 3D viewing.
URL: http://www.DDD.com
In an article on the music downturn, in the Financial Times, a spokesman from independent music company Sanctuary is quoted as saying, "We hear a lot about how the music industry is going down the pan but people are making the mistake of projecting what's happening in one sector, recorded music, onto the whole industry. The music industry consisting of artist management, live agency touring, recorded music, merchandising and other revenue sources is what we operate in and this is doing very well."
Only half of Sanctuary's turnover comes from the recorded music division. Due to investor sentiment about the music sector however, their share price has dropped since 2001 despite increased pre-tax profits. Perhaps the record industry should consider the impact of its continual wingeing, about piracy and falling sales, on the music industry as a whole. (Source: www.ft.com from subscription section, dated October 22, 2002)
URL: http://www.ft.com
The IEE Computer Forum (UK) has published a paper "Quality-of-service management for broadband residential video services" that presents results from an investigation into the way the multiple protocol layers of a real access network platform built from commercial equipment impact on the QoS of high data rate video services. Ultimately, QoS is defined subjectively as the user's degree of satisfaction with the service.
However, from the networking viewpoint it is the collective effect of performances that may be measured at a hierarchy of access points. Using the Fujitsu Telecommunications testbed the effects of errors have been shown to have a direct relationship to real access network deployments using ADSL/ATM /AAL5/IP/UDP/MPEG-TS/MPEG-2 video protocol layers.
URL: http://www.iee.org/OnComms/CompForum/Forum_Article.cfm?ObjectID=D1951E99-8E7
B-4D18-956E9DB57E07D9C5 (free registration required for access)
The latest MetaGroup audio briefing (Real Audio plus web slides) describes Information Auditing Process Details. "An effective information audit leverages a repeatable process to drive ongoing improvement in information management across an enterprise. Key steps in the audit range from determining how information should be valued to specific audit techniques and reporting guidelines." In the presentation they say "Information is the fuel for business performance improvement", if that's what you might need to assess listen in on how to get there.
US-based company World Theatre plans to introduce a 24/7 interactive television music channel which will broadcast music videos from major record labels. Commenting on the announcement Robert D. Summer, chairman and CEO of World Theatre, Inc. claimed: "Unlike most Internet download models that promote individual tracks, our platform encourages the viewer to purchase an entire album with the click of a TV remote control". World Theatre plans to market the service to cable and direct broadcast satellite operators and claims that its service offers the operators: "state-of-the art digital rights management and digital content management".
Premiere, a leading digital television operator in Germany, plans to use SCM Microsystems' conditional access modules (secure broadcast decryption technology). According to SCM this is the first time that a major European broadcaster has elected to deliver its decryption technology through the Common Interface slot that is now installed in an increasing number of digital set-tops and digital TV sets. Traditionally, broadcast security software has been embedded within the set-top box, requiring the operator to bear the costs of producing, deploying and supporting set-top boxes within its subscriber base. Premiere now plans to reduce the cost of deploying its services by offering new subscribers a conditional access module (CAM) from SCM. This removable module contains Premiere's decryption software and can be plugged in to any digital set-top box with a Common Interface slot.
Premiere estimates that there are nearly one million digital set-top boxes with a Common Interface slot already in use, but that are not currently accessing Premiere content. In addition, Premiere plans to work with consumer electronics companies to ensure that new set-top boxes include a Common Interface slot to access content via an SCM module.
URL: SCM Microsystems http://www.scmmicro.com/
Palm Digital Media has licensed its Palm Retail Encryption Server Software to two German Internet retailers. The companies, envi.con KG of Berlin and mukom, e.K. of Offenburg, plan to create Internet bookstores offering German language editions of Palm Reader eBooks protected by Palm Digital Media's digital rights management technology.
URL: Palm Digital Media http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com
URL: http://www.palmsource.com/
A new survey to determine the impact of multi-lingual technologies on global e-business has been published by two international organisations developing complementary standards for localisation. The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), together with the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA), have produced a Global eBusiness Survey designed to investigate the amount of activity and resources devoted to using or developing localisation products.
The survey is structured in two parts: The Business Process section is for managers responsible for international product, services, sales or support operations; the Localization Expert section is designed for product, Web services, development and standards professionals.
