Prolearn This work aims to expand professional learners engagement with the best of European Interactive Media research. Corporate training still needs effective competence mapping and performance evaluation tools to support business learners. Indeed, corporate clients actually need the same access as all learners to an ideal portal learning system: ie. that will offer them a tracked experience with a set of 10 Euro learning modules, complete with credits and real interaction with peers, tutors and content; anywhere, anytime. This workpackage doesnt promise to solve that persistent problem on it own - but we do aim to show how interactive media research in Europe can help us in that direction. Supporting-Story-Making The aim of this project is to build a story repository for use by medical professionals generally. Enabling readers as well as writers to annotate stories on a number of multi-aspect dimensions gives an elastic structure and a variety of navigational pathways. It is envisaged that the resource will be used by people wanting to share their experiences, and by people wanting to seek out the experiences of others. Miakt MIAKT is a joint initiative between the AKT Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration IRC and the Medical Imaging and Signals MIAS IRC. The aim of the project is to apply the capabilities of AKT and MIAS to collaborative medical problem solving using knowledge services provided via the e-Science Grid infrastructure. Dip DIP is an Integrated Project under the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme.The mission of DIP is to further develop Semantic Web and Web Service technologies for Semantic Web Services. DIP will define and implement additional layers of functionality on top of the current Web Service technology stack. Additionally, DIP will apply Semantic Web Services infrastructure to real world scenarios within e-work, e-commerce and e-government. Xtreme-Webcasting A combination of technologies can allow people all over the world to witness extrordinary events An example project: The Matterhorn, August 2002. A mountaineer takes a leading-edge mobile phone on his ascent of the famous Swiss landmark and sends images and voice messages to the KMi lab in Milton Keynes, UK. Using Macromedia's FlashCom technologies provided 'out of the box' in the latest version of Flash MX we have assembled a dynamic, multimedia website for this event. Viewers from around the globe can tune in to the event and even interact via a text chat facility. Xo-Backlot The KMi Stadium project has supported a vast range of educational webcasting experiments, both within the Open University and for external clients. The logistics of managing such events, from a web based access point of view, has led to the development of the Stadium Backlot System. Xo The playback engine XO Stage and its companion editing tools XO Editor and XO ButtonEd make the creation and viewing of multimedia presentations a breeze. It uses a combination of Apple QuickTime and Macromedia Flash to provide an easy way to create professional looking presentations. Vdc In this project we are exploring how to use technology to appropriately support a strongly social type of event - the celebration of the award of degrees to students in a virtual format. Our second worldwide virtual degree ceremony was webcast live on April 18th 2001. The live ceremony included chat, slides and animations as well as audio and video from the Berrill Lecture Theatre in Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom. Apart from staff on stage, the auditorium itself was entirely empty during the presentation - as all the audience were remote In addition to the UK based participants, students attended from as far away as New Zealand, Brazil, Denmark and the USA. In this ceremony, students graduated at home whilst baby-sitting, in the office with colleagues and a glass of champagne, and even with a cappuccino in a local cyber-cafe. A student in New Zealand joked that it was so early/late that he was graduating in his pyjamas! Station-X This is part of a CNM outreach initiative which highlights the local heritage site of Bletchley Park which was the WWII location of the codebreaking section called Station X. This project has focused on a reworking on their website in conjunction with the release of the film ENIGMA, and the development of some interesting code related games We are also exploring the creation of accessible resources for schools that use Codes and Hacking in National Curriculum Exemplars. Sportscoach This prototype shows how to bring the very best of sports coaching, help, and tips to the internet. The site is divided into a number of sections. The coaching section has animated tips and techniques for many different sports. The forum provides for sport discussion, and an events diary allows local teams to advertise their events. Teachers should find the site very useful for planning classes. Safety-Centre The Safety Centre is a prominent community inititative based in Milton Keynes. Their website has to appeal to a wide range of users - teachers, students, potential visitors, safety professionals and the general public. We used simple games, built with Macromedia Flash to support the childrens use of the site; and downloadable worksheets, in Adobe Acrobat, to support the teachers and parents use of the site. Rostra-Live ROSTRA news services now support a range of new engines to allow novel forms of access to their own changing information world. The ROSTRA LIVE engines use Macromedia Flash interfaces to read XML feeds from the ROSTRA servers. These news and event feeds can be dynamically mixed with other sources to support a range of animated views of significant changing data. Rostra Rostra is a PHP based program for presenting news items or other articles, that can be seamlessly integrated into an existing or newly created web site. It automatically formats and creates web pages to a design template from a submitted article, typically consisting of a text story with an accompanying picture. The picture is resized 'server-side' for each layout so that the client does not download a larger file size than is necessary. Each article is automatically inserted into the main database, which can be searched using various categories. Phone-The-Web Advances in speech recognition, natural language interfaces and software assistants will mean that the way we interact with information and each other over the network will soon be very different too. The range of services available on the Internet could soon be available wherever you are, whenever you need it The popularity of text messaging, mobiles and email shows that people-to-people services are the ones that really catch the popular imagination. With this opening window, not just individuals, but groups, clubs, organisations and communities can keep in touch easily. The range of applications for these technologies will link more people and communities than was previously possible using only computer terminals. Learning-Disability-History Each year the School of Health and Social Welfare at the Open University organises a conference where people with learning difficulties, supporters, practitioners and academics share their life history experiences about a common theme It's been a common concern at these meetings that only a limited number of people can take part. In this short project, we looked at how we would build a record of such a conference within the limits of current technology. The year is 2001 and the theme 'resistance' Please remember that all materials are copyright and permission is required for re-use. Interacting-In-A-Virtual-Gallery There's nothing new about virtual reality, but recently considerable advances have been made in how interactive it can be. Using the latest version of Apple's QuickTime virtual reality authoring, combined with advanced digital photography and image editing, CNM have developed a fully interactive approach to virtual environments, with a customised interface that can link to Internet resources. Hexagon Keep in touch with your colleagues wherever you are in the world. Not only can you see their present 'state-of-being', or use the inbuilt text chat, as with many other types of software, but you can actually see them working at their desk. Then invite them into the virtual coffee room for a 'voice' chat! Games A number of our projects have required us to develop computer games. Either as a stimulating and entertaining way for the student to learn about a chosen subject, or as an interactive 'jewel' to keep a user interested in a website. Clutch--Millennium-Awards The Open University has worked in partnership with the Living Archive, an independent documentary arts organisation based in Wolverton Milton Keynes , to run a highly-successful and ground-breaking Millennium Award Scheme called CLUTCH - Computer Literacy Understanding Through Community History. Supported by the Millennium Commission from National Lottery funding, the scheme provided free web-based ICT training and support for over 300 parents of local school-aged children to complete a local history project of their choosing. The work of the resulting 60 school-based CLUTCH Clubs can be seen by visiting the main CLUTCH Club Millennium Award Scheme homepage. Citischool CitiSchool The Citizens' School is an exciting new initiative being pioneered in the UK by Milton Keynes, to support disaffected young people in maintaining their interest in learning, and gaining qualifications. Adapted for the UK from a proven model in the US, some of the city's largest employers including The Open University, BT, The Army, and Abbey National have joined forces to design and deliver Key Skills training to young people truanting or excluded from school, but who nonetheless have demonstrated their desire to learn. Citischool starts in September 2001, in collaboration with the major educational providers and agencies in Milton Keynes The Knowledge Media Institute is supporting Citischool by providing the technical infrastructure to manage this 'school without walls'. Students, mentors, work placement employers, administrators and tutors must communicate and coordinate work across the city, posing unique challenges for traditional systems. This infrastructure is absolutely critical to the project's success, and KMi is adapting and extending in-house Web-based technologies originally developed for the Millennium funded CLUTCH Project to help administer Citischool over the Internet. Caber Supported by the East of England Broadband Consortium, the CABER project draws upon the successes of the CLUTCH Club Millennium Awards Scheme by further testing the concept of involving parents and children at school in the process of researching, editing and presenting a local history topic on the internet. The project seeks to exploit the potential of broadband connectivity by facilitating the recording, editing and sharing of rich multimedia assets which have been collected using digital video and oral history techniques. As with the CLUTCH Scheme, the CABER project is being operated in partnership with the Living Archive, an established documentary arts organisation based in Milton Keynes. Aec The project is looking at the application of media and knowledge technologies in a medical context. The project is funded by the UK Department of Health, under the Information and Communications Technologies Research Initiative. Dot-Kom DotKom aims to support knowledge management within large corporation through a combination of information extraction and knowledge management technologies. A current problem with both of these technologies is that they are hard-to-use and require extensive expertise. DotKom will provide user-friendly *adaptive* information extraction tools which give instantaneous feedback on the current status of the information extraction learning process and the automatically constructed knowledge acquisition mechanisms. Compendium The Compendium approach combines meeting facilitation and collaborative hypertext in an approach to capturing key aspects of meetings, integrating perspectives from multiple stakeholders in a project, and the construction of a collective memory resource. It is a collaborative project with international partners. Cipher CIPHER is a two and a half year project funded by the European Commission under the theme 'Heritage for All' that started in April 2002. The aim of the project is to develop innovative technologies and methodologies to support Cultural Heritage Forums, beyond current virtual galleries or museums, that allow visitors to investigate cultural artefacts, and produce their own personal and shared spaces. Visitors will be supported by advanced storytelling and visualisation tools. The Cultural Heritage Forums to be developed during the project are 'Irish Cultural and Natural and Heritage', 'Nordic Heritage through Storytelling and Historical Artefacts', 'Shared Heritage of Central Europe' and 'Tradition of technology innovation in South Central England'. Tiny-In TINY-IN is a two year EPSRC DTI LINK funded project that started in August 2002. Our overall research objective is to investigate how an interactive narrative engine could create coherent and engaging experiences by intelligently recombining content developed for broadcast. As a test case, we are using characters, scenarios and contexts based on the 'Tiny Planets' 3D computer animation TV series produced by Pepper's Ghost Productions and shown on Childrens ITV. Through this approach we aim to develop new exciting types of interactive 'television' material that provide a richer experience for young children at a significantly lower production cost. Magpie Magpie adds an ontology based semantic layer onto web pages on-the-fly as they are browsed. Magpie automatically highlights key items of interest, and for each highlighted term it provides a set of 'services' e.g. contact details, current projects, related people when you right-click on the item. Climateprediction-Net The climat predictio .ne is a state-of-the-art simulation of the climate system which runs on PCs. Project participants will be able to download and run different parametrizations of a climate simulation program, thus providing data for studying climate change. The collaborators in this large-scale e-Science project are The Open University, the universities of Oxford and Reading, Rutherford Appleton Labs, and The MetOffice. KMi's role in the project is to develop a robust semantic web portal for the estimated 2 million participants. A mixture of technologies will be used, including integrated discussion forums, a web-based news service, conferencing services and social areas using the latest instant messaging programs. This portal will also use state-of-the-art semantic web technology developed in KMi to provide fully customisable 'semantic filters' that can be placed over any web-based document whether local or remote , and provide the user with the context of identified 'concepts-of-interests'. Frames A joint KMi-IET project funded by the e-OU initiative. This is a feasibility study to determine the most useful measures for inclusion in a system for carrying out automated monitoring of marking of student essays Project Goal Long-term goals include augmenting the University's e-TMA infrastructure with three new services to support tutors, monitors, and students through the processes of preparing essays and reports. These services share common technologies, based on advances in automated essay grading, and will · give monitors an environment which will enable them to focus on assignments which most need their attention, and to provide tutors with high quality feedback · give tutors automated feedback on their marking, and contextualised staff developmen · give students automated feedback on written assignment Progres Since its beginning in February 2002, the first phase of this project has concentrated on improving monitoring through identification of the most appropriate surface measures for this task. Future work includes integrating content-based techniques such as Latent Semantic Analysis. Buddyspace BuddySpace aims to provide enhanced capabilities for users to manage and visualise the presence of colleagues and friends in collaborative working, gaming, messaging, and other contexts. Of particular interest is the role of graphical metaphors for presence, including maps, logical layouts such as building schematics and project timelines and abstract artistic layouts such as graffiti walls. We are also studying the semantics of presence, in order to move beyond simple flags such as 'online' and 'busy' to include rich contextual and spatio-temporal information more approprite to one's focus of activity. Apollo Apollo is a user-friendly knowledge modelling application with a main goal of staying independent from the representation languages and reasoning back-ends. It does a full consistency check while editing and supports I/O plugins. Opal This project is to help digital libraries provide some level of effective automated help desk support outside office hours. The project will put in place and evaluate the helpfulness of a model autonomous help desk support system, which will recognise frequently asked questions when they are asked out of office hours, and will provide the enquirer with help immediately it is needed. The project is being run by the Open University Library and the Knowledge Media Institute, in partnership with Birkbeck College and Leicester University. Ocml The OCML language supports the construction of knowledge models. A knowledge model is a specification of a domain or problem solving behavior, which abstracts from implementation-centered considerations and focuses instead on the concepts, relations and reasoning steps characterizing the phenomenon under investigation. These models are typically developed as part of knowledge management solutions or intelligent decision-making support systems. OCML supports the construction of knowledge models by means of several classes of constructs. It allows the specification and operationalization of functions, relations, classes, instances and rules. It also includes mechanisms for defining ontologies and problem solving methods. Ontologies are specifications of reusable terminologies, while problem solving methods are specifications of reusable problem solving behaviours. OCML has been used in several projects, in domains such as medicine, geology, engineering design and organizational learning. Akt The AKT project aims to develop the next generation of knowledge technologies to support organizational knowledge management. AKT will look at all aspects of knowledge management from acquiring and maintaining knowledge to publishing and sharing it. We intend to address all these closely related issues in an integrated approach, making use of recent developments in artificial intelligence, psychology, linguistics, multimedia and Internet technology. The AKT consortium comprises five UK universities and is funded by a £7M, 6-year EPSRC grant in the context of the Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations programme. Internet-Reasoning-Service The Internet Reasoning Service - IRS - is a Semantic Web Services framework, which allows applications to semantically describe and execute web services. The IRS supports the provision of semantic reasoning services within the context of the Semantic Web. The-Virtual-Student-Advisor Providing on line advice and guidance to our students involves bringing together a wide range of synchronous and asynchronous materials. In this project we have explored a range of visions of how we might provide asynchronous support to our students via appropriately streamed media. The progress of these experiments have lead the university to fund a New Technology for Student Support service which will use this work to support OU web based students. The-Virtual-Corporate-University The Virtual Corporate University is a rapid prototype of a streaming media solution to the basic requirements of the emerging corporate university sector. Corporate clients expect simple media on demand delivery of materials to their students desktops in a very tightly managed system that is tuned to their corporations? working practices. In this prototype we explore how Open Learning materials and practices could be combined with commercial student management facilities to suit these corporate requirements. Flashmeeting Hook-up your web cam, plug in your microphone, go to a web page ... and CNM FlashMeeting technology will give you an instant meeting - any time, any place, any platform! Based on the Macromedia Flash MX Server technology, CNM FlashMeeting provides a host of features packed into a small applet direct in a web page. As the applet is implemented in Macromedia Flash, the most widely available and most compatible of browser plugins, it is incredibly lightweight, efficient, good looking, and you probably will not have to download anything extra at all for it to work! Remote-Access-To-Comprehensive-Teaching-Laboratories A European Commission Framework V project PEARL Practical Experimentation by Remote Learning has just been approved and will run from January 2000 to December 2002. This is researching and developing a system to enable students to conduct real-world experiments as an extension of computer based learning CBL and distance learning systems. The objectives being to give high quality learning experiences in science and engineering education by bringing the teaching lab to the students; giving flexibility in terms of time, location and special needs. This will extend Internet course delivery to accommodate collaborative working in practical experimentation. A key objective is towards improving the access to Science, Engineering and Maths courses for students with disabilities but the work has general implications for campus based and distance teaching and learning in these subjects and web based educational services provided by museums and libraries. Web-Lab Web Lab is an attempt to calibrate, and provide a context for, networked simulation environments. Shared, web based activities are used to complement and extend classroom science, allowing resources that could not be made available in the classroom or lab to be directly controlled and monitored through a basic browser interface. This means that shared planning, execution and documenting of the experiments can involve students and teachers in several schools. The control problems of distant sensors systems soon become apparent with Heronsgate School's Mars Buggy environment. As does the important idea of program generalizabilty- the same program that works in the classroom maze also works on Mars temporarily located in the KMi . Other lab environments currently being developed include the ultra low speed wind tunnel and the web leaf Firstflight Debunking the myth that the Wright Brothers were lucky mechanics - the project shows how they used rigorous scientific methods to make their first flight. On the web site you can try out a simulation of the Kittyhawk flyer. Blues-Engine Conceptualised as a layered virtual instrument, the Blues Engine is a web based instrument emulator designed to allow children to explore different patterns of blues rhythms, and then take the lead with their own guitar 'licks'. The Blues Engine can be pre configured by exercises in the web pages, and makes use of either the computer's MIDI sounds or an external sampler. In the latter case more complex chord patterns can be developed from the sampled notes of three different saxophones. Tactile-Multimedia The 'interactivity' of multimedia turns out in many cases to be a fairly passive experience for the user. This demonstrator project was intended to show how point, click and watch might become drag, feel and think, and the ways that this can change the learning experience. A range of tactile effects have been added to a how it works topic with the intention of encouraging a more analytic manipulation of the simulation models, and a deeper reflection on their working. Virtual-Tours A demonstrator project to show how QTVR virtual tours of museums and other significant buildings might be linked to virtual representations of documents- that may themselves be embellished with annotation and hyper links to course materials Synthesised-3-Dimensional-Audio A programme of integrated technical research and development and cognitive and perceptual evaluation is underway, funded by the OU and EPSRC. This is directed towards realising comprehensive, computer generated, 3D audio environments. The target application areas are enhanced HCI for people with a visual impairment and educational audio virtual environments. The work is currently focused at eliciting the key technical and perceptual issues that impinge on the practical implementation of audio virtual environments within an educational context. Alternative-Media-For-Print-Disabled-Students This work brings together CD-ROM technology as a delivery medium, navigation software that is accessed through enabling technologies screen-reading, magnification , and digital media text, images, audio that give a rich choice of study media to print disabled students. Internet-Software-Visualization-Lab The Internet Software Visualization Lab ISVL allows demonstrations to be staged over the web, providing a rich synchronous and asynchronous communication medium through which student/tutor groups can share and clarify hitherto opaque programming scenarios, even over low bandwidth connections. Hank Hank is a new cognitive modelling language designed for use on the Open University's Cognitive Psychology courseD309. In order to make Hank simple to learn and use, it is based upon a combination of grid views, rather like spreadsheets, and flow charts, along with state-of-the-art software visualization technology. This software has been entirely developed within KMi and is an innovative approach to the problems presented by introducing cognitive modelling techniques to psychologists without the need to learn a programming language. Stadium KMi Stadium is the generic label for a suite of webcasting activities and software tools whose goal is to stage large-scale live events and on-demand-replays, while giving remote participants anywhere on the Internet a sense of 'being there'. It can be used for anything from a management seminar to a public lecture and has been successfully used for the Open University's On the Record Web-Casts. Its use in education is shown by its deployment for IET's Open and Distance Learning courses and Open University Business School seminars. Scholonto The Scholarly Ontologies project is investigating new ways for distributed research communities to track and interpret their literatures. The ClaiMaker system enables researchers to make and contest 'Claims' by semantically connecting concepts. The resulting network of claims and arguments then supports novel forms of literature search and browsing. Meet-O-Matic Have you ever tried to schedule a meeting involving participants who don't use your official authorized scheduling tool? In fact, even if your participants did use that tool, would it really help solve your routine scheduling requirements? This is why we developed Meet-O-Matic, an open source meeting scheduler that does not require participants to share a common diary or even to use a common platform. You can propose and schedule meetings online and invite participants using either your own email system or Meet-O-Matic's own ready-made web form, then monitor responses to your meeting invitation as they arrive and are displayed in Meet-O-Matic's intuitive visual constraint table. Meet-O-Matic is also a testbed for investagations of how people attribute intelligence and autonomy to software agents. Kmi-Planet KMi Planet is an online newspaper managed entirely by intelligent agent software. The software undertakes the mundane tasks of alerting readers, soliciting, gathering, and formatting stories, integrating these tasks in a compelling fashion with minimal overheads for the in-house reporters and maximal benefit for readers. KMi Planet has been used successfully for a number of years and now contains 100+ stories. A number of customised versions are now running in corporate and educational enviroments. Empowering-Learning-Communities This project is investigating and developing organisational learning technology that is community-centred rather than user-centred, or even learner-centred. It is looking to improve our understanding of how learning communities work best. It is beginning to develop a number of demonstrations and projects in this area, all to show how appropriately community-centred technology can enhance learning in communities. Virtual-Spring-Collaborative-Microworld A demonstrator project to show how a real teaching problem could be tackled with networked Virtual Science. The aim was to create an environment in which the procedural aspects of the transformation of observation to data, and data to symbolic representation, could be brought out clearly. The shared microworld allows children to collaboratively collect data, make predictions and plot graphs. For older children, the graphs developed may then become a virtual spring balance for 'unknown' masses. Heronsgate-Middle-School-Site Our work with schools and the local community has shown that engagement with all forms of learning increases when learners create their own rich multimedia content. A wide range of the children's science, technology and arts projects can be found on the Heronsgate web site. Ibrow The IBROW-3 project is developing an intelligent broker, which will make it possible to configure a knowledge-based system from software components distributed over the World-Wide-Web. This project builds on our previous work on reusable ontologies and problem solving methods. Planetonto The use of KMi Planet on a day-to-day basis has highlighted a number of knowledge management issues: how to provide semantic search and knowledge retrieval facilities in an effective and sustainable way; how best to provide individualised presentations and news alerts; how best to emulate the behaviour of a newsroom team. To address these challenges we have developed an integrated suite of tools, which is called PlanetOnto. These tools allow ontology-driven document formalization and augment standard browsing and search facilities with deductive knowledge retrieval. In addition, the PlanetOnto architecture includes specialized agents, which provide personalised news feeds and alerts and can proactively identify potentially interesting news items. Webonto WebOnto is a tool providing web-based visualisation, browsing and editing support for developing and maintaining ontologies and knowledge models specified in OCML. An ontology can be seen as a model of the conceptual structure of some domain and WebOnto provides the means for graphically representing this. D3e Knowledge-intensive work has at its core the creation, annotation and discussion of documents. D3E is a tool for non-technical users to easily publish Web documents for discussion, and is finding applications in many areas. It is now released open source. Patman The PATMAN project aims at promoting an effective and efficient health-care delivery by providing integrated support for tackling medical and organizational issues during patient management. In the context of this project we are developing knowledge management technology to support the formalization and access to documents describing medical guidelines; thus providing a means of teaching healthcare professionals. University-For-Industry-Observatory The aim of this project is to provide an observatory for the University of Industry learning direct which collects together related work on distance education. This work builds on a number of KMi projects including the Enrich and KMi planet projects. Clockwork This project aims to support knowledge sharing within distributed teams, knowledge reuse within an organization and collaboration and trade between engineering companies. The Clockwork approach will combine knowledge-rich dynamical simulation tools, formal documentation and informal design rationale to closely integrate working, learning, collaboration and negotiation, within and between organizations. The-Virtual-Microscope The Virtual Microscope allows students to directly manipulate photorealistic rock sample slides. In the simulation they can rotate the slides and use a polarising filter. Topic-Accessed-Video Topic accessed video is a prototyping system intended to allow authors to judge the educational effectiveness of various mixes of linear and non-linear video elements. A structured index of topics, based on printed study units, can be used by the student to control the video. Lyceum Lyceum, prototyped in KMi and then further developed by LTS, is voice conferencing internet groupware. It enables students and tutors with a normal PC and modem connection to talk over the internet whilst sharing and annotating visual material. Lyceum is currently being used by students on a variety of courses, e.g. to practise fluency skills in foreign languages. Jime JIME aims to foster a multidisciplinary and intellectually rigorous debate on the theoretical and practical aspects of interactive media in education. Through its innovative use of interactive Internet-based media, JIME is an action research project which explores the changing face of journals, and more broadly, scholarly practice in the age of digital publishing and communication. Mgt This project aims at designing and implementing techniques for computer representation of medical guidelines, which integrate generic recommendations for specific medical circumstances generic medical guidelines with site-specific conditions site ontology and an applicable cost model. Virtual-Participant The Virtual Participant is an agent that participates in electronic conferences. It monitors the current topics of discussion, and when it recognises a topic that has been discussed previously, for example, in a previous year, it posts a message telling the conference about the previous discussion. The Virtual Participant was first assessed over two years in First Class conferences for the OUBS course B882 Creative Management. At the moment new versions of the Virtual Participant are being planned and developed, to support learning in an industrial setting. Richodl This project is intended to assist in the training of students and employees as dynamic system modellers and simulators. It makes use of KMi technologies such as WebOnto see A5 , to provide a means of indexing and searching tutorial material, and D3E see A5 to provide a space for discussing results. Enrich The Enrich Project aims to develop tools and methodologies for integrating working and learning within knowledge intensive organisations. It builds upon our existing technologies supporting web based collaboration, agents and knowledge modelling. The ENRICH project will foster the use of knowledge-enriched intranets to provide the means for sharing expertise. Bkd BKD is a knowledge discovery tool which can extract reusable knowledge from databases, using sound accountable statistical methods, even when data is missing or incomplete. Jane-Whild Administrative Assistant Jane Whild Jane Whild Jane Whild Peter-Scott Head of CNM / Senior Lecturer Peter Scott Peter Scott Peter Scott news.kmi.open.ac.uk/peterblog Enrico-Motta KMi Director Enrico Motta Enrico Motta Enrico Motta kmi.open.ac.uk/people/motta/ Marc-Eisenstadt Chief Scientist Marc Eisenstadt Marc Eisenstadt Marc Eisenstadt kmi.open.ac.uk/people/marc/ Simon-Buckingham-Shum Senior Lecturer Simon Buckingham Shum Simon Buckingham Shum Simon Buckingham Shum kmi.open.ac.uk/people/sbs/ Catherine-Thomas Unit Secretary Catherine Thomas Catherine Thomas Catherine Thomas Tony-Brush Project Officer Tony Brush Tony Brush Tony Brush www.btinternet.com/~Tony_Brush Lewis-Mccann IT Administrator Lewis McCann Lewis McCann Lewis McCann kmi.open.ac.uk/people/lewis/index.html Damian-Dadswell IT / Web Administrator Damian Dadswell Damian Dadswell Damian Dadswell Peter-Sharpe Senior Administrator Peter Sharpe Peter Sharpe Peter Sharpe Colin-Barrett Training and Support Manager Colin Barrett Colin Barrett Colin Barrett Paul-Alexander IT and Systems Manager Paul Alexander Paul Alexander Paul Alexander kmi.open.ac.uk/people/paul/ Victoria-Wilson Project Administrator Victoria Wilson Victoria Wilson Victoria Wilson Sarah-Sutcliffe Graphic Designer Sarah Sutcliffe Sarah Sutcliffe Sarah Sutcliffe Chris-Valentine Project Officer Chris Valentine Chris Valentine Chris Valentine met.open.ac.uk/group/cpv/chris.html Ortenz-Rose Personal Assistant Ortenz Rose Ortenz Rose Ortenz Rose Jon-Linney Project Officer Jon Linney Jon Linney Jon Linney kmi.open.ac.uk/people/linney/ Ben-Hawkridge Project Officer Ben Hawkridge Ben Hawkridge Ben Hawkridge Harriett-Cornish Graphic Designer Harriett Cornish Harriett Cornish Harriett Cornish kmi.open.ac.uk/people/harry/ Planet-News-Story312 citischool's Out For Summer Project Related Event Chris Valentine, 30 May 2004 A graduation ceremony at the National Hockey Stadium on Thursday 27th May marked the end of citischool and #39s third year. Started by Tom Bulman, the scheme 'where young people are citizens and citizens are teachers' engages students in a range of action learning experiences in work places and citizenship activities across Milton Keynes, for 15-16 year olds who are disaffected and at risk of GCSE failure. citischool innovates further by preparing corporate volunteers to deliver high quality Key Skills training based on their own experience of work. KMi provides the web-based planning and database infrastructure for the running of the scheme and forms part of the Open University and #39s contribution to the scheme. Photo shows the Mayor of Milton Keynes presenting one of the awards to a citischool student, Andrew and #39Cueball and #39 Sames of Horizon Radio, and the and #39school of 2004 and #39. Related Links: The citischool website citischool is a project of Countec Ltd citischool's Out For Summer Planet-News-Story311 'CitiTag' at the Second International Conference on Appliance Design 2AD Event Participation/Organization Yanna Vogi azou, 16 May 2004 Last week's conference on Appliance Design took place in Bristol, between 11-13 May, at the HP Labs site. Following from 1AD last year, this conference series aims to create a dialogue between disciplines, as stated on the conference website including product and industrial design, information design, interaction design, technology innovation and research in human-centered studies which will help traditional disciplines re-establish themselves in a new context. CitiTag, the wireless location based game developed by KMis Centre for New Media in collaboration with the Mobile Bristol team at HP Labs Bristol was presented as part of the Appliance Bazaar at 2AD, a whole day of demonstrations, design exercises and events. The designs and prototypes presented at the Appliance Bazaar were very diverse: usability evaluation prototypes for physical interactive products, end-user editing tools for ubiquitous computing as well as projects crossing the boundaries of art and technology. Many conference delegates attended the demonstration of CitiTag; an opportunity to get a hands-on feel of the interface and the basic actions that can be performed through the game. They also enjoyed a short video from the first pilot trial of CitiTag created by Bas Raijmakers from the Royal College of Art. The video, showing highlights of the trial, was particularly amusing and conference attendees wanted to find out about future trials. Their feedback was positive and several people expressed their will to participate in the Bristol trial, planned for 16th June in St Augustines Parade, in Bristol Centre. This presentation also provided the opportunity to collect some feedback on specific aspects of CitiTag, such as the design and usability and the actual everyday situations in which people would play CitiTag. Related Links: More on CitiTag The Mobile Bristol project 2AD Conference website 'CitiTag' at the Second International Conference on Appliance Design 2AD Planet-News-Story310 KMi collaboration tools support NASA Mars simulation Technology Related Event Simon Buckingham Shum, 10 May 2004 If humans land on Mars in 20-30 years time, how will they work with their support teams on Earth? KMi has been supporting scientific collaboration in a 2 week Mars-Earth simulation mission, trialling Compendium and BuddySpace across time and space... Research scientists at the OUs Knowledge Media Institute KMi were immersed in a deep simulation exercise with NASA during April and May, deploying team collaboration technologies built at the OU which could one day support astronauts as they explore the surface of Mars. At the Mars Society Desert Research Station in the Utah desert, a team of geologists, programmers, engineers and social scientists has been experiencing life and work in a prototype of the habitat the Hab in which they would live if working on the surface of Mars. As part of this exercise, and supported by mobile robots, they conduct a series of geological surface explorations collecting rock samples, and analysing the data on their return. The Hab Crew uses the Compendium software developed in KMi by Dr. Simon Buckingham Shum, Michelle Bachler and Al Selvin, to plan their explorations and analyse multimedia data. Moreover, since it will be impractical to physically co-locate all relevant experts who might be needed in a multi-year mission to Mars, they have to support scientific teamworking across time and space, using the information networks of the future. Compendium is therefore also being used to connect the Crew with their colleagues on Earth a team spread across the US who hold daily internet meetings to provide expert feedback to the Crew. As science data is gathered by the astronauts, it is sent back over a 5km wireless network to NASA and #39s ScienceOrganizer system back in the Hab, and mirrored in the Compendium system for joint analysis by scientists on both Mars and Earth. Compendium is used to capture discussions in face-to-face meetings in the Crew Habitat, as well as virtual meetings over the internet held by scientists on Earth. KMi social software is also being used to connect scientists around the globe. The BuddySpace system, developed by KMi and #39s Jiri Komzak and Martin Dzbor working with KMis Chief Scientist, Professor Marc Eisenstadt, provides instant text messaging and a visual sense of colleagues online presence and availability. Scientists can see at a glance when their various colleagues in multiple time zones come online, and open up an instant text chat session. How can scientists on Earth attend and feed into a meeting of their colleagues on Mars? Working with University of Southampton, the Crews planning meetings are videoed and converted into a digital video replay of the meeting for Earth within a few hours. In the link below to the RST-Communcation Systems report, you can see the Web-based Meeting Replay Tool. If the Earth scientists want to see the discussion prior to a particular Decision, they can jump to the point in the meeting when that node was recorded. Simon Buckingham Shum: S.Buckingham.Shum@open.ac.uk Marc Eisenstadt: M.Eisenstadt@open.ac.uk Related Links: Read mission reports from 'Crew 29 - April 25 - May 8, 2004' The UK EPSRC/e-Science project developing the Compendium and BuddySpace tools is CoAKTinG The project with which KMi is working is the Mobile Agents project at NASA Ames Research Center, led by Bill Clancey and Maarten Sierhuis of the Human-Centered Computing Research Group. For more on the mission objectives, read the NASA Press Release on the Mobile Agents exercise RST Communication Systems report: introduction to the different tools The Mars Desert Research Station is operated by The Mars Society KMi collaboration tools support NASA Mars simulation Planet-News-Story309 Flashmeeting Service launched for Milton Keynes Schools Technology Related Event Peter Scott, 19 Apr 2004 Today KMi has launched a web based videoconferencing solution for all Milton Keynes schools under the auspices of MKSchools.Net. Hosted on their own network and based on the CNM Flashmeeting Server the new service is available to all of the 90 Schools in the Milton Keynes area. The MK Schools.Net team, based at the Open University, will be working closely with the Centre for New Media team to ensure that all of our local schools now have access to we bcams with the ability to just point-and-click to launch a web-based flashmeeting video-conference. With this system, supported by Milton Keynes Council, any teacher in the Milton Keynes LEA region can arrange a toll-free multiparty teleconference of up to 20 participants teachers, kids or parents with a couple of clicks of a mouse on a webpage. At the moment, only teachers in the MK region can book these meetings, but anyone in the world can attend. Related Links: FlashMeeting @ MK Schools The Flashmeeting Project Flashmeeting Service launched for Milton Keynes Schools Planet-News-Story308 Yanna 'Body-area Wireless Tech' Gig KMi Reporter, 8 Apr 2004 Wearable PCs for healthcare provision: that and #39s one of the themes presented by KMi PhD student Yanna Vogiazou, who spoke at the International Workshop on Wearable and Implantable Body Sensor Networks held at Imperial College in London on 6th-7th April. The aim of the workshop was to address general issues related to using wearable/wireless and implantable sensors and to bring together scientists from computing, electronics, bioengineering, medicine and industry in order to discuss the latest technological developments and clinical applications of body-sensor networks. The presentations were very diverse and covered a broad research area , ranging from the use of body sensors for healthcare to large group interactive dance events. Yanna presented a paper on 'Healthcare Compunetics: An End-to-End Architecture for Self-Care Service Provision', co-authored with Dr. Andy Marsh from Virtual Medical World VMW Solutions Ltd and Dr.George Roussos from the School of Computer Science and Information Systems at Birkbeck, University of London. This paper describes the three core elements of the Healthcare Compunetics architecture developed with a view to support the new self-care services: i-notes is a system that extends the electronic patient record to include non-verified data collection by the sensors; i-WAND is a wearable device that offers pluggable body area connectivity, local storage and processing and remote communication to the diagnostic service centre; and the VMW Protocol which allows sensors to communicate effectively with remote healthcare servers. