The aristotle approach to open hypermedia

Large-scale distributed hypermedia systems comprise a generation of powerful tools to meet the demands of the new information globalization era. The most promising of such systems have characteristics that allow for the easy adaptation both to an, actually, unpredictable technological evolution and to the constantly evolving information needs of users. Such systems are generally known as Open Hypermedia Systems (OHS). Recently, research effort has been focused on the formulation of a solid set of OHS standards (i.e., protocols, reference models and architectures) that would stem from a common understanding and thus, direct future implementations.Keywords: Open Hypermedia Systems, Hypermedia Modeling, Distributed Information System

On the Turing completeness of the Semantic Web

The evidenced fact that “Linking is as powerful as computing” in a dynamic web context has lead to evaluating Turing completeness for hypertext systems based on their linking model. The same evaluation can be applied to the Semantic Web domain too. RDF is the default data model of the Semantic Web links, so the evaluation comes back to whether or not RDF can support the required computational power at the linking level. RDF represents semantic relationships with explicitly naming the participating triples, however the enumeration is only one method amongst many for representing relations, and not always the most efficient or viable. In this paper we firstly consider that Turing completeness of binary-linked hypertext is realized if and only if the links are dynamic (functional). Ashman’s Binary Relation Model (BRM) showed that binary relations can most usefully be represented with Mili’s pE (predicate-expression) representation, and Moreau and Hall concluded that hypertext systems which use the pE representation as the basis for their linking (relation) activities are Turing-complete. Secondly we consider that RDF –as it is- is a static version of a general ternary relations model, called TRM. We then conclude that the current computing power of the Semantic Web depends on the dynamicity supported by its underlying TRM. The value of this is firstly that RDF’s triples can be considered within a framework and compared to alternatives, such as the TRM version of pE, designated pfE (predicate-function-expression). Secondly, that a system whose relations are represented with pfE is likewise going to be Turing-complete. Thus moving from RDF to a pfE representation of relations would give far greater power and flexibility within the Semantic Web applications

Personalizing Interactions with Information Systems

Personalization constitutes the mechanisms and technologies necessary to customize information access to the end-user. It can be defined as the automatic adjustment of information content, structure, and presentation tailored to the individual. In this chapter, we study personalization from the viewpoint of personalizing interaction. The survey covers mechanisms for information-finding on the web, advanced information retrieval systems, dialog-based applications, and mobile access paradigms. Specific emphasis is placed on studying how users interact with an information system and how the system can encourage and foster interaction. This helps bring out the role of the personalization system as a facilitator which reconciles the user’s mental model with the underlying information system’s organization. Three tiers of personalization systems are presented, paying careful attention to interaction considerations. These tiers show how progressive levels of sophistication in interaction can be achieved. The chapter also surveys systems support technologies and niche application domains

Vitruv: Specifying Temporal Aspects of Multimedia Presentations - A Transformational Approach based on Intervals

The development of large multimedia applications reveals similar problems to those of developing large software systems. This is not surprising, as multimedia applications are a special kind of software systems. Our experience within the Altenberg Cathedral Project showed, however, that during developing multimedia applications particular problems arise, which do not appear during traditional software development. This is the starting point of the research reported in this thesis. In this introduction, we start with a report on the Altenberg Cathedral Project (sec. 1.1), resulting in a problem statement and a list of requirements for possible solutions. After that we propose our solution named Vitruv (sec. 1.2 on page 11) and explain how it works in general (sec. 1.3 on page 12). It is followed by a discussion of key aspects of Vitruv and relations to other approaches (sec. 1.4 on page 14). The introduction closes with a brief outline of the thesis

KHM 2006

Die KHM, die Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, ist beinahe zwei Jahrzehnte alt. Für Akademien und Universitäten kein Alter, für eine Kunsthochschule für Medien eine lange Zeit – denn die Medien haben in diesem Zeitraum ihre Entwicklungsschritte rasant unternommen. Heute muss sich die KHM mit HD-Television, mit der Frage von bio-digitalen Lebensbedingungen beschäftigen, sie muss ihren Blick sowohl auf einen Kunstmarkt richten, der die Kunst immer ausschließlicher als Kapitalanlage begreift, sowie sich auf Medien konzentrieren, deren traditionelle Anstalten (wie beispielsweise der öffentlich-rechtliche Rundfunk) vor gravierenden Veränderungen stehen. Die digitalen Medien und ihr Einsatz in den Künsten, im Film, beim Video, in der postproduktionellen Bearbeitung, im Alltag (Kommunikation, Ökonomie und Politik) sind umfassend geworden und haben dadurch ihren Sonderstatus eingebüßt, der Zugriff auf den Computer ist Routine geworden. Für eine Kunsthochschule, deren Selbstverständnis auf den Medien (im Kunst- und Kulturkontext) beruht, sind diese Entwicklungen eine ständige und große Herausforderung. [...]The KHM, Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln – Academy of Media Arts Cologne, is almost twenty years old. For academies and universities in general, this is not very old at all, but for an academy of media arts it is a long time, for within this time span media have developed at an amazing pace. Today the KHM engages with HD television, and with bio-digital conditions of life. It confronts an art market that increasingly, almost exclusively even, views art as a capital investment, and focuses on media whose traditional institutions (for instance, public broadcasting) are on the brink of thoroughgoing changes. Digital media and their applications in the arts, film, video, post-production, and in everyday life communications, economics, and politics) have become all-pervasive and have lost their special status: access to computers is now routine. For an academy whose self-concept resides in the media (in the context of art and culture) these developments are a great and ongoing challenge. [...