This survey is part of a recent series developed by LISA to measure the impact of language in business, multi-lingual content creation and the related technologies and standards. Future surveys in process by OASIS and LISA will focus on the governmental policies impacting e-Business and cross-border trading along with the evolution and adoption of global standards to meet the cultural requirements of each market.
URL: survey http://www.lisa.org/interact/2002/ebizsurvey.html
URL: LISA http://www.lisa.org/
URL: OASIS http://www.oasis-open.org/
Microsoft plans to release Content Management Server (CMS) 2002 at the end of 2002. It will join the .NET Enterprise Server family, which also includes BizTalk Server, Commerce Server and SharePoint Portal Server. The company are hoping that the Content Management Servers integration with the .NET Framework and Visual Studio will "provide developers with an environment to build and assemble content management-enabled Web applications and content-driven Web services". The company claims that integration with Microsoft Office will enable "content creation and direct Web publishing from Microsoft Word". All this will come at a price, expected to be US$ 42,000 per CPU.
The Music Technology Group of the IUA-UPF in Barcelona has position open for a researcher (preferably Post-Doc) on a project funded under the EU HPRN programme. The project is part of the MOSART training network project, of which Universitat Pompeu Fabra is a member. The successful applicant will work on a project related to automatic audio content analysis for sound, and music classification and retrieval, and should therefore have some skills in the following areas: Audio Signal Processing, Spectral processing techniques, C++ Object Programming, Audio and Music Technologies. Other related skills (eg. database programming, data mining, web programming) will also be taken into account.
This post is for a young researcher (35 years old or under) from an EU member country (other than Spain). The start date is no latter than February 1, 2003 with a minimum contract length of 6 months
If interested send your updated resume (CV) to Salvador Gurrera via the email below.
An age rating system that meets the varying cultural standards of different European countries, the pan-European voluntary system, has been announced by The Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE). The ISFE plans to introduce a classification system for computer and video games, whether bought at retail or accessed online. The system will have five age categories: aged three and over; seven and over; 12 and over; 16 and over and 18 and over. According to The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), the age ratings do not relate to the complexity of the game but rather the intention of the new system is to ensure that children are not inadvertently exposed to content that is deemed unsuitable, for example scenes of a violent, sexual, frightening or discriminatory nature or those that contain images of drug use or strong language. In addition to the age categories, where an upper age rating applies, packs will also show up to two symbols, indicating the nature of the content.
The new system will be administered by the Netherlands Institute for Classification of Audio-visual Media (NICAM) and should be introduced throughout Europe in Spring 2003, with the exception of Germany, which will retain its own rating system and Finland and Portugal who have not yet signed up for the new system.
URL: ELSPA http://www.elspa.com
URL: The Video Standards Council http://www.videostandards.org.uk/
URL: ISFE (site currently under construction) http://www.isfeurope.org
According The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) the sales of computer and video games were up by 12.5 per cent during July, August and September 2002 over the same period in 2001. ELSPA retail sales Reports, compiled by ChartTrack, shows that during this period consumers spent UK pounds 193 million on leisure software products. According to the research almost one million units of software for Microsoft’s Xbox have been sold since its launch in March 2002, reaching a sales value of UK pounds 38 million. Whilst Sony’s PS2 has notched up almost 8 million units of software this year, with a sales value of UK pounds 256 million.
URL: ELSPA http://www.elspa.com/
The European Commission is making preparations for implementing the eSafe programme 2003-2004, the extension of the Safer Internet Action Plan 1999-2002. Subject to approval by the European Parliament and Council, the eSafe Programme will provide funding for activities to deal with illegal and harmful content on the Internet and new online technologies, as part of a coherent approach by the European Union. Actions proposed:
• setting up a European network of hot-lines;
• encouraging self-regulation and codes of conduct;
• benchmarking of filtering software and services;
• encouraging user-friendly content rating;
• raising awareness by setting up a European network.eSafe aims to strengthen European coordination in the Safer Internet area: it will ensure more extensive interfacing with national programmes and actions, improved exchange of information and best
practice between Member State activities as well as between the action lines of the programme.All those interested are invited to take part in a hearing which will be held on: 27 and 28 November 2002, Glesener room, Wagner Building, rue Alcide de Gasperi, Kirchberg, Luxembourg
Space is limited and registration will be confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis. Only one representative per organisation will be allowed. The Commission cannot reimburse travel costs.