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of evaluation studies currently under plan. According to Yanna, 'The presenation received strong positive feedback and generated a lot of interest among the community.' Related Links: International Workshop on Wearable and Implantable Body Sensor Networks Marsh, Roussos, Vogiazou paper on 'Healthcare Compunetics: An End-to-End Architecture for Self-Care Service Provision' Yanna 'Body-area Wireless Tech' Gig Planet-News-Story307 New Feature for ROSTRA Chris Valentine, 7 Apr 2004 A major new feature has now been added to ROSTRA, the premiere news dissemination agent. Each ROSTRA, or cluster thereof, can have a library of commonly-used media still images or QuickTime movies that authors can use in their stories, if they either don and #39t have suitable images to upload with their material, are unable to upload images or simply don and #39t want their portrait to appear with the story. Administrators and above can upload to the Library but all authors can view and print the library and use library material in their stories. Authors can use any combination of new or library media in their stories. Related Links: ROSTRA, the premiere news dissemination agent New Feature for ROSTRA Planet-News-Story306 Minister for Lifelong Learning visits KMi Visit KMi Reporter, 7 Apr 2004 Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP, Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, today came to KMi as part of a visit to the Open University to find out about the current state of the art of Open Learning. He was shown Lyceum in the context of the OU and #39s flagship Language Learning courses ; and a range of new KMi technologies, from Buddyspace to Hexagon. The minister and #39s responsibilities include: Higher Education - including standard in post 19 learning; Widening participation in HE and Review of Student support and #39 Raising Standards in Further Education - including Lifelong learning; The Learning and Skills Council - including Pay in the HE and FE sectors; European Union and overview of International Relations - Working with Stephen Twigg and Ivan Lewis on non EU busiess. And finally he is associated with Science and technology policy - also responsible for regional, regeneration and urban policy Related Links: Department for Education and Skills DfES Higher Education Gateway The Lyceum Project Hexagon The Magpie Semantic Web Project Buddyspace Minister for Lifelong Learning visits KMi Planet-News-Story305 Schoolchildren Help Predict Climate Project Related Event Martin Dzbor, 6 Apr 2004 The Nuffield Foundation one of the UK and #39s best known charitable trusts has made a grant to widen the participation of school children in a climate prediction .net project , where KMi is one of the partners. The grant from the Nuffield Foundation would complement the base funding from NERC and DTI, and it will fund the development of teaching materials to link the project to the science and geography syllabuses. These syllabuses will be later used in schools throughout the Britain. The Nuffield Foundation was established in 1943 by the founder of Morris Motors. Lord Nuffield wanted his Foundation to and #39advance social well being and #39, particularly through research and practical experiment. The Foundation aims to achieve this by supporting work which will bring about improvements in society. Climate prediction .net is a cutting-edge scientific research project running a large-scale simulation of climate. The experiment allows a climate prediction model to be run on ordinary computers. By getting data from thousands of climate models, it will generate the world and #39s largest climate prediction experiment. At the time of writing, the project had more than 55.000 participants from all around the world. Related Links: Nuffield Foundation home climateprediction.net home Schoolchildren Help Predict Climate Planet-News-Story304 Trustees of the OU Foundation visit KMi Visit Chris Valentine, 26 Mar 2004 Trustees of the OU Foundation today visited KMi to learn of the research projects that are gaining income and prestige for the University as a whole. The visitors included Lord Alf Dubs, Martin Hall and Joan Armatrading, together with existing Trustees Michael Woodall, Brian Wolfe, Penelope Hughes-Hallett and Dr John Drysdale. Projects were demonstrated by top Zdenek Zdrahal, left Annika Wolff and Peter Scott. Trustees of the OU Foundation visit KMi Planet-News-Story303 Hewlett Fo undation Visit Visit KMi Reporter, 25 Mar 2004 Today KMi hosted a visit by key members of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Dr. Marshall Mike Smith, Program Director of the Foundation and #39s Education Program, and Dr. Catherine Casserly a consultant to the same program, were visiting the Open University at the invitation of Vice-Chancellor Professor Brenda Gourley. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation sponsors major initiatives concerned with using ICT to increase access to high-quality academic content, and also supports strategies to provide effective universal basic and secondary education in developing nations. The day-long visit to the OU included visits with Open University Worldwide, the OU Development Office, KMi, and the Vice-Chancellor, to discuss possible synergies with current OU initiatives. During the KMi part of the visit, Drs. Smith and Casserly had a chance to see several projects underway, including RichODL, Tiny-IN, CitiTag, D3E, ScholOnto, Compendium, ClimatePrediction.net, BuddySpace, Magpie, and HexagonVO The accompanying photo shows, clockwire from top left: 1. Zdenek Zdrahal showing RichODL to Catherine Casserly, Mike Smith and Sarah Jarman 2. Marc Eisendtadt showing CitiTag to Mike Smith 3. Annika Wolff showing Tiny-IN to Mike Smith and Sarah Casserly 4. Simon Buckingham-Shum showing D3E, Compendium, and ScholOnto to Mike Smith and Sarah Casserly Related Links: The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Hewlett Foundation Visit Planet-News-Story302 BuddySpace.org launched Technology Related Event Jiri Komzak, 23 Mar 2004 KMi has launched a new public version of its Instant Messaging service under the name BuddySpace.org. BuddySpace.org features both new server functionality, including web-based administration, and a new secure client. The new server provides better group management and publishing functionality, in addition to existing features such as the automatic generation of contact groups. The groups are managed through a web interface. It allows normal users to change their personal details including location and password. Group administrators can also add and delete people from groups and generate and publish group maps. The new cross-server group generator is capable of constructing groups of contacts from different servers. Onc e a user is added into a group, he/she gets his/her group roster and receives notifications each time the group map changes. The username part of the Jabber ID on the new server is simply the persons email address. The publishing functionality is also supported on the client side and used for download of the latest version of group maps. Users can publish a short textual description of their future activities or plans and subscribe to or browse those of their buddies. Multiple presences represent different availability of users for each group or even individuals so you can appear online to some users yet do not disturb to others. The latest version of the BuddySpace client 2.5.1 adds important functionality in security SSL and coding of passwords and compatibility with the new version of the Jabber server used on some public servers. This makes the BuddySpace.org server in combination with the BuddySpace client a very strong tool for collaboration, especially for informal or relatively quickly changing groups. Related Links: BuddySpace.org BuddySpace.org launched Planet-News-Story301 Mobile Tag Game Mulberry Lawn Trial 2 Technology Related Event Joe Jackson, 19 Mar 2004 Today is the day in which CitiTag, a wireless location based multiplayer game designed to explore spontaneous social interaction and novel experiences in city environments, was due to undergo its second trial in real life testing. As one of the iPaqs was faulty due to its connector, only nine of the original 10 could take part in the experiment. The hardware consists of a GPS receiver, to provide positional information, connected to a Wi-Fi enabled iPaq Pocket PC. CitiTag is a game created to explore social experiences and emergent behaviours in public spaces through playful interaction, based on the awareness of other players presence. The project is motivated by the hypothesis that very simple game rules based on presence states e.g. I am Green and tagged can result in an enjoyable social experience, stimulated by real world interaction among players. The aim of Yannas who is head of this experiment studies is to identify the design implications for future technology mediated social experiences and how such experiments can inform the experience design process. CitiTag is a revolutionised version of the old school playground game tag which relies on GPS to work. There are two teams green and red, and the aim of the game is for your team to tag all the other teams members before they tag you. While doing this you can free members of your own team if you are not tagged, and if you are, look for someone on your team to untag you. The GPS satellite picks up your coordinates and of all of the others around you and when it receives information that two untagged players of the opposite team are near to each other or a tagged member and an untagged member of the same team are near to each other the iPaq shows that you can tag them or release them by pressing a button. It was a brilliantly sunny day so it was a perfect setting to try out the experiment. Bas and Chris videotaped the proceedings so that Yanna could have a reliable source of information to look back on, so she could see the resu lts in more depth and different angles, an and #39overview and #39 perspective and an and #39inside and #39 perspective. The technological side of things went very well compared to the last trial, the only problem being that the GPS could not pinpoint the coordinates of the player accurately enough to help the game flow, meaning you could be standing five to ten metres away from where you actually were. This did not help the game as a player could be standing next to you and you could not take any action even though an action was due, e.g. they were not on your team so you needed to tag them etc. Nevertheless the game worked to an extent and you could see the many players different reactions to the scenarios set. Participant interaction during the game was very interesting and the experiment proved once more that people are far more quick and intelligent than technology and #39assumes and #39. This meant Yanna had to introduce nicknames and rules like and #39no talking and #39 and change team ID and #39s green or red for every run of the game, so that people wouldn and #39t know who their team mates were. Even so you could see how people would try and subvert the rules by making gestures. The feedback proved how much the participants enjoyed the game and the huge potential CitiTag has. Participants found that the stage of the game when you had to work out who were your friends and foes was as or more enjoyable as the actual tagging and untagging itself, the tension of not knowing a friend from foe created a tense atmosphere were you had to suspect everyone. Also it was found that people prefer to have significantly different sound alerts for tagging and for untagging, also two different sound alerts for feedback. This would reduce relying on the visual display and help focus on the physical environment. A radar that actually worked and was not just there for show would also enhance the gaming experience, you may be able to see people who were playing but you do not know what colour they are unt il they are in striking distance. There are many different scenarios that could be created for CitiTag, if it was played in the city the tension level would increase as you would not know who was playing the game or just going about there daily lives, everyone would be a suspect. This would be a huge change from knowing and being able to see who was playing the game. The game is being developed in close collaboration with the mobile Bristol team at the Hewlett Packard Laboratories in Bristol and trials in the centre of Bristol are being planned. Related Links: Mobile Bristol website HP iPaq PocketPCs Mobile Tag Game Mulberry Lawn Trial 2 Planet-News-Story300 Olivieri, Blackwell CEO, Visits Visit KMi Reporter, 15 Mar 2004 Ren Ol ivieri, Chief Executive of Blackwell Publishing and Trustee of the Tubney Charitable Trust, paid a brief visit to KMi today as part of an in-depth visit to the OU. The overall visit, organised by Sarah Jarman of the OU Development Office, had several goals, focussed on highlighting the scale and quality of the OU's current research programmes, especially the OU's work within the emerging Earth Sciences Centre of Excellence and specifically the Ecosystems Research Group. KMi is already working with the Department of Earth Sciences on ClimatePrediction.net, and engaged in important work on scholarly publishing and debate, so these projects were also featured during the visit. Martin Dzbor described and demonstrated the Magpie semantic web tool which will be deployed experimentally in S199, the Climate Science course written by Prof. Bob Spicer to accompany the ClimatePrediction.net experiment. Simon Buckingham Shum then described his work on scholarly publishing and debate, particularly ScholOnto and ClaiMaker. Olivieri, Blackwell CEO, Visits Planet-News-Story299 Another cool 1M for KMi KMi Reporter, 11 Mar 2004 KMi continues to roll in the external funding and maintain its high hit rate on European projects. Over the past two months KMi has launched four new EU-funded projects worth over 1M to KMi, and representing European initiatives with a combined total value of more than 15M. The projects are a mixture of Integrated Projects rated highest in their category amongst all competetive bids and Networks of Excellence. Here and #39s a quote from the March issue of and #39Funding Opportunities and #39: 'The Research and European Offices have been informed of the following: Professor Enrico Motta of Knowledge Media Institute has been awarded 255,900 from the European Commission for a 4-year project entitled 'Knowledge Web Realizing the Semantic Web. Dr John Domingue of Knowledge M edia Institute has been awarded 304,540 from the European Commission for a 3-year project entitled Data, Information, and Process Integration with Semantic Web Services DIP Dr Peter Scott of Knowledge Media Institute has been awarded 320,215 from the European Commission for a 4-year project project PROLEARN - Network of Excellence in Professional Learning. Professor Marc Eisenstadt of the Knowledge Media Institute and Professor Bashar Nuseibeh of the Department of Computing have been awarded 340,000 from the European Commission for a 4-year project 'European Learning Grid Infrastructure' E-LeGI .' Related Links: OU Funding Opportunities Newsletter, March 2004 Another cool 1M for KMi Planet-News-Story298 The Puck Stops Here reaches 100000 hits Chris Valentine, 10 Mar 2004 Currently the only external outside the OU use of ROSTRA, UK ice hockey eZine The Puck Stops Here has reached a milestone of one hundred thousand story hits. Ed ited by KMi and #39s Chris Valentine, the website has been running since mid-July 2003. TPSH was launched as a replacement to an earlier, hand-crafted eZine called Benchwarmer but legal reasons prevented the name and domain being used. Related Links: The Puck Stops Here The Puck Stops Here reaches 100000 hits Planet-News-Story297 Update on the IE/Eolas Patent Situation Chris Valentine, 10 Mar 2004 An update on the Eolas/Microsoft patent situation that could require significant changes to the way plugins are used in web pages. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has invalidated a claim to Web browser technology central to a case against Microsoft, a move that could spare the software giant from paying more than half a billion dollars in damages, according to documents obtained on Friday. Related Links: Full ZDNet story here BBC News article Update on the IE/Eolas Patent Situation Planet-News-Story296 Common Purpose Visit Marc Eisenstadt, 9 Mar 2004 Three visitors from Common Purpose came to KMi on 8th March to get a and #39glimpse of the future. and #39 Common Purpose states it vision as follows: 'For a democracy to be strong, it needs an active civil society, in which citizens are both informed and connected. Common Purpose and #39s vision is that we can improve the way society works by increasing the number of informed and engaged individuals who are actively involved in the future of the areas in which they live and work. ' Paul Mulholland and Marc Eisenstadt spent an hour with the visitors, describing current KMi work underway on the CIPHER ClimatePrediction.net, BuddySpace, Magpie and HexagonVO Related Links: Common Purpose Common Purpose Visit Planet-News-Story295 High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire Visits Visit Chris Valentine, 9 Mar 2004 The Hon Richard Godber, High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, today visited KMi. The Sheriff is Her Majesty The Queen and #39s representative in the County and the office dates back over a thousand years. The system of appointing Sheriffs reflects the antiquity of the office. It is the responsibility of each High Sheriff to provide the names of people suitable to serve in the future. These names are added to the list of Sheriffs, and every November at a ceremony in the High Court, the Lord Chief Justice and three other judges formally add as many new names for each county as are needed to ensure that there are Sheriffs in nomination for each of the next three years. The following March The Queen, at a meeting of the Privy Council, formally selects one of the three nominated Sheriffs to serve for the next twelve months by literally pricking a hole through his or her name on the List with a bodkin. Although the method of appointing Sheriffs may not conform to best practice in public appointments it should be seen against the background of an unpaid voluntary job whose functions are largely ceremonial, and of which the expenses can be considerable. The post is unpaid and the general expenses of the office are borne personally by the holder. Related Links: Her Majesty and #39s Lord-Lieutenant for Buckinghamshire GENUKI: Sheriffs of Buckinghamshire The Shrievalty Association High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire Visits Planet-News-Story294 Compendium 1.3.02 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux Technology Related Event Michelle Suzanne Bachler, 9 Mar 2004 The release of Compendium 1.3 at the end of last year and its use of the open source MySQL database, allowed for cross-platform versions of Compendium to be developed, see link to Compendium 1.3 Release for full details . Since this time we have been working towards Mac OS X and Linux releases of Compendium and we and #39re pleased to announce that these versions are now available. Visit the Compendium Institute website to download software. Related Links: Compendium Institute Compendium 1.3 Release Compendium 1.3.02 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux Planet-News-Story293 5M ELeGI Project Begins Marc Eisenstadt, 5 Mar 2004 March 1st-3rd saw the full gathering in Barcelona of a new EU project in which KMi and the OU Department of Computing are playing a strong role. The project, entitled 'European Learning Grid Infrastructure ELeGI ,' comprises 23 partners across Europe, and is worth a combined total of nearly 5M, of which over 300K will come to the OU, approximately 200K to KMi. The meeting was attended by KMi and #39s Marc Eisenstadt and Jiri Komzak, who are working on and #39Enhanced Presence and Conversational Processes and #39 with Prof. Stefano Cerri and #39s group at the University of Montpelier in France. Bashar Nuseibeh and Debra Haley of the OU and #39s Department of Computing also attended, representing their work on new technologies for e-assessment within ELeGI. The project itself was ranked 1st among all Integrated Project proposals submitted for FP6 Information Society awards, and is described as follows in the project abstract: 'The European Learning Grid Infrastructure ELeGI project has the ambitious goal to develop software technologies for effective human learning. With the ELeGI project we will promote and support a learning paradigm shift. A new paradigm focused on knowledge construction using experiential based and collaborative learning approaches in a contextualised, personalised and ubiquitous way will replace the current information transfer paradigm focused on content and on the key authoritative figure of the teacher who provides information. We have chosen a synergic approach, sometimes called human centred design, to replace the classical, applicative approach to learning. With consideration of humans at the centre, learning is clearly a social, constructive phenomenon. It occurs as a side effect of interactions, conversations and enhanced presence in dynamic Virtual Communities: experimental research concepts integrating new powerful developments of services in the Semantic GRID, the leading edge of currently available and future ICT technologies, with highly innovative and powerfully significant scenarios of human learning. The ELeGI project has three main goals: Goal 1. To define new models of human learning enabling ubiquitous and collaborative learning, merging experiential, personalised and contextualised approaches. Goal 2. To define and implement an advanced service-oriented Grid based software architecture for learning. This will allow us to access and integrate different technologies, resources and contents that are needed in order to realise the new paradigm. This objective will be driven by the pedagogical needs and by the requirements provided by the test-beds SEES and informed by the experience gained through implementing the demonstrators. Goal 3. To validate and evaluate the software architecture and the didactical approaches through the use of SEES and demonstrators. The project will build extensively on advanced work already done, creating new learning environments rather than creating new learning resources per se.' 5M ELeGI Project Begins Planet-News-Story292 Mobile Tag Game Mulberry Lawn Trial Technology Related Event Chris Valentine, 27 Feb 2004 CitiTag, a wireless location-based multiplayer game designed to explore spontaneous social interaction and novel experiences in city environments, was due to undergo multiplayer, real-life testing today. Alas some technical problems meant that only four out ten iPaqs could contribute to the first trial! The hardware consists of a GPS receiver, to provide positional information, connected to a Wi-Fi enabled iPaq PocketPC. It seems that the extreme cold is not good for these devices ... so, our second trial needs to be somewhere warmer, perhaps. Nevertheless, the few players who were able to try out the game model seemed to have some fun! The wireless base station was powered by Lewis and #39 car, via an inverter and UPS to provide a stable mains supply. The photo shows pre-game preparations of the hardware involved, next to the Mulberry Lawn at the OU and #39s Walton Hall campus. The game is being developed in close collaboration with the Mobile Bristol team at the Hewlett Packard Laboratories in Bristol and trials in the centre of Bristol are being planned. Relat ed Links: Mobile Bristol website HP iPaq PocketPCs Mobile Tag Game Mulberry Lawn Trial Planet-News-Story291 Knowledge Web Kick-off meeting Project Related Event Arthur Stutt, 26 Feb 2004 The Knowledge Web Network of Excellence kick-off meeting was held over two days 3-4, February of glorious early spring weather at the Universidad Politcnica de Madrid UPM on the outskirts of Madrid. As usual, our Spanish hosts were both friendly and efficient. The biggest problem experienced by most participants was getting the Madrid taxi drivers to understand the directions provided to get to UPM even though these were in Spanish! . KMi participants were Professor Motta and Dr Stutt. KnowledgeWeb started on 1st January and will last for 4 years. Its is funded under the EU Framework VI and has three main strands: Industrial, Research and Education. Attentive readers of Planet will notice some similarity between our logo and that of the Prolearn Temple illustrated in Peter Scott and #39s story from December last year. Great minds! KMi which can expect to receive the equivalent of nearly 400,000 Euros from the NoE has particular responsibilities for the ed ucational outreach strand of the network. Our main task in the NOE is to create a semantic platform for learning, adding semantic technologies such as Magpie to more conventional learning environments. While we will concentrate in the first instance on the use of Magpie, other KMi technologies such as Hexagon, Buddyspace, D3E and IRS will also form part of the KnowledgeWeb technological infrastructure. KMi will also be involved in the organization and running of the 2nd European Summer School on Ontological Engineering and the Semantic Web SSSW-2004 . This summer school for postgraduate students is the second in a series following on from the highly successful school held last year in Cercidilla, near Madrid. Apart from furthering its links with the burgeoning research community in Spain, and with the Learning Lab Lower Saxony, KnowledgeWeb gives KMi the opportunity to further its work on the provision of enhanced learning environments and to extend its influence on the direction research on the Semantic Web will take in Europe over the next decade. Related Links: KnowledgeWeb web site Knowledge Web Kick-off meeting Planet-News-Story290 KMi showcased at LearnTec Project Related Event Kevin Quick, 16 Feb 2004 Stand 239 in the Schwarzwaldhalle hosted the Prolearn project in Karlsruhe, Germany. Prolearn is an EU 6th Framework Network of excellence in Professional ELearning. The significant KMi role in this network was hightlighted on the trade stand. Peter Scott and Kevin Quick mixed meetings of Prolearn workpackages at the University with attending the Prolearn stand at the fair to showcase our work. Hexagon and Stadium were very highly profiled to this audience. Peter also gave a talk in the main congress, attached to the fair on 'New media for learning at work'. The LearnTec fair itself is pretty huge - not as big as CeBIT certainly - but with a focus on eLearning - rather than all technologies. Because of this size the 9k estimated participants each day were lost in the immensity - so it didn and #39t ever seem overcrowded. Related Links: The KMi site for Prolearn The LearnTec Fair in Germany KMi showcased at LearnTec Planet-News-Story289 Changes to IE Chris Valentine, 9 Feb 2004 This article is a must-read for all web designers who use any kind of active content Flash, QuickTime etc on their sites. Bruce Lawson investigates the changes that you and #39ll need to make as suggested by Microsoft, Macromedia, Real Networks and Apple if you plan to continue delivering seamless Flash or other plug-in content to the 90% of the world who use IE. Related Links: The IE Changes Explained Changes to IE Planet-News-Story288 Gush = Flash, Jabber, RSS, Conversations, more... Marc Eisenstadt, 9 Feb 2004 Looks great... in their own words: 'This is where the worlds of Instant Messaging and Blogging meet. While you and #39re not checking up on your favorite weblogs, you can start your own IM Blog with Gush Announcements. Share you and #39re thoughts and interests, privately and instantly among your friends. Blog only to certain groups and additionally mark the status of your announcements to let your friends and colleagues know you and #39re availability.' Related Links: Gush from 2Entwine Gush = Flash, Jabber, RSS, Conversations, more... Planet-News-Story287 Jirka's Hit Maps: A Hit! KMi Reporter, 8 Feb 2004 Is there a limit to how many site visitors you can display graphically on a tiny world map? Not if you use Jiri Komzak and #39s clustering and filtering algorithms! This is what several sites, including ClimatePrediction.net, BuddySpace, and an increasing number of personal sites are now discovering. Komzak and #39s algorithms are based on the need to provide both speed and scaleability: on the Climateprediction.net site, for example, the locations of more than 50,000 users, obtainable indirectly from an and #39IP - ) Latitude/Longitude conversion service and #39 can be seen at a glance. All Geographical Information Systems have to do something similar, but the key is getting past a potentially catastrophic bottleneck when trying to do this in real time for a very large number of users. The display maps for ClimatePrediction.net active users , BuddySpace visitors to the site , and the personal pages of Jiri Komzak, Martin Dzbor, and Marc Eisenstadt, now include a thumbnail display with a live daily update, which in turn links to larger maps of different views for world, continent, and a few country maps. This makes a particulary nice tracking tool for blog-site and #39gutters and #39, for which blog owners like to include convenient pointers, links, and summary features. Related Links: ClimatePrediction.net Locations Map BuddySpace visitor location map see lower left Jiri Komzak and #39s Home Page visitor maps lower left Martin Dzbor and #39s Home Page visitor maps lower right Marc Eisenstadt and #39s Hope Page weblog visitor maps upper right KMi Tech Report 116 Komzak : Visualisation of entity distribution in very large scale spatial and geographic information systems Jirka's Hit Maps: A Hit! Planet-News-Story286 Blast from the Computers' Past Chris Valentine, 26 Jan 2004 Just found this website paying tribute to the computers of yesteryear. Related Links: Obsolete Computers Museum Blast from the Computers' Past Planet-News-Story285 Chief Scientist: 'E-Learning is Dead' KMi Reporter, 24 Jan 2004 In a keynote address to an International Policy Forum on the Internet and Society at Oxford University this evening, KMi Chief Scientist Marc Eisenstadt proclaimed E-Learning to be a 'quaint term we won and #39t be using when we reconvene this meeting in a few years'. In a presentation of 'what works', 'what fails', and 'what and #39s next', as part of the themed evening on The Next Level in E-Learning, Prof Eisenstadt listed E-Learning itself as a prominent item in the 'fails' column. The speech, equally dismissive of 'Learning Management Systems', 'Learning Objects', 'Virtual Learning Environments', and meta-tagging standards such as IMS, was nevertheless up-beat and forward-looking in terms of the possibilities for integrating new technologies into creative learning experiences. Items in the 'what works' column included star teachers, social networking, simulations, peer-to-peer networks, certain 'banned' games, and tasks that engendered creativity and content ownership directly in learners -- including nume rous examples cited from KMi and #39s own long experience in this arena. The greatest challenges, argued Eisenstadt, were to 'attain results at large scale, maintain a degree of warmth and humanity that is often lost in digital media, and ensure the buy-in of the highly over-stretched teaching workforce.' The Open University itself was cited as an acknowledged success in getting all these ingredients right, and a potentially valuable model for how to proceed. The presentation kicked off an evening and next-day brainstorming session, attended by thirty leaders and practitioners in teaching, education, industry, and government, representing various e-learning perspectives. Full details of the event, and position papers from the attendees, will be made available by the Oxford Internet Institute. Related Links: The Oxford Internet Institute Chief Scientist: 'E-Learning is Dead' Planet-News-Story284 Presidential Candidate Into Blogging Chris Valentine, 21 Jan 2004 US Democrat Presidential hopeful Wes Clark has embraced the Internet and is heavily into blogging. Many of his policy documents are available as PDFs, his entire website is also available in Spanish and there are a number of blogs. A volunteer TechCorps runs the site for him providing 'a framework for involving open source software developers in the Clark campaign. Through the collaborative development of open source code, developers design and implement critical Clark campaign infrastructure while extending the availability of ope n campaignware/electionware.' The retired general came to prominance in the Bosnia and Kosovo campaigns. He was the recipient of a Silver Star and two Distinguished Service Medals during his long military career but is decidedly against the ongoing war in Iraq. Related Links: Wes Clark and #39s official blog Presidential Candidate Into Blogging Planet-News-Story283 HP To Test KMi Mobile Game Technology Related Event Marc Eisenstadt, 20 Jan 2004 Yanna Vogiazou and #39s and #39multiplayer presence and #39 games are nearing a key trial with Hewlett-Packard and #39s Research Lab in Bristol. The game is a stripped down version of a massively-multiplayer and #39city roaming and #39 game envisaged by Yanna and co-designer Bas Raijmakers, simplified for a trial run to test all the gadetry involved. The test version will run on and #39fully-loaded and #39 HP iPaq Pocket PC and #39s, equipped with Wi-Fi, GPS location detection, a Flash game client, a layer of and #39Mobile Bristol and #39 middleware, and mutliplayer server software that manages the gameplay. HP Labs is providing 20 such iPaqs for this round of testing as part of its Mobile Bristol project. The gameplay concept involves players roaming through city-wide outdoor areas covered by both Wi-Fi and GPS capability-- the players participate in a game involving deliberately simple states, but a hidden degree of complexity is provided by the actual number of players interacting in the real world. The client was conceived and storyboarded by Yanna and Bas, and its underlying logic has been implemented in Flash by CNM and #39s Jon Linney; the server software has been implemented by CNM and #39s Kevin Quick and relies on Macromedia and #39s Flashcom server. Yanna and Kevin were joined at HP Labs Bristol UK Research Centre by Peter Scott and Marc Eisenstadt yesterday for a brainstorming session at HP and #39s Mobile Bristol lab site. HP and #39s Jo Reid, Ben Clayton, Richard Hull, Paul Marsh, Erik Geelhoed, Phil Stenton attended the catch-up meeting, along with co-designer Bas Raijmakers from the Royal College of Art. Related Links: HP Labs Bristol Mobile Bristol Project Yanna and #39s and #39Presence-based Mutli-user Play and #39 site HP To Test KMi Mobile Game Planet-News-Story282 The Neatest Webcam You Ever Did See Chris Valentine, 15 Jan 2004 From Logitech somes the QuickCam Sphere. Decidedly retro in styling, it looks to have come straight from the cult SF movie Barbarella. But what makes it different is its built-in subject tracking motors. All for a staggering 100 quid - if you can find a supplier who and #39s got one in stock, that is. Its USB interface draws significant current, so it probably wouldn and #39t like a hub, but some enterprising person has already written a Linux driver, so it won and #39t be long before Windows and Mac software and/or webserver plugins appear. Related Links: QuickCam S phere The Neatest Webcam You Ever Did See Planet-News-Story281 BitTorrent: 'Limitless download scalability' Marc Eisenstadt, 15 Jan 2004 'Serving large files creates problems of scaling, flash crowds, and reliability. As you grow, they become more central to your business, but your bandwidth costs go up as well. It and #39s a vicious cycle. There is a solution. BitTorrent is a simple software product which addresses all of these problems. The key to cheap file distribution is to tap the unutilized upload capacity of your customers. It and #39s free. Their contribution grows at the same rate as their demand, creating limitless scalability for a fixed cost. ' What a fanastic idea! Thanks to Gary Li for the tipoff. Related Links: BitTorrent BitTorrent: 'Limitless download scalability' Planet-News-Story280 German Language Hat-Trick for KMi Marc Eisenstadt, 14 Jan 2004 Alumni of OU Courses L203 and L231 the main and and #39top up and #39 courses for the OU Diploma in German are undertaking a unique 3-way trial of KMi-originated collaboration and group publishing tools BuddySpace, Rostra, and Lyceum starting today. The aim of the project, led by Klaus-Dieter Rossade from the Department of Languages, is to push further into the realms of intense synchronous collaboration for distance learning, by having the former L203 and L231 students undertake the and #39just-in-time and #39 production of a German language newsletter. The group will be using KMi and #39s BuddySpace location-based instant messenger to see and #39who is where and #39, engage in opportunistic chat, and see when there and #39s a critical mass for launching Lyceum. A new release of Lyceum will serve as the basis for multiparty audio and shared whiteboards as before, and in addition has been augmented by OU and #39s LTS with an embedded full-function shared web browser -- this means that all parties can co-surf the same web content under the guidance of any chosen and #39leader and #39. KMi and #39s Rostra is the publishing engine for the project: the German newsletter content wil l be produced by small collaborative teams concentrating on specialist subject matter, and using a custom variant of Rostra, to which they can upload stories to a content database via a web form. Real-time debate and collaboration for publishing is essential for the project, thereby providing a great testbed for the integration of BuddySpace, Rostra, and Lyceum. This trial is undertaken jointly by the Department of Languages, the Knowledge Media Institute, and Learning and Teaching Solutions at the OU, with sponsorship from the OU Learning and Teaching Innovations Committee. Related Links: BuddySpace Rostra Lyceum Open University German Language Courses German Language Hat-Trick for KMi Planet-News-Story279 UK Net Boss Checks KMi Schools Visit Marc Eisenstadt, 9 Jan 2004 Hilary Baxter, the new Business Director for UKERNA provider JANET, the UK and #39s education and research network , visited today to discuss the pioneering work KMi has undertaken with local schools. Baxter and #39s team undertakes 'account management of JANET within HE, FE, Adult and Community Learning, Specialist Colleges and possibly schools in the future.' KMi initiated the MKSchools.net project which now provides wireless broadband connectivity to dozens of schools across Miton Keynes, and serves over 25,000 students. The key to the connection, dreamed up by Peter Whalley in 1997, and set up by Marc Eisenstadt, Blaine Price and Denbigh School and #39s Chris Woods in 1998, is to piggyback a small-scale school network onto the large-scale internet connectivity that a nearby University can obtain. The scheme is now self-sustaining, and run as a fully-managed service by Neil Roche of OU AACS. Neil joined the discussions today to provide an in-depth account of the technology that he and his team deploy to make the scheme run on a robust and cost-effective basis-- something of great interest to UKERNA. A variety of projects were also discussed, ranging from Peter Whalley and #39s original projects with Heronsgate school, through to the CLUTCH clubs, and CitiSchool. Trevor Collins described the work underway with Zdenek Zdrahal, Paul Mulholland, and David Bradbury on the CIPHER project with Denbigh School, Bletchley Park, and the Gymnzium Jir ho Gutha-Jarkovskho in Prague. Related Links: About UKERNA CIPHER Project MKSchools.net UK Net Boss Checks KMi Schools Planet-News-Story278 Risk Posed by Instant Messaging Chris Valentine, 8 Jan 2004 While Instant messaging is gaining popularity with workers trying to get around the restrictions placed on what they can do with e-mail, few firms subject instant messaging programs to the same scrutiny that e-mail receives to stop spam, viruses or abuse by employees. A survey by filtering firm Surf Control Survey shows that almost 40% of staff in UK companies are using instant messaging programs while in the office. 'As more companies crack down on misuse of e-mail we have seen people moving more and more towards freer communications such as instant messaging,' said Martino Corbelli. 