G.J.Hill@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Gary Hill) (06/17/91)
The response to my plea for references to distributed hyper/multimedia
papers provoked more requests for the information I got than actual
references, but here is a summary of what I was sent. On a slightly
more positive note, a quick computer search last week turned up rather
more (50) references which I will send by e-mail to anyone who asks
for it, its a bit big (~45k) to post here.
OK, here's the stuff I was sent, thanks to everyone who responded ...
Gary Hill, gjh@uk.ac.soton.ecs (JANET)
gjh@ecs.soton.ac.uk (BITNET)
=================================================================
The development and work with HyperBase is described in:
[1] U.K. Wiil et al. "Design and Implementation of a HyperBase".
Internal Report IR-90-03, The University of Aalborg sept. 1990.
[2] U.K. Wiil and K. Oesterbye "Experiences with HyperBase - a
multiuser back-end for hypertext applications with emphasis on
collaboration support". Technincal Report R-90-38, The University of
Aalborg Oct. 1990.
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KMS (Knowledge Systems Inc.) is a system with distributed data
management (i.e. a network of workstations). Till today, I have
not tested it, but I will do next week. Mail me, if you are
interested in my impressions.
Some research systems have distributed aspects; see e.g. the
HAM/Neptune system and its contexts. Our own project CONCORDE
is planned as a client-server configuration realizing local
environments for every user (see Hofmann, Schreiweis, Langend"orfer,
"An Integrated Approach...", Proc. ECHT'90, Versailles, A.Rizk,
N.Streitz, J.Andre eds.)). Its prototype is realized using
Smalltalk-80, so up to date it's not a really distributed
system.
If you are interested in open hypertext systems (systems which
make objects of other applications available by links) see
the Hypertext'89 paper by Amy Pearl (Sun). Also the proceedings
of the workshop on hypertext standardization, Gaithersburgh,
January 1990, might be helpful.
Best regards,
Martin Hofmann
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Check out "Information Technology for Organisational Systems - Concepts for
increased competitiveness" edited by Bullinger, H. -J.
ISBN 0 444 70427 2
It is a conference proceeding and contains an article on distributed
hyper/multimedia DBMS.
I got it via the British Library Document Supply Centre.
Mike
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"HyTime" Hypermedia Time-based Structuring Language.
Information About HyTime
The Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language (HyTime) is an
International Standard currently being balloted as a Committee Draft
(ISO/IEC CD 10744). The ballot closes July 31. A Draft International
Standard will then be published and balloted, with publication of the
approved standard expected next year.
The following material is excerpted from the standard.
DEFINITION
A standardized hyperdocument structuring language for representing
hypertext linking, time scheduling, and synchronization. HyTime
provides basic identification and addressing mechanisms and is
independent of object data content notations, link types, processing
and presentation functions, and semantics. Links can be established
to documents that conform to HyTime and to those that do not,
regardless of whether those documents can be modified. The full
HyTime function supports "integrated open hypermedia" (IOH) -- the
"bibliographic model" of referencing that allows links to anything,
anywhere, at any time -- but systems need support only the subset that
is within their present capabilities.
SCOPE AND FIELD OF APPLICATION
1. Scope
This International Standard defines a model and language for the
representation of "hyperdocuments" that link and synchronize static
and time-based information contained in multiple conventional and
multimedia documents and information objects. The language is known
as the "Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language", or "HyTime".
HyTime can represent time in both the abstract, or "musical" sense,
and in user-defined real-time units, and it provides for relating the
two so that all elements of time-dependent documents can be
synchronized.
NOTE -- This facility extends to multimedia information the ability to
distinguish between intrinsic information content and style
considerations that is a hallmark of contemporary document
representation methods.
The time model is extended to visual aspects of multimedia by treating
temporal and spatial measurement domains isomorphically, as systems
for measuring along different axes of a coordinate space. Arbitrary
cross-references and access paths based on external interactions
("hypermedia links") are also supported.
The time representation contains sufficient information to derive the
durations of both control ("gestural") data (e.g., control information
for audio or video hardware) and visual data (e.g., a music score,
presentation storyboard, or television script).
The media formats and data notations of objects in a HyTime
hyperdocument can include formatted and unformatted documents, audio
and video segments, still images, and object-oriented graphics, among
others. Users can specify the positions and extents of occurrences of
objects in space and time, using a variety of measurement units and
granularities. Temporal requirements of applications ranging from
animation to project management can be supported by choosing
appropriate measurement granules.
NOTE -- This International Standard does not address the
representation audio or video content data, but simply defines the
means by which the start-time and duration of such data can be
synchronized with other of digitized information. Nor does it specify
the layout process by which occurrences of unformatted documents and
other information objects can be made to fit the positions and extents
specified for them.
The documents comprising a HyTime hyperdocument can conform to any
architectures and be represented in any notation permitted by those
architectures. Only the "hub document", which determines the
hyperdocument membership, must also conform to HyTime.
HyTime is designed for flexibility and extensibility. Optional
subsets can be implemented, alone or in conjunction with user-defined
extensions.
The Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language is an SGML
application conforming to International Standard ISO 8879
-- Standard Generalized Markup Language.
The hyperdocument interchange format specified by this International
Standard is defined in Abstract Syntax Notation 1 (ISO 8824) and can
be encoded according to the basic encoding rules of ISO 8825 for
interchange using protocols conforming to the Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI) model.
2. Field of Application
The field of application of HyTime is "integrated open hypermedia"
(IOH), the "bibliographic model" of hyperlinking wherein an author
can, by a suitable reference, link to anything, anywhere, at any time.