Participants from candidate countries are invited to join, as well as Member States of the EEA (EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein).
URL: agenda http://www.saferinternet.org/news/esafe_agenda.asp
URL: eSafe proposal http://europa.eu.int/information_society/programmes/iap/programmes/followup/index_en.htm
URL: registration http://www.saferinternet.org/registration.asp
The latest developments in Human Language Technologies (HLT) will be showcased during a special workshop, "Beyond human language technologies", organised by Euromap Language Technologies, at the IST 2002 Conference to be held in Copenhagen, on November 4-6, 2002. Highlights of the HLT workshop will include:
• a survey of the state of the art and future research in HLT;
• benchmarking of European countries with respect to their HLT readiness;
• exploring the issues of HLT partnerships inside the ERA;
• a case study of partnership building.For more on the HLT workshop, see the URL below.
URL: http://2002.istevent.cec.eu.int/2002conference/session/index_en.asp?id=57
URL: Euromap Language Technologies http://www.hltcentral.org/euromap
MusicTank, the University of Westminster's knowledge resource for the independent music industry in the UK, is launching its information web site and programme of short courses and seminars early next month.
The portal MusicTank.co.uk is still being developed but on completion will offer a detailed directory of information and support resources for small music businesses and independent music professionals in the UK. Developed in partnership with the UK's main industry bodies (steering group members include the BPI; AIM; MMF; MPA; the Musicians' Union; the National Music Council; the Music Producers Guild; British Music Right), MusicTank is designed to be a collaborative project, and the developers welcome any editorial contribution in the form of articles, fact sheets, newsletter extracts about current industry issues, new ideas or ways of doing business in any of the areas covered by the website. Contributor(s) will be fully credited, thereby increasing exposure for participant organisations.
URL: (currently under development) http://www.heymoscow.co.uk/musictank
A conference organised by the IST Diffuse Project and hosted by the European Commission entitled: "Convergence of Web Services, Grid Services and the Semantic Web for delivering e-Services" will take place on December 12, 2002 in Brussels.
The conference will review, explore and discuss the strategic issues surrounding the three interrelated technologies of web services, grid services and the semantic web from a broad perspective, with the following specific aims:
• provide a strategic overview of the current status of the three technologies;
• explore the relationships between these technologies;
• examine current initiatives for harmonisation and spotlight the issues surrounding interoperability in the widest context, including the role of open source software, harmonisation work required, value propositions of interoperability, convergence in practice, control and management issues;
• identify and discuss the critical points to facilitate further development especially in Europe, realistic targets and milestones, and what strategic measures and actions are needed from the stakeholders.Participation in the conference is free of charge subject to prior registration at the conference web site.
Adobe Systems is planning a line of server-based products designed to make the use of Acrobat, and the .pdf file format, the format of choice for "automated document-intensive processes across enterprises". The various offerings, based on the Adobe Document Server (and which will include a Form Server, Workflow Server and Central Output Server), are intended to help in the processing and electronic delivery of traditional documents such as forms, contracts, customised reports and invoices. Final release of the software is expected towards the end of 2002. Support for Java, Perl, COM and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) APIs is promised for developers.
URL: Adobe Document Server http://www.adobe.com/products/server/documentserver/main.html
| About topic news We publish topic news occasionally with a separate page for each update, ensuring that links to our email alerter service continue to remain current. |
El.pub News A free email alerter of the latest news items and associated URLs |
|
|
Forward to next week |
Back to previous week |
|
|
File
Downloads - Please note
|
| File downloads from the El.pub site are currently suspended - the links however have not been updated to reflect this. If you would like access to a particular download file - please email webmasters@elpub.org with a suitable request confirming a description of the file you wish to download. |
El.pub - Interactive
Electronic Publishing R & D News and Resources
We welcome feedback
and contributions to the information service, and proposals for subjects for
the news service (mail to: webmasters@elpub.org)
Edited by: Logical Events Limited - electronic marketing, search engine marketing, pay per click advertising, search engine optimisation, website optimisation consultants in London, UK. Visit our website at: www.logicalevents.org
Last up-dated: 16 February 2024
© 2024 Copyright and disclaimer El.pub and www.elpub.org are brand names owned by Logical Events Limited - no unauthorised use of them or the contents of this website is permitted without prior permission.