31% of those questioned turn to instant messaging to send the private messages they would rather did not travel via company e-mail systems. However, more than half of the workers questioned, 51%, said instant messaging could dent productivity as people de alt with messages that kept popping up. Others were worried about viruses arriving via instant message programs 34% and by offensive content being circulated 6% . Mr Corbelli said companies had to do more to tackle the potential problems that greater use of instant messaging brought. He said the risks and dangers that emerged with early use of e-mail were happening all over again as use of instant messaging grew. Security strategies to stop viruses could be thwarted by unauthorised use of instant messaging, he said. Related Links: Full BBC News story Risk Posed by Instant Messaging Planet-News-Story277 KMi's FirstFlight Web Site Receives 80,000 Hits in one day! Peter Whalley, 6 Jan 2004 December 17th was the centenary of the pioneering flight made by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk and the firstflight web site received more than 11,000 visitors. The firstflight web site was develope d in the early days of KMi as a test-bed for web based virtual science projects. One simulation was of the Wright Brothers and #39 highly unstable 1903 Flyer, and this has led to the site now being at #5 on a Google search for and #39Wright Brothers and #39. A video recreation of the first flight, first devised as an April Fools joke, may also have contributed to the hit rate as the replica flown on the centenary just flopped into the mud. Related Links: FirstFlight websites KMi's FirstFlight Web Site Receives 80,000 Hits in one day! Planet-News-Story276 VDC Honorary Graduate Receives Knighthood Awards/Praise Chris Valentine, 31 Dec 2003 Acknowledged by many as the and #39Father of the World Wide Web and #39, Tim Berners-Lee received a Knighthood in the New Years and #39 Hounours List. Born in London in 1955, Sir Tim received an honorary degree in the OU and #39s first Virtual Degree Ceremony, engineered by KMi, in March 2000. The ceremony was aimed at the worldwide body of students who graduated from the Masters Programme in Open and Distance Education. The graduating cohort was only 26 but tuned in from as far afield as Taiwan, the US, Iceland and Hong Kong. Related Links: VDC Website BBC News article Bio on W3C website VDC Honorary Graduate Receives Knighthood Planet-News-Story275 First Flight Web Site Cracks 80,000 Hits December 17th Peter Sharpe, 19 Dec 2003 If you doubt the power of history, take a look at the number of hits on the First Flight web site on December 17th. 80,861 hits from 10,714 visitors. The site usually has between 200 and 2,000 visitors per day except that on the 17th the number of visitors really climbed and was still over 4,000 the following day. In case you missed it, there was a little matter of the Wright Brothers Centennial on that day. Related Links: Firstflight First Flight Web Site Cracks 80,000 Hits December 17th Planet-News-Story274 KMi Keynotes@ICOOL: Hypermedia Discourse Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 16 Dec 2003 The OU and KMI were represented last week at the International Conference on Open and Online Learning ICOOL03 , where I was invited to give a keynote address. Held at the University on the beautiful island of Mauritius, ICOOL attracted a wide range of delegates from all over the world. A distinctive feature of ICOOL was its focus on the challenges of introducing sustainable e-learning in developing countries. Educational technology conferences are often held in relatively wealthy countries, where such issues receive minimal attention. ICOOL foregrounded these issues with numerous sessions where speakers from countries with struggling economies illustrated the gulfs that need to be bridged when missing human and technical infrastructure that we often taken for granted. This set a challenge for advanced nations to forge partnerships to share their experience and resources more openly. In my keynote, I introduced the mission and work of KMi, exciting interest in tools such as BuddySpace, Hexagon, FlashMeeting and Lyceum. Focusing on the specific theme of Hypermedia Discourse, I outlined the transitional period in which we find ourselves as The Book is now complemented by new media, genres and practices. Hypermedia Discourse was proposed as approach to tackle an important but missing element in current e-Learning, whereby students/analysts can express and contest different interpretations of the meaning of learning resources, defined by their interconnections, resulting in c onceptual networks which offer different affordances for browsing and filtering. I outlined three different KMi projects which exemplify hypermedia discourse in diverse contexts: D3E Digital Document Discourse Environment and the Journal of Interactive Media in Education , Compendium and the ScholOnto projects ClaiMaker and ClaiMapper tools. A tool such as ClaiMaker goes beyond current conceptions of educational metadata or ontologies, which assume consensus on how to codify learning resources. When dealing with new and/or contested domains, with multiple perspectives and debates about the significance of ideas, new representational schemes are needed. Following a request from the conference chair Alain Senteni, who founded VCILT the Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning Technologies - the Universitys version of KMi , I ran an impromptu afternoon session in VCILT where I demonstrated some of KMis technologies, and answered questions from students and other delegates about their applications, and the prospects of studying/working in KMi! I also established links with several research groups around the world who wanted to trial our Hypermedia Discourse tools. My attendance was made possible by the generous support of the British Council in Mauritius, and following a tour of their headquarters, I discussed with the Director Rosalind Burford possible opportunities for the OU to support their work in Mauritius, which has a particular focus on English teaching and assisting students to study with British universities. It is amazing that this tiny island sends 1600 students to the UK each year, as many as Brazil! Related Links: International Conference on Open and Online Learning Hypermedia Discourse KMi Keynotes@ICOOL: Hypermedia Discourse Planet-News-Story273 Prolearn Kick-Off Project Related Event Peter Scott, 3 Dec 2003 The first PROLEARN general assembly was held at the L3S lab in Hannover, Germany Nov 30-Dec 2 2003. So keen are the project participants to get started, that we decided to have our kick-off over a month before the formal start date for the project and before the contract with the EU has even been signed! Formally, the project is due to start January 2004 and run for 4 years. The Knowledge Media Institute team were represented by Drs Peter Scott and Kevin Quick. Alas that British Midland lost our luggage for 2 days out of the 3 day visit ... but you can go a long way with a shared laptop power supply and hotel toothbrush! The Prolearn consortium partners 19 EU Universities were welcomed by the Network Coordinator, Wolfgang Nejdl and Network Administrator, Martin Wolpers. The critical network management, contractual and financial issues were then detailed by Nani Clow and Eva Rose from the University of Hannover. Finally, representatives from the 14 work-packages launched into their presentations. The aim of the Prolearn initiative, which is funded for 4 years as a European Union 6th Framework 'Network of Excellence', is to 'embody a significant advance in our scientific understanding of the use of technology for professional learners'. The Prolearn network is envisaged as a structure housing 7 horizontal work-packages that will unify European research on this subject and 7 vertical work-packages that will provide a focus for the critical issues in this area. For KMi, the critical work-package is our own vertical 'Interactive Media', but we are integrated into 8 of the total 14 work-package activities. The key metric for success in the Networks of Excellence will be our ability to fully 'integrate' work from all over our community into a coherent whole. Colleagues back in the lab in Milton Keynes were able to keep track of the work of the general assembly via the experimental CNM Hexagon system. From a networked seat in the W3S lab in Germany, Kevin Quick and #39s laptop camera broadcast the event into a Hex. Not only could KMi colleagues pick up a little of the Prolearn activity and take some part in it, but Hex itself and our own folks here made quite an impact of the Hannover audience. The sight of John Domingue eating a yogurt in a Hex, was almost too much for some of our hungry EU partners. Prolearn is one of 6 planned KMi activities for the EU 6th Framework. Others include the Knowledgeweb Network of Excellence, the E-LeGI smart-presence grid-computing Integrated Project, and the diP semantic web services project. Related Links: The Hexagon Prototype Prolearn Kick-Off Planet-News-Story272 Dr. Mancini! Marc Eisenstadt, 27 Nov 2003 KMi postgraduate student Clara Mancini successfully defended her doctoral dissertation during a thesis viva today. She has been recommended for the award of a Ph.D. after minor revisions. Clara and #39s thesis, entitled and #39Towards Cinematic Hypertext and #39, breaks new ground in probing the very nature of coherence in hypertext, using the notion of and #39cognitive coherence relations and #39, and look at ways that ideas from the worlds of cinematography and semiology can be applied to making such relations more salient. It is both a theoretical and empirical investigation into discourse links in film and hypertext. Clara and #39s internal supervisor was Dr. Simon Buckingham Shum second supervisor Prof Marc Eisenstadt . Her external examiner on the day was Dr. Frank Nack of the Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica CWI , and her internal examiner was Dr. Josie Taylor from IET. Well done, Clara--- CONGRATULATIONS!! Related Links: Clara Mancini and #39s Home Page Dr. Mancini! Planet-News-Story271 Lorenzo hosts Himalayas Presentation and Webcast Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 21 Nov 2003 An audience of around 25 visitors, including members of the Milton Keynes mountaineering club, joined a number of webcast viewers from countries around the world some as far away as Alaska to witness Lorenzo Gariano and #39s slide/talk presentation of his adventures in the Everest region. Lorenzo took part in the Adventures International expedition to Everest, organized by the well known and experienced climber Scott Woolums. Whilst not intending to conquor Everest itself, he nevertheless summitted Lhotse, the World and #39s fourth highest mountain at 8511 metres. The photo shows Lorenzo with a mannequin dressed in the clothing he was actually wearing on the expedition, together with equipment being displayed by local supplier The Outdoor Shop. Related Links: Himalayas webcast website The Outdoor Shop Webcast replay Scott Woolums and #39 Adventures International Lorenzo hosts Himalayas Presentation and Webcast Planet-News-Story270 Compendium 1.3 released Technology Related Event Simon Buckingham Shum, 17 Nov 2003 KMi Simon Buckingham Shum, Al Selvin and Michelle Bachler is a founding member of the Compendium Institute, a virtual network to support and develop Compendium as an approach to visual modelling, collaborative sensemaking and group memory. KMi leads the software development of the tool currently funded by the e-Science CoAKTinG project , and is pleased to announce that v1.3 is now available for free download. This is the long-awaited release which opens the door to cross-platform versions using the open source MySQL database, along with a host of refinements and extensions to the core functionality. Compendium is the semantic hypertext concept mapping tool at the heart of the Compendium methodology. It supports the real time mapping of discussions in meetings, collaborative sense-making and modelling, and the longer term management of this information as organizational memory. Compendium is the result of over 15 years and #39 continual research, deployment and development at the intersection of meeting facilitation, knowledge management and argumentation. Compendium is arguably the most advanced mapping tool available to support the IBIS method Issue-Based Information System , but goes much further with the addition of extensive support for web publishing, integration with other applications, support for multiple methods, and other advanced functionality. Visit Compendium Institute website to download software, and browse the extensive library of research papers and case studies. The CoAKTinG e-Science Project [www.aktors.org/coakting ] shows Compendium and #39s use for supporting distributed scientific work on the Grid and interoperating with other collaboration tools. Related Links: Compendium Institute Compendium 1.3 released Planet-News-Story269 AoIR 2003 Maria Macintyre, 14 Nov 2003 I recently presented at the Association of Internet Researchers 2003 conference in Toronto. The keynote speakers were Lucy Suchman Lancaster University , Pierre Levy University of Ottawa , Steve Jones Co-founder of AoIR, University of Illinois and Jane Fountain Center for Digital Government Research and Practice . Panels included the digital divide, blogging, ehealth, gaming, online learning, research methods and virtual communities. In a discussion of online social research methods Susan Barnes Fordham University gave an overview of the current ethical issues, whilst Kate Robson University of Wales discussed the use of traditional face-to-face focus groups in the online environment. Susan Herring Indiana University Bloomington , Nancy Baym University of Kansas and Shani Orgad London School of Economics were panel-members of the roundtable on qualitative online research, which discussed the critical issues facing this approach. There was a strong eHealth contingent. At the roundtable researchers in the field, including Alex Jadad University of Toronto and Robert Hawkins University of Wisconsin provided a synopsis of their current work. Alex Jadad outlined the work being carried out at the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, whilst Robert Hawkins gave an update on the Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System CHESS . In one of the eHealth panels Derek Hansen University of Michigan and I discussed the use of online health communities by health service users. My paper was concerned with how participation can be used to negotiate the health encounter. Derek Hansen explored these communities from a different perspective, highlighting the importance of applicability in relation to health behaviour change. One of the strengths of the conference was its ability to connect over 400 international delegates from diverse backgrounds, whilst maintaining a friendly and encouraging environment. The next AoIR conference will be held a bit closer to home at the University of Sussex, UK. Related Links: AoIR 2003 Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, Toronto CHESS AoIR 2003 Planet-News-Story268 Audience demands Magpie replay at International Semantic Web Conference Publication Related Event Liliana Cabral, 3 Nov 2003 Semantic Web and Semantic Web Services are clearly two very hot topic areas. The very successful International Semantic Web Conference ISWC 2003, which was held this month in Sanibel Island, Florida, saw the number of participants reaching 450 people, double the number of the previous year. Clearly these folks longed for listening to Jim Hendler and Tim Berners-Lee. Dieter Fensel, the conference chair, also promoted the topic areas with a The-Matrix-based philosophical argumentation. This years conference launched OWL, the Web Ontology Language for the Semantic Web with an excellent tutorial from its authors; and saw massive support for Semantic Web Services from industry, expressed in Mike Brodies exciting talk. KMi was well represented in the conference by Prof. Enrico Motta, Dr. John Domingue, Liliana Cabral and Dr. Martin Dzbor. Both Enrico Motta and John Domingue presented papers in the main conference, one on the KMi platform for Semantic Web Services IRS and the other on the Magpie Semantic Web Browser. In particular, Magpie was a major highlight of the conference, and a second presentation was needed after an enthusiastic audience demanded a replay when some of them missed the first presentation due to a last-minute rearrangement. KMi is at the forefront of key initiatives on Semantic Web Services by being a partner of the EU-funded DIP project Data, Information and Process Integration with Semantic Web Services - one of the leading projects in the area, which will start in January, 2004. In addition, Enrico Motta is a member of the Architectural Committee of the joint US-EU Semantic Web Services Initiative SWSI . Related Links: ISWC 2003 ISWC2003 Invited Talks OWL DIP SWSI IRS Magpie Audience demands Magpie replay at International Semantic Web Conference Planet-News-Story267 Lyceum Rocks! Marc Eisenstadt, 30 Oct 2003 Lyceum, the Open University and #39s virtual classroom tool originated in KMi, is alive, kicking, serving thousands of students, and delivering high-quality end-user experiences. I and #39m taking my first ever OU course - LZX194: Portales Beginner and #39s Spanish , and using Lyceum as a student, partaking in its capabilities for multiparty audio conferencing with shared graphics. You see the world totally differently as an OU student, because you just want to 'learn the stuff', not mess about with technology. But for language learning, this kind of technology is self-evidently an essential tool of the trade for distance learning students. Regarding the current generation known as Lyceum 3.5, I have to say that is *AWESOME*! It has come a long way since the original Lyceum project started here in KMi I and #39m consistently meeting fellow students online who have just acquired their first-ever PC for this course! , and are total computer-novices, yet there they are in Lyceum chatting away in high quality multiparty audio .. unbelievable!!! The audio quality, room and #39booking and #39 facilities, overall scaleability, integration with the student database/authentication etc. are all fantastic. For foreign language learning, it is a sure-fire winner, as the Dept. of Languages at the Open University is clearly aware. And the story gets even better: The face-to-face L194 and Lyceum LZX194 variants both share First Class discussion forums under the label L ZX 194. But some differences are emerging, as highlighted by a few messages from the 'L ZX 194 Course Discussion' forum. One student writes, 'I do wish those of us doing the Face to face version could have a go with Lyceum! I and #39m really jealous! I and #39m sure we and #39d all find it useful for practicing... any chance of us getting access?' And another responds, 'Me too. I feel really left out as they seem to get on so well, and they are practising lots before us poor L194s have even started. I think this is a pretty general feeling!' Inevitably, user-interface improvements are in the pipeline. A personal request of mine is this: The sideways-scrolling multiple and #39modules and #39 e.g. when the re are multiple whiteboards in a given room are somewhat deceptive. My suggestion is that they should instead look like other classic tabbed interfaces, and as they grow in number they can acquire left-right scroll buttons. The main thing about tabs and familiar-looking scroll buttons is their and #39affordance and #39, i.e. users tend to know straight away what to do, whereas the existing and #39side-by-side boxes and #39 can throw people... of course they can read the instructions, but clear and #39affordances and #39 win the day every time! Anyway, the above is really a minor point, the key message is this: Lyceum rocks!!! Via this story, and separate emails I and #39ve sent, I and #39m saying 'Nice going, and congratulations to the whole Lyceum team.'. My tutor has just emailed me... I have a 1-hour Lyceum session with my cohort of 20 students out of the many hundreds enrolled on this course with other tutors every other Monday: 20 sessions in all for the whole course... the whole LZX194 student body is really looking forward to it... fantastic! Related Links: Lyceum - multiparty audio conferencing at The Open University Lyceum project background at KMi Open University Courses ... follow links to and #39Spanish and #39 Lyceum Rocks! Planet-News-Story266 H exagon Update Peter Scott, 17 Oct 2003 The new URL for access to the KMi ONLY Hexagon Room is: http://cnm.open.ac.uk/projects/hexagon/kmi.html Which is intended to be a private-to-kmi room for our experiments. Please join us, even if only to listen to News-24 :- And yes we know it is a bit broken up, we are musing on this ... Actually, the direct to room url has not changed http://cnm.open.ac.uk/projects/hexagon/hexagonvo.html but it may do so in the future! It doesnt need a password ... yet. And you need the correct kmi-only page if you want to try out the StandAlone Application version. Which may be downloaded now only from here. The App version carries this ***health warning***: you will need to revisit the page to update it regularly! Old versions will be disabled dynamically - so you will need the new one! The app is neat for those who want to zoom in and out of the hexes, set it as a startup app, properly background it ... etc. BTW: One reason we have done this is to open HEX to public view. So there is a public demo room now available for suitably cautioned folks to consider. It is not intended for widespread public consumption just yet, but there are some folks we know who really, really need to see it ... http://cnm.open.ac.uk/projects/hexagon/ Related Links: The PUBLIC Hex Room The KMi ONLY HEX room Hexagon Update Planet-News-Story265 A KMi Video Wall ? Peter Scott, 8 Oct 2003 Come NOW to Peter Scott and #39s office and ask for a webcam. I have bought a bunch first come first serve and will buy more if there is a queue!!! The cameras I have are cheap USB PC only jobs - no mike - so this reduces the queue slightly? Heck, these things only cost 12.50 in Argos at the moment! Damian or Chris will help you install them, if you have any probs. THE PRICE? You must agree to engage in a lab experiment in 24/7 video presence. This means running the camera on the machine of your choice for at least some part of each day! WHY? Are you kidding ... why not? NO, REALLY ... WHY? Well - we need to do some destruction-testing of the Flash Com server through some experimental clients - the idea of a KMi Video Wall is a pretty tempting way to do this. PLUS, we need to think in a safe, and friendly lab context about the sanity of extending presence into video - so come play and help. THIS PAGE will tell you more ... S trengths: Only we can do this - so let us try! W eaknesses: It will probably blow up! O pportunities: Come and get a webcam! T hreats: Big Brother could be really, really watching you ;- ... or your bookshelves or whatever else you point the cam at! Related Links: Associated Planet CORE Story A KMi Vide o Wall ? Planet-News-Story264 Success at Semantic Web conferences Publication Related Event Martin Dzbor, 23 Sep 2003 Two out of two - and make it double. This could be an appropriate headline for a recent success of KMi researchers, who secured two accepted papers out of two submissions to two prestigious conferences: International Semantic Web and Knowledge Capture . Both events will take place this October, in Florida, US. The International Semantic Web Conference ISWC 2003 is an influential gathering of experts and practitioners behind most of the existing and emerging Web standards such as XML, RDF, OWL, or DAML/OIL . According to the Programme Chair, Prof. Katia Sycara of Carnegie Mellon University, this year saw the most competitive ISWC with only 49 papers being accepted out of 205 submitted less than a fifth . This compares with the competitivness of larger and longer established events such as ECAI. the first paper co-authored by Enrico Motta, John Domingue, Liliana Cabral, and Mauro Gaspari University of Bologna is titled IRS-II: A Framework and Infrastructure for Se mantic Web Services . As the title suggests, the paper tackles the emerging area of semantic web services. Web services are small applications dispersed throughout the Web that can be composed into more sophisticated applications. IRS-II addresses the issue of automating the location, invocation, and composition of web services. It is closely related to emerging web standards such as DAML-S web services annotation language or SOAP web services protocol . The second successful paper is based on the research of Martin Dzbor, John Domingue, and Enrico Motta. It is focused on another emerging area - Semantic Web, and titled Magpie: Towards a Semantic Web browser . Magpie is a small plug-in extending standard web browsers with the ability to layer ontological knowledge over plain-HTML web pages. Magpie combines named entitiy recognition and ontological reasoning, and packages them into a lightweight toolbar that can be used to enrich users and #39 browsing experiences. The merging of web and knowledge technologies facilitates sense making on the Web. Co-located with the ISWC 2003 is Knowledge Capture Conference K-Cap 2003 . KMi is represented by the work driven by its two final-year research students - Yuangui Lei and Dnyanesh Rajpathak. Yuangui and #39s submission Design of Customized Web Applications with OntoWeaver and Dnyanesh and #39s Generic Library of Problem Solving Methods for Scheduling Applications received very good reviews. Yuangui and #39s paper describes her system OntoWeaver which enables websites to be created and maintained via ontological definitions. Dnyanesh and #39s PhD focuses on how scheduling components can be indexed semantically for reuse. As with the vast majority of KMi research all of the papers above are based on practical work and consequently have associated tools. Links below point to the web sites of the individual tools which in the case of Magpie and the IRS-II contain downloadable versions. Related Links: International Semantic Web Conference ISWC 2003 Knowledge Capture Conference K-Cap 2003 IRS-II project and framework web site Magpie project and tool web site Magpie paper PDF IRS-II paper PDF Library of PSMs paper PDF Success at Semantic Web conferences Planet-News-Story263 A for AKT Project Related Event Liliana Cabral, 22 Sep 2003 Last week saw the midterm review for the EPSRC funded Advanced Knowledge Technologies AKT project at the University of Southampton. Overall the review went extremely well. In his summing up the review, panel chair Professor James Hendler said if I could give you a grade it would be an A and pointed out that many of the outcomes would not have been possible without this type of research collaboration project. During the 2 days of presentations and demonstrations KMI had a significant presence, the highlights being a presentation by Professor Enrico Motta on Knowledge and Semantic Web Services followed by a demo of our Semantic Web Services platform The Internet Reasoning Service IRS by Dr. John Domingue; a presentation on how a number of novel technologies have been integrated to support internet-mediated meetings with groups based at different locations by Dr. Simon Buckingham Shum; and a demo of KMis web sense-making system Magpie by Dr. John Domingue. Other KMI researchers involved in AKT or associated projects are Marc Eisenstadt, Jiri Komzak, Liliana Cabral, Martin Dzbor, Vanessa Lopez, Jianhan Zhu and Maria Vargas-Vera. Related Links: The KMI AKT website The Main AKT website The IRS project page The Magpie project page The MIAKT website The CoAKTing website The compendium project page The BuddySpace project page Professor James Hendlers home page A for AKT Planet-News-Story262 Insanely great email/file search tool Marc Eisenstadt, 16 Sep 2003 Having run tools like and #39AltaVista Personal and #39 and and #39Enfish and #39 over the years, and always having wondered and #39why can I search a large chunk of the web faster than I can search my own machine and #39, I and #39ve finally discovered one at www.x1.com that and #39does the right thing and #39: it and #39s not merely that it indexes everything, but more that it displays incremental results in real time as you type the set of hits grows and shrinks in real time as you modify the search terms. Ridiculously fast and useful - main download is free, license for advanced features attachment search is $40-ish; *READ THE INSTALLATION LICENSE CAREFULLY BEFORE AUTOMATICALLY CLICKING and #39YES and #39* the small print would appear to open the door to 3rd party adverts, implying either and #39spyware and #39 or a spyware hook ... though users of the full product say it and #39s fine -- I run it at home and use my personal firewall to block it from accessing the internet anyway, and it works fine . Frankly, it and #39s so good that a I simply don and #39t care about the license caveat and b it and #39s inspired me to write this ridiculous email that sounds like a typical spam advertisement! -Marc Related Links: X1 - personal email/file search engine Insanely great email/file search tool Planet-News-Story261 World's biggest climate simulation launched today Event Participation/Organization Marc Eisenstadt, 11 Sep 2003 The Science Museum in London is the scene for today and #39s launch of ClimatePrediction.net, the world and #39s largest climate prediction experiment . The experiment, using thousands of personal computers to run different facets of a highly complex simulation, has been developed by a large team including the Oxford University Department of Atmospheric Physics, The University of Reading, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, The Met Office, and the Open University and #39s Department of Earth Sciences and Knowledge Media Institute. KMi is developing a and #39semantic sensemaking and community presence portal and #39 for the project, while the Department of Earth Sciences, under the direction of Prof. Bob Spcier, is creating a related custom course S199 about Climate Science and modelling. Today and #39s official Open University press release about the launch begins as follows full links below : 'If you want to book a summer holiday for the year 2040 but arent sure what the weather will be like, you could be involved in forecasting it. 'The worlds largest experiment on climate prediction is looking for two million people and their computers to be a part of looking at the weather for the next 50 years. 'The Open University is a part of this worlds largest climate prediction experiment that will be launched at the Science Museum in London and at the BA Festival of Science in Salford on Friday, 12 September, 2003. Computer users anywhere in the world can participate by downloading a global climate model from www.climateprediction.net. 'Professor Bob Spicer, from the Earth Sciences Department at the Open University, said: and #39This is really do-it-yourself science that anyone can become involved in and #39. 'This collaboration between the Universities of Oxford and Reading, the Met Office, The Open University, the CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , and Tessella Support Services plc will use the combined power of participants personal computers to generate the worlds most comprehensive probability-based forecast of twenty-first -century climate. Each participant in the experiment runs their own unique version of the Met Offices state-of-the-art climate model, simulating several decades of the Earths climate at a time. The model runs as a background process on ordinary desktop computers and will not affect other computing tasks. At the end of the experiment results are sent back via the Internet. Simulations of present climate and past changes will be used to test different model versions and the most realistic will be used to predict the climate of the twenty-first century.' Related Links: ClimatePrediction.net site Open University Official Press Release 'Do It Yourself Climate Prediction' World's biggest climate simulation launched today Planet-News-Story260 Danish Association for Flexible Learning Visits the OU Visit Peter Scott, 11 Sep 2003 On September 11th, KMi were host to 45 representatives from the Danish Association for Flexible Learning who were on a three day tour of the UK. The group had expressed a particular in interest in e-learning. The OU has a growing number of students in Denmark and delegates heard presentations from Judith Margolis and Mike Green OUBS , Mick Jones SHSW and KMis Peter Scott. Related Links: Danish Association for Flexible Learning Danish Association for Flexible Learning Visits the OU Planet-News-Story259 Security Changes in Macromedia Flash Player 7 Chris Valentine, 11 Sep 2003 Macromedia has made some changes to the cross-domain security model in Macromedia Flash Player 7. For the most part, the new restrictions apply only to movies made for the new player. However, data loading in older Macromed ia Flash movies may stop working as intended when played in Macromedia Flash Player 7. Related Links: Macromedia article Security Changes in Macromedia Flash Player 7 Planet-News-Story258 Skype - P2P Voice over IP from the KaZaA team Marc Eisenstadt, 7 Sep 2003 From the Skype site URL below : 'Skype is the next phenomenon from the people who brought you KaZaA. Just like KaZaA, Skype uses P2P peer-to-peer technology to connect you to other users -- not to share files this time, but to talk for free with your friends.' Well, according to the and #39holy grail and #39 feature set they list, hassle-free setup, works through firewalls, enrypted voice, better audio quality than telephony then this is probably worth checking out... I just hope they haven and #39t missed the boat... people would have killed for this in the mid-90 and #39s when Voice-over-IP was hot and VoxChat, iPhone, and some of the other radical companies were breaking new ground. If this works as promised, then someone will have to outlaw it... always a good test! [Thanks to Alex Singleton for the URL ] Related Links: Skype Skype commentary from 'The Register' Marc blogs about Skype, imov, Earthlink, more... Skype - P2P Voice over IP from the KaZaA t eam Planet-News-Story257 Strong KMi presence at 1st Int. Workshop on Scholarly Hypertext Technology Related Event , 4 Sep 2003 On Saturday, 30 August 2003, the 1st International Workshop on Scholarly Hypertext was held at the University of Nottingham as part of the ACM Hypertext 2003 HT03 Conference, the primary international forum for research into hypermedia theory and technology. The purpose of the full-day workshop was to help shape the nascent scholarly hypertext community by identifying emerging themes and possibilities for cross-connection and collaboration. Scholarly Hypertext research covers issues including the ways in which hypermedia can assist in the navigation and presentation of scholarly resources, non-linear argumentation presentations, and future forms of scholarly publishing in a hypernetworked world. KMi was the most strongly represented research group, with Simon Buckingham Shum chairing, presentations from PhD students Bertrand Ser eno and Murray Altheim, and contributions to the discussion from Neil Benn and Clara Mancini. The day kicked off with a presentation by one of the godfathers of scholarly hypertext, David Kolb, who set the workshop in context with an historical account of how the moves from an oral tradition to writing through to print impacted on critical thinking and scholarship, and how the hypertext genre might itself impact on scholarly inquiry. Other presentations included demos of tools for hypertextual reading and writing, work on the automatic presentation of scholarly hypermedia, and an environment for exploiting the hypertextual nature of scholarly archives. However, by far the most valuable part of the day was the afternoon, devoted to discussion. This was a chance for everyone to contribute on issues ranging from how the various hypertextual systems on show might be integrated, to how to address sources of inertia to hypertextual scholarship, and significantly, how to support hypertext submissions for HT04. By the time the workshop came to a close, it had witnessed the birth of a new community of researchers and practitioners devoted to the advance of the field of scholarly hypertext. In the words of the Workshop Chair, here and #39s to hypertextual scholarship! Related Links: Summary of Workshop Discussion Hypertext 2003 Conference Page Strong KMi presence at 1st Int. Workshop on Scholarly Hypertext Planet-News-Story256 Virtual Coffee Room Now Open! Peter Scott, 4 Sep 2003 So ... back in August we suggested you try out our new experimental office . Which we have called Hex for obvious reasons . Now, the KMi virtual office has a voice enabled virtual coffee room. You go to coffee by dragging your hex into the room. It drops where you place it in that space, and your mike is thrown open - so what you say can be heard by others in that 'coffee' space. You can move it around, just as you can in the main hexagon 'offi ce' space. However, unlike the main space which now shows a steaming mug , you cant move other people around - they are not hexes any more - but circles. As you near them or they near you their mike volume increases. Ergo, if you want a quiet chat - you can agree to move off into a corner with your fellows. Try it - and see if you can make it break. Related Links: The Hex Virtual Office + Coffee Room Original Story about HexagonVO Virtual Coffee Room Now Open! Planet-News-Story255 Mary Taylor relocates to Crowther Chris Valentine, 21 Aug 2003 One of the founder members of KMi, senior project officer Mary Taylor today leaves KMi to re-join fellow accessibilities staff under the Centre for Assistive Technology and Enabling Research CATER initiative, part of IET in Crowther. Mary will continue her work on the conversion of course material currently issued on tape cassette to an entirely digital process, as well as various accessibility issues relating to OU websites. Related Links: Access to Learning Materials for Visually Impaired Students in Distance Education Centre for Assistive Technology and Enabling Research Mary Taylor relocates to Crowther Planet-News-Story254 Mattia Lanzoni leaves KMi Chris Valentine, 19 Aug 2003 Research assistant Mattia Lanzoni leaves KMi today. As part of the AKT project, Mattia recently worked on MnM: Ontology Driven Semi-Automatic and Automatic Support for Semantic Web, an annotation tool for populating ontologies. Although Italian, Mattia is strangely not interested in football. Related Links: The AKT Project MnM Mattia Lanzoni leaves KMi Planet-News-Story253 Welcome back to your office ... Peter Scott, 18 Aug 2003 You walk up to your computer and it says 'Hi Peter', unlocks the screen saver and lets you in. When you leave it, on comes the screensaver and the lock until your return. How cool is that? Well if you have a bluetooth phone, like the Sony Ericsson T68i and a neat piece of shareware like Jonas Salling and #39s Clicker then you are there! So, does it work? Yep, nearly . Sometimes, it can take a few seconds for the bluetooth connection to re-pair ... so on occasion I can wait 20+ seconds for my machine to come back on its own, after I enter the room. But on average, if I saunter back coolly which I do alot! ;- then it welcomes me just as I enter the door. You may not believe this, but that is actually a very good experience!!! Obviously, you can script it to do pretty much anything ... oh, and it can send commands th orugh SOAP to a server to do neat presence stuff too. So ... Mark G. suggested I get a curry for the first person to spoof me and break into my Mac via this route ... I will add a pint to this IF you can do it without nicking my phone! Related Links: A PC Bluetooth Scripting App untested Another PC Bluetooth Scripting App untested CLICKER Mac and tres cool Welcome back to your office ... Planet-News-Story252 A New Literary Phenonmenon Chris Valentine, 15 Aug 2003 AS HOME to Britain and #39s first public lending library Manchester is well placed to join the growing urban phenomenon known as 'bookcrossing'. This Saturday the city and #39s Urbis museum plans to place thousands of books - each bearing a sticker with a unique number registered on its o fficial website - at shops, bars and bus stops, and in taxis and train stations. Anyone lucky enough to find one - be it James Bond or James Joyce - can then read it, log on to the website to look at its previous journey, update it or leave reviews before releasing it for others to enjoy. About 40 per cent of books get passed on though some disappear for years. In California, one woman was disappointed when her offering disappeared until she received an e-mail from a reader who had found it in a Singapore cafe 18 months later. 'Books have been set free in locations such as a tram stop in Melbourne to a Starbucks in Shanghai to a phone booth in Montreal,' the museum said. Undeterred by the fact that a Morrisons supermarket in Manchester might not have quite the same ring, Oxfam and Urbis staff have donated hundreds of volumes for the event. People are being urged to look out for them and add to their number by 'setting free' their own old favourites which have been gathering dust. Scott Burnham, creative director of the pounds 30m museum which opened last year as a centrepiece of the city and #39s Cathedral Quarter, said: 'The beauty of bookcrossing is that it and #39s organic - this project will evolve and take on a life of its own as books are passed on and on. 'Bookcrossing is about animating the city of Manchester with a unique collaboration between Urbis and an international project and giving everyone the opportunity to embark on a journey of discovery whether it and #39s finding a book in a unique location, discovering its story or tracing the people who have read it before you.' Urbis, unveiled as part of the city and #39s regeneration after the IRA bomb attack in 1996, invites visitors to 'travel' to different cities via a glass elevator. 'The museum is about experiencing cities and this bookcrossing will add to the experience,' said a spokeswoman. 'If people want to take the books on holiday and leave them in Geneva or the Costa del Sol that is fine.' 2003 Ne wspaper Publishing PLC The Independent London August 14, 2003, Thursday Related Links: Original article A New Literary Phenonmenon Planet-News-Story251 First Summer School on Ontological Engineering and the Semantic Web Event Participation/Organization KMi Reporter, 12 Aug 2003 The First European Summer School on Ontological Engineering and the Semantic Web SSSW-2003 took place on 21-26 July in Cercedilla Spain . The event was the first opportunity anywhere in the world for postgraduate students to equip themselves with the range of theoretical and practical skills necessary for full engagement with the challenges involved in developing Ontologies and Semantic Web applications. The event was underwritten by the Ontoweb European Thematic Network and attracted sponsorship from a number of companies and institutional funding bodies, including the UKs Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EPSRC , IBM, ISOCO, The Spanish Research Council, Biovista, and others. To avoid a passive learning experience the school integrated lectures from leading researchers in the field with practical workshops. Furthermore, th e 60 students selected from a pool of 114 applicants were organised in groups and worked on a mini-project during the week, with the final session on the last day dedicated to presentations from the students. KMi played an important role in the organisation of this event, with Enrico Motta the Director of the School; Arthur Stutt a member of the Organising Committee with special responsibility for co-ordinating the hands-on sessions and the mini-projects; John Domingue tutoring on Semantic Web Services; and Dnyanesh Rajapathak and Vanessa Lopez attending the school as students. Related Links: Summer School Web Site Ontoweb European Network First Summer School on Ontological Engineering and the Semantic Web Planet-News-Story250 Linux copyright row escalates Chris Valentine, 6 Aug 2003 The biggest distributor of the Linux computer system has waded into a row over claims that its creators have broken copyright by suing the company making the accusations. Red Hat, which sells a widely-used version of the open-source operating system, has started a fighting fund with a $1m donation intended to cover the costs of anyone choosing to hit back at SCO, the c ompany which claims it owns part of Linux. SCO has been threatening to sue Linux users large and small, saying that code it owns - bought from computer software house Novell - has been illegally recycled into Linux by some of the thousands of programmers who built the free-to-copy system. Now, though, Red Hat is countersuing, accusing SCO of 'unfair and deceptive actions'. Related Links: BBC News Story SCO and #39s licensing program Red Hat Linux copyright row escalates Planet-News-Story249 MIME types Chris Valentine, 18 Jul 2003 Useful web page listing all the MIME types and the file extensions they represent. Related Links: MIME types MIME types Planet-News-Story248 Netscape b rowser on the way out? Kevin Quick, 17 Jul 2003 AOL the owners of Netscape have decided to make redundant most of the browsers development team and to only support old versions of the browser. They will be keeping possession of the brand name. A number of the released developers have now found jobs with the Mozilla Foundation company Related Links: BBC news article Netscape browser on the way out? Planet-News-Story247 MPs urged to BLOG Kevin Quick, 14 Jul 2003 UK MPs are today being urged to use weblogs as a means of informing their constituents what they are doing. 