Because of HyTime's modular design and flexible conformance rules,
implementations need support only those parts of that are within their
present capabilities. User investment in hyperdocument preparation is
nevertheless encouraged because of the well-defined upward-compatible
path to a full hypermedia solution.
HyTime is intended for use as the infrastructure of
platform-independent information interchange for hypermedia and
synchronized and non-synchronized multimedia applications.
Application developers will use HyTime constructs to design their
information structures and objects, and the HyTime language to
represent them for interchange.
NOTE -- The HyTime language is not intended for encoding the internal
representation of information on which application programs act while
executing.
Applications can use HyTime to represent hyperdocuments containing
information that is at any stage in the rendition cycle, from
"revisable" to "optimized for interactive access". An application can
also choose to convert a rendition of a HyTime hyperdocument into an
optimized form for transmission or interactive presentation.
NOTE -- Whether the HyTime representation of a hyperdocument can be
used in a local file system for direct access by programs will depend
on the type of information in the hyperdocument, the speed of the
platform, and the functions performed by the applications that access
the hyperdocument.
===============================================================================
Have you read:
o Akscyn, McCracken, & Yoder, KMS: A Distributed Hypermedia System
for Managing Knowledge in Organizations, CACM 31(7), July 1988.
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Im writing a hypertext based bulletin board system which will have
distrubuted processing for my final project and I've found it difficult
to get hold of information on this subject too.
the usenet groups comp.groupware, alt.hypertext, comp.sgml cover stuff
which is useful, but tend to have duplicate information in them.
I am also a member of the hicom bulletin board which covers human
computer interaction topics and is accessible from janet. Email
geo_mcmurdo@lut.hicom for more details.
Im also trying to find out about the hytime hypermedia document exchange
format, as this looks like it could be a vital concept for making what
I write have a wider appeal..eg people get hyperdocuments from elsewhere
and use them quite easily on my system.
===============================================================================sdl@lyra.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvintchouk) (06/20/91)
Here are two more pointers to interesting distributed multimedia
research:
"Multimedia Computing at Lancaster," MPG 90-13, The Distributed
Multimedia Research Group, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United
Kingdom, 31 October 1990. (they have written other papers as well, of
course)
"Abstractions for Continuous Media in a Network Window System,"
UCB/CSD 90/596, by D. Anderson et al., Computer Science Division
(EECS), University of California, Berkeley CA, September 1990. (they
too have written other papers as well)
--
Steven Litvintchouk
MITRE Corporation
Burlington Road
Bedford, MA 01730
Fone: (617)271-7753
ARPA: sdl@mitre-bedford.arpa
UUCP: ...{att,decvax,genrad,ll-xn,philabs,utzoo}!linus!sdl
"Those who will be able to conquer software will be able to
conquer the world." -- Tadahiro Sekimoto, president, NEC Corp.sdl@lyra.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvintchouk) (06/21/91)
In article <SDL.91Jun20114119@rigel.lyra.mitre.org> sdl@lyra.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvintchouk) writes: > "Multimedia Computing at Lancaster," MPG 90-13, The Distributed > Multimedia Research Group, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United > Kingdom, 31 October 1990. (they have written other papers as well, of > course) I guess I should have provided more information on the Distributed Multimedia Research Group (like their full mailing address!), in case anyone wants to order their papers. So here it is: The Distributed Multimedia Research Group Computing Department School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences Lancaster University LANCASTER LA1 4YR United Kingdom Tel: (+44) - 524-65201 According to their paper, "Multimedia Computing at Lancaster," they are currently pursuing the following projects: 1. Channel Integration in Multimedia Network Interfaces 2. A Generalised Object Management System for a Locally Distributed Multimedia Design Environment 3. Formal Support for the Specification and Construction of Distributed Multimedia Systems 4. Multimedia Applications: User Requirements and Technology Support 5. Engineering Support for Remote Procedure Calls in Multimedia Environments 6. High Performance OSI Protocols with Multimedia Support on HSLANs and B-ISDN -- Steven Litvintchouk MITRE Corporation Burlington Road Bedford, MA 01730 Fone: (617)271-7753 ARPA: sdl@mitre-bedford.arpa UUCP: ...{att,decvax,genrad,ll-xn,philabs,utzoo}!linus!sdl "Those who will be able to conquer software will be able to conquer the world." -- Tadahiro Sekimoto, president, NEC Corp.
sdl@lyra.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvintchouk) (06/21/91)
Here are two more pointers to some interesting distributed hypermedia
research:
"Object Sharing in a Multi-User Hypertext System," M.S. thesis, by
Melvina H. Tarazi, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science, M.I.T., 20 June 1989.
Also, the Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS;
perhaps best known for Intermedia) of Brown University (Providence RI)
has more recently started doing research in distributed coordination
too. They are developing a distributed information management system
based on active agents ("Envoys"), which can be used to coordinate the
activities of various "link-aware" applications and data objects in a
hypermedia-like way. Anyone who's interested should contact Nicole
Yankelovich there.
--
Steven Litvintchouk
MITRE Corporation
Burlington Road
Bedford, MA 01730
Fone: (617)271-7753
ARPA: sdl@mitre-bedford.arpa
UUCP: ...{att,decvax,genrad,ll-xn,philabs,utzoo}!linus!sdl
"Those who will be able to conquer software will be able to
conquer the world." -- Tadahiro Sekimoto, president, NEC Corp.