120 people are booked to attend a seminar on blogs today at the House of Commons Apparently US politicians frequently use blogs as a tool. Related Links: BBC news story MPs urged to BLOG Planet-News-Story246 BuddySpace:10,000 Downloads Visit Marc Eisenstadt, 14 Jul 2003 BuddySpace, KMi and #39s environment for integrating instant messaging, maps, and semantic web services, has now been downloaded by more than 10,000 users since the release of version 2.1 in February. Roughly half of these downloads come from the service provided by Download.com, and the other half come from KMi and #39s own BuddySpace site, also linked from SourceForge. For the first few months, immediately following publicity and strong reviews accompanying the launch, the BuddySpace site was averaging over 1,000 unique visitors per day, with over 100 of those choosing to download the software daily. Although a small percentage of the numbers are attributed to duplicated downloads, there are also uncounted downloads since a single and #39installable and #39 file can be re-distributed to many colleagues at one site for example , and Open University students now using BuddySpace are not counted in these numbers. BuddySpace 2.2 was released in late June, and is available from the links below. Related Links: BuddySpace Site BuddySpace via SourceForge BuddySpace:10,000 Downloads Planet-News-Story245 The Broadband Net Spreads Chris Valentine, 10 Jul 2003 New ways to plug in are helping people get broadband The number of Britons with high-speed net access is continuing to grow. According to the Office of National Statistics 17% of net-using households have a broadband connection. Numbers look set to continue growing as firms start offering new ways to get a fast link to the net. BT has also announced that it is equipping more telephone exchanges with high-speed links in response to customer demand. Related Links: BBC news article ADSLguide.org.uk The Broadband Net Spreads Planet-News-Story244 Sony Vaios Recalled Chris Valentine, 10 Jul 2003 About 18,000 Vaio laptops are being recalled by electronics giant Sony because of the risk of an electric shock to users. The problem is with faulty modems, which means that people could receive a shock when making a phone call and using the Vaio at the same time. Related Links: BBC news article Sony Vaios Recalled Planet-News-Story243 Holy fried cakes, Batman Chris Valentine, 3 Jul 2003 'Many historians died to get this information on the web. Use this knowledge with great care', states this webpage. Related Links: The Partially True History of the Doughnut Holy fried cakes, Batman Planet-News-Story242 Wi-fi wood teaches school children about ecology Kevin Quick, 2 Jul 2003 The Ambient Wood Project provides an interesting example of how wireless technology can be used in education. The wood in Sussex has been set up as a wireless network, and school children, armed with pdas and pocket radios can roam around discovering objects etc. and learn about the ecology Related Links: BBC news article Wi-fi wood teaches school children about ecology Planet-News-Story241 Digests now on any ROSTRA Chris Valentine, 2 Jul 2003 I and #39ve now added a story digest feature to ROSTRA so that users can receive emails containing the headline and summary of most recent stories posted to any given ROSTRA. The list of subscribers is not handled by ROSTRA itself - you simply provide the email address of a list service. This way, subscribers have independant control over whether they receive the messages without affecting their author status on the ROSTRA itself. We are using the OU and #39s list management service. Mailings are triggered by numbers of stories rather than dates. A script runs daily and checks the number of approved and un-expired stories that have been submitted to each ROSTRA for which a trigger level has been set. Once that number has been reached, an email of the message headlines and their first paragraph summaries, plus direct links to the full stories, is sent. Unsubscription information for each list must be available for all recipients and this is done via a static web page. Digests now on any ROSTRA Planet-News-Story240 Article on spam Chris Valentine, 1 Jul 2003 Very witty article at scotsman.com found whilst looking for information on the Dynamic Earth exhibition in Edinburgh . Related Links: Lazy Guide to Net Culture Article on spam Planet-News-Story239 First KMi News Digest sent Chris Valentine, 1 Jul 2003 After a wait of months for sufficient stories to build up, the KMi News Digest has finally been sent. The most recent story, of Enrico and #39s Professorship, posted late yesterday, tipped the scale and the scheduled script triggered, sending the summaries of seven stories to a list of well over a hundred subscribers. This is the first news email digest since ROSTRA was rewritten in PHP. First KMi News Digest sent Planet-News-Story238 New Professorship for KMi Awards/Praise Chris Valentine, 30 Jun 2003 KMi Director Enrico Motta was today appointed as Professor of Knowledge Technologies. Photo shows Enrico with Professors Marc Eisenstadt and Bob Spicer Earth Sciences , both members of the selection committee. Related Links: Enrico Motta New Professorship for KMi Planet-News-Story237 'Comical Ali' rediscovered Chris Valentine, 30 Jun 2003 The Iraqi information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, justly famous thanks to his numerous and somewhat comical protestations at press conferences, has resurfaced in Baghdad. An Iraqi Kurdish official told a London-based Arabic newspaper that Mr Sahhaf was staying at his aunt and #39s house in Baghdad, and was under survei llance by US forces. Captured then released by the Americans although they deny this , and #39Ali and #39 is now working on a book. Related Links: BBC news article 'Comical Ali' rediscovered Planet-News-Story236 Comments added Chris Valentine, 27 Jun 2003 I and #39ve now added the ability to make comments on postings. The comments are unthreaded but do record who posted them and when. Comments added Planet-News-Story235 GIF paten t expires Kevin Quick, 25 Jun 2003 On the 20th of June the patent relating to the GIF file format expired. Up until now software companies such as Adobe, have had to pay to use the format in their software e.g. in Photoshop. The expiry of the patent may therefore lead to a fall in some software prices. Also, people who use PHP will know that the graphics library known as the GD Library had to remove support for manipulating and creating GIF files because of the patent - so perhaps this format will once again be supported. Related Links: BBC news story GIF patent expires Planet-News-Story234 Saddam's son has 'Licence To Kill' Chris Valentine, 24 Jun 2003 Not just one, but two copies of Bond film and #39Licence To Kill and #39 are reported to have been found in amongst the horde of Saddam Hussein and #39s son Uday. Coalition troops recently uncovered a collection of Uday and #39s personal belongings during searching exercises. The 1989 film which starred Timmy Dalton as 007 must have struct a chord with Uday, who kept two copies of the DVD. Related Links: Nice James Bond site Saddam's son has 'Licence To Kill' Planet-News-Story233 Some other blogging tools Chris Valentine, 24 Jun 2003 Some of these are pretty dire! Related Links: http://www.blogdot.org/ http://www.blogeasy.com/ http://www.bloggingnetwork.com/ http://m-blog.com/ http://www.blogspot.com/ Some other blogging tools Planet-News-Story232 Demos says 'Get with 3G, UK' Marc Eisenstadt, 24 Jun 2003 The Guardian reports Monday link below : 'Britain and #39s passionate but paradoxical love affair with the mobile phone is laid bare this week by the thinktank Demos as it calls for the next generation of mobile technologies to be harnessed to transform our relationships with each other and with the state.' The Demos recommendation is itself paradoxical to me: preaching about 3G to a nation that figured out for itself what to do with 2G phones inventing new social uses for SMS messages etc seems a bit rich! Related Links: Guardian article about Demos 3G report Demos says 'Get with 3G, UK' Planet-News-Story231 30 Years Chris Valentine, 24 Jun 2003 ...since the OU and #39s first graduation. BBC article posted yesterday - see the link. Related Links: BBC news article 30 Years Planet-News-Story230 Calendar Chris Valentine, 24 Jun 2003 Working on adding a calendar module to ROSTRA that shows the days on which stories have been published. Its primarily for the Blog version but will probably be of use for other ROSTRAs. Calendar Planet-News-Story229 New blog Chris Valentine, 20 Jun 2003 This is the first use of adapted ROSTRA for blogging. The interface is basically identical with the blog appearance controlled by a set of custom templates. There are no topics to the stories and you cannot apply story publishing and expiry dates. New blog Planet-News-Story228 Compendium Training for OU Staff Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 9 Jun 2003 On 21st May 2003, a dozen OU staff plus a few external guests spent an afternoon being trained in the Compendium approach to visual problem analysis and meeting support. Compendium provides a suite of techniques and a hypertext software tool for managing different kinds of connections between ideas. The training was conducted by Simon Buckingham Shum KMi Senior Lecturer and his collaborating partner from New York, Albert Selvin Verizon, USA , who co-founded the Compendium approach. KMi is funded by the EPSRC for 2 years to develop the Compendium semantic concept mapping tool which is freely available for download see below . This was a heavily oversubscribed event leaving another dozen or so staff who could not make this date, or who applied too late, eagerly awaiting the next session. Several trainees have already started to experiment with Compendium to support their work. The tutorial materials have been published for anyone else who wishes to get up to speed quickly with the tool. Related Links: Visit the Compendium Institute for free software and tutorial materials. Compendium Training for OU Staff Planet-News-Story227 MnM Released Technology Related Event Enrico Motta, 2 Jun 2003 The first version of MnM is now available for download at http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/akt/MnM. MnM supports the process of annotating web pages with semantic content, to create a semantic web. The tool provides a number of innnovative features, including both automated and semi-automated support for annotation. It integrates a web browser with an ontology editor and provides open APIs to link MnM to ontology servers and for integrating the tool with information extraction IE tools. MnM works with a number of representation languages, including RDF, DAML+OIL and OCML. The annotated documents can be used to populate ontologies or as a training corpus for information extraction engines. The MnM IE plug-in is generic and documented and therefore developers can add new IE mechanisms to the system. The version of MnM available for download has been integrated with Amilcare Version 2.1, a tool for Adaptive Information Extraction from Texts. Amilcare has been developed by Fabio Ciravegna, University of Sheffield. Related Links: MnM Homepage AKT Project Amilcare and #39s Homepage MnM Released Planet-News-Story226 WWW2003 Budapest Event Participation/Organization Victoria Uren, 27 May 2003 The annual World Wide Web conference held in Budapest last week lived up to its reputation for internationalism and foresight. Keynote speakers included Tim Berners-Lee on the semantic web and Pal Tamas on economics and the information society, a spread which reflects the diversity of the conference which encompasses both technical and societal aspects of the Web. KMi was represented by Victoria Uren who presented a paper on the Scholarly Ontologies Project entitled 'Scholarly Publishing and Argument in Hyperspace'. Related Links: Scholarly Ontologies Project Keynote Speakers WWW2003 Budapest Planet-News-Story225 OU helps celebrate Second citischool Graduation Awards/Praise Chris Valentine, 23 May 2003 Open University Vice-Chancellor Professor Brenda Gourley and the newly-installed Mayor for Milton Keynes attended citischool and #39s second graduation ceremony at the National Hockey Stadium on Thursday evening.The OU contribute to the citischool project in a number of ways including temporary work placement, and KMi have developed and continue to host their Internet-based project management suite. Photo shows: top achievement awards presented by the Mayor, the VC with the Mayor; citischool project leader Tom Bulman with the VC. Related Links: citischool website OU helps celebrate Second citischool Graduation Planet-News-Story224 Practising Knowledge Art seminar Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 22 May 2003 Al Selvin, Senior Manager in the Information Technology Group at Verizon Communications, today presented a visiting speaker seminar on and #39Practising Knowledge Art and #39 at KMi and #39s Podium. Creating and producing situated knowledge artifacts - for example, creating a model of a problem unique to a single group or organization - involves a range of roles and skills. A role of special interest is that of the practitioner: the person thinking about what sorts of representational strategies would be best suited to the situation, and how those representations sh ould be created given the tools media in use. The talk focused on the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of the work involved in the practitioner role, and presented an initial model of these dimensions drawn from more than ten years of experience developing and applying the Compendium methodology. This model is part of the groundwork for a forthcoming doctoral research project at the Knowledge Media Institute. Related Links: Compendium Institute Al Selvin Practising Knowledge Art seminar Planet-News-Story223 Lorenzo conquers Lhotse Chris Valentine, 20 May 2003 The Lhotse Team is safely back in Camp 4 after reaching the 8511m peak of the world and #39s fourth tallest mountain this morning. It was a cold windy day, but Lorenzo, fellow climber John and their sherpas Pasang Nuru and Pemda Chirri all summited Lhotse in less than eight hours. Other climbers under expedition leader Scott Woolums are on the South Col and will make their attempt on the summit of Everest very soon. Related Links: Everest audio blog Lorenzo conquers Lhotse Planet-News-Story222 Lorenzo at Camp 2 Chris Valentine, 30 Apr 2003 'The hardest nine hours of my climbing career' quotes Lorenzo who is once again at Camp 2, acclimatising for his ascent of Lhotse. He is starting to feel the strain from repetitive climbs at high alititude. Unfortunately the weather has taken a turn for the worst, with a heavy fall of new snow and stronger winds predicted in the next few days. There have also been problems with a dangerous collapse of large chunks of glacier ice between Base Camp and Camp 1. The photo shows birthday celebrations for one member of the Everest team at Base Camp, Lorenzo on far right. Related Links: Lozenzo and #39s audioblog Lorenzo at Camp 2 Planet-News-Story221 Learning Objects: JIME special issue launched for global debate Simon Buckingham Shum, 29 Apr 2003 Reusable Learning Resources on the net is the topic of the latest issue of the award-winning e-Journal of Interactive Media in Education. The huge amounts of global activity currently being invested in and #39Learning Objects and #39 envision a world where learning resources and activities can be effectively found on the net and even sequenced in appropriate ways. However, this vision raises tricky technical and educational questions, and is not without its critics. JIME and #39s Special Issue on Reusing Online Resources published 28 April 2003 develops a range of critical issues highlighted in a recent book on Reusing Online Resources: www.reusing.info Littlejohn, Kogan Page, 2003 . Invited commentaries from a collection of international, renowned experts have been sourced, each one critiquing a chapter and seeding the debate with key issues for authors and others to engage with. Together with reprinted sections from the book, this resource is being offered to elicit further contributions from the global community. The issue and #39s editors Allison Littlejohn University of Strathclyde, UK and Simon Buckingham Shum Open University, UK invite all who are working on reusable resources, learning objects and the educational semantic web to browse the site, and post insights from their own work to the forum to move the debate forward. Related Links: Journal of Interactive Media in Education Learning Objects: JIME special issue launched for global debate Planet-News-Story220 Lorenzo at altitude Chris Valentine, 17 Apr 2003 'Better than a theme park but not as safe' quipped intrepid mountaineer Lorenzo Gariano in his most recent phone message from the shadow of Everest. He and his small party had just returned from a traverse of the Khumbu Icefall - basically a live, moving glacier whose gaping cravasses have to be negotiated with ladders see photo - en route to Camps 1 and 2. The team delivered supplies to Camp 2 which will be used in the ascent of Lhotse. Related Links: Lozenzo and #39s audioblog Lorenzo at altitude Planet-News-Story219 Lorenzo faces new challenge Technology Related Event Chris Valentine, 20 Mar 2003 In the 50th anniversary year of the first ascent of Everest, Lorenzo Gariano who looks after the plants around KMi is to take part in an Adventures International expedition to the famous peak. Lorenzo will not be attempting the summit this time as the cost is simply too great, but will be participating in the acclimatization climbs, which involve climbing to camp 4 7986m and back a number of times. Using KMi and #39s Xtreme webcasting technology, Lorenzo will record a number of audio reports onto our server using a satellite phone. This particular expedition will see the most advanced communications technology ever on the mountain. Related Links: Everest Xtreme Webcast page Adventures International Lorenzo faces new challenge Planet-News-Story218 OU Scenario Intranet powered by D3E Technology Related Event Simon Buckingham Shum, 3 Mar 2003 OU staff will be browsing and discussing future scenarios in which the university will be operating via an intranet site powered by the latest version of KMi and #39s D3E technology. D3E stands for the Digital Document Discourse Environment. It is now being developed in collaboration with LTS and AACS, and provides integrated document discussion tools via a standard web browser. The website as a whole is the fruit of an intensive 8 week project whose design team drew in staff from across the university. Related Links: D3E: Digital Document Discourse Environment OU Scenario Intranet powered by D3E Planet-News-Story217 Enigma photographs uncovered Jon Linney, 17 Feb 2003 As part of the project with the locally based Bletchley Park Trust, a year or so ago we had the chance to take some detailed photographs of a German WW2 Enigma Machine. It was their 4 Rotor Marine Enigma Machine to be exact, used to send and receive orders or messages using the complex Enigma code employed by the Germans during World War Two. Unknown to the Germans, the team working at Bletchley Park and #39cracked and #39 the Enigma code giving the Allies the major advantage of reading secret German communications. The photos were never used for the project but we thought they deserved and #39dusting down and #39 and incorporating into a web site. They certainly illustrate a part of history if not a part of and #39computing and #39 history. Related Links: CNM Enigma Machine web page Enigma photographs uncovered Planet-News-Story216 AKT Project Gathering Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 6 Feb 2003 The AKT project is an Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration funded by the UK and #8217;s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Its six-year, multi-million pound programme brings together internationally-recognised research groups from the Universities of Southampton, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Sheffield and the Open University under the directorship of Professor Nigel Shadbolt, to develop and extend a range of technologies to provide integrated methods and services through the knowledge lifecycle of capture, modelling, reuse, publishing and maintenance; services taking knowledge from cradle to grave. Related Links: AKT Website AKT Project Gathering Planet-News-Story215 Compendium software released to the world Technology Related Event Simon Buckingham Shum, 30 Jan 2003 30 January 2003: Knowledge Media Institute, Open University, UK Compendium Institute releases Compendium software for free distribution www.CompendiumInstitute.org The Compendium Institute is pleased to announce that v1.2 of its Compendium software is now available for free download. This is the long-awaited first public release of the tool. Compendium is the semantic hypertext concept mapping tool at the heart of the Compendium methodology. It supports the real time mapping of discussions in meetings, collaborative sense-making and modelling, and the longer term management of this information as organizational memory. Compendium is the result of over 15 years and #39 continual research, deployment and development at the intersection of meeting facilitation, knowledge management and argumentation. Compendium is arguably the most advanced mapping tool available to support the IBIS method Issue-Based Information System , but goes much further with the addition of extensive support for web publishing, integration with other applications, support for multiple methods, and other advanced functionality. Verizon and other Compendium partners are now collaborating with the Knowledge Media Institute at the Open University UK who are developing the software further and integrating it with other collaboration technologies. Visit www.CompendiumInstitute.org to download software, and browse the extensive library of research papers and case studies. Related Links: Compendium Institute Compendium software released to the world Planet-News-Story214 Baroness Sharp visits KMi Visit Chris Valentine, 24 Jan 2003 Margaret Sharp, Baroness Sharp of Guildford, came to KMi this afternoon as part of her visit to the Open University. Her interest in coming to KMi was to discuss the effective use and development of new technologies in learning. Baroness Sharp is the Li beral Democrat Spokesperson on Higher Education in the House of Lords. She has a distinguished background in local politics and in public life, as well as having had a strong academic career at the LSE and the University of Sussex. As part of the Liberal Democrat Education team she has been working on a total re-think of the party and #39s higher education policy. Her visit to the University was part of that effort. Photo shows Peter Sharpe top demonstrating KMi Stadium and Heronsgate school video projects and Colin Barrett bottom introducing CABERs digital media archive. Related Links: The Baroness Sharp of Guildford KMi Stadium webpage The CABER Project Baroness Sharp visits KMi Planet-News-Story213 High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire visits Visit Chris Valentine, 17 Jan 2003 Today, we were visited by The Honourable Rupert Carington. He was visiting the University in his role as High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire to meet the Vice-Chancellor and senior staff as well as to get a flavour of the University and #39s work in distance education. The High Sheriff is the Queen and #39s official representative in the county, holding an office originally created in the tenth century. Among many other duties, he acts as returning officer during parliamentary elections, attends High Court judges and has a range of civil roles connected with the High Court. He is also required to raise a posse of forty men when the occasion arises. During a demonstration of Peter Whalley and #39s and #39First Flight and #39 website, the Sheriff mentioned that his grandfather had flown with the Wright Br others. Photos show: top: Peter Sharpe demonstrating the ROSTRA news system and the Matterhorn webcast event. center: Colin Barrett demonstrates the CLUTCH project. bottom: Peter Whalley shows videos of Heronsgate School kids renacting the Wright Brothers first flight. Related Links: ROSTA news The CLUTCH project First Flight website High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire visits Planet-News-Story212 Drug Safety Education Kiosk Release Technology Related Event Jon Linney, 16 Jan 2003 The Hazard Alley Safety Centre based in Milton Keynes has worked with KMi on a number of interesting new media projects. Late in 2002 the Centre joined with the Local Education Authority Drugs Advisory team to commission the KMi Centre for New Media to work with them on a drug safety education project. Together, we have designed a kiosk system that will be used by groups visiting the centre to work through some of the issues around drug safety. The system uses a combination of Macromedia Flash and Apple Quicktime which is projected onto a large touch screen in a darkened Safety Centre auditorium. At the heart of the kiosk is a video scene which was scripted, set and acted, in their own words , by a drama group from Stantonbury Campus School in Milton Keynes. The design of the kiosk scene was set as an exercise in the drama coursework of the students. One of the scenes that they produced is now embedded in the multimedia kiosk. The Drug Safety Education Kiosk was released in January 2003 and has already been used by hundreds of children. Feedback from all user groups has been very positive. Related Links: The Drug Safety Education Kiosk The CNM Safety Centre Project The Safety Centre Drug Safety Education Kiosk Release Planet-News-Story211 CABER Online at BETT 2003 Event Participation/Organization Colin Barrett, 10 Jan 2003 The CABER Online project was one of a number of schools and #39 broadband internet projects to be showcased at the BETT 2003 educational technology show at London and #39s Olympia Exhibition Centre. The project and #39s funding body, the East of England Broadband Network E2BN , is one of several regional broadband consortia whose responsibility it is to create the UK and #39s National Grid for Learning, and whose presence at this year and #39s BETT show was designed to highlight the potential for broadband connectivity in schools. At very short notice, KMi was invited to compile a rolling demo of CABER Online for display on the UK Regional Broadband Consortia stand. Rather than produce a standard Powerpoint or Director presentation, CABER project staff built an XML-based presentation which ran from an internal server and which could therefore be updated at a moment and #39s notice. This presentation was compiled in less than a day in readiness for the show and #39s opening on Wednesday 8th January. CABER Online is the successor to the immensely-successful CLUTCH Project, and provides the means by which a number of pilot schools in the eastern counties can develop skills in the use of digital video and share their curriculum resources using a custom-built Digital Media Library. Related Links: East of England Broadband Network regional learning portal CABER project online BETT 2003 rolling demo CABER Online at BETT 2003 Planet-News-Story210 ClimatePrediction.net live Technology Related Event Martin Dzbor, 9 Jan 2003 We invite you to become one of the first participants in an exciting global experiment of modelling and prediction world and #39s climate in the coming century - the largest experiment of its kind ever undertaken! And to make the invitation real, yesterday saw our brand new web and application server coming online with a fully-qualified domain name of climateprediction.net . This happened just in time when the project enters its Beta testing phase of the climate model software, which would be supplied to the participants. The aim of climateprediction.net project is to harness the idle capacity of worldwide computers at home and at work by running a state-of-the-art simulation of climate courtesy of UK MetOffice. Each participant will have their own and #39personalised and #39 model accounting for slight alterations of various climatic phenomena. Altogether, the project team consisting of Oxford University, Open University, RAL and other associates ho pes to attract a user base of hundreds of thousand users. This enormous population will assure a statistical robustness and validity of the climate predictions. In addition to running a software model, the participants would be able to take advantage of a knowledge-intensive content on the project website, which is currently under construction by the teams at KMi, Earth Sciences both from The Open University and Oxford university. The project team is delighted to invite you to its new web site, and we would like to take this opportunity to invite you to participate in the Beta testing of the climate models. If you want to become a potential Beta tester, please visit the information page at URL climateprediction.net/info/download.php , and follow the appropriate link to express your interest. Should you decide to lend your home or work PC for testing, you would be required to download and install a model and leave it running for a few weeks - no advertising banners popping up, just sitting quietly in the background and crunching the numbers. Related Links: Climateprediction.net website Model download and Beta testing information Climateprediction.net @ KMi = Semantic Portal ClimatePrediction.net live Planet-News-Story209 KMi Stadium put to interplanetary use Chris Valentine, 19 Dec 2002 KMi and #39s long experience of webcasting technology was put to the test on the morning of Thursday 19th December as invited press and guests were given a final view of the Beagle II Mars lander before it was closed and sent off to its launch site. Those unable to attend the event at Walton Hall campus were able to view remotely via KMi and #39s Stadium streaming media system. Photo shows: TL: mockup of lander on martian surface TR: The OU and #39s Prof. Colin Pillinger in front of a live video feed from the OU and #39s Class 10 clean room BL: Sir P atrick Moore being interviewed for Anglia News BR: model of satellite to be used for communication with the lander Related Links: KMi Stadium webpage Beagle II official site Photo gallery KMi Stadium put to interplanetary use Planet-News-Story208 Mednet 2002 Amsterdam Event Participation/Organization Maria Macintyre, 17 Dec 2002 The seventh international conference on the internet and medicine, MEDNET was recently held in Amsterdam. As a largely technical forum, many of the papers lacked a clear evaluation component. As with the medical informatics literature there was a huge pre-occupation with quality and the kite-marking of quality. For me, the most interesting papers centred around patient empowerment. For example, Peter Rutherford et al. reported on the website www.kidneypartientguide.org.uk that they developed with the help of kidney patients. Initial evaluation of the site has been conducted highlighting the needs of users that cold be utilized as guidelines for others creating patient oriented websites. As part of the Internet Healthcare Coalition day, Lone Hummelshoj gave an interesting paper about the website that she edits , EndoZone.org, which is a website that aims to empower both health professionals and the public. In our paper, 'They question the nurses so much more now' , we explored nurses views of patients use of the Internet for health information and health discussion forums. We concluded with a discussion of ways to overcome the perceived threat of the public use of online health resources. Essentially, health professionals themselves need strategies for empowerment and engaging with the technology. Related Links: Mednet 2002 website Rutherford et al paper @ MedNet 2002 Macintyre et al paper @ MedNet 2002 Mednet 2002 Amsterdam Planet-News-Story207 Shell and U. Twente visit Peter Scott, 13 Dec 2002 Today, the lab had a joint visit from Shell EP Learning and Development SIEP and the University of Twente in the Netherlands. On a previous visit, the new head of SIEP Adam Lomas had suggested that we all really needed to get together! Prof. Dr. Betty Collisis the Shell Professor of Networked Learning and knows the OU well; but had never before come to KMi. Prof Collis is the driving force behind the Twente Teletop networked learning environment and has extensive track record in educational technology research. Andy Cooke is the head of the Shell Open University same name, no relation development team in SIEP. He has also been to the campus before, as Shell have been working closely with COROUS on learning systems within his company, and latterly in the development of the Teletop system. Since 1998 he has also been a part-time Associate Lecturer with the UK Open University on the and #39Managing Knowledge and #39 and and #39Project Management and #39 supported distance learning courses. He is also a contributor to the development of the UK e-Universities new course on and #39Learning in the Connected Economy and #39. Related Links: Prof Betty Collis Shell and U. Twente visit Planet-News-Story206 New Pro Vice-Chancellor visits KMi Peter Scott, 12 Dec 2002 Dr Paul Clark visited KMi today for a morning of demonstrati ons and discussions with the team. Dr Clark was appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor Learning and Teaching at the Open University from October 2002. Dr Clark was previously the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. Canadian by birth, he obtained his first degree in Engineering Physics at McGill University, Montreal and his PhD in Theoretical Physics at Queen Mary and Westfield College of the University of London. He has been on the academic staff of the University of Birmingham and the UK Open University, where he was Dean of the Science Faculty from 1988 to 1993. From 1993 to 1996 he held the appointment of Director of Quality Assessment for the Higher Education Funding Council for England where he led the programme of assessment of the quality of teaching and learning in 23 subjects across 150 higher education institutions. From September 1996 to March 1999, Dr Clark held the post of Director of Teaching and Learning for the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, where his responsibilities included the planning and delivery of funding initiatives to improve the processes of teaching and learning in higher education, especially those using communications and information technology. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the ILT in May 1999. Related Links: LTTO Entry for PVC Learning and Teaching New Pro Vice-Chancellor visits KMi Planet-News-Story205 Visualizing Argumentation - new book published Simon Buckingham Shum, 9 Dec 2002 A new book published this month identifies the emergence of an exciting new field - the computer-supported visualization of argument structure. Co-edited by KMi and #39s Simon Buckingham Shum, this volume brings together leading figures from around the world who have pioneered argument mapping in different contexts. Case studies ranging over scholarly publishing, public policy formulation, strategic planning and academic study will make it of interest to practitioners and researchers from diverse backgrounds. The book traces the hypertext trail from pioneers Vannevar Bush and Doug Engelbart, via the dominant graphical argumentation theme in semantic hypertext research from the mid-80s, through to more recent work on scholarly hypertext, critical thinking tools, and argument visualization over the semantic web. Further information can be found on KMi and #39s companion website. Details: Visualizing Argumentation: Software Tools for Collaborative and Educational Sense-Making. Paul A. Kirschner, Simon J. Buckingham Shum and Chad S. Carr Eds. Springer-Verlag: London, 2002. ISBN 1-85233-6641-1[www.VisualizingArgumentation.info ] Related Links: Visualizing Argumentation companion website Visualizing Argumentation - new book published Planet-News-Story204 Re:AKT spreads the word , 9 Dec 2002 Hot off the press, the Re:AKT newsletter is spreading the word about the AKT project describing its goals and ambitions, results and achievements, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. KMi are a member of the AKT consortium together with the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Sheffield, and Southampton. Funded by the EPSRC, the 7m, 6-year AKT project aims to develop and extend a range of technologies providing integrated methods and services for the capture, modelling, publishing, reuse and management of knowledge. According to AKT Director, Prof. Nigel Shadbolt, Re:AKT articulates the assumptions behind the SemanticWeb and how AKT is tackling one of the great challenges of the 21st Century realising the potential of the extraordinary information repository that humankind is building. Co editors John Domingue and Kieron O and #39Hara, would welcome feedback at info@aktors.org . Related Links: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/akt/ http://www.aktors.org/ Re:AKT spreads the word Planet-News-Story203 UfI's Brown Visits Marc Eisenstadt, 27 Nov 2002 John Brown, Director of Learning at Ufi/LearnDirect, visited KMi today as part of a fact-finding visit to the Open University. Brown, formerly Director of Lifelong Learning at the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency Becta , joined Ufi/ learndirect in July 2002 . According to a LearnDirect press release 'John will have responsibility for leading the strategic development, imple mentation, quality assurance and evaluation of learndirect and #39s learning resources and services, and will advise the Ufi Board and Executive on learning and learning technology and assessment. ' The release continues, 'He will also oversee the operational design, production, procurement, maintenance and monitoring and review of learndirect learning resources, and head Ufi and #39s Learning Strategy Committee and the Ufi Board and #39s advisory group the Learning Quality Standards Committee.' Brown met with KMi Chief Scientist Marc Eisenstadt to discuss their shared interests in new knowledge media. Brown and Eisenstadt worked together briefly in 1994 while assembling a National Lottery build concerned with lifelong learning. Related Links: UfI Press Release University for Industry UfI's Brown Visits Planet-News-Story202 IM Planet: 'Watch BuddySpace!' Marc Eisenstadt, 24 Nov 2002 Instant Messaging Planet, the influential industry newsletter of the wireless/messaging worlds, has tipped BuddySpace in the top story featured in the Public IM section of its web news. The feature article, by Jupiter Media and #39s Kevin Reichard, notes that BuddySpace offers 'an interesting view of where instant messaging is headed and how it will be,' and adds that 'the folks at Knowledge Media Institute are asking the right questions about the future of presence, and as such BuddySpace bears watching.' The article correctly pegs BuddySpace as belonging firmly in a research niche, even 'overly academic', but Reichard is still clearly enthused by the approach, and we take the article as a tribute to something which has only been available for a month, which has amassed many hundreds of downloads from around the globe in that time, and which in the next iteration December will address most of Reichard and #39s outstanding issues-- all while proudly pushing the frontiers of the research questions that motivate BuddySpace. Related Links: Instant Messaging Planet Instant Messaging Planet article on Buddyspace BuddySpace Project Site IM Planet: 'Watch BuddySpace!' Planet-News-Story201 So long Kitty! Marc Eisenstadt, 19 Nov 2002 Kitty Chisholm, the K in KMi, is stepping down from her post as OU Director of Development. Kitty has been involved with KMi from the beginning: right through the original concept, OU Senate briefings, VCOM discussions, formulation, brokering key industrial partnerships, and through the phenomenal expansion that has seen KMi grow to its current 63 members of staff! We want to take this opportunity to thank Kitty for all the fantastic effort she has put in on behalf of KMi, and wish her all the best! So long Kitty! Planet-News-Story200 IADIS 2002 Peter Scott, 14 Nov 2002 The IADIS congress International Association for the Development of the information Society in P ortugal is well underway now. Kevin Quick and Peter Scott are presenting the results from the AEC project Assisted Electronic Communication . AEC has been running for 2 years now in an acute NHS hospital. In many parallel sessions, there is much going on here - which is just as well cos it is wet and it is cold. With keynotes from Peter Brusilovsky and Hermann Maurer we might be at any AACE gig, but the final keynote from Dias de Figueiredo Coimbra U. on the e-learning business, nicely underlines that we are at an event highlighting the education/business connection of the information society and with a strongly euro-flavour . Peter B. spoke enthusiastically about the power of adaptivity in media design - changing and shifting the sands beneath the learner. And of course, Hermann had much to say about discussion forums and agency. It turns out that he too has a form of *virtual participant* agent running on his discussion forums, and other corpora ... Of course, the biggest flavour of all, at such a gig these days is XML ... and few speakers will omit a section on the generic nature of their coding for a newer web! Actually, most of the things that we do, in Knowledge Media, are also here - in a variety of formats. Which is nice. Related Links: IADIS AEC Project Page IADIS 2002 Planet-News-Story199 Macromedia showcases Xtreme Technology Related Event Chris Valentine, 12 Nov 2002 The US headquarters of Macromedia today showcased KMis first Xtreme webcast on their main website. Keen to promote their new multi-user 'communications server', part of the most recent release of Flash, a telephone conference was held between Macromedia's head office and Peter Scotts office to explain the features and technology behind the webcast. Related Links: Macromedia showcase Macromedia showcases Xtreme Planet-News-Story198 Wellcome Foundation visit Visit KMi Reporter, 30 Oct 2002 A team from the Wellcome Trust visited KMi this morning as part of a general visit to the Open University. The group today were from the Medicine, Society and History MSH Division of the Trust. The Division aims to foster understanding of medicine and its role in society in the past, present and future. So who came? Caroline Hurren is Head of Consultation and Education and is responsible for developing and running a programme to inform, influence and support public engagement with science policy and practice. Philomena Gibbons is the Administration Manager for the Medicine, Society and History Division. Dr Anthony Woods is responsible for the History of Medicine and the Biomedical Ethics. This means he looks after the History of Medicine Grants Panel, the History of Medicine Wellcome Centre at UCL and the Wellcome Units at Manchester and Oxford. Jane Hogg is Head of the Publishing Group. The Group produces a range of publications including print, CD ROM and web outputs for a number of different audiences. Their successful Topics in International Health series provides interactive training CD ROMs on topics of global medical importance for users in developed, developing and transitional countries. Denna Jones is Curator of the TwoTen Gallery and Contemporary Initiatives at The Wellcome Trust. What did they do here? In KMi, they were given a short introduction to the lab by Peter Sharpe, a small number of demonstrations of our wide range Knowledge Media projects, by Peter Scott, and finished up with a focus on some of our schools based research from Peter Whalley. After the lab, they were given presentations by the Science Faculty in the morning, followed by a set of discussions with the Arts Faculty in the afternoon. Another highlight of their visit was a meeting with Colin Pillinger who is already funded by Wellcome to discuss the sta tus of Beagle-2. Related Links: The Wellcome Trust The Wellcome History of Medicince Division Wellcome Foundation visit Planet-News-Story197 BuddySpace2 Hits The Street Marc Eisenstadt, 17 Oct 2002 BuddySpace2, a cross-platform Java implementation of a new kind of instant messaging program, became available for public download today. BuddySpace is an instant messaging program with a difference: it enables users to visualise the online/offline status of colleagues and friends using customised maps, logical layouts such as building schematics and even project and course-schedule timelines. Unlike FirstClass Chat and other chat programs, instant messaging is based on the concept of alerts that come to you rather than you having to seek them out, and has become popularised worldwide by the tens of millions of users taking advantage of services provided by AOL/ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo. BuddySpace adds four innovations to the instant messaging approach: the server can automatically construct your contact list or buddy list according to which work group or tutorial group you are in; the client can display locations automatically on a map, at a suitably coarse-grained level that your privacy is not violated; it can provide a desktop radar screen that alerts you to people or items of interest to you; and the project as a whole aims to enhance the notion of presence to be much more than simply online/offline/busy, for example to include information about which projects, tasks, or even documents are of interest to you. BuddySpace2 was implemented by Jiri Komzak, and is part of a series of Enhanced Presence Management projects involving Martin Dzbor and Marc Eisenstadt. Related Links: BuddySpace download and project site BuddySpace2 Hits The Street Planet-News-Story196 Collaboration Integration Workshop Underway Marc Eisenstadt, 11 Oct 2002 KMi is hosting a two day integration workshop aimed at creating next-generation collaboration tools. The workshop, on 10th and 11th October, 2002, brings together KMis team with partners at the Universities of Edinburgh and Southampton, all engaged in Collaborative Advanced Knowledge Technologies in the Grid CoAKTinG , an EPSRC project funded as part of the UK s e- Science Initiative on Grid computing. CoAKTinG will provide tools to assist scientific collaboration by integrating intelligent meeting spaces understanding when key events happen at a meeting with techniques for taking live video and audio streams from internet-hosted meetings and annotating them with semantic tags to assist later retrieval and analysis. To this mix, KMi is adding its BuddySpace enhanced presence management and instant messaging tools, and another of its pioneering approaches called Compendium which helps capture the information generated in a discussion in the form of a visual group memory available to all stakeholders. Even those who missed a key discussion will be able to re-live it afterwards: a BuddySpace alert will take them straight to the relevant Compendium diagram, provide schematic highlights of the pros and cons of the debate, and let them jump directly to an instant replay of the video and audio streams that were recorded at that point in the discussion! Related Links: CoAKTinG Project Site Collaboration Integration Workshop Underway Planet-News-Story195 KMi Projects Dominate Semantic Web and Ontologies Conference Event Participation/Organization John Domingue, 9 Oct 2002 Last week saw presentations from KMi projects dominate EKAW the premier European conference on the semantic web. One indicator of the lab's impact can be derived from the number of accepted papers. Over a hundred papers from 20 countries were submitted to the conference. Of the 20 full papers accepted 6 were related either to our EPSRC funded AKT project, our online shopping project Alice, or our new EU project funded project Dot.Kom. Indeed only two countries the host nation and Holland had more papers at the conference than KMi. The main topics of the conference were ontologies and the semantic web, with invited talks from Tom Mitchell, Jim Hendler and Nigel Shadbolt. KMi presentations covered Yuangui Lei's PhD work on creating and maintaining websites via ontologies, the MnM ontolo gy based annotation tool and novel interfaces for semantic web services. Related Links: EKAW conference Alice Project AKT Project MnM Project KMi Projects Dominate Semantic Web and Ontologies Conference Planet-News-Story194 ClaiMaker released Technology Related Event Gary Li, 3 Oct 2002 The first version of ClaiMaker has now been released for interested parties to begin modelling and visualizing their literatures. ClaiMaker is a prototype next generation technology for scholarly publishing. It enables researchers to model the claims made by research documents, and the arguments/debates about those claims. Visualization and analysis tools enable you to na vigate and analyse the emerging claims network. ClaiMaker is developed by the EPSRC-funded ScholOnto project team. This version of the system has a form based interface for inputting models of the arguments in research papers and some simple discovery functions for exploring the data. New features will be added as they are ready. ClaiMaker has met with interest from many quarters and we will be using the feedback from these groups to take the design forward. Related Links: Scholonto project web site ClaiMaker Sandpit ClaiMaker released Planet-News-Story193 Visit by Oulu University Peter Scott, 26 Sep 2002 On 26th September 2002 a team from Oulu University, Finland, visited KMi. The City of Oulu is the cultural, commercial and administrative centre for the whole of central and northern Finland region, which has a population of over 120,000 people. Oulu is a university, science and technology city. The sphere of influence of the university covers over half the area of Finland. The university has created links with Finlands leading molecular biology research institute, Biocenter Oulu, and with Infotec Oulu, which investigates the use of information technology. The Thule Institute investigates peoples adaptation to cold, the change between light and darkness and among other things, the clearing of impurities in the atmosphere. Oulu has established a reputation as a city of high tech business. International enterprises have set up branches here, many of them developing cutting edge future technologies, often in co-operation with university researchers. The first Science Park created in Scandinavaia adjoins the university campus at Linnanmaa, as does the Technical Research Centre of Finland. At present, over two hundred top-flight businesses operate out of the technology park. The main hi-tech employers in the region include Nokia, the mobile phone manufacturer, which has offices and production plants in the city. Medipolis is a business and science park which focuses on medical science, medical science technolog y and biotechnology companies, research and information and the development and manufacture of health care products. Set up as a joint venture between the University, the City Hospital and the City Council, Medipolis acts as a catalyst and bridge between private companies and university research institutes, and speeds up the commercialization of new technologies and innovations and their development into viable products by the companies in Medipolis. Many research institutes and companies based in Oulu, together with the University Hospital, are working at the forefront of international knowledge in a number of technological fields. This mode of operation is geared to converting this specialized, internationally highly ranked expertise into business in the form of cash flow and success stories on the world markets. The University of Oulu was founded in 1958 and is the second largest University in Finland, and has 3,100 employees and over full-time 14,500 students. The university has a large scientific base of nine educational areas, which are organised in six faculties Humanities, Education, Science, Medicine, Economics and Industrial Management, Technology . The focus areas that encompass the entire university are biotechnology, information technology, northern issues and environment. The wide scientific base of these focus areas is grounded in state of nature, its future development and the processes that aid its preservation. The university seeks to use medical sciences, technology and natural sciences to, for example, improve the well-being of our senior citizens in the community the Technology of Well-Being was introduced as a subject in the autumn of 2001. As part of its focus on northern issues, the University is a leading partner in both the National Virtual University of Finland and the Virtual University of the Arctic. The University combines a good work environment with excellent research facilities that enable state-of-the-art technological research. The outstanding achievements of in formation technology have created a centre of IT technology in the Oulu region. This 'Oulu phenomenon' draws visitors from all over the world. The study of molecular biology and biotechnology in Oulu is internationally renowned, and the university has two national Centres of Excellence. The standard of teaching is similarly high the university has four national Quality Units of Education. Linnanmaa, the main campus of the University of Oulu, lies about five kilometres north of the city centre. A second campus, adjacent to Oulu University Hospital and the Medipolis complex, houses the Faculty of Medicine. A third campus is located in the town of Kajaani, about 185 kilometres to the southeast of Oulu. The university occupies spacious modern premises and has an excellent, well-stocked library. The latest computer and data processing facilities are available for the use of staff and students alike. The University Team Mrs Pivi Kytmki, Director of The University Library Paivi Kytomaki has been the Director of Oulu University Libraries of which there are 15 different units since 1988. Paivi Kytomaki has been one of the key people in planning and building the national Finnish Electronic Library FinELib . She is also a member of the Steering Group of the Finnish National Virtual University. In recent years, Oulu University Library has concentrated on creating an electronic library using e-publications, and related services, to provide support for students on and off-campus. For example, since 1999 the library has published electronic versions of the all Oulu University post-graduate dissertations using SGML, PDF and HTML formats. Currently, the move to electronic storage of documents has freed off some space and the university is discussing what kind of learning centre/library is needed at the university in the future to deal with the move to eLearning for information see http://www.kirjasto.oulu.fi/english/ . Mr. Pekka Kess, Professor and Director of the Finnish Virtual University Professor Pekka Kess is the Director of the Finnish National Virtual University Project for information see at http://www.virtuaaliyliopisto.fi/index.php?language=eng and Head of the Finnish Association of Distance Education, which includes all Finnish Universities in its membership see at http://oyt.oulu.fi/fade/ . From 1998 he was Professor of Industrial Management in the Department of Industrial Management and Entrepreneurship at University of Oulu, where his research interests focused on industrial enterprises in the telecommunication, electronics, software, basic metals and forest industries and especially their product and technology strategies, core competencies, business process improvement and re- engineering. Mrs. Sanna Jrvel, Professor in Educational Technology, Faculty of Education Sanna Jrvel PhD is a Professor in the Research Unit for Educational Technology in the Department of Educational Sciences and Teacher Education at the University of Oulu, and was recently a Visiting Professor in the Institute for Educational Technology at the UK Open University. Her main research interests are in technology-based learning environments, qualitative features of learning interaction, social and motivational processes in learning, and she has published widely in these fields. See at http://wwwedu.oulu.fi/homepage/sjarvela/ Mr Heikki Riikonen, Lic. Phil. Project Manager, Faculty of Engineering Heikki Riikonen works at the Department of Electrical Engineering in the University of Oulu as Co-ordinator and Project Manager. Originally a human geographer, his main responsibilities are the organizing of the Gateway Education Programme for the Information Industry Fields. He also co-ordinates other higher engineering education programmes in the Northern Finland area funded by the government and European Union. His main interests related to present responsibilities are videoconferencing solutions for teaching, classroom solutions for near and far ends, learning environments and e- and m-learning solu tions. Mr. Lauri Kurkela, MSc Project Manager, Oulu Polytechnic Lauri Kurkela, is a Senior Lecturer at Oulu Polytechnic Institute of Technology, and is working on Oulu Polytechnics Virtual Polytechnic Project. He is also a member of the National Virtual Polytechnic Development Team. He is also Member of the Learning Object Metadata Standardisation and Implementation Group at the Finnish Information Society Development Centre, and of the Evolution Cooperation Project LOM related piloting and eLearning Content Production Paradigm on behalf of the Finnish Virtual Polytechnic He is also involved in Functionality Research of the Open Learning and Working Environment for the Finnish Defence Forces. His main research interest areas are in eLearning Content Production, Problem Area Implementation of eLearning, Learning and Interoperable Competence Mr. Juha Pohjonen, Director, Campus Futurus Project Juha Pohjonen M.A., eMBA is the Development Manager of the Open University and heads the Campus Futurus project at the University of Oulu. His current research areas are ICT-strategy processes and the management of change in higher education. His articles have been published in national and international publications. He is a member of several national and international bodies and has been involved in several development projects, like the Finnish Virtual University Strategy Portal development group 2001-2002 . Mr. Kari Liukkunen, Project Manager, Department of Information Processing Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Mr Kari Pankkonen, Project Manager, Department of Information Processing Sciences, Faculty of Sciences Mr. Jorma Tommila, Head of The University Estates and Maintenance Department, Mr. Raine Vaikkurei, Planner, Computer Services, Learning and Research Services The Purpose of the Visit The University of Oulu has finalised its ICT strategy, which is being implemented across the institution via the Campus Futurus project. The University now wishes to re-configure the campus facilitie s library, computer centre and labs, study rooms, technological infrastructure, organization etc to develop its role as an electronic learning resource for students locally and across the Oulu region , a key player in the knowledge based hi-tech businesses in the City and its hinterland, and a central participant at national level in the Finnish Virtual University Project. Visit by Oulu University Planet-News-Story192 Semantic Climate Portal Underway Visit Marc Eisenstadt, 24 Sep 2002 KMi has begun its research activity on ClimatePrediction.Net, a massive distributed computing project designed to allow up to 2 million individuals each to run part of a 100-year-projection climate model on their personal computers. ClimatePredicton.Net, headed by a team from the Atmospheric Physics Department at the University of Oxford, has been awarded 400K by the Natural Environment Research Council. Prof. Bob Spicer in the OUs Department of Earth Sciences will be in charge of the production of associated teaching materials. KMi was invited to join the project to help build a strong and sustainable web-based community of users. The climate models require a personal commitment by users to allow the programs to run intermittently in the background on their PCs over a period of several months. During this period, it will be necessary to keep individual users motivated and informed about the progress of the computer models, which is where KMi comes in. A mixture of existing and newly-emerging KMi technologies will be deployed, including integrated discussion forums based on D3E, web-based news based on KMi Planet and Rostra, conferencing services based on KMi Stadium and WebSymposia, semantic web services based on KMis ontology research, and presence awareness/messaging technologies based on KMis BuddySpace. The semantic web services will constitute a semantic portal, whereby users can view any web page through an intelligent filter that highlights terms of interest to climate modellers for instance . Every highlighted term then becomes a jumping off point not merely to another web page, but instead to value-added services that depend entirely on the meaning of the highlighted terms and the context in which they are deployed. This capability is being piloted in KMis semantic tool called Magpie, which will form part of the growing semantic climate portal. KMi's full-time Research Fellow on ClimatePrediction.Net is Martin Dzbor, working with Principal Investigator and grantholder Enrico Motta, along with KMi's John Domingue and Marc Eisenstadt. Related Links: ClimatePrediction.Net Main Site KMi ClimatePrediction.Net project page Semantic Climate Portal Underway Planet-News-Story191 Matterhorn Webcast 22nd August! Technology Related Event Marc Eisenstadt, 8 Aug 2002 UPDATE: Lorenzo and Scott reached the summit around 09:30 BST, 10:30 local time, and sent their final audio message before the descent. Several people tuned in to the webcast from around the world including one from Florida.Unfortunately, due to a problem dialling into the Internet account, Lorenzo was unable to send any photos using the mobile phone but has taken many and we will slot them into the replay website when he returns. UPDATE: Climb/webcast taking place 1 day early due to weather opportunity. Photos may be delayed, but live and replayed audio still available as tea m nears summit. See URL below to join this live event. [Original story follows, unedited ] KMi hopes to achieve another first on 23rd August 2002, when the world's lightest audio/imaging webcasting unit will be deployed from the top of the Matterhorn by Lorenzo Gariano and his colleague Scott Woolums. Lorenzo has long been known to us as 'the plant guy' who runs Botany Bottle and looks after the plants at the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute. In his other life he's a mountain climber on his way to traversing the highest peak on each of the seven continents. He's already done four of them, and the Matterhorn climb is just a little light relief and exercise while he raises funds for his forthcoming climb up The Carstensz Pyramid in Irian Jaya, the highest point on the Australasian Continent. Lorenzo's climbing partner Scott Woolums completed his Everest ascent in May 2002. Lorenzo will be submitting live audio reports and just-in-time photos using a Nokia 7650 '2.5G' GPRS phone, about the size of a typical mobile phone, but with a large colour screen and embedded camera able to send mountain snapshots straight back to 'mission control' in KMi. In addition to the newly launched 7650, KMi will be deploying some other novel technologies for the event. Macromedia Flash MX and the Flash 6 player will be used to display Lorenzo's latest position on an interactive map providing links to the latest pictures. The new Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX will handle the live streaming audio and a live chat room through which the webcast audience can pose questions to Lorenzo. In addition, Lorenzo's audio will be broadcast live as well as recorded for replay, all by an automated system that enables us to continue presenting even during anti-social hours-- critical for Lorenzo's pre-dawn start! Revisit the first web site listed below for webcast timing updates, links to photo updates, and further details of Lorenzo's Seven Summits Quest. Related Links: KMi Xtreme Webcast Matterhorn Site Nokia 7650 camera phone Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX Matterhorn Webcast 22nd August! Planet-News-Story190 MK Mayor visits KMi Visit KMi Reporter, 29 Jul 2002 Today we hosted a visit by the Milton Keynes Mayor, Cllr Alan Pugh. The Mayor was shown a number of demonstrations of the work we do with the local community. These included the Clutch Club, the work with the local schools and the AEC project with the Kettering NHS Trust. MK Mayor visits KMi Planet-News-Story189 Virtual Degree Ceremony 2002 Event Participation/Organization Peter Scott, 8 Jul 2002 This was the third year in which KMi have taken a Virtual Degree Ceremony to an international body of Open University students. From being the first calendared university ce remony of the new millenium, the event has now matured into a mainstream part of our degrees and ceremonies system. Students posted audio and text notes to a 'graduation portfolio' website - some of which were used during the live ceremony, which this year, made awards to some 90 students from all OU Masters Programmes. As usual, the event was webcast live using a KMi Stadium interface from the Berrill Lecture Theatre auditorium here in Milton Keynes. The audience came, not just from the UK, but from places as far afield as Geneva in Switzerland, Ontaria in Canada, Klagenfurt in Austria and Pittsburgh in the USA. One student in British Columbia in Canada shared the live event with his family in West Yorkshire in the UK. He noted 'Isn't this great? Living in Canada I thought I would never get to my own Grad ceremony, but here I am!' Some students managed to tie in a live workplace celebration with the virtual event, as one from Southampton in the UK said: 'My whole department are in my office - drinking bubbles and eating strawberries. Far better than Wimbledon!' Finally, to quote one student Faisal Pakistan : 'Waoooooooo! wonderful ceremony. Congratulations of all of you. Yeaaaaa!' Related Links: The Virtual Degree Ceremony Website Virtual Degree Ceremony 2002 Planet-News-Story188 UbiquitousD3E distributed to OAI community Event Participation/Organization Gary Li, 5 Jul 2002 UbiquitousD3E, a component of D3E, which generates a discussion site for any URL, has been distributed to OAI community around the world. The new release of 'GNU EPrints 2.1' takes UbiquitousD3E as its add-on, which went public yesterday. In this release any published document can have two buil t-in buttons 'goto public discussion about this document' and 'create my private discussion'. Each of the buttons is linked to a UbiquitousD3E server, which provides discussion services for that document. Apart from hosting discussions at KMI for the Eprints archive at Southampton, UbiquitousD3E can also be downloaded free from SourceForge to build the user's own discussion server. The GNU EPrints self-archiving software, has been developed at the Electronics and Computer Science Department of the University of Southampton. It has been long recognised that it will be a great feature that any archived document can have an attached discussion. UbiquitousD3E was chosen as the best option for providing this service. We are glad to see KMI research results are being used by other institutes and communities. Related Links: GNU EPrints web site SourceForge UbiquitousD3E distributed to OAI community Planet-News-Story187 'Best SIGCHI Paper' award for Yanna Marc Eisenstadt, 1 Jul 2002 First-year KMi postgraduate student Yanna Vogiazou has won a top prize for 'excellence in combining theory and application' at the Designing Interactive Systems 2002 conference sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group in Computer-Human Interaction ACM SIGCHI . The conference, co-sponsored by Sun, IBM, Microsoft, and the British HCI group, was held in London from 25th-28th June. The prize, accompanied by a cheque for 150, was awarded for Yanna's invited presentation on 'Massive Multiplayer Presence' in the DIS2002 Postgraduate Symposium strand. According to the conference literature, 'The Postgraduate Symposium is a closed session that allows postgraduate students from a range of disciplines to explore their interests in the design of interactive systems and get feedback on their research from their peers and a panel of established researchers.' Individual participants were 'invited on the basis of submissions describing their research work.' The awarding panellists were Dr. Allan MacLean, Xerox Research Centre Europe, and Prof. Gillian Crampton Smith, Interaction Design Institute, Ivrea, Italy formerly Director of Computer Related Design CRD at the Royal College of Art . The prize was sponsored by City University, which hosted the Symposium. Yanna's presentation described her theoretical and applied work on massively multiplayer games based entirely on the presence awareness of other players. The work has evolved from a combination of studies of crowd psychology, game technologies, and presence awareness in instant messag ing. The accompanying photo illustrates some of Yanna's work on the design of a 'massive bumper car' game. Related Links: Massive Presence Gaming Page by Yanna Vogiazou ACM SIGCHI DIS2002 Conference Home Page 'Best SIGCHI Paper' award for Yanna Planet-News-Story186 NTSS Away Day Event Participation/Organization Peter Scott, 25 Jun 2002 Today the Open University New Technology for Student Services group visited KMi for a full day technology updating session. They spent the day exploring the potential for new technologies in the support of Open University students in the Centre for New Media's 'masterclass' area. In the morning session they exlpored applications of video - looking at layers and MPEG-4 issues. They then worked in teams to shoot a segment about their work, produce it into a simple DV clip and upload that to a web server. In the afternoon they explored some instant messaging, communication and 'presence' applications. They then created a Rostra news service for their group, and included their new video clips in short news story items. Related Links: The NTSS Learners Guide NTSS Away Day Planet-News-Story185 Milton Keynes and Prague Schools Plan Collaborative Heritage Project Event Participation/Organization Paul Mulholland, 31 May 2002 Eva Rehorkova and Chris Woods joined the CIPHER team at Bletchley Park as part of their planning for a new collaborative heritage project to be run in their schools next academic year. Eva Rehorkova was representing Gymnzium Ji and #345;ho Gutha-Jarkovskho, a secondary school based in Prague. Denbigh School, Milton Keynes, was represented by Chris Woods. The aim of the new project is to allow pupils from the two schools to share their cultural perspectives on major historical events. A focus for the collaboration will be Bletchley Park, home of the first programmable computer, and its role as a wartime code breaking centre. As part of the project, children will be supported in investigating their own local heritage, presenting this to pupils of the other school, and discussing interesting associations and contrasts. This work is being conducted within the CIPHER project. CIPHER is a two and a half year project funded by the European Commission under the theme 'Heritage for All' that started in April 2002. By developing dynamic, user-centred applications that serve as focal points for regional communities to interact with their local heritage, the CIPHER project seeks to support children and adults in creating personalised content in order to share their group experiences and history. Related links: Denbigh School - http://www.denbigh.net Gymnzium Ji and #345;ho Gutha-Jarkovskho - http://www.truhla.cz KMis CIPHER project page http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/cipher Milton Keynes and Prague Schools Plan Collaborative Heritage Project Planet-News-Story184 CLUTCH Clubs scoop local website awards Awards/Praise Jane Whild, 28 May 2002 Congratulations to the Greenleas Churches and Husborne Crawley CLUTCH Clubs who have scooped first and second prizes in Bedfordshire Local History Association and #8217;s Website Competition 2002. In addition to the merits of their historical content, entries were judged against a broad range of criteria concept, content, design, architecture and accessibility with the intention of finding the site that communicated their content in the best way. First prize went to Greenleas Churches CLUTCH Club. Their project Linslade Churches and Chapels was well suited to the needs of their target audience children aged 7-9 . The panel concluded that the site demonstrated an excellent use of a variety of media and encouraged active participation on the part of the user. Runners up were Husbor ne Crawley CLUTCH Club and their project The Changing times of an English Village was highly commended. The panel was extremely impressed with the range and detail of the content, and with the quality of the original research underpinning it. The CLUTCH Clubs were a 3-year Lottery-funded Millennium Award Scheme which was run by the Open University in partnership with the Living Archive. During the scheme 300 parents around Milton Keynes worked in small groups to carry out local history projects. Clubs met and worked in their children and #8217;s schools, and received IT training to enable them to publish their findings on the web. Although the scheme ended in October 2001, many groups continue to work on their projects and to use their new skills for the benefit of their schools and communities. The 60 projects which were produced during the scheme are accessible from the CLUTCH Club home page: Related Links: CLUTCH home page Winning site: Greenleas Churches Winning site: Husborne Crawley Village CLUTCH Clubs scoop local website awards Planet-News-Story183 Scottish Executive Visit Visit Peter Scott, 22 May 2002 Today we hosted a visit from the E-Learning Team from the Scottish Executive. This team have been tasked by the Scottish Minister for Higher Education to explore the scope of e-learning as a potential force in exporting Scotland's academic expertise. The visitors were particularly interested in the OU's relationship with the e-University; about our own experience of e-learning delivery; and the scope for partnership with Scotland and its institutions. With us were Catherine Rainey Head of Higher Education Branch , Gavin Gray Higher Education Branch and Catherine Leckie HE Review Team . The visit was hosted in KMi by Peter Scott, and the OU team was led by Peter Wilson. The visitors had discussions with an extensive OU team including the Pro-VC Technology , NTSS, Corous, the Political Office, LTS and the Library. Scottish Executive Visit Planet-News-Story182 Lampl of Sutton Trust Visits Marc Eisenstadt, 9 May 2002 Peter Lampl, Chairman and Founder of The Sutton Trust, visited KMi this morning as part of a wider Open University visit. The Sutton Trust provides educational opportunities for able young people from non-privileged backgrounds. Peter Lampl's vi sit began with a meeting with KMi Chief Scientist Marc Eisenstadt and Business Manager Peter Sharpe. A discussion of KMi's interests, and how they intersect with the goals of the Sutton Trust, included a description of KMi's work with MKSchools.Net, the Clutch Clubs, and the East of England Broadband Consortium. Midge Blake, Head of Major Gifts Fundraising at the OU, then accompanied Mr. Lampl to his lunch with Professor John Mason and colleagues to discuss the potential overlap of interests with OU Maths Education and related activities. Related Links: The Sutton Trust Web Site Lampl of Sutton Trust Visits Planet-News-Story181 KMI fosters a link with CORUS STRIP PRODUCTS UK Visit Dnyanesh Rajpathak, 16 Apr 2002 On 10th and 11th April 2002 a visit to one of the key steel manufacturers in the UK, CORUS STRIP PRODUCTS UK took place. The main contributor in making this visit possible is Mr. Steve Thornton working in the same company and #8217;s plant situated at the Teesside, North Yorkshire. The main focus of the visit was to look at the knowledge acquisition and capture of different knowledge assets involved in the area of scheduling for steel manufacturing. CORUS STRIP PRODUCTS UK is a leading carbon steel manufacturer specialised in producing hot rolled, cold rolled and metallic-coated steels for many industries such as the automotive and transport industries, building and construction, shipping, consumer appliances and electronics, and general engineering. Even though the year 2001 was bit hostile for the carbon steel market in UK, the UK sector of the company had a turnover of 2,291 m after the tax with the overall production of 4000-ton steel. The two plants visited are situated at Llanwern Works, Newport and Port Talbot. The plant at Llanwern Works is more specialised in steel rolling whereas the one at Port Talbot is comprehensive in manufacturing steel as well as converting the steel to match customer requirements. The first day of the visit began with the Llanwern Works plant. The Operations and Logistics department of this plant is responsible for handling the planning and scheduling activity for both these plants. Like any other industry, scheduling plays a vital role in keeping the plant running efficiently as well as effectively. The reason behind this is not surprising, as the company has nearly 80 different customers whose wide ranges of orders have to be satisfied against the due dates. To make the matter more complicated, the sales office changes the priority of these orders without much advance notice to the scheduling people. It makes the life of the people working in the department of Operati ons and Logistics quite difficult. To match up with the growing number of fluctuating demands the Operations and Logistics department work round the clock. By keeping the initial objective of the visit in mind understanding the schedule construction process in steel manufacturing and trying to make implicit knowledge assets hidden in expertise explicit, it was absolutely important to talk with the schedulers in this department. The much-appreciated help came from the key scheduler Mr. Steve Williams in this department who gave a substantial amount of time for the interview from his extremely busy schedule. Mr. Williams, along with two of his colleagues, participated in the discussion as well as interview session. Their main responsibility lies in the area of constructing the schedule for the week that is derived from the weekly plan. The weekly schedule then further gets broken down in the daily schedule that actually goes to the manufacturing plant situated at Port Talbot. The overall discussion and interview session was lasted for nearly 7 hours during which various important issues in scheduling were discussed through the formal question answer session as well as through informal discussion session. After the discussion and interview session to make the overall picture further clear different software tools that are in use within this department to build the schedule such as, Simple ++, BOCS BRONER , MOS are demonstrated. The day was wrapped up with the informal discussion and by presenting the brief summary of the day. The overall session was quite useful in not only understanding the way experts think to construct a schedule for the real-life business but the amount of complexity and the importance of the organisational communication that takes place to construct an efficient schedule for the company. Right from the beginning of the visit it was an issue in mind to go around the actual manufacturing plat to see the actual execution of the schedule that is constructed in a nice office envi ronment on the plant floor. Also, without going on the manufacturing plant it would be quite difficult to understand the different decision making involved in the process to reach the customer target. At the same time it was a kind of privilege to visit the highly restricted manufacturing area to appreciate the legacy of engineering work. On 11th April we have visited the manufacturing plant at Port Talbot. The plant is a self-sufficient in terms of overall manufacturing process involves in making the steel and #8211; primary steel making and secondary steel making. The on site tour of the plant was started by looking at the primary steel making unit. It is usually a batch process where similar chemical composition steel is batch together. After going through the 4 different processes of primary steel making the molten steel is produced satisfying the chemical composition of the steel according to the customer. The molten steel afterwards feed to the secondary steel making plant as a raw ingredient. The secondary steel making plant performs further operation on it and finally the molten steel, which is strictly within the range of chemical constraints given by the customer, gets converted into the slabs by the continuous casting process. The tour guide gave significant input in bringing the hidden issues involved in on-site scheduling in the light. Its interesting to see how the execution of the schedule constructed at the first place breaks down and works at different levels of abstraction. Surprisingly many of the decisions taken while constructing the schedule gets amended and modified by the time it goes through the actual manufacturing process. Currently, they have no knowledge-based system implemented for constructing a schedule as quickly as possible. The Operations and Logistics department seemed quite interesting in implementing a knowledge-based scheduling system as a prototype so that can give them the overall picture of the schedule as quickly as possible. Also, it means that they can devote more of their time on the schedule improvement side to make the process distributed evenly throughout the process hierarchy. Finally, the visit was concluded by agreeing upon the future meetings with the industry in the month of June to give a presentation and demonstration of the problem-solving methods that will be developed by using the input derived from the visit. In sum the visit was very useful experience in understanding the way real-life industry works not only in the area of planning and scheduling but as a business organisation in total. Related Links: CORUS Group KMI fosters a link with CORUS STRIP PRODUCTS UK Planet-News-Story180 ECAI 2002 Double Bill for KMi Event Participation/Organization Martin Dzbor, 15 Apr 2002 Two accepted research papers out of two submitted. This is the result of recent submissions by two KMi research students, Martin Dzbor and Dnyanesh Rajpathak, to the high-profile European Conference on Artificial Intelligence ECAI taking place in July 2002 in France. The ECAI series is one of the most competitive, general AI-audience conferences, and is organised biannually by the European Co-ordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence. This year sees the 15th birthday of this conference, which is, according to Frank van Harmellen, the ECAI 2002 Programme Chair, ' the most selective ECAI ever, with only 137 research papers accepted out of more than 500 submitted. ' In parallel with this year's ECAI, there is also a Conference on Prestigious Applications of Intelligent Systems PAIS , which gives an overview of the most significant real-world applications of Artificial Intelligence. For the first time, ECAI will also host the first STarting AI Researchers Symposium STAIRS , which aims to bring together doctoral students and young post-doctoral researchers in AI. See the URLs below for more details. Dnyanesh's paper is titled ' The epistemolog y of scheduling problems ', and tackles the issues of constructing a generic task ontology for the domain of scheduling. Dnyanesh worked on this submission closely with his supervisors and co-authors Dr. Enrico Motta, Dr. Zdenek Zdrahal both KMi , and Dr. Rajkumar Roy Cranfield University . The task ontology presented in the paper looks at scheduling tasks on a generic basis, which means that the scheduling problems from the different domains can be modelled efficiently. Such an ontology may also act as a high-end reference model and enhance the reusability of knowledge based systems for scheduling. The paper also describes a few interesting scenarios validating the generic ontology, such as satellite-antennas and the scehduling of KMi research projects. Martin's paper was submitted to the 'Design theory and AI' section. Its title is ' Design as interactions of problem framing and problem solving ', and it was co-authored by Martin's supervisor Dr. Zdenek Zdrahal KMi . This paper addresses areas in the design research that are rather grey. Namely, it aims to define a recursive model of framing in design using formal terms, which in itself is ' a rare attempt in the relevant research community '. The paper takes a novel perspective on such concepts as 'reflection', 'tacit reasoning', and 'interaction of specifications and solutions', and it already managed to raise a little controversy. Nonetheless, as the Programme Committee concluded: ' Such a vision of design is not new but a formal model is innovative and constitutes an important progress in the area, even though it is too abstract. We propose to accept the paper as it offers a beautiful formalisation. ' The above-mentioned papers are currently under revision. However, they shall be made publicly available in the ' KMi Technical Reports ' series within a few weeks. In the meantime you may check Martin's personal website see the link below ; Dnyanesh's website is pending - keep checking regularly. Related Links: 15th European Confere nce on Artificial Intelligence ECAI 2002 European Co-ordinating Committee of Artificial Intelligence KMi Technical Reports Martin Dzbor - personal website Dnyanesh Rajpathak - personal website ECAI 2002 Double Bill for KMi Planet-News-Story179 IEE Director of Knowledge Services Visits Visit Marc Eisenstadt, 15 Apr 2002 Dr. Mike Rodd, Director of Knowledge Services Department of the Institution of Electrical Engineer's, visited KMi today as part of an OU-wide series of discussions arranged by Prof. Bashar Nuseibeh, Research Director of the OU's Computing Department. Prof. Nuseibeh and Dr. Rodd are initiating discussions on possible collaborative links between the IEE and the OU. During the visit, KMi Director Dr. Enrico Motta talked to Dr. Rodd and his colleagues Richard Best and Janet Tomlinson about a range of KMi's knowledge modelling projects, including our EPRSRC-funded Advanced Knowledge Technologies project and a range of ontology-oriented research activities such as PlanetOnto. Prof. Eisenstadt talked to Dr. Rodd about a series of other related projects in the lab. The KMi visit was followed by lunch and a meeting in Prof. Nuseibeh's lab, with the participants mentioned above joined by Prof. Diana Laurillard, Professor Anne De Roeck, Dr Joel Greenberg, Professor Mary Thorpe, and Dr. Nicky Whitsed. Dr. Rodd has been involved in activities which include helping the UK to address a serious brain drain in computer science by looking at ways to attract and keep academics in key research areas. The IEE itself has the following to say about their Knowledge Services Department: 'The environment in which the professional engineering institutions operate is evolving at a rapid pace as they face up to meeting the needs of the changing worlds of employment and education. Nowhere is that more apparent than within the IEE's Knowledge Services Department, where, as a result of two years of intense work by Members and staff, the stage is now set for an exciting future. A radical new approach to the working of the KS Department is designed to ensure truly international participation and brings with it increased benefits to the membership.' Related Links: IEEE website IEE backs report on UK brain drain IEE Director of Knowledge Services Visits Planet-News-Story178 Return to Walton Hall after 30 years Visit Colin Barrett, 12 Apr 2002 KMi hosted a visit this week by Dr. Susan Olson, who was seeing the Walton Hall campus for the first time in 30 years. As a PhD research student from Ohio State University, USA, Dr. Olson received a bursary which enabled her to come to the UK to study the Open University and its pioneering role as a distance learning organisation. Having heard about the work of the OU from academics in her home country, she was eager to learn more about how people from all social backgrounds could study for a degree without first having to satisfy academic selection criteria; her bursary enabled her to establish a study base in London and also at Walton Hall for a perod of three months in 1972. Whilst researching her PhD, she spent a great deal of time interviewing production staff at the BBC's Open University Production Centre then at Alexandra Palance, London, prior to its move to purpose-built premises in Milton Keynes and also at the university's Walton Hall campus. During her stay in England, she also found time to visit numerous other Universities around the country. As part of her research, she accumulated audio-taped interviews with many key figures, both at the OU and in the BBC; these tapes are still in Dr. Olson's possession, and she is hopeful that they will one day be incorporated into a digital archive of the history of 'the university that has opened up a world of learning to so many people who would otherwise not have access to higher-education' . During her visit to KMi she recorded a video interview, a segment of which is available for viewing using the link below Requires Quicktime . Related Links: View Quicktime Video Clip Return to Walton Hall after 30 years Planet-News-Story177 NHS Chief Executive - On the Record Event Participation/Organization Kevin Quick, 9 Apr 2002 Kettering General Hospital chief executive Geraint Martin has made a pioneering webcast to kick off the AEC project webcasting series. On Thursday, January 24, Geraint made the 'on the record' broadcast to staff to let them know what was happening in the Trust and nationwide. Webcasting is one of the areas which we are investigating as part of our Assisted Electronic Communication Project. On the day Geraint started his broadcast with: Welcome to the Big Brother House. After this broadcast you will have the chance to vote me off. He then gave a serious presentation on the Trusts plans for the future including major redevelopments. One of the advantages of webcasting is that staff from an ordinary ward or desktop pc can interact with the speaker by posting in questions which pop up in the question/answer session after the slide presentation. Geraint received many questions, including some tough ones, and had the chance to answer them. He himself was sitting in was sitting in an ordinary office in the hospital IM and T department in front of a webcam, but with studio style lights beaming down on him and a team from KMi to make sure that everything went well! Related Links: AEC Project Stadium Technologies NHS Chief Executive - On the Record Planet-News-Story176 CIPHER Project Begins Event Participation/Organization Paul Mulholland, 5 Apr 2002 Today sees the first meeting of the CIPHER project. CIPHER is a two and a half year, 1.5 million Euro project, funded by the EU Information Society Technologies IST Programme, within the area of 'Heritage for All'. The overall aim of the CIPHER project is to develop innovative technologies and methodologies that enable the celebration and exploration of natural and regional heritage on a global scale. This will be realised through the development of Cultural Heritage Forums, associated to specific European regions. Cultural Heritage Forums will support visitors in the creation of personal and communal spaces, supported by narrative conventions and structures. Navigation and exploration facilities based on self-organising maps will help visitors to cluster and visualise forum content. KMi's partners in the CIPHER project are: Dublin Institute of Technology University of Art and Design Helsinki Czech Technical University The Discovery Programme RiS GmbH The Cultural Heritage Forums to be developed during the project are 'Irish Cultural and Natural and Heritage', 'Nordic Heritage through Storytelling and Historical Artefacts', 'Shared Heritage of Central Europe' and 'Tradition of technology innovation in South Central England'. Related Links: KMi's CIPHER project CIPHER Project Begins Planet-News-Story175 1M Grant Hat-Trick in Interactive TV, Culture, Collaboration Awards/Praise Marc Eisenstadt, 20 Mar 2002 KMi researchers have been awarded grants on EPSRC and EU-funded projects worth a combined total of over 1M pounds in a series of new initiatives that will bring KMi into the arenas of interactive digital TV games, cultural heritage, and collaborative tools based on advanced knowledge technologies and presence awareness. The image accompanying this story comes from Tiny Planets, a forthcoming Interactive Digital TV game/series for children, produced by Pepper's Ghost Productions and serving as the base for the TINY-IN project. TINY-IN aims to establish and develop techniques for making new exciting types of interactive television material that provide a richer experience for young children at a significantly lower production cost per minute of 'viewer experience' using content-driven interactivity and scalable modes of transmiss ion that can evolve from the PC/Internet to Enhanced TV or mobile devices. Grantholders Zdenek Zdrahal and Paul Mulholland will be working with project partners Pepper's Ghost Productions and Edinburgh's Virtual Environment Centre. A second award CIPHER , sponsored by the European Union Information Society Technology scheme, will develop innovative technologies and methodologies that enable the celebration and exploration of natural and regional heritage on a global scale. The project will produce four cultural heritage web-based forums beyond current virtual galleries or museums that allow visitors to investigate cultural artefacts, and produce their own personal and shared spaces. This award, on work undertaken by Zdenek Zdrahal, Paul Mulholland, and Trevor Collins, is shared with the Dublin Institute of Technology, the University of Art and Design Helsinki , Czech Technical University, The Discovery Programme Ireland , and RiS GmbH Internet-Losungen Germany . The third leg of this month's grant hat-trick is entitled CoAKTinG: Collaboritive Advanced Technologies in the GRID. This grant, to Simon Buckingham Shum and Marc Eisenstadt, is a spinoff of the ongoing 7M AKT Project in which KMi plays a major role. CoAKTinG aims to advance the state of the art in collaborative mediated spaces for distributed e-Science collaboration through the novel application of advanced knowledge technologies such as: Ontologies to enhance multi-modal and multi-media time phased group discussions and problem solving; Knowledge-based planning and task support to enhance issue-based process/activity discussions; Scholarly discourse and argumentation to enhance collaborative meeting structures; Presence and visualisation to enhance group peripheral awareness at a distance. It will support KMi's Compendium and BuddySpace project, and involves project partners at the Universities of Edinburgh and Southampton. The combined value of the grant awards for the three projects counting all partners exceeds 1.5M, and t he value of the awards just for KMi exceeds 400K. All the projects are described in more detail at the links below, and have spawned a series of posts announced on the KMi Jobs page, also linked below. Related Links: TINY-IN Project CIPHER Project CoAKTinG Project including links to AKT New jobs in KMi related to above projects 1M Grant Hat-Trick in Interactive TV, Culture, Collaboration Planet-News-Story174 Jam for fun Social Chris Valentine, 14 Mar 2002 Wednesday evening saw KMi enjoy the first of what promises to be a chain of jam sessions. Joining Phil guitar and Sylvia Truman drums , both members of the internationally-famous band 'Osmosis' and the latter a PhD student in KMi, were KMi's 'chief scientist' Marc Eisenstadt guitar , Annika Wolff guitar and Paul Mulholland bass . Other KMi members shook whatever percussion instrument came to hand: even KMi director Enrico Motta was seen to get down and boogie later in the evening. Related Links: Photo gallery Jam for fun Planet-News-Story173 KMDI Visits KMi Visit John Domingue, 14 Mar 2002 Gale Moore and Andrew Clement from the Knowledge Media Design Institute at the University of Toronto came to visit KMi today. Gale and Andrew were visiting us as part of a European fact finding mission in the context of their research project 'Institutionalising Interdisciplinary Innovation in Universities: The Emergent Field of Knowledge Media Design.' Related Links: Knowledge Media Design Institute KMDI Visits KMi Planet-News-Story172 Danish Minister of Science Visits Peter Scott, 25 Feb 2002 Today the Danish Minister for Science, Helge Sander, visited the OU with a team of MP's from the permanent Research Affairs Committee and an advisory team from the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The delegation were here to share the UKs experience of online and distance learning. Their visit to KMi was hosted by Dr Peter Scott who spoke about the relationship between knowledge and media. Other presentations picked up on our eLearning experience with corporate clients Marion Baldwin ; our overall strategy Peter Wilson , standards and interoperability Paul Lefrere and the electronic library Anne Ramsden . The Danish Delegation included the minister, Helge Sander, plus MP Hanne Severinsen, MP Gitte Lillelund Bech, MP Jette Jespersen, MP Carina Christensen, MP Anne Grete Holmsgaard, MP Anders Moller, MP Freddie H. Madsen MP Jan Trojborg, Eva Esmarch, Leo Bjornskov, Jette Sogren Nielsen, Thorkild Meedom and Knud Larsen. Danish Minister of Science Visits Planet-News-Story171 Vice-Chancellor Meets KMi Staff Marc Eisenstadt, 20 Feb 2002 Professor Brenda Gourley, in post since January 2002 as the Open University's fourth Vice-Chancellor, visited KMi today to meet staff as part of her 'get acquainted' series of visits to OU units. After a brief introductory chat with KMi Director Dr. Enrico Motta, Professor Gourley was then introduced to research teams around KMi. Research team leaders described a selection of projects currently underway, and Professor Gourley was able to meet a representative group of staff. Dr. Simon Buckingham Shum introduced the 'Collaborative Sense Making' series of projects, followed by Dr. Paul Mulholland, Dr. Zdenek Zdrahal, and Dr. John Domingue and their teams describing KMi's work on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Modelling. Professor Gourley then met Professors Eisenstadt and Vincent, and was taken around the Centre for New Media by CNM Head Dr. Peter Scott. Related Links: Photo gallery Vice-Chancellor Meets KMi Staff Planet-News-Story170 eUniversity Chairman Sir Anthony Cleaver Visits Visit Chris Valentine, 7 Feb 2002 Sir Anthony Cleaver, Chairman of UK eUniversities Worldwide Ltd, visited the Open University today for a series of discussions and presentations hosted at the Knowledge Media Institute. Sir Anthony, Medical Research Council chairman and former IBM chief executive, is the first chairman of the new company, which was formed in 2001 to deliver the eUniversity programmes and services on behalf of UK higher education. His role will include overseeing delivery of the first e-learning courses for students in September 2002. Today's visit programme included presentations by Professor Diana Laurillard, PVC Learning Technologies and Teaching , Professor David Sewart, Director of Student Services, Dr. Nicky Whitsed, Director of Library Services, and Mr. Dave Meara, Head of Strategic Applications Learning and Teaching Solutions . Lunchtime discussions were joined by Open University Vice Chancellor Professor Brenda Gourley, as well as KMi Director Dr. Enrico Motta and KMi Deputy Director Dr. John Domingue. UK eUniversities Worldwide Ltd. is a collaborative project by the UK higher education funding bodies to establish a new way of providing HE programmes through web-based learning. The project is designed to give UK higher education the capacity to compete globally with the major virtual and corporate universities being developed in the United States and elsewhere. The project was initiated, designed and co-ordinated by the Higher Education Funding Council for England HEFCE . It was first announced by the previous Education Secretary, David Blunkett, on 15 February 2000. The government has allocated 62 million to the project over the period 2001-04. Sir Anthony Cleaver is the Chairman of the Medical Research Council and sits on the Committee on Standards in Public Life the Wicks Committee . Following graduation from Oxford University, he spent 30 years at IBM UK, culminating as Chairman and CEO. He went on to lead the privatisation of the Atomic Energy Authority, forming and subsequently managing the floatation of AEA Technology plc. He is also the Chairman of the Royal College of Music and a member of the Council for Excellence in Management and Leadership. Related Links: UK eUniversities Worldwide eUniversity Chairman Sir Anthony Cleaver Vis its Planet-News-Story169 British Association of Open Learning Visit Visit Peter Scott, 6 Feb 2002 The British Association of Open Learning held their annual general meeting at the Open University today and in concert with this arranged a day conference for their members here. Around 50 BAOL delegates attended OL sessions including those by: Mary Thorpe on the versioning of course materials; David Grugeon on the Open University's present and future; Jim Flood on the corporate university perspective and how Corous is opening up new markets. The BAOL visitors were from a range of diverse organizations: from Consignia to the Inland Revinue; and from Pergamon Flexible Learning to Knowledge Pool. Here in KMi they heard from Peter Scott about the difference that technology makes in education. Peter demonstrated examples of technology making a difference in higher education, school level education and even in healthcare and mainstream business contexts where work and learning are the same thing! Related Links: British Association of Open Learning The KMi Centre for New Media Corous British Association of Open Learning Visit Planet-News-Story168 ROSTRA v1.0 Launched Technology Related Event Chris Valentine, 6 Feb 2002 Version 1 of the installer for our news disemination system Rostra was today made available on a single CD for evaluation as a possible full product release. The CD contains not only the Rostra system, written in the common server-side scripting language PHP, but all the necessary servers required to run it on an NT, Windows 2000 or XP-equipped PC. Rostra is a simple server side agent which helps organizations to manage their news. It takes story submissions from journalist staff and publishes these in a variety of news-feed forms - eg. at its simplest as a coherent news website. ROSTRA is still under continuing development, with many more features under consideration. Indeed, for this Version 1 release we have removed many of the agency features that operate in some of our experimental versions. We plan to re-introduce these features in subsequent releases. Related Links: The ROSTRA project page ROSTRA v1.0 Launched Planet-News-Story167 BuddySpace Gains Momentum Technology Related Event Marc Eisenstadt, 5 Feb 2002 KMi's 'BuddySpace' experimental prototype for messaging, gaming, and group collaboration has now moved from an unofficial 'skunkworks' project to something that has caught the attention of Open University course teams, UK funding agencies, and international industry leaders in presence and messaging. BuddySpace began as a summer intern project, looking at ways of using maps and location data to push beyond the limits of the 'buddy list' or 'contact roster' familiar to users of many instant messaging programs such as ICQ, MSN Messenger, and AIM. Emphasis was on 'cool interactive maps' and 'scalability' in order to cope with as many as hundreds of thousands of users, as represent ed by the typical annual enrollment of students at the Open University. The project has now grown in scope to look more broadly at enhanced capabilities for the management and visualisation of the presence of colleagues and friends in collaborative working, gaming, messaging, and other contexts. The original interest is reflected in work on the role of graphical metaphors for presence, including maps, logical layouts such as building schematics and project timelines and abstract artistic layouts such as graffiti walls. New work involves studying the semantics of presence, in order to move beyond simple flags such as 'online' and 'busy' to include rich contextual and spatio-temporal information more approprite to one's focus of activity. We have been approached by several course teams with the OU with an eye towards deploying BuddySpace-style environments for students to engage in collaborative work, and have recently developed an internal working paper for the OU's Learning and Teaching Innovations Committee to explore this theme. Funding for the work has expanded with the announcement of a year's worth of BuddySpace-related work in KMi as part of a larger 2-year EPSRC-funded multisite collaboration called 'CoAKTinG' Collaborative Advanced Knowledge Technologies in the Grid--see link below . The work has also attracted the attention of the commercial instant messaging and presence community, and will be the subject of an invited presentation at the Pulver.com Presence and Interworking Mobility Summit PIM2002 , March 19-21, 2002, in Sophia Antipolis, France. Related Links: BuddySpace Enhanced Presence Management Project Page CoAKTinG Project BuddySpace Gains Momentum Planet-News-Story166 Safety Centre Website launched Jon Linney, 14 Jan 2002 KMi supports a range of community-based initiatives by seeing how Knowledge Media technologies can be applied locally. The latest of these launched its new site today. Milton Keynes hosts the UKs very first Safety Centre - a place, known as 'Hazard Alley', which is a purpose-built interactive education centre for children. The centre is the result of collaboration between Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service and Thames Valley Police, and creates a partnership between statutory organisations, local government, health authorities, the private sector and now, the Open University. Thousands of children visit the centre each year and work on issues like road safety, safety in the home and on the water, etc. When the Safety Centre team came see how new media concepts could help them they knew they needed to appeal to a wide range of users - teachers, children, potential visitors, safety professionals and the general public. What we wanted to do was to show them how their web site should help these users to focus on activities before and then after a centre visit; to help make the visit as effective as possible. To begin with, we produced some fun, short, interteractive media elements eg. Flash games to help focus the kids before the visit; and downloadable paper-based resources eg. pdf worksheets to help the teachers, parents and kids to follow-up the visit. Related Links: The MK Safety Centre @ KMi The MK Safety Centre Road Safety Example Safety Centre Website launched Planet-News-Story165 CLUTCH as a Broadband Educational Resource launched Event Participation/Organization Colin Barrett, 11 Dec 2001 The 2-year Computer Literacy Understanding Through Community History project CLUTCH funded by the UK Millennium Commission is now complete. This scheme has facilitated some 311 parents in the research and production of 59 web sites on a local history topics. CLUTCH has proved to be tremendously popular and a powerful tool for the production of top-quality content web products through empowering local schools to reach out into their community via parents. Starting December 1st 2001 the East of England Broadband Consortium E2B have funded a pilot project to investigate how we might roll-out the CLUTCH concept more widely. The pilot study will hook up a small number of schools in the Eastern region of England with the KMi team using the regional broadband network. The school will host a CLUTCH mentor who will help a group of parents form a CLUTCH group. As with the Millennium Commission-funded CLUTCH Clubs, their work will be based around a group project website in which they will gather and present multi-media assets linked closely to prescribed themes in the National Curriculum. However, this time the CLUTCH will run at-a-distance, with the central team providing training and support from its base in KMi at the Open University. As with the Millennium CLUTCH project the new work is in partnership with the Living Archive Project in Milton Keynes. We're calling this pilot project CABER - 'CLUTCH As a Broadband Educational Resource'. Related Links: CABER CLUTCH CNM Living Archive CLUTCH as a Broadband Educational Resource launched Planet-News-Story164 First Hospital Webcast Event Participation/Organization Peter Scott, 27 Nov 2001 Today, Christine Rospopa presented the Assisted Electronic Communication project in a live and on-line webcast in Kettering General Hospital NHS trust. This was the first live test of the system which is going to be launched with a series in January 2002. Christine spoke live to nurses across the Trust - in areas such as Accident and Emergency, Medical Admissions, the Coronary Care Unit, and even a rest room on one of the ordinary wards. The project is using a version of the KMi Stadium webcasting environment where the video of the presentation is accompanied by sychronised slides and a live chatroom for the nurses comments and questions. One critical feature of this technology in the medical context is that staff do not have to leave the clinical areas to engage with the presentations. Also, as the Stadium has an almost instant replay facility, staff who could not attend live eg. night staff, who can often feel excluded from such events can pick up the replay on the hospital intranet at their convenience. Related Links: AEC Project Website Stadium Website First Hospital Webcast Planet-News-Story163 New Mobile Access Centre for Disabled Students Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 20 Nov 2001 The OU launched a new mobile access centre for disabled people at 1.00pm on Tuesday 20th November 2001. Maria Eagle MP, Minister pictured for Disabled People, was the guest of honour and will give a short speech. She inaugurated the OU / Halifax Access Bus with the help of one of our disabled students. This is a special project which aims to provide new and additional support to disabled students studying with the OU. The mobile unit will visit potential students in their homes to help with the assessment of their needs, without them having to travel long distances for a basic assessment service. The project has been funded partly by HEFCE and partly by a generous grant from Halifax plc, now Halifax Bank of Scotland HBOS . New Mobile Access Centre for Disabled Students Planet-News-Story162 Jack Park on Topic Maps and Constructivist Dialog Mapping Visit Simon Buckingham Shum, 8 Nov 2001 Jack Park, VP of ThinkAlong Software, gave KMi an introduction to the Topic Map technology and standard, and then contextualised it to classroom technology experiments in which he is engaged. Park, a research partner with Doug Engelbart, has been heavily involved in the ISO Topic Map standard, and its translation to XML that has produced the .XTM format. He explained how Topic Maps offer a way to do concept mapping over the Net, providing an abstract layer that can be used to summarise web resources from different perspectives. He then demo'd the Nexist prototype Java tool, that translates a combination of the Toulmin and Issue-Based Information System IBIS notations into .XTM format, and outlined plans to help school students build topic maps of problems, and debate arguments over the Net. Park's seminar was part of a week-long visit to KMi, hosted by Simon Buckingham Shum, who has closely related interests in dialogue mapping through the Compendium technique. Jack Park seminar and links Jack Park on Topic Maps and Constructivist Dialog Mapping Planet-News-Story161 D3E goes open source, and OU-D3E service launches Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 7 Nov 2001 The Digital Document Discourse Environment D3E has been released for free download, most components already open source, with others to follow. This 'world release' is accompanied by the launch of the LTS OU-D3E service , to assist the OU community. What is D3E? Use D3E to publish web discussion documents. The content any web media is linked visually and explicitly to a threaded discussion space. Bibliographic citations, footnotes and section headings are also converted to hyperlinks to assist navigation, especially in large documents. Document and discussions are bound together as a single artifact. Since discussion documents underpin almost all knowledge-intensive work, D3E has found numerous applications in its 5 year evolution. Some examples are on the site, including journal peer review, distance learning, participatory software design, and strategic planning. D3E is available in two forms: Full-D3E Publisher's Toolkit: desktop Java application + a Web discussion system: D3E-Phorum or D3E-HyperNews customizations of the open source Phorum and HyperNews systems Ubiquitous-D3E A server-side application, with any web browser as client; enables you to publish any website in the world for discussion Details, Demos, Documents + Downloads at http://d3e.open.ac.uk D3E is a collaborative project between The Open University's Knowledge Media Institute / Learning and Teaching Solutions and Center for LifeLong Learning and Design University of Colorado, Boulder, USA D3E goes open source, and OU-D3E service launches Planet-News-Story160 Doug Engelbart shares his vision Visit Simon Buckingham Shum, 5 Nov 2001 Doug Engelbart , whose inventions in the 1960s still define interactive computing today, spent two days at KMi this week discussing the overlap in mission with his Bootstrap Institute. Engelbart is a true pioneer of modern interactive computing, whose inventions include the mouse and cursor, multiple windowing, display-based text editing, hypermedia linking, shared whiteboards, outline processing, context-sensitive help, networked folders and online journals. An open lecture in the Berrill Theatre was well attended by the university and wider public on Monday 29th October. Follow-up discussions next day in KMi photo explored in more depth the approaches and technologies that could help advance Engelbart's mission to 'augment human intellect', specifically, 'mankind's ability to tackle complex, urgent problems'. Engelbart was shown a variety of KMi knowledge technologies that intersect closely with his interests in capturing and mapping dialogue D3E ; Compendium , ScholOnto , and structuring knowledge repositories with ontologies AKT . To learn more, replay Engelbart's KMi Lecture and browse the Bootstrap Institute 's extensive resources on his lifetime's research into intellectual technologies. Doug Engelbart shares his vision Planet-News-Story159 VC Designate Webcast Event Participation/Organization Peter Scott, 21 Sep 2001 Professor Brenda Gourley, the Open University Vice-Chancellor designate gave her first University presentation today. The event was the Keynote Address to the University Council - webcast on Friday 21st September 2001, at 1530 GMT from the Berrill Lecture Theatre, The Open University, Walton Hall Campus, Milton Keynes, in the United Kingdom. Professor Gourley spoke on the topic of globalization, diversity and change reflected in the responsibility of academics to full y open up learning to the learners of the world. 'The Open University has scale, has experience, it is a large canvas and therefore has huge capacity to be an agent of change' In a knowledge society, she noted, a university had an obligation to embrace diversity in all its forms. Related Links: View the Webcast Replay The KMi Stadium VC Designate Webcast Planet-News-Story158 OntoWeb European Network Launched Event Participation/Organization KMi Reporter, 21 Sep 2001 With the official signing of the OntoWeb contract The Open University has formally joined the OntoWeb European Thematic Network. The goal of OntoWeb is to co-ordinate European research on the Semantic Web, Tim Berners Lee's vision for supporting agent interoperability and providing logical inferences over the World Wide Web. OntoWeb currently comprises 81 organizations, drawn from both academia and industry. The first OntoWeb workshop took place in June 2001 in Crete and was attended by about 100 delegates . KMi is one of the main drivers of the initiative, being represented on the Project Management Board, being responsible for co-ordinating educational initiatives and being one of the main contributors to the specification of the technical roadmap for the project. KMi's contribution in the project is led by Drs. Enrico Motta and Arthur Stutt. Relevant Web Sites OntoWeb Project Semantic Web OntoWeb European Network Launched Planet-News-Story157 Zimbabwean Open University visits Visit Chris Valentine, 21 Sep 2001 KMi welcomes the visitors from the ZOU today with a short tour hosted by Dr. Peter Scott of the Centre for New Media. The Zimbabwe Open University ZOU received its Charter from the Zimbabwean Government in March 1999. It took over an existing programme of distance teaching from the Centre for Distance Education CDE at the University of Zimbabwe UZ and has since embarked on a programme of expansion. Currently ZOU has approximately 6000 students, registered mainly on undergraduate and professional development courses in education, accountancy and agricult ure. It runs a network of study centres covering all regions of the country. Apart from its association with the OU through the MDASA programme see below , ZOU is involved in international partnerships with the University of South Africa UNISA , the University of Southern Queensland, and others. Our visitors were with us for the best part of a week reviewing all aspects of the UK Open University. Zimbabwean Open University visits Planet-News-Story156 Access Bus Arrives Technology Related Event Phillip Satchell, 13 Sep 2001 The new OU Access Bus, made possible by a donation of 43000 from the Halifax and designed to take enabling technologies into communities for on-site assessment of disabled students' IT needs, arrived on-site on Tuesday. At present the assistive technology needs of students either being supported through the Access Technology Loan Scheme ATLS and now those receiving Disabled Student's Allowances are assessed by a combination of external specialists mostly Access Centres and OU staff. However, many students in the more remote parts of the UK are difficult to support properly because they live large distances from the nearest assessment centres and sometimes find travel difficult or even impossible. The new vehicle will carry a comprehensive range of access technology, which the students could try, either within the vehicle itself or, where appropriate, within their homes. The vehicle is accessed through a powered wheelchair lift, side steps and a ramp. Inside there would be a fully adjustable workstation area, storage space for the assistive technology, mains power, and communication links to provide E-mail and Internet connections. In addition to its role directly supporting students, the vehicle would also be used at Open University events at Regional Centres where it may be used to help bring an understanding of the part assistive technology has to play in the support of disabled learners. During 2002 up to the next Open Day, it will tour the UK to visit all the OU's Regional Centres. Access Bus Arrives Planet-News-Story155 Enigma machine visits KMi Visit Jon Linney, 31 Aug 2001 As part of an on-going co llaborative project between KMi's Centre for New Media , and the Bletchley Park Trust , an original Enimga encoding machine was brought into the centre to be photographed for a variety of multimedia and web materials. Pictured is Peter Wescombe, a trustee of the park, demonstrating the function of this Kreigsmarine German Navy 4-rotor machine, used from the beginning of February 1942, to KMi's 'chief scientist' Marc Eisenstadt. Enigma machine visits KMi Planet-News-Story154 CLUTCH Scheme part of Middleton Hall exhibition Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 10 Aug 2001 OU staff are invited to take part in an event to put them and their families and #8216;on the map and #8217; as part of a scheme to create a and #8216;portrait and #8216; of Milton Keynes. The OU/ Living Archive Clutch club scheme is part of the Portrait of the Nation and the Face of Milton Keynes event being staged until August 19 in Middleton Hall, in thecentre:MK, the city and #8217;s main shopping centre. The CLUTCH club scheme was created by the OU and #8217;s Knowledge Media Institute KMi and helps parents to gain computing skills by creating local history websites. Forty of the websites are being featured as part of the exhibition. The event is also an opportunity to see 'Portrait of the Nation' - an incredible 30m long collage celebrating Britain at work, rest and play at the start of the 21st Century. The collage was created by David Mach RA from more than 250,000 photographs submitted by people throughout Britain and was featured in the Millennium Dome. This MK exhibition, in conjunction with Living Archive, is cre ating a portrait of MK as the culmination of the 'Postcards from Milton Keynes' project. This involves the whole community, and people are invited to go along the Middleton Hall event with a photo or drawing of themselves or their family, at work, rest or play in and around MK or create a drawing at the event to be scanned and included in the portrait. Other exhibitions include 'The CLUTCH Club Scheme', 'The People's History of MK', 'McDonalds, Our Town Story', 'MK Music 2000' and other local history and community displays. With a musical entertainment programme, - a great experience for young and old alike. CLUTCH Scheme part of Middleton Hall exhibition Planet-News-Story153 Edinburgh Launches CISA with Planet Technology Related Event Peter Sharpe, 1 Aug 2001 Today sees the launch of the new Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications CISA at the University of Edinburgh assisted by some of our technology. Working with Austin Tate of CISA Trevor Collins and John Domingue have set up an initial CISA Newsletter using KMi's Planet Technology. The newsletter is initially being hosted at KMi during the development phase and will move to CISA later in the year. This work occurs within the context of the Advanced Knowledge Technologies Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration AKT . Within the AKT project a number of technologies are being developed to automatically categorise the events and important entities within incoming stories. This acquired knowledge is then used to provide intelligent services, such as personalization and filtering to Planet readers. This application of intelligent news services is an example of the kind of advanced collaboration and knowledge sharing tools being explored by KMi and CISA through the AKT IRC. Related Links The CISA Newsletter The CISA Home Page The Main AKT Project Page The KMi AKT Project Page The KMi Planet Project Page Edinburgh Launches CISA with Planet Planet-News-Story152 sport4all.com enters the football arena Visit Jon Linney, 17 Jul 2001 Tuesday 17th saw a visit by representatives of Ipswich town football club to discuss a possible involvement in KMi's sport4all.com project. Still in its prototype form, the sport4all.com website is to provide on-line sports coaching for a mainly younger audience. The site also includes a forum, listings of local sports related information and clubs from around the country, information for teachers and schools, shopping facilities, and other content, all incorporated into a package that would appeal to potential sponsors. Read more about sport4all.com at: http://cnm.open.ac.uk/sportsco/sports1.htm sport4all.com enters the football arena Planet-News-Story151 JIME at eJournal Expert Conference Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 2 Jul 2001 KMi was invited to present its innovative Journal of Interactive Media in Education to an expert conference, Change and Continuity in Scientific Publishing , convened under the auspices of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Simon Buckingham Shum joined other Editors of leading electronic journals covering diverse disciplines to share experi ences, and discuss future directions for evolving scholarly publishing and peer review. JIME, and its underlying D3E Web document publishing and discussion system due for open source release this summer were received with great interest, provoking debate on the pros and cons of open peer review, and whether it may work better in some disciplines than others. Highlights included a preliminary report from the British Medical Journal on their experiments with open peer review moving towards a transparent, conversational approach very close to that pioneered by JIME since 1996 , descriptions of the extent to which the astronomical research community has moved to digital encoding of its datasets, the incorporation of non-textual materials in journals, and lively debate on the relationship between scientific journal publishers and recent developments such as the Open Archives Initiative . JIME at eJournal Expert Conference Planet-News-Story150 OU 'Leading e-Uni' says EU Commissioner KMi Reporter, 17 Jun 2001 Mme Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Education and Culture Europe and Sovereignty, recently acknowledged our work by referring to the OU as 'the leading e-University in Europe, a global leader in educational software and a pioneer in multimedia in raising educational standards.' Mme Reding's praise came during her invited 2001 Jean Monnet Lecture last week, entitled 'Europe and sovereignty: A citizen's Europe through Education and Culture'. In the lectu re, delivered in Newcastle upon Tyne on 13th June 2001, Mme Reding emphasised the way that the European Commission has developed 'a fruitful collaboration with regions and universities, through structural funds, the training and educational and R and D programmes, based on a sound relationship of mutual confidence.' The timely lecture is further endorsement for the high quality of the groundbreaking work done throughout the entire Open University. The full text of the speech is available from the 'Speeches' link on Mme Reding's own web page as follows: EU Commissioner Reding's Web Page OU 'Leading e-Uni' says EU Commissioner Planet-News-Story149 Workshop on ICT to change NHS Practice Event Participation/Organization Peter Scott, 15 Jun 2001 On Friday 15 June 2001, KMi hosted a workshop on the use of Information and Communication Technology ICT to change practice in the National Health Service. The workshop was organized by the NHS Information and Communication Research Initiative ICTRI - http://www.dis.port.ac.uk/ictri . The workshop was opened by the programme management team at the Department of Health, Bill Maton Howarth and Dick Curry. Speakers included researchers from places such as Sheffield, London, Brunel, Aberdeen and Newcastle. And topics ranged from standards and effectiveness in telemedicine to web access and clinical practices in nursing. KMi work was showcased in an afternoon session when Peter Scott KMi and Fiona Brooks IHSR, Luton University presented work on a digital discourse system for professional communication that is currently running in Kettering General Hospital. The AEC Project - http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/aec/ . Workshop on ICT to change NHS Practice Planet-News-Story148 American Aeronautical Society uses KMi's flight sim Chris Valentine, 17 May 2001 KMi researchers Dr Kevin Quick and Dr Peter Whalley have recently been collaborating with the American Aeronautical Society to help them make use of KMi's web based simulation of the Wright Brothers' famous Flyer. Like many other organisations across the US, the AAS are developing a web site ready for the celebration in 2003 of the Wright Brothers' epic flight. The FirstFlight web site was developed as a test-bed for the creation of reusable multimedia components, but is also now at the top level of Yahoo and other search engines on the topic of flight history. The AAS web site: http://www.flight100.org/learn_intro.html The FirstFlight web site: http://firstflight.open.ac.uk/ American Aeronautical Society uses KMi's flight sim Planet-News-Story147 Reportage from WWW 10 Event Participation/Organization Peter Scott, 3 May 2001 The 10th international world wide web conference is this week in Hong Kong http://www10.org . It is running in conjunction here with the 7th Hon g Kong Web Symposium http://www.hkwebsym.org.hk/2001 . And, spookily enough there is a big pan-Asia streaming media symposium running right next door! After 10 years of the web, the ACM have finally granted this symposium an Education track and they were kind enough to invite me to open it on Day Two. BUT, it is so cool that I just had to mail in a short report after just Day One! Tim Berners-Lee headed the big w3c contingent here as he has for all of the past symposia, he reminded us! His introductory keynote spent much of the time focusing on the semantic future of the web in which all our ontology researchers will be right at home! He even used the talk to formally announce the w3c recommendation on XML schemas. More on the critical nature he sees on DAML and OIL from w3c presently, which he was even happy to describe as ontologies rule/query languages in RDF anyway! Much of his talk was given using SVG, using a GraphViz rendering of RDF not for Tim the use of a proprietary like Flash, obviously! Actually I had an interesting coffee-discussion with one of his team about how Flash, is, and isnt, a suitable open standard and why therefore SVG would be better . If you want to chase this up immediately then checkout: http://www.w3.org/2001/0501-tbl/ for the presentation. The afternoon keynote was a Microsoft show at which they ran us through some very exciting features of IE 6 wrt the semantic web. I will bring back a copy of Windows Xp, obviously but if you have seen Apples OS X then you have pretty much seen it already!!! Their demo of VisualStudio.Net was pretty cool too hooking up to some web-published xml services via ASP with drag and drop button and visual basic editing. Looked absurdly easy they way they did it! But the real killer for me was Hailstorm - their new spin on personal XML services! They expect Hailstorm enabled servers to collect and share personal information which you will elect to give them myProfile, myAddress, myApplicationSettings, myDevices, myDocuments, myConta cts; myCalendar get the idea?! They promise to solve issues such as privacy, quality-of-service, longevity-of-service and naturally billing for the XML services that Hailstormers will export and that you clients out there will subscribe to !!!! Whoah, enough already! The only real horror is that this is one of these huge shows with more parallel sessions that the mind can comfortably countenance meaning that you need a dozen clones to make all the important pieces! And there are only 5 other OU folk here The next conference is scheduled for Hawaii next year if I cant persuade them to pay for me to talk there too, then I may just have to gulp use my own money - this is a very cool gig! Reportage from WWW 10 Planet-News-Story146 KMi Visited by Leading Lights from Einstein TV Visit Harriett Cornish, 23 Apr 2001 KMi was visited today by Derek Wyatt, MP, and Steve Timmins from the Einstein Group which has developed an innovative cable educational channel with a bias towards cutting edge science and technology. Einstein aims to provide high quality, inspirational programming and to merge TV and the Internet so as to enable viewers of the TV channel to download programmes and pursue their individual interests. Derek Wyatt is non-executive chairman of the Einstein Group and an IT expert who is frequently asked by the Government to be an adviser on the application of IT to public administration. He is the Member of Parliament for Sittingbourne and Sheppey Kent and also an OU graduate. He is chairman of the All Party Rugby Union committee having once played rugby for Oxford University, the Barbarians and England. Before becoming an MP in 1997, he spent fifteen years in the media, first in jour nalism and publishing and latterly in television and the internet. At William Heinemann Ltd he was a publisher and director responsible for many best sellers. When Head of Programmes at Wire TV in 1994, he started discussions with both Manchester United and Rangers FC for their own channels. He created and was the director of The Computer Channel now .tv at BSkyB from 1995-97. He is Chairman of the Clicksure Council and a consultant to Spafax Ltd. URL http://www.derekwyattmp.co.uk Steve Timmins is Group Chief Executive at Einstein Group plc www.einstein.tv . He was formerly Head of Department within ITV and Senior Producer at the BBC, Steve has been responsible for devising unique production techniques for producing low cost cable and satellite programming. As Managing Director of CST Productions which he co-founded , Steve created over 2000 hours of high volume programming schedules and acquired a further 2000 hours for Wire TV KMi Visited by Leading Lights from Einstein TV Planet-News-Story145 VDC- 2001 : Second Virtual Degree Ceremony Event Participation/Organization Peter Scott, 20 Apr 2001 The second worldwide virtual degree ceremony from the Open University was webcast live on April 18th 2001 at 15:00 GMT/UT. The live ceremony included chat, slides and animations as well as audio and video from the Berrill Lecture Theatre in Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom. Apart from staff on stage, the auditorium itself was entirely empty during the presentation - as all the audience were remote! This ceremony was again aimed at the worldwide body of students graduating from the Masters Programme in Open and Distance Education. Given that this was a small body of students a graduating cohort of under 40 and that they were truly online and distant learners, it seemed an appropriate vehicle for their graduation. In addition to the UK based participants, students attended from as far away as New Zealand, Brazil, Denmark and the USA. We are currently reviewing whether this method could be applied more widely to different student bodies. Our ideas to support this years ceremony included using a student-generated yearbook, and phone-in audio notes to add a personalized flavour to the proceedings. One audio note was selected to be used for each contributing student during the appropriate part of the event. Students graduated at home whilst baby-sitting, in the office with colleagues and a glass of champagne, and even with a cappuccino in a local cyber-cafe. A student in New Zealand joked that it was so early/late that he was graduating in his pyjamas! One graduate, a lecturer at the King's College London Dental Institute, even invited her students to join her in a physical celebration of the virtual ceremony! In the attached picture we see one of her students having snapped the moment that her certificate was awarded! Evidently the champagne flowed shortly thereafter! Links The Virtual Degree Ceremony Website The KMi Stadium Website VDC-2001 : Second Virtual Degree Ceremony Planet-News-Story144 AEC Project team presents at eHealth Futurescope 2001 Event Participation/Organization Kevin Quick, 6 Apr 2001 Yesterday, the Assisted Electronic Communication AEC project team were down at the Institute of Health Sciences, City University in London. They were presenting at the 3rd International Conference on Advances in the Delivery of Care, 'eHealth: a futurescope'. The AEC project is a joint initiative of the Centre for New Media in KMi, the Institute of Health Service Research in Luton, and Kettering General Hospital KGH . Present at the conference were Peter Scott and Kevi n Quick KMi , and Fiona Brooks and Maria Macintyre IHSR . The team were reporting on the initial work of the project. This has involved installing a digital discourse system in an acute NHS Trust hospital KGH , in four key areas: Accident and Emergency, Coronary Care Unit, the Middleton Assessment Unit and Harrowden A general ward. The system is being used by Nurses, at all levels, for discussing the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease, and its implementation at KGH. The system has now been up and running for several months, and we reported on its initial progress and impact. In the near future we will be assisting the nurses to add new documents will to expand the digital discourse system. Later we will be releasing a 'Planet style' agent assisted newletter, and some limited 'Stadium style' telepresence systems to support communication. LINKS: The Conference Paper AEC Project website AEC Project team presents at eHealth Futurescope 2001 Planet-News-Story143 Outstanding contribution award for Daisy Mwanza Awards/Praise Paul Mulholland, 6 Apr 2001 Postgraduate student Daisy Mwanza won an Outstanding Contribution Award for her paper present ed at Computer Aided Learning CAL 2001, held at the University of Warwick. She won the award in the Lifelong Learning category for her paper entitled 'Challenges of designing for collaborative learning in an organisation'. The award also comes with a free subscription to the CAL journal. The paper describes some of her research carried out during the ENRICH project, investigating the design and use of technology for organisational learning. Daisy took an Activity Theory approach, analysing the social-cultural and psychological aspects of computer use within the work context. See: Daisy's home page Outstanding contribution award for Daisy Mwanza Planet-News-Story142 AKT-0 Workshop a Success Event Participation/Organization John Domingue, 30 Mar 2001 Over the last three days members of the Advanced Knowledge Technologies AKT consortium attended a workshop in KMi to construct 'AKT-0'. AKT-0 is a preliminary experiment to explore what types of web based knowledge services can be offered by integrating existing tools within the consortium. KMi Planet and KMi's library of associated knowledge models provided the focus for the workshop. The workshop was comprised of two streams. An information extraction stream, led by Maria Vargas-Vera and Yannis Kalfoglou, integrated named entity recognition software from Yorick Wilks' group at the University of Sheffield with KMi Planet. After some customisation the integrated system is now able to automatically pick out people, places, and references to academic journals within Planet stories. A dynamic link service stream integrated Southampton University's dynamic link server with KMi's knowledge modelling technologies. The integrated system is able to overlay any web document being viewed in a web browser with 'KMi relevant' links. Specifically, th e system automatically adds a hyperlink to any mention of a KMi member, technology, project or organisation that we collaborate with. These links are connected to a variety of services including finding related Planet stories, creating a personlised Planet, or finding related web pages. Having created a couple of compelling demonstrations AKT's next goal is to apply these technologies in a real-world scenario. In the medium term we aim to support knowledge sharing within AKT by semi-automatically indexing AKT papers, presentations, meeting minutes and email. One of our longer term aims is to support OU course production and student retention. Relevant Web Links The KMi AKT project page The project page for the knowledge enhanced Planet PlanetOnto AKT-0 Workshop a Success Planet-News-Story141 JIME/D3E Demonstrated at CERN to OAi Community Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 28 Mar 2001 In the birthplace of the World Wide Web - CERN, Geneva - an international workshop was held last week to discuss future models for disseminating and validating scholarly research over the Web. Simon Buckingham Shum and Gary Li were invited to present their work on Web-based, conversational peer review, as used in the Journal of Interactive Media in Education published by the Open University , driven by its underlying D3E technology, developed in KMi. Focusing on an innovative network called the Open Archives Initiative, which is making available open source tools for scholarly publishing, this workshop explored the critical dimension of peer review and other forms of quality control. There were presentations of a variety of innovative projects who are testing new, 'native internet' models for dissemination and quality control. KMi demonstrated live how D3E allows one to instantly generate a peer review discussion space for any OAi document. The event served to highlight the changing face of scholarly publishing, with much debate between researchers, librarians, journal publishers and internet system developers. Technologies such as the Open Archives Eprint Server and D3E raise interesting questions about the roles of publishers in a world where the Net does indeed 'change the rules'. Resources: All presentations, including the results from several discussion groups, are now on the website: http://documents.cern.ch/OAi/ KMi's presentation 'Open Peer Review Meets Open Archives?' can be found there, or direct at http://kmi.open.ac.uk/sbs/OAi/CERN-Mar2001/ Journal of Interactive Media in Education: http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/ D3E: Digital Document Discourse Environment http://d3e.open.ac.uk/ Open Archives Eprints Server Software Southampton : http://eprints.org JIME/D3E Demonstrated at CERN to OAi Community Planet-News-Story140 Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Employment Visits KMi Visit Harriett Cornish, 26 Mar 2001 Today, Theresa May MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Employment for the Conservative Party visited KMi. Mrs. May was welcomed to the Univer sity by Sir John Daniel, The Vice Chancellor.. After fruitful discussion with members of the University's Senior Team, Mrs. May moved to a presentation by the Faculty of Education and Language Studies on OU programmes supporting the development of the teaching profession. The party then visited the Knowledge Media Institute to see at first hand part of the research effort that the OU is making in developing and integrating future technologies into educational delivery and the community at large. On her visit, Mrs. May was accompanied by Marion Rix, Prospective Party Candidate for the Conservatives, MK North East, Iain Stewart, PPC, MK South West, Andrew Hobbs, Director of Marketing OU , Margaret Hales, Political Liaison office and Kate Stephens, Head of Political Liaison Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Employment Visits KMi Planet-News-Story139 Wall Street Journal Taps KMi KMi Reporter, 19 Mar 2001 The Wall Street Journal has chosen KMi as the source of key ideas for a feature section on e-commerce and e-learning in its March 12th 2001 edition. WSJ writer David Hamilton interviewed KMi Chief Scientist Marc Eisenstadt, along with other e-learning and cognitive science experts including John Seely Brown of Xerox and Don Norman of UNext. Highlights of the article are provided in this clipping found online in the National Journal's Technology Daily of March 12, 2001 see link to full article below : 'HEADLINE: EDUCATION: EXPERTS: Web May Not Revolutionize Education The Internet may not revolutionize education as once previously predicted, a group of education experts said, The Wall Street Journal reports. Some of the world's foremost thinkers including Marc Eisenstadt, chief scientist for the Knowledge Media Institute at the U.K.'s Open University, Seymour Papert, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and social critic Alvin Toeffler who ponder the intersection of technology and education warn that the Internet- based distance-learning models still have a long way to go. In a special section on e-commerce and Web-based learning models, Journal looks at how online education is changing the look of college campuses. And companies also reveal how they are making the net a source of corporate training.' Links will open in new window Full text/graphics from original article The Wall Street Journal National Journal's Technology Daily Wall Street Journal Taps KMi Planet-News-Story138 More Parents Awarded Millennium Fellowships Event Participation/Organization Tom Vincent, 19 Feb 2001 The Director of the Bletchley Park Trust, Ms Christine Large, presented Millennium Fellowship certificates to parents with children at local schools to recognise the computing skills they have gained in an innovative on-line community history project. 97 parents from Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire and South Northamptonshire received their awards on Saturday, 10 February. They are the second group to complete their Millennium Commission-funded CLUTCH Computer Lit eracy Understanding Through Community History Club projects. The awards scheme is jointly organised by the Knowledge Media Institute and the Living Archive a local documentary arts group. The combined Web site from both groups of parents now has over 2000 pages of information about local history in the area. A final group of 120 parents commence their projects this week - their findings will appear on the Web in November 2001. Note: the image shows the Bradwell Village Middle School and the New Bradwell Combined School CLUTCH Club receiving their Millennium Fellowship Certificates from Ms Christine Large. More Parents Awarded Millennium Fellowships Planet-News-Story137 Compendium Institute Launches Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 16 Feb 2001 Today saw the launch of the Compendium Institute , a website to link the growing practitioner/researcher community using the Compendium technique for knowledge management. 'Compendium provides a methodological framework, plus an evolving suite of tools, for collective sense-making and group memory. Validated in both small and large scale business projects, it is the result of over a decade's research and development at the intersection of collaborative modeling, organizational memory, computer-supported argumentation and meeting facilitation.' The Compendium approach, co-developed by Al Selvin Verizon eBusiness , Maarten Sierhuis NASA , and Jeff Conklin CogNexus Institute , has been further developed and contextualised by an international, multidisciplinary group of researchers. The Java concept mapping tool that lies at the heart of the Compendium approach has already been integrated with KMi's D3E technology to generate web discussion sites from visual maps tracking a meeting's discussions and decis ions. The Compendium Institute website will provide the portal for the growing documents, software and people who form this community. It makes use of D3E to provide document discussion forums, developed by KMi's Gary Li, with content edited by Simon Buckingham Shum, and graphic design by Harriet Ansell. www.CompendiumInstitute.org Technical Report: Compendium: Making Meetings into Knowledge Events Compendium Institute Launches Planet-News-Story136 KMi gets another 'excellent' Awards/Praise Tom Vincent, 31 Jan 2001 The use of ICT in schools in the UK has seldom lived up to expectations. One very notable exception is Heronsgate Middle School in Milton Keynes. This is one of KMi's partner schools and it has been the focus of Dr Peter Whalley's research for over 6 years. The school has also benefited from being one of the first to be connected to KMi via a wireless Internet link. During 1999, Heronsgate school was visited by Lord Puttnam and DfEE staff when seeking ideas for the Dome, and staff from BECTa. In all cases they were left with very positive impressions of how ICT had been successfully exploited and integrated into the curriculum. Numerous examples can be seen on the Web . The latest acclaim for the school, and the associated research being undertaken by Peter Whalley, comes in the form of an OFSTED report which has just been published. Throughout the report, the use of ICT in the school is clearly of the highest order - excellent! Extracts from the report include: 'The good provision of information and communications technology, including the involvement of the Open University, enables pupils to make good progress in their learning and achieve above average standards.' 'The contribution of the Open University to pupils' learning is excellent.' 'There is also a designated wireless link to the Open University. This allows more efficient and effective teaching of the subject ICT and is having a clear effect on pupils' progress.' 'The pupils' work in control technology and multimedia presentations culminates in pupils creating and editing their own movies. A very good example of this involved a university researcher using the technique to motivate disaffected boys to write.' 'These links OU and school have been sustained over a considerable period of time and are of benefit to both institutions.' Note: the picture shows a Heronsgate pupil operating a computer-controlled model of a Newcomen steam engine. KMi gets another 'excellent' Planet-News-Story135 Visit to AT and T Laboratories Cambridge Visit Peter Scott, 12 Jan 2001 Yesterday, Peter Scott presented a talk on KMi Stadium research to some of the cool engineers at the AT and T Laboratories in Cambridge . I was invited up by Quentin Stafford-Fraser to give them some of the context of our work and look around their very fine communications engineering research lab previously the Olivetti Research Laboratory . The thing I was most keen to see whilst there was the Broadband Phone System - a neat spin on a simple technology. The phone itself is simply a t hin client with an always-on network connection that can run arbitary apps cos they are on the server to its nice wee lcd. Aint many of these in the world, and basically they are all in this lab! The prototype has a strong-arm running a version of their own VNC on linux. VNC is Virtual Network Computing which provides remote cross-platform access to PC or Unix desktops using a simple protocol to send graphical change data to a viewer program. So, much like your favourite remote control prog it detects clicks and key-press interactions on the local viewer and sends that to the remote system. The nice thing about VNC is that it is open source - so there are versions for most platforms even WinCE and Palm handhelds Imagine running your mac desktop via your wireless handheld?!? Anyway, back to the phone ... you click a button on the lcd and the click is sent to the server which sends back the button-down graphic and executes the action zero latency being pretty damned important for this . But, of course, it also means that your phone can run a browser or any other sensible comms related app. So, when you call to have someone let you into their car park they checkout the car-park cam though the phone before directing you to an appropriate space. Spin over to the other side of the reality spectrum for the Ultrasonic Location System , or Active Bat, which allows finer-grained 3D location. Embed sonic detectors every 1.2 metres in a grid in the ceiling and calibrate them into a model of the building and then you can position the badge / bat to within a couple of centimetres of space. Put one on and the system knows where you are - doors will unlock if you are entitled to walk through them, place something on the scanner bed and the scan will be dropped on you computer desktop cos it must be you who pressed the scan button right? . One fantastic application enabled by this is what they call sentient computing - the coolest feature of which is 'interface everywhere'. So, for example you can use your bat badge as a mouse to click arbitary buttons anywhere, on the wall or indeed any region of space you define. Combine this with wireless immersive vr goggles and you could even post vitual notes onto virtual notice board on any physical wall that respond to specific individuals whoa! . One simple but powerful system they are using is AT and TV . They have a rig which auto captures and encodes mpeg-1 about a weeks worth, at at time, of broadcast TV. They use closed-caption transcript boxes to auto add a text track where available , and some video segmentation algorithms to chop up scenes and add helpful keyframes to the overviews. Infomedia eat your heart out. Sadly the only application they seem have for this at the mo. is for an always-on, instant access, transcript searchable VCR - but how cool is that! Overall, I found some very impressive pieces of work in a lab that complements our own work rather remarkably. AND I have only mentioned a couple of the cool things they are doing here, check it out yourself. Hey, they even have three commercial spinoffs, spooky or what! Visit to AT and T Laboratories Cambridge Planet-News-Story134 First Nursing Communication Masterclass Event Participation/Organization Peter Scott, 12 Dec 2000 The Assisted Electronic Communications project recently hosted its first nursing communications workshop here in KMi. A team of senior nurses from Kettering General Hospital worked on the AEC prototype in the Clutch Masterclass facility of the Centre for New Media in KMi on the 30th November, 2000. The AEC project is funded by the UK Department of Health, under the Information and Communications Technologies Research Initiative. The project is looking at the application of media and knowledge technologies in a medical context. Initially, it has been working with digital discourse systems to enable heath care professionals within an acute NHS Trust to access and contribute to threaded, asynchronous discussions and themed information. The nurses in this workshop were exploring and testing the first prototype of this system. In later work the team are also aiming to pilot the use of 'shared social contexts' and server side information assistants for information exchange. Currently such applications have been explored in educational and business settings where they have significantly contributed to an increase in access to relevant information and have also facilitated a more participative and efficient decision-making culture. The AEC project is a joint initiative of the Centre for New Media in KMi, the Institute of Health Service Research in Luton, and Kettering General Hospital. Links The AEC project The Clutch project First Nursing Communication Masterclass Planet-News-Story133 Alice Launches New E-Commerce Project Event Participation/Organization John Domingue, 5 Dec 2000 Today saw the launch of Alice - a joint E-Commerce venture between KMi and the Icelandic Internet company INNN. The goal of this project is to make internet shopping a personalised experience - like visiting a traditional local corner store where customer specific recommendations and advice are given. Building on existing KMi knowledge and web serve r technologies Alice will create individualised shopping experiences using knowledge of customers' previous purchases and of retailers' product lines and services. Once the project has finished INNN plan to licence the resultant technology and produce a software product and service. Relevant Web Links The KMi Alice Project Page The KMi's Knowledge Modelling web site INNN's web site Alice Launches New E-Commerce Project Planet-News-Story132 Learning Federation Meets in Washington Event Partici pation/Organization Marc Eisenstadt, 29 Nov 2000 KMi is playing a key role in the formative stages of the Learning Federation, a proposed government/industry/academic coalition meeting in Washington DC on November 28th and 29th. The two-day brainstorm brings together high-profile representatives from industry, academia, and particularly the Cognitive and Learning Sciences Community, including Hal Abelson, John Anderson, John Seely Brown, Don Norman, Roy Pea, Ben Shneiderman, Roger Schank, Elliot Soloway. I'm representing KMi and The Open University, both as a commentator and presenter and representative of the international and distance learning communities. The Learning Federation is conceived as 'a group of industrial and government organizations that will pool resources to support long-term research in learning science and technology. These organizations will share the cost of research conducted principally in universities and other suitable organizations and supply personnel that will help identify and coordinate the funded research.' The key movers and shakers behind the initial consortium meeting were Randy Hinrichs Microsoft Research , Henry Kelly Federation of American Scientists , Ed Lazowska University of Washington , Richard Newton University of California, Berkeley , Raj Reddy Carnegie Mellon University , Andy van Dam Brown University , and Rick Adrion National Science Foundation . According to an initial document by Hinrichs et. al. 'The research effort will be focused on long-term pre-competitive, non-product activities. This might include discoveries in and applications of learning science, pedagogy, course content development, methods of delivery, assessment and evaluation and other aspects of the life-long and distance learning processes. Areas of research important in life-long and distance learning will be determined by a group of experts from university, government, and industry in a two-day workshop to be held November 28-29, 2000 in Washington, D.C. under NSF sponsor ship. These topics will form the basis for discussion with potential funding sources in early 2001. The object of the workshop is to produce a written research agenda, an initial list of the top unanswered basic research questions in learning science and technology.' Related links Learning Federation Photo credits Digital photographs copyright c Ben Shneiderman, 2000 Learning Federation Meets in Washington Planet-News-Story131 KMi Hat-Trick in National Press Event Participation/Organization John Domingue, 7 Nov 2000 Three KMi related stories appeared today in the Open Eye supplement of the Independent newspaper. The first story described how the new and pound;7million AKT project would allow organisations to share knowledge effectively amongst collaborating workers. This project will use a number of KMi knowledge and web technologies which have been developed in previous EU funded projects. The centre pages described how hundreds of local parents have learnt key ICT skills through the millenium funded CLUTCH Club Scheme. Within CLUTCH, local parents are challenged to undertake a local history research project which they turn into a website. The site contains a number of historical gems including an audio recording, made in 1959, of a local resident recalling the Christmas of 1874! Also on the centre pages was an article announcing the arrival of 58 new PhD students to Walton Hall. Joanna Kwiat, one of the five new KMi students, was one of a number of students whose research was highlighted. Joanna will use Artificial Intelligence techniques to improve GPs' diagnostic skills. Relevent Links The KMi AKT project page The CLUTCH Club website The KMi PhD website KMi Hat-Trick in National Press Planet-News-Story130 Bletchley Park Trust Director Visits KMi Visit Marc Eisenstadt, 3 Nov 2000 Christine Large, Director of the Bletchley Park Trust, visited KMi on Thursday, 2nd November 2000. The visit, set up by Jez Grzeda, Director of OU Intellectual Property Mangement, was aimed at establishing links between the new 'Community-oriented' Bletchley Park Trust activities and the ongoing research projects within KMi. Bletchley Park is the home of the UK World War II code-breaking operations, headed by the mathematical genius and acknowledged father of computing, Alan Turing. Ms. Large met with Tom Vincent, Marc Eisenstadt, Peter Whalley, and Jez Grzeda. Highlights of the visit included discussions of the FirstFlight and CLUTCH project sites, along with demos of KMi Planet and WebSymposia. A reciprocal visit has been arranged for later in the year to continue discussions about areas of mutual interest. Links Bletchley Park Bletchley Park Trust Director Visits KMi Planet-News-Story129 Vincent Wing Opens Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 29 Sep 2000 Professor Tom Vincent was honoured today in a KMi tribute ceremony which marked the opening of the Vincent Wing. The wing, Berrill Level 4 South, houses Professor Vincent's Multimedia Enabling Technogies Group and the newly-funded Wolfson Centre for New Media. As co-founder and Deputy Director of KMi, Professor Vincent has enjoyed 6 years of substantial achievements and growth which cap a lifetime career of internationally-acclaimed research in new enabling technologies for learners. The hallmark phrase of Vincent's work was 'All learners have needs... some have special needs,' highlighting his commitment to the needs of students with disability, as well as the needs-driven approach which proved to be of such great benefit to all learners touched by his visionary work. The tribute ceremony included the cutting of a giant 'iMac cake' complete with KMi logo on its screen and the presentation of the signs labelling the Vincent Wing. Also handed over to Professor Vincent were some custom-stitched KMi flags to replicate his personal KMi flag that adorned the original KMi hut in 1995. Professor Vincent is due to retire in the spring of 2001, and the occasion today marked the beginning of a fresh period of his ongoing activities, including the next phase of Vincent's prestigious Millennium Award CLUTCH Clubs project. Vincent Wing Opens Planet-News-Story128 and pound;7M Advanced Knowledge Technologies Project Underway Event Participation/Organization Marc Eisenstadt, 19 Sep 2000 KMi today welcomed the full project team of the EPSRC-sponsored Advanced Knowledge Technologies AKT Project. AKT is one of the select EPSRC Interdisciplinary Research Centres, funded for 6 years and a total project cost of 7M. The project begins formally on 1st October 2000, with today's meeting helping to establish the full 'modus operandi'. The AKT project aims to develop the next generation of knowledge technologies to support organizational knowledge management. AKT will look at all aspects of knowledge management from acquiring and maintaining knowledge to publishing and sharing it. The project intends to address all these closely related issues in an integrated approach, making use of recent developments in artificial intelligence, psychology, linguistics, multimedia and Internet technology. Professor Nigel Shadbolt at the University of Southampton is the Project Director, with co-investigators at five collaborating institutions: The University of Aberdeen The University of Edinburgh The Open University The University of Sheffield The University of Southampton The Open University's role in the project is centred upon the knowledge modelling and management work of Drs. Enrico Motta, John Domingue and Simon Buckingham Shum at KMi, who have secured more than 1M of funding for KMi's participation in AKT. AKT Project links Main AKT Project Site KMi AKT Site KMi Knowledge Modelling Site and pound;7M Advanced Knowledge Technologies Project Underway Planet-News-Story127 PEARLs in the Liffy Event Participation/Organization Martyn Cooper, 18 Sep 2000 The EU-IST programme project PEARL, that is developing a system to enable teaching experiments to be conducted remotely over the Web, holds a key meeting in Dublin this week 20-23 September 2000 . This will be a chance for the new project staff at the OU: Chetz Colwell based in KMi and Terry di Paolo based in IET to meet the rest of the consortium. Also attending from the OU will be Martyn Cooper IET/KMi Project Director, Eileen Scanlon IET Chair Project's Educational Board, Stuart Freake Science and Jo Mutlow IET/KMi the Project Manager. The object of the meeting is to agree the full functional specification of the system based on the background research into the following areas: - Market Issues - Pedagogy - User Needs Analysis - Review of the Foundation Technologies For more information about PEARL please see: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/pearl/ Martyn Cooper=00=00 PEARLs in the Liffy Planet-News-Story126 CINners launched from KMi Technology Related Event John Domingue, 31 Aug 2000 Meeting at KMi, a group of innovators piloted Open Book as the new communications medium to facilitate the Central Innovation Network - a virtual community linking Cambridge and Oxford regions. The need for an active centre for the economic powerhouse of our region, is currently exercising the Open University, Cranfield, Rowsell Research and Oxford Innovation. 'Stuart Watt's new community enabling technology is just what we need' said Steve Cousins of Cranfield University, 'It will activate the Oxford2Cambridge web site that has been initiated earlier this year'. Other discussion looked at opportunities for trading and banking via the site. 'Another exciting development!', Michael Barstow, HSBC. Local stock exchanges is one more that appealed to David Ray of Oxford Innovation. Watch this space...... CINners launched from KMi Planet-News-Story125 Remote experiment for Tomorrows World exhibition Technology Related Event Chris Valentine, 3 Jul 2000 The KMi has provided a real-time link for the past week between a stand at the Earls Court Tomorrows World show and a wind tunnel experiment, set up as part of Peter Whalley's WEBLAB project at the Open University. The developers of the revolutionary FanWing aeroplane first contacted the KMi for help from designer Jon Linney with 3D models of their prototypes, having first seen his work with models of the Wright Brothers in the FirstFlight web site. The link to the KMi's Ultra-Low Speed Wind Tunnel has helped the FanWing's inventor to answer the innumerable 'How does it work?' questions he faced during the show. The WEBLAB environment is being developed by KMi researchers Kevin Quick and Peter Whalley to help children in local schools share their 'pre-owned' science and technology experiments over the web. However the ideas of 'remote experimentation' seem likely to take on a general relevance to the many web based distance-teaching systems currently being proposed. Links: See the experiment The inventor's web site Background context Remote experiment for Tomorrows World exhibition Planet-News-Story124 EPSRC funds ScholOnto Awards/Praise Simon Buckingham Shum, 27 Jun 2000 The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has just awarded a 3 year project grant to the ScholOnto Project. As part of the Distributed Information Management Programme, this project will provide a Research Fellow and Java Developer to build the public version of a system that has been under small scale prototyping and development for over a year within KMi. The ScholOnto Scholarly Ontologies Project combines Simon Buckingham Shum's background in computer-supported argumentation, with Enrico Motta's OCML knowledge modelling environment, and John Domingue's Java tools for managing and seeding OCML knowledge models. The project also welcomes brings on board Academic Press, who see its potential for scientific publishers. Details: * The ScholOnto Project * EPSRC DIM-2 EPSRC funds ScholOnto Planet-News-Story123 KMi at ACM Hypertext and Digital Libraries 2000 Event Participation/Organization Clara Mancini, 22 Jun 2000 The ACM Conferences Hypertext 2000 and Digital Libraries 2000 were hosted in San Antonio, TX, from May the 29th to June the 7th. This year KMi was represented by Simon Buckingham Shum lecturer and Clara Mancini Ph.D. research student , respectively presenting at Digital Library and Hypertext. At HT, themes particularly relevant to KMi included automatic generation of hypertext functions and reusability, ontology and metadata supported hypertext, hypertext fiction and argumentation rhetoric. Generally and especially in the workshop Hypertext Writers a consensus seemed to emerge that literary theory hasn't answered basic questions about hypertext which still remain open, that hypertext and hypertextuality are still confused concepts, and that understanding of the relation between the technical characteristics and the aesthetics of the medium must be deepened. Clara's work on cinematic rhetorical models and hypertext argumentation narrative seems to have been appreciated as it is grounded on a reflection on the semiotic features of the two med ia in order to provide insights into hypertext aesthetic and rhetoric. Themes like browsing, extraction and visualisation of multimedia knowledge structures, usability and accessibility of information have characterised most of the presentations at DL. ScholOnto Simon's ontology-based system to represent scholarly claims was very well received in the workshops Networked Knowledge Organization Systems and Structural Computing 2: people appreciated the idea of an ontology modelling scholars' perspective on a domain instead of the domain itself, which apparently still represents an original and forefront approach in the problem of scholarly discourse modelling and digital library construction. HT Conference: http://ht00.org DL Conference: http://dl00.org Scholonto Project: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/scholonto Cinematic Rhetoric and Hypertext: http://http://kmi.open.ac.uk/techreports/index.html _ Clara Mancini Knowledge Media Institute The Open University Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA Tel: +44 1908 655945 Fax: +44 1908 653169 http://kmi.open.ac.uk KMi at ACM Hypertext and Digital Libraries 2000 Planet-News-Story122 MILLENNIUM AWARDS CEREMONY Event Participation/Organization Tom Vincent, 21 Jun 2000 The climax of the first phase of the Open University and Living Archive Millennium Awards Scheme was reached on Saturday, 17 June, when nearly 200 parents and guests attended a ceremony in the Berrill Lecture Theatre for the presentation of Millennium Fellowship Certificates to the parents who had successfully completed their projects. The presentations were made by Dr Heather Couper, broadcaster and writer, who complimented everyone on their outstanding achievements during the past 8 months in researching local history topics and presenting their findings on the Web . After the ceremony, the 19 Web sites created by the CLUTCH Clubs were available for all to see on the 19 i-Mac computers that the parents had used for their projects. It is an impressive collection of over 1000 Web pages which, in most cases, were created by people with little or no knowledge of computers at the start of their projects. In addition, an archive has been established which has nearly 10,000 digital images, and many hours of audio and video clips. There are numerous examples of parents who have unearthed previously unknown information, photographs and recordings. Among a number of outstanding examples is a reel-to-reel tape that was found by the members of the Loughton Manor CLUTCH Club. The tape was recorded in 1959. It features 89 year old Archie Stevens recalling his first Christmas when he was 4 years old in 1874!! MILLENNIUM AWARDS CEREMONY Planet-News-Story121 FirstFlight First on Google! Event Participation/Organization Marc Eisenstadt, 20 Jun 2000 Peter Whalley's FirstFlight Web Site has topped the Google search engine index, an achievement which relies entirely on the global popularity of the FirstFlight site itself. Unlike other search engines which make use of keywords and other 'meta tag' indexing operations, the highly popular Google site relies upon the number of links from the rest of Web pointing into the chosen site. This means that FirstFlight, the site based on Whalley's extensive work on the history and simulation of the early pioneers of flight, is itself a highly popular among colleagues and researchers in the area, including NASA and other aviation specialty sites. To test out the index for yourself, visit Google see link below and type in the following two words: flight history. Getting listed first with a larger string of specific words is something that many sites can achieve, whereas a first place based on just two relatively common words is indicative of significant traffic to a site, and therefore the site's high regard among colleagues. Though 'first place' carries no associated award, it is well known among web users that if a site doesn't appear prominently and 'early' in a search listing, it may simply not get visited! Related links Google FirstFlight FirstFlight First on Google! Planet-News-Story120 Berners-Lee Virtual Degree Keynote Technology Related Event KMi Reporter, 15 Jun 2000 The OU's first ever Virtual Degree Ceremony, featuring an Honourary Degree Award to 'Father of the Web' Tim Berners-Lee, is available for replay from the KMi Stadium website. But don't expect to see a conventional 'webcast'. On the contrary, the Virtual Degree Ceremony, as conceived by KMi's Dr. Peter Scott, incorporates an engaging wholistic environment that includes student yearbook entries and audio commentary from every student in response to a direct question from the Vice Chancellor during the ceremony. The event also features an opening procession, introductory remarks by OU Vice Chancellor Sir John Daniel, and a formal presentation of the honourary degree by John Naughton, himself author of the internationally acclaimed A Brief History of the Future . Prof. Robin Mason, who initiated the Virtual Degree Ceremony for her IET-based MA in Open and Distance Education Programme, introduces each of the 25 graduates from their locations around the globe, at which point they are asked a question by the Vice Chancellor. The ceremony, highlighted in an earlier Planet story and featured on the front page of the Times, took place on 31st March 2000, and can be accessed on the Web at the following URL: kmi.open.ac.uk/pr ojects/vdc Berners-Lee Virtual Degree Keynote Planet-News-Story119 CLUTCH CLUB PARENTS MEET MINISTER FOR CULTURE Event Participation/Organization Tom Vincent, 15 Jun 2000 The Chairman of the Millennium Commission, Rt. Hon. Chris Smith MP, launched a competition on the 14 June for an organisation to administer a UKP100 million endowment that will enable the National Millennium Awards Scheme to continue. The launch took place at the National Liberal Club in Whitehall. Amongst the guests at the launch were two CLUTCH Club parents - Mumtaz Ladak and Marylyn Gallavan. They are in the first group of parents to receive Open University and Living Archive awards which has enabled them to research a local history project and present their findings on the Web . The launch was a great opportunity for Mumtaz and Marylyn to meet other award winners and some key people from the Millennium Commission Chris Smith MP, Chairman; Lord Dalkeith, Commissioner; Floella Benjamin, Commissioner; Erica Roberts, Director of the Millennium Awards Scheme . Mumtaz and Marylyn will be receiving their Millennium Fellowship certificates from Dr Heather Couper, Millennium Commissioner, at a ceremony in the Berrill Lecture Theatre on the 17 June 2000 together with 93 other parents who have successfully completed their projects. CLUTCH CLUB PARENTS MEET MINISTER FOR CULTURE Planet-News-Story118 ZZ Tops and pound;1M Awards/Praise KMi Reporter, 13 Jun 2000 No, it's not Texas rockers ZZ Top, but our own Dr. Zdenek Zdrahal who is now directing 100% European-funded projects worth a combined total of over and pound;1M to KMi. ZZ's latest chart-topper comes in the form of a European Framework V project entitled 'Clockwork: Creating Learning Organizations by means of Contextualised Knowledge-Rich Work Artefacts'. Clockwork, a 3.4MECU project involving five European research centres and two engineering companies, runs under ZZ's direction and brings in over and pound;500K to KMi. The project follows on the heels of several other ZZ-led European projects, including: Knowledge Models of Medical Guidelines EU Framework IV , Enriching Open Distance Learning by knowledge sharing for collaborative computer-based modelling and simulation EU Socrates , and Enriching representations of work for organizational learning EU Framework IV . Clockwork is a leading-edge knowledge management project with implications for business-to-business commerce. The project will develop knowledge and web technologies to support organisational learning and knowledge management in the engineering domain. Visit the Clockwork project site Apply for a job on the Clockwork project ZZ Tops and pound;1M Planet-News-Story117 KMi On Show For Open Day Event Participation/Organization KMi Reporter, 9 Jun 2000 KMi will be open to the public on the 24th of June from 10am until 5pm, as part of the Open University's Open Day 2000 Programme. Our theme for the day will be 'The Future of Learning and Knowledge', and KMi's Harriet Ansell has provided a special child-friendly website for KMi visitors and their families see link below . During the day KMi's Director, Prof. Marc Eisenstadt, will give a short presentation and video demonstration entitled 'Beyond Virtual: A vision of the future of education' every hour on the hour, at the KMi Podium on the Fourth Floor of the Berrill Building . In addition we will have a number of stands showcasing our work in the following areas: Open Book: See your own Open Day commentary on the Web Technologies for Broadcasting over the Web Lyceum: Virtual Classrooms with Multi-way Audio and Graphics How we can Integrate Working and Learning Technologies for Managing and Modelling Knowledge Software Agents which can be Delegated Tasks Electronic Publishing and Discourse Streaming Media See KMi's Special Open Day Web Site best with Flash 4 See the OU's Special Open Day Web Site KMi On Show For Open Day Planet-News-Story116 KMi Trainee Scoops BECTa Award for Denbigh Awards/Praise Marc Eisenstadt, 7 Jun 2000 Denbigh School has just been awarded first place in the BECTa/Guardian UK Schools and College Year 2000 Web Site Awards. Denbigh was short-listed for the 'Student Learners' award from over 640 entries. This award focused on student work, i.e. student web sites, class work involving multiple media, and Magnet an online student magazine . Significantly, Alex Singleton chief architect of the Denbigh School site received internship training in KMi from Stuart Watt and Anthony Seminara. This empowered him to produce and maintain the site that can be seen via the link listed below. Anthony Seminara also worked with a group of 6 A-level students at Denbigh, intermittently over a period of 4 months, to teach them the design and authoring skills necessary to create a quality web magazine by-and-for students. The students went from being web novices to dedicated and enthusiastic web designers. The site is presently in its infancy but their confidence is growing, as is overall interest within the student body. KMi's involvement with Denbigh School is part of a long-standing programme of resea rch activities involving the local community, including the Millennium Awards CLUTCH Clubs Project, Heronsgate Middle School, and Loughton Middle School all linked below . Denbigh benefits from a broadband wireless internet connection running from the top of KMi, which also feeds Heronsgate, Loughton, Lord Grey School, Leon School, and Milton Keynes College. The wireless facility, which was installed in December 1998, is now managed full-time by Neil Roche in ACS, and is growing rapidly to become a Milton Keynes Wide-Area Network under the label 'MKSchools.net' see links below . Denbigh will receive a multimedia PC or Apple notebook at the awards ceremony in July, as well as being listed in an online guide of good practice. Related sites and stories will open in a new window Denbigh School Web Site British Educational Communications and Technology agency Web Site Awards Page Planet Story: KMi Links Schools and Churches Dec. 1998 Millennium Award Project: Computer Literacy Understanding Through Community History CLUTCH Heronsgate Middle School Loughton Middle School MK Schools Net KMi Trainee Scoops BECTa Award for Denbigh Planet-News-Story115 Telephone Planet!! Technology Related Event Marc Eisenstadt, 24 May 2000 Forget about reading news on your WAP phone. Roving KMi reporters can now phone their stories directly to Planet, thanks to a custom gateway built by John Domingue and Peter Scott. This means that breaking news can be dictated straight down the phone line, whereupon it is formatted for KMi Planet and made available instantly for audio playback via RealPlayer. For convenience, the headlines accompanying such stories are sent using any SMS Short Messaging System or WAP Wireless Applications Protocol mobile phone. The headline is intercepted by one of Domingue's email software agents, which recognizes the author, formats the headline and byline, and inserts a pre-stored database image accordingly. At this point, one of Scott's audio encoding software agents is triggered into action in the same way: it automatically receives the story, converts the story into RealAudio, stores it on the server for linking into KMi Planet, and phones back the reporter to let them know that the story is now live. This service was conceived out of the frustration experienced by members of staff trying to retrieve breaking news stories on a WAP phone, and the even greater frustration involved in submitting such stories by phone. The key idea was the notion of sen ding a short headline using the keypad on existing SMS or WAP phones, and then dictating the body of the story using voice telephony, with agent software undertaking the necessary conversions. Listen to this story Real 28K Telephone Planet!! Planet-News-Story114 Loughton Media Kids Marc Eisenstadt, 22 May 2000 The Loughton School website, part of KMi's ongoing work with the local community, has recently reached the point where it can be run entirely b y the school children and one member of staff. The site, inspired originally by the seminal work of Peter Whalley and Shamus Foster at Heronsgate Middle School, is still in an early developmental phase, but has reached the point where it is now self-sustaining. This means that the children in Years 6 and 7 ages 10-12 can look after the contents, editing, and design of the site, under the overall supervision of Deputy Head Teacher Ken Behrens. Loughton School benefits from a broadband wireless internet connection running from the top of KMi, which also feeds Heronsgate Middle School, Denbigh School, Lord Grey School, Leon School, and Milton Keynes College. The wireless facility is now managed full-time by Neil Roche in ACS, and is growing rapidly to become a Milton Keynes Wide-Area Network under the label 'MKSchools.net' see links below . Children work on the Loughton Middle School web site using a combination of digital tools, centred around Macromedia Dreamweaver. For those projects where individuality is strongly encouraged, the children have a free hand to determine the look and feel of their project work. For other projects, children are encouraged to develop their work using a variety of pre-prepared layout templates, so that they can concentrate on the contents rather than on HTML 'trickery'. The children typically work in pairs, so they can distribute the load between digital camera/scanning activities and the writing of original content. KMi's involvement stems from the belief that the knowledge media children of today will be the workforce of tomorrow, and that great pride and motivation ensues from re-attributing content ownership back to the learning community. Related links will open in a new window Loughton Middle School Heronsgate Middle School CLUTCH Clubs Millennium Award Project Computer Literacy Understanding Through Community History Denbigh School MKSchools Net Loughton Media Kids Planet-News-Story113 DREAM Team reach Goal 1 Technology Related Event Chris Valentine, 18 May 2000 Digital Recording of Educational Audio Media DREAM achieved its first target last week with the completion of master tapes for two set books. The team is lead by Mary Taylor from the Multimedia Enabling Technologies group METg . Chris Valentine, also from METg, was responsible for turning the concept into the first working prototype, with contributions from Paul Barefoot of the Audio Recording Centre ARC . Chris Denham from Academic Computing Services wrote the software, and Phil Satchell and others from the Office for Students with Disabilities contributed to the design. DREAM takes a new approach to recording s for print disabled students. Digital recording software has been developed which presents the volunteer readers with the text on screen in small chunks. A special simplified keypad allows readers to accept or reject each chunk, creating a link between the text and a sound file. Chunks are sized to balance fluency of reading with a short time to read it again if a mistake has been made. The main advantages of digital recording over traditional analogue methods are sustainable quality and transformability. Traditional analogue master tapes made be used to in make many copies over the lifetime of a course and quality degrades with wear. Using digital masters, new masters can be made when needed. The master exists as a set of standard audio files, structured to link to the text. It can be provided on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM as a ReadOut version for a PC with enabling technology, or transformed into any other format the future might bring. One of the six booths in the ARC has been converted for DREAM recording and more will be equipped soon. A two-booth system can currently be seen in KMi. The latest DREAM developments have been funded by HEFCE and the OU Development Fund. DREAM Team reach Goal 1 Planet-News-Story112 USOU Board Visit Visit Chris Valentine, 4 Apr 2000 The Board of Governance of the United States Open University is in the UK for its eighth meeting, part of an in-depth visit to see and experience the OU first-hand. The visit, spread over several days, has included participation in an OU degree ceremony in Birmingham; a formal board meeting at the OU Conference Centre in London; a reception in the House of Commons by invitation of Madam Speaker The Rt. Hon Betty Boothroyd, MP, Chancellor of the Open University ; dinner at the House of Lords by invitation of Lord Perry of Walton, the first Vice-Chancellor of the Open University ; and a day-long visit to Milton Keynes. The United States Open University was launched last year to bring the OU's unique supported open learning approach to the United States. Prof. Marc Eisenstadt, KMi Director, serves on the Board of Governance of USOU, and in this capacity is helping USOU staff to host today's visit. During the Milton Keynes part of the visit, USOU Board members will be hearing a series of presentations about key aspects of Open University work, including the following: John Shipley shown in the photo , Regional Director, The Open University in the North, presented 'How the OU works from the students perspective and what Regional Centre does in support of students' Dr. Richard Allen, Head of Literature at the OU, and Program Director, English and Humanities, USOU, presented 'Developing, producing and delivering an OU course from the Faculty perspective', a case study based on the OU's popular Shakespeare course now being deliverd to USOU students. Prof. Marc Eisenstadt and Dr. Simon Buckingham Shum presented 'Knowledge Media innovations: webcasting with WebSymposia and live virtual classrooms with Lyceum.' Prof. Roland Kaye, Dean of the OU Business School, presented 'The USOU and OU MBA: A World Degree' Visit the USOU Web Site USOU Board Visit Planet-News-Story111 Heronsgate showcased at Netties 2000, Oulu, Finland. Event Participation/Organization Peter Scott, 23 Mar 2000 Thursday 23rd March KMi was showcased on the first day of the Netties 2000 conference in Oulu, Finland. Peter Scott presented a keynote presentation about the future of higher education entitled 'Virtual Universities: On-line learning 2000'. The conference was introduced by Olli-Pekka Heinonen, the Finnish Communications Minister, via a videoconference with Helsinki. The Minister stressed the interesting point that education is pretty much ready for the technology BUT the technology is not yet ready for education - and that is the next piece that we have to work on. The minister was folllowed by Matti Sinko, who talked about Best Practices in the Information Society, looking at Finand as an example of best practice. Matti is technology advisor to the ministry of education in Finland. He presented the Moon and Kommers chaps from Twente 3E model for evaluting innovation. Then he moved to the practicalities of the emerging ICT infrastructure in Finnish homes - overall a very big impact with over 40% penetration of computers into the home overall in the last few years. About 80% of Finnish st udents have a computer at home although only half of these are networked . In the KMi keynote, Peter examined the recent growth away from the campus towards Mega, Micro and Macro universities. He then examined the new corporate universities as a compelling trend towards the virtualization of higher and further education. He presented a model of student empowerment which focused on the work of Peter Whalley in Hersonsgate school to illustrate each of the key features of the model - challenging the Netties educators to have as much impact with their adults as Peter W. had with 9 year olds. Finally he showed how three KMi systems: Planet, D3E and stadium can help to move in this direction. Jarmo Reponen from the Finnish Society of Telemedicine then introduced us to tele-care in Finland pretty essential in the Oulu area because this centre covers the whole of the geographic northern half of the country with a distributed population of just over one million . The use of the multimedia electronic patient record was very neat - browser based access to all record features -eg direct access to the xray scans etc! Extensive use of videoconferencing obviously - for remote sites to connect to central expertise for both primary and consultant care. Found that 74% of vc patients were willing to have next consultation by vc. The evaluation results were also strong for staff, evaluated as pretty useful, even in telepsychiatry, with 90% of staff in both remote clinic and centre wanting to have the next assessment via vc. Cost admittedly tricky was initially more expensive ave 700fim per case initial cost 1300 fim pc but break even point at 200 consultations ... price halves at 500 consultations. Currently working on teleradiology http://www.stakes.fi/finohta/e/reports/ . He next presented some nice wireless work - eg. sending xray pictures to consultant via their phones the nokia communicator, naturally! Most interestingly, one could see at a glance how many medics were in the audience as they all had the nice new nokia com phone sitting on the desk infront of them ... but then, so did pretty much everyone else! The next parallel session was dedicated to medical work. Pirkko Kouri from Kuopio started with the beginning life project which discussed a networked maternity clinic www.kotineuvola.net . Expectant Parents are given password access to a bulletin board where they can discuss issues, direct access to posting queries to a consultant, and access to a variety of q and a material including videos explaining what will happen and why. Interesting perspective on the concern over what to withold, for fear of worrying them!!! Early days for evaluation - the first babies will be born in May, but the expectant families feedback is so far very positive. Marja Rekila and Laura Suorsa talked over the GATE project which aimed at supporting Rehab services in northern Finland. Using videoconferencing to connect up centers with distributed multi-disciplinary teams in physio and speech therapy, for example, with patients. Ulrike Arnold from Humbolt in Berlin introduced some medical language training software which aims to help medical student to understand technical medical terminology. Used the Telsi presentation environment which gives access to materials. Students are first tested to establish a basic competence in medical terminology. Some nice motivational self study work around crosswords and word search puzzles which were testing the medical terms. A Greek presentation by Yiannis Koumpouros from Athens looked at a distance learning application in a Medical Ultrasound network. Finally, Markku Riipinen introduced web based diabetes care software which his organisation Pro Wellness is producing, despite the substantial handicap of a fuse taking out all power to both the computers and ohp. Diabetes is interesting in this regard as treatment takes full account unlike some conditions of the patient as an active team member! Tommorrow, Netties begins by showcasing the work of Nokia, on mobile telecoms ... Heronsgate showcased at Netties 2000, Oulu, Finland. Planet-News-Story110 FIRST COURSE ON DVD Technology Related Event Tom Vincent, 22 Mar 2000 In response to the needs of students unable to use printed study materials such as course units nearly 1000 OU undergraduates , the Multimedia Enabling Technologies Group has been developing new methods of producing and accessing alternatives to print. In 1999, CD-ROM versions of the first courses to be transformed into alternative media were handed over to the Office for Students with Disabilities OSD . They included audio recording produced in the OU's Recording Centre in OSD. Students access the integrated media through an interface, ReadOut , designed by Mary Taylor which provides a link to enabling technologies such as synthetic speech and braille for students with a visual impairment. A typical course requires about 6 to 8 CD-ROMs for the course units. Although this is a significant step forward by comparison to often needing over 100 C90 cassettes for the recording of course units, the target has always been to get a course on to ONE CD. This is where innovations in new technologies help. The advent of DVD technology has provided an opportunity to reach this target. On the 7th March 2000, the first DVD disc was pressed which included all of the course units for SD206 Biology: Brain and Behaviour in alternative media. Note: the DVD workstation was provided by an Institute of Educational Technology capital equipment grant. Funding for the project has been received from HEFCE, GDBA and the OU Development Fund. The workstation was set up by a placement student from Milton Keynes College, Damien Do dswell, seen in the photograph with Professor Tom Vincent who leads the MET Group. FIRST COURSE ON DVD Planet-News-Story109 D3E assists US scientific visualization community Technology Related Event Simon Buckingham Shum, 21 Mar 2000 The Digital Document Discourse Environment D3E is now being used across the US to support meteorological data analysis. D3E provides an important link between Unidata UCAR where developers are building 3D scientific visualization and analysis tools, and the university researchers who use them. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research UCAR is a consortium of universities with doctoral programs in atmospheric and related sciences. Its mission is to support, enhance and extend the capabilities of the university community and to understand the behavior of the atmosphere and related systems and the global environment. UCAR's MetApps Project is using D3E to create a direct link between programmers and end-users, enabling them to discuss in a structured manner technical documents describing the different tools see for instance the Image Viewer discussion . Details of UCAR's work including a link to the D3E discussions can be found in Sun's recent Java3D news story . UCAR/D3E Contact: Mike Wright mwright@unidata.ucar.edu D3E assists US scientific visualization community Planet-News-Story108 The AKT begins.....KMI awarded and pound;1.2M by EPSRC Awards/Praise Enrico Motta, 1 Mar 2000 KMi has been awarded 1.2M by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to carry out research in the application of knowledge technologies to support knowledge creation and sharing in organizations. This highly prestigious award has been obtained in the context of the EPSRC Programme on Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations centred on Information Technology. The project is called AKT: Advanced Knowledge Technologies and has a total budget of almost 7M. It will be carried out by a consortium comprising 5 universities and backed by over 20 industrial, commercial and governmental organizations. The academic partners are: University of Southampton Electronics and Computer Science - Coordinator University of Edinburgh Division of Informatics University of Sheffield Computer Science University of Aberdeen Computer Science The Open University Knowledge Media Institute The consortium plans to tackle fundamental and applied problems associated with the acquisition, modelling, reuse, retrieval, publishing and maintenance of knowledge, with the aim of achieving a quantum leap in knowledge technologies, both within specific disciplines, say knowledge acquisition or information extraction, and within the intelligent systems area as a whole. According to a recent estimate presented to the World Economic Forum in Davos, the market for intelligent retrieval and analysis of information stored in companies' repositories and on the World-Wide Web could amount to $4 trillion a year within the next 15 years. The proposed IRC will provide timely, exciting and necessary support to the growth of the knowledge economy. Relevant links KMi's Knowledge Modelling Pages Enrico Motta's home page EPSRC's home page The AKT begins.....KMI awarded and pound;1.2M by EPSRC Planet-News-Story107 Virtual Degree Ceremony Plans are Front Page News Event Participation/Organization Peter Scott, 21 Feb 2000 Todays Times newspaper Monday, Feb 21 carried our plans to host the worlds first Virtual Degree Ceremony on the front page! The ceremony will actually be the first in the series planned for 2000, and therefore the first in the new millennium. It will be held in the Berrill lecture theatre in Milton Keynes on March 31st, but webcast to the world with a KMi Stadium skin , and using the new tools developed by our WebSymposia venture. The story, given to The Times by IETs Robin Mason, was planned as a piece for the Monday Interfaces section of the paper - but was today promoted to the front page. The story notes that this ceremony is aimed at the worldwide body of students who will be graduating from the Masters Programme in Open and Distance Education. Given that this is a small body of students the graduating cohort is only 25 and that as they are from as far afield as Taiwan, the US, Iceland and Hong Kong, this was felt to be a most appropriate vehicle for their graduation. This was also felt to be a suitable venue for the presentation of an honorary degree to Tim Berners-Lee. Amongst our initial plans to support this ceremony are the ideas of using a student-generated yearbook, and phone-in audio notes to add a personalized flavour to the proceedings. Although there may not be much there yet, you should checkout the Virtual Degree Ceremony pages to see h ow our plans for the event are progressing. Virtual Degree Ceremony Plans are Front Page News Planet-News-Story106 HAMMERSMITH HEAD TEACHERS VISIT KMI Visit Chris Valentine, 12 Jan 2000 Sixteen head teachers came from Hammersmith LEA as part of a course on ICT developments in schools. Their course is organised by John Davitt, a journalist, who writes for the Guardian and other publications. The event in KMi was led by Professor Tom Vincent and Dr Peter Whalley. The head teachers were given an overview of R and amp;D in KMi which was followed by presentations and discussions about developments in local schools and the CLUTCH Club Scheme. The visit ended at Heronsgate School where they met the ICT Coordinator, Mr Neil Robinson, and met a number of children engaged in a range of curriculum activities using ICT. HAMMERSMITH HEAD TEACHERS VISIT KMI Planet-News-Story105 EUROPEAN MULTIMEDIA AWARD: KNOWLEDGE AND DISCOVERY Awards/Praise Tom Vincent, 7 Jan 2000 Congratulations to the S260 Geology Course Team on receiving a 1999 Europrix Multimedia award. One of the multimedia components of the course is the Digital Virtual Microscope which had its origin in a collaborative project between IET and the Earth Sciences Department and, later, KMi. In 1991, Dr Peter Whalley, Dr Dave Williams and Dr Andy Tindle came together to discuss some of the issues concerning laboratory and field study work at summer schools, and the potential use of multimedia. This included accessibility for disabled students. One of the outcomes of this collaboration was a prototype Virtual Microscope developed in Hypercard 1992 . This led to the need for high quality images of thin sections of rock samples at appropriate magnifications. The emergence of the Kodak Photo-CD standard was very timely and enabled the production of CDs containing several hundred images for each sample 1993 . Bringing the high quality images together with an interface developed in Macromedia Director by Ben Hawkridge led to a version of the Virtual Microscope that was at the forefront of applications of multimedia in education. Peter Whalley, Dave Williams and Andy Tindle continued this development until 1995 when the final version of the Virtual Microscope was produced. The CD-ROM and subsequently Web versions of the Virtual Microscope were highly acclaimed at that t ime. Since 1995, the concept of a 'Virtual Microscope' has been adopted by the S260 Course Team who have taken the original ideas forward and developed other complimentary multimedia applications that have, in turn, led to a prestigious Europrix 99 award. EUROPEAN MULTIMEDIA AWARD: KNOWLEDGE AND DISCOVERY Planet-News-Story104 KMi lands first OU Framework V Contract Awards/Praise Marc Eisenstadt, 4 Jan 2000 KMi's Enrico Motta has landed the Open University's first EU Framework V contract. The contract, which awards 207K Euros and pound;130K to KMi over a three-year period, is for IBROW: An Intelligent Brokering Service for Knowledge-Component Reuse on the World-Wide Web. The aim of the IBROW project is to develop an intelligent software broker which will perform specialized search over the World-Wide-Web to analyse the contents of libraries of software components and identify those relevant to an application. In a typical IBROW scenario, a user logs on to the IBROW server on the World-Wide-Web and enters the specification of the knowledge-intensive problem he or she wants to solve. For instance, this could be a classification problem. The broker will then examine the available libraries of software components and configure a suitable problem solver for the problem in question. In the envisaged scenario digital libraries are viewed as active, competence-based components that encapsulate reasoning services, such as configurable information filters, automatic classifiers and design problem solvers. The IBROW software broker relies on shared ontologies to support such component reuse. The IBROW consortium consists of seven partners, which include four European universities, one public research organization, an company specializing in Internet applications and Stanford University USA . An industrial advisory board consisting of five members from three European countries and one from Japan oversees the scientific directions in an economic context. Relevant links KMi's Knowledge Modelling Pages Enrico Motta's home page KMi lands first OU Framework V Contract Planet-News-Story103 On the spot test of OU's voice-on-the-net groupware gets thumbs-up Technology Related Event Simon Buckingham Shum, 14 Dec 1999 Lyceum, the OU's voice-conferencing groupware system not only helps students and tutors communicate, but OU staff. It's 6.45am, Palo Alto, California, and I've just had an unplanned chat with Dave Gosnell on the Lyceum team in ACS. What do I do? Just talk to my laptop mic, listen to Dave, with the additional option of using shared visual tools, as the screenshot shows. Further stories abou t Lyceum will be posted in the New Year... Lyceum, one of the spinoffs from KMi's Stadium Project, is one of the technologies that has been handed over from KMi to CES for mainstream OU development. On the spot test of OU's voice-on-the-net groupware gets thumbs-up Planet-News-Story102 KMi lead International CSC-Argumentation workshop, Stanford Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 7 Dec 1999 'Computer-Supported Collaborative Argumentation for Learning Communities' is an international workshop being held at Stanford University, CA this weekend, bringing together for the first time researchers and commercial system developers workin g on collaborative-technologies to augment argumentation. The event precedes the bi-annual CSCL'99 conference which will attract 300-400 international delegates. Convened by KMi's Simon Buckingham Shum, the workshop topic of CSCA seeks to combine hypermedia and groupware technologies with rhetorical and meeting process research in order to pursue the goal set out in the 1960's by visionary Doug Englebart, who envisaged technologies that could represent and augment human conceptual structures and reasoning. Position papers and further details can be found below: Workshop: CSCA for Learning Communities: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/sbs/csca/cscl99/ CCSL'99 Conference: http://sll-6.stanford.edu/CSCL99 CSCA resource site: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/sbs/csca/ KMi lead International CSC-Argumentation workshop, Stanford Planet-News-Story101 KM i INFLUENCE GROWS Technology Related Event Marc Eisenstadt, 2 Dec 1999 The wide-ranging impact of KMi-inspired research and development has been the subject of a recent report to The Open University's Learning and Teaching Innovations Committee. The report, by KMi's Arthur Stutt and Stuart Watt, describes no fewer than 36 different activities emanating from KMi that have a direct impact on the future directions of Open University teaching. The report describes current KMi activities under the broad headings of collaborative learning, agents, electronic publication, webcasting and voice-on-the-net, knowledge management and knowledge modelling, multimedia for education, virtual laboratories, courses, course-related software, and teaching/learning infrastructure. The report itself, which will eventually migrate to KMi's main projects page, can be found at the following link: KMi LTIC Report KMi INFLUENCE GROWS Planet-News-Story100 KMi Welcomes EADTU Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 12 Nov 1999 The annual conference of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities is underway, with large group visits to KMi being one of the features of the event. About two thirds of the 120 delegates will be visiting KMi during the conference to get a first-hand look into new technologies, and discuss the implications of KMi research for their own institutions. During the visit, which followed a keynote presentation by Marc Eisenstadt, delegates received presentations from Tom Vincent, Enrico Motta, Simon Buckingham Shum, Zdenek Zdrahal, Craig Rodine, and Peter Scott. Further details of the EADTU may be found at http://www.eadtu.nl . Follow the links to 'activities' and 'events' for conference details. KMi Welcomes EA DTU Planet-News-Story99 KMi representation on Key Scientific and Engineering Committees Awards/Praise Martyn Cooper, 9 Nov 1999 While attending the AAATE'99 Conference in Dusseldorf Nov 2-6 Martyn Cooper Research Lecturer in IET/KMi was elected to the Board of the AAATE Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe . This is the premier scientific committee for all stakeho lders in technology for disabled people at the European Level. It activities include dissemination a new partnership with the journal 'Technology and Disability', a bi-annual conference and regular newsletters , policy consultation, lobbying the European Parliament and Commission on matters concerning technology for disabled people, etc. Martyn Cooper expects to get particularly involved with the management and editing of the journal. For more information see the AAATE's Web Site Martyn Cooper has also been invited to join the Institute of Electrical Engineers IEE professional group on Human interface systems engineering [A5 ] . He had previously been a member of the group on Personal Technologies [A10 ] . The scope of A5 encompasses all aspects of interaction between people and systems including: a designing systems from an ergonomic/human factors perspective; b user-interface designs for advanced and emerging technologies; c physiological, psychological, social and organisational issues during system development, implementation and operation; d evaluation and assessment methods; e human to human communication, mediated via electronic systems; f standardisation, best practice, and case studies. Martyn Cooper will take a particular interest in human systems interaction issues for disabled people. His ongoing research into audio virtual environments for visually impaired students is particularly relevant here. More information about the group and the IEE can be found via the IEE A5's Web Site For further details please contact: Martyn Cooper m.cooper@open.ac.uk KMi representation on Key Scientific and Engineering Committees Planet-News-Story98 KMi Technologies in Santiago, Chile Event Participation/Organization John Domingue, 28 Oct 1999 The early part of this month saw the demonstration of a number of KMi technologies to the Chilean Higher Eduction Council during their international seminar on New Technologies for Teaching, Learning and Management in Higher Education held in Santiago, Chile. KMi was invited to give a presentation because of the high prestige in which the Open University is held in South America and because of our strength s in the themes of the meeting. The seminar was held in the Economic Commission for Latin America an office of the United Nations, which meant that the presentations and discussions were simultaneously translated into Spanish and English. Other invited speakers aat the seminar included Jose Joaquin Brunner an ex Chilean Minister now the president of the National Accreditation Commission and Mark Luker the vice president of EDUCAUSE - one of the leaders of the Internet2 project. The demonstrated KMi projects included: Our work on organisational learning KMi Planet , and KMi Stadium KMi Technologies in Santiago, Chile Planet-News-Story97 Drawdown - a sincere form of flattery Technology Related Event Peter Scott, 15 Oct 1999 Our colleagues in BP Amoco have clearly been putting in overtime recently to make the most of their new insights from working with the lab on Knowledge and Media. There are already a number of Planet clones, designed by the lab for use in the Open University and for other clients and research communities eg. See John Domingues recent story about the UFI funded Marchmont News version of the Planet agent. But on a recent visit to the lab, the BP Amoco Well Intervention team were so taken by the KMi Planet that they decided that they should build their very own! David Stevens and Jonathan Paragreen had detailed discussions with the KMi Planet team to explore how they might re-engineer some features of the our news agent and add a few special features of their own! Their own news agent called Drawdown is a forms based system implemented via a Cold Fusion server. It carries Well Performance related news posted by engineers in the well engineering community. Whilst Drawdown is missing the proactivity of the KMi agent is does have many of the media features which contribute to its communti cative power. Amongst the new and vital features of the Drawdown news agent is an auto voting system so that readers can view the most popular stories filtered using intranet authentication so that authors cannot popularize their own stories ! Users can also comment directly on stories - adding their own perspective to the Well performance reportage. Perhaps most vitally, it even features a dynamically generated posting of the current BP Amoco Share Price! and nbsp; According to one manager in BP Amoco Exploration who was recently shown the Drawdown agent and quot;I am impressed - probably one of the best of these that I've seen and quot; . The team will be evaluating the impact of the agent on their business communciation over the next few months, before returning to KMi to discuss future directions. Drawdown - a sincere form of flattery Planet-News-Story96 KMi AND EARTH SCIENCES TO FEATURE IN SKY'S LEARNING CURVE Visit Chris Valentine, 13 Oct 1999 A television crew from Illumina TV who produce the 'Learning Curve' programme for Sky's Technology channel visted KMi and Earth Sciences to pick up the story of the Virtual Microscope. Professor Tom Vincent provided an introduction by describing the wide range of research activities undertaken in KMi and how the link had been established with Earth Sciences when the need for a Virtual Microscope was first identified. Tracy Carlton went on to explain and demonstrate the latest version of the Virtual Microscope being used for OU Foundation Science and Geology courses. Transmission date is not yet known. Historical footnote: the need for a Virtual Microscope was first identified in 1992 when Dr Peter Whalley, IET/KMi, met with Dr Dave Williams, Earth Sciences, to discuss how students unable to participate in laboratory and field work because of physical impairments might be helped through computer emulations of laboratory experiments. Initially this involved capturing high quality magnified images which were made accessible on a computer. A great deal of use was made at that time of the Kodak PhotoCD process which had only just become available. Subsequently, the interface went through various development phases. The current version used by students was produced in Earth Sciences. However, as technology has moved on, new versions have been prototyped in KMi. A Web/Streaming Video version can be seen on the Multimedia Enabling Technologies Group METG Web site . KMi AND EARTH SCIENCES TO FEATURE IN SKY'S LEARNING CURVE Planet-News-Story95 KMI DIRECTOR KEEPS IN TOUCH FROM THE SKY! Technology Related Event Chris Valentine, 13 Oct 1999 KMi Director, Professor Marc Eisenstadt, is currently in the US for a Board Meeting of the new US Open University. Not wanting to be out of touch for too long with colleagues back in the UK, Marc is taking advantage of new in-flight facilities. The following message, together with picture, has just arrived from him: and quot;Howdy... just sending this from my seat on board USAirways flight 269 from NY to Columbus, OH, using a GTE 'Airfone' which includes a data port for my laptop's modem... and naturally I've taken a digital picture of the phone itself and attached it with this email!! and quot; Good to hear from you Marc - see you soon. Enjoy the rest of your flight. A Planet story will be live before you land!! KMI DIRECTOR KEEPS IN TOUCH FROM THE SKY! Planet-News-Story94 EPSRC funds continuation of work on 3D Audio Awards/Praise Martyn Cooper, 6 Oct 1999 Yesterday we received the confirmation from the EPSRC that they will fund the continuation of the ongoing work on 3D Audio Virtual Environments. To date this work has been funded by IET's Research Committee and the OU's Capital Research Equipment Fund. This is a collaborative effort between the Open University and the Sensory Disabilities Research Unit at the University of Hertfordshire. [Congratulations to Helen Petrie, Director of the unit who yesterday also received the news that she had been awarded a Chair in Psychology! ] The project will investigate key technical and human-factors issues in the realisation and application of 3D Audio Virtual Environments AVEs . The approach is to develop and evaluate successively more complex AVEs targeted at applications for visually impaired students. The overall objectives for this research are: * To provide the scientific and technical foundation for the development of a system for educational contexts for the computer generation of 3D audio virtual environments * To demonstrate and evaluate the application of 3D AVEs in giving access for people with visual impairments to current / emerging approaches in educational multi-media and computer based learning Funding has been received for an initial 14 month period to research the fundamental technical and human-factors issues that impinge here. It is hoped that subsequent work will go on to develop a practical system. This stage of funding represents 56,034 to the Open University and 40,462 to our collaborators at the University of Hertfordshire. For further information contact Martyn Cooper m.cooper@open.ac.uk EPSRC funds continuation of work on 3D Audio Planet-News-Story93 OUDF TRUSTEES VISIT KMi Visit Chris Valentine, 5 Oct 1999 Trustees of the OU Development Fund OUDF visited KMi to hear about recent developments and to meet some of the staff. The focus of the visit was the Multimedia Enabling Technologies Group which has received funding from the OUDF to help with several developments. These include the Alternatives to Print project, the appointment of a blind member of staff to undertake advisory and evaluation work, and the Talk not Type project. The Trustees were given the opportunity to see a number of applications of information and communication technologies including: the Mars Buggy , ReadOut , world-wide training for BP-Amoco , and the Millennium Awards Scheme. OUDF TRUSTEES VISIT KMi Planet-News-Story92 KMi Hosts ALCET Presentation Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 30 Sep 1999 KMi today played host to a presentation by Dr. Ann Hanson of the ALCET project - Associate Lecturers Cascading Electronic Tutoring - a project which involved tutors on School of Education courses in the northwest region of the OU. A pilot study was undertaken to examine the potential value of synchronous audio discussion rooms via the World Wide Web as an enhancement for staff development and, in turn, provide Associate Lecturers with new skills for future applications of the Internet for student support. The project complemented developments elsewhere in the OU in providing training for staff in the use of the Internet. It seeked to assess the potential of the latest developments on the Internet with a view to providing pointers as to future University provision in this area. Funding for the first year of the pilot study was provided by the Office for Technology Development, the OU Development Fund and the Electronic Tuition Group. Two of the project's associate lecturers Terry Richards in Colne and Netta Whitehead in Blackburn joined the demonstration on-line via dial-up internet acce ss. The audience included Will Swann, Dean of the School of Education and PVC for Technology, Diana Laurillard. A full multimedia version of the project's final report is available on line, at: http://met.open.ac.uk/alcet/repor t/ KMi Hosts ALCET Presentation Planet-News-Story91 'PEARL's a singer' - Success for IET/KMi/Science project Awards/Praise Martyn Cooper, 30 Sep 1999 Yet another successful EU project proposal: Martyn Cooper Research Lecturer in IET/KMi is now completing the detailed contract for an EU funded project called PEARL Practical Experimentation by Accessible Learning , after the proposal received a favourable evaluation. It is anticipated that the contracts will be signed by the end of October and that the project will start on the 1st January 2000 and last for 3 years. PEARL will research and develop a system to enable students to conduct real-world experiments as an extension of computer based learning CBL and distance learning systems. The objectives being to give high quality learning experiences in science and engineering education by bringing the teaching lab to the students, giving flexibility in terms of time, location and special needs. Particular attention is being paid to the needs of disabled students who are under represented in these subject areas. The project will extend Internet course delivery to accommodate collaborative working in practical experimentation. It will develop and integrate a collaborative working environment with accessible user interfaces, a modular system for flexibly creating remotely controlled experiments, and an educational software framework based on templates and tutor guidelines that will enable the ready development of experimental programmes using this system. The project will research the pedagogic impact of this approach, validating its developments in different educational contexts and subject areas including: - Foundation Level Physical Science The OU's S103 course - Cellular Biology At University of Dundee - Manufacturing Engineering At Trinity College - Dublin - Digital Electronics - design and test At University of Porto Funding: The project is funded under the EU's Information Society Technologies Programme IST : # Key Action III - Multimedia Content and Tools * Action Lines III.3 Education and Training - III.3.1 Open platforms and tools for personalised learning - III.3.2 The flexible univers ity The maximum available Commission funds is EURO 1,700,000 ~ 1,088,000 over the 36 months with about EURO 510,000 ~ 326,000 allocated for the OU's role. Whose Involved?: The project is being co-ordinated by the OU and is being led by Martyn Cooper. The other named participants here are Eileen Scanlon IET and Stuart Freake Science - Course chair S103, which will be the OU's test-bed for the developments . The project will fund 2 full time research posts one in IET and one in KMi and a part time Project Manager. The other partners in the project are: * OU Worldwide Ltd. * University of Dundee * Trinity College Dublin * Faculty of Engineering University of Porto * Zenon SA - Industrial Automation Athens, Greece For further information contact Martyn Cooper m.cooper@open.ac.uk 'PEARL's a singer' - Success for IET/KMi/Science project Planet-News-Story90 BP Amoco funds 'Best Practices E-Journal' project Awards/Praise Simon Buckingham Shum, 28 Sep 1999 BP Amoco is funding a 2 year Research Fellowship into the application of the D3E Web document publishing and discussion system to an internal best practices journal, modelled on the innovative Journal of Interactive Media in Education . This project continues BPA's collaborative research with KMi into knowledge management technologies, initiated with the organizational lea rning webcasting project using KMi's Stadium environment. Project contact: Simon Buckingham Shum sbs@acm.org BP Amoco funds 'Best Practices E-Journal' project Planet-News-Story89 ICT Training for the Multimedia Society Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 23 Sep 1999 Eight new teachers from Heronsgate Middle School are participating in ICT training sessions at KMi as part of a pilot programme to test teaching materials for the CLUTCH Club Millenium Award Scheme. For the teachers the sessions provide them with the skills to make ICT activities integrate effectively with study in other parts of the curriculum - using the computer to genuinely contribute to project work in areas as diverse as history, music and mathematics. For the METG Millenium Awards Team it is an invaluable method of testing new teaching methods and new technology. A suite of 5 coloured iMacs and has been set up for this purpose with internet access and an array of different peripherals for media capture. 'Heronsgate School has a broad range of internet and multimedia enabled Macintoshes and enjoys excellent internet access', says Shamus Foster, Training and Support Manager for the METG Millenium Awards Team. 'As such, these teachers are in ideal position to take the skills learnt here and develop and extend them through real classroom activities. I'm really looking forward to see what they can achieve.' Previous Heronsgate project work is at: http://heronsgate.op en.ac.uk/projects/index.html ICT Training for the Multimedia Society Planet-News-Story88 CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY TO KMI!!! Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 7 Sep 1999 The delivery of 25 i-Macs took on a festive mood when the colourful collection arrived. No, it was not an early Christmas present from Apple but the arrival of the key part of the workstations that parents will be using in schools for the Millennium Awards Scheme that is now underway. The first 100 parents to receive awards will be decided this week. They all have children in local schools. In groups of 5, they will undertake local history projects for a period of 8 months during which time they will receive training and support from the METG Millennium Awards Team in a range of multimedia and Web techniques. The outcomes of the projects undertaken by parents will be made available to the local community via the Web. The Millennium Awards Scheme is co-directed by Professor Tom Vincent and Roger Kitchen, General Manager, The Living Archive. CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY TO KMI!!! Planet-News-Story87 AAAI Fellow visits KMi Visit John Domingue, 3 Aug 1999 Paul Cohen, Professor of computer science and leader of the Experimental Knowledge Systems Laboratory EKSL at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is visiting KMi for the rest of this week. Professor Cohen is a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence AAAI and a leading figure in the fields of machine learning and the evaluation of intelligent systems. Professor Cohen's visit is part of a long term collaboration between his laboratory and KMi's Knowledge Discovery group. Tomorrow Professor Cohen will give an SGES Evening Lecture at the British Computer Society in Lond on. Relevant Links Paul Cohen's Home Page EKSL home page Paul Cohen's BCS Evening Lecture AAAI Fellow visits KMi Planet-News-Story86 FirstFlight First on AP Event Participation/Organization Marc Eisenstadt, 21 Jul 1999 The FirstFlight site, dedicated to the history and scientific study of flight, has once again leapt to the top of the charts. This time, aspects of the site are featured on the Associated Press 'History of the 20th Century in Video' site. Because of the design of AP's own user interface, you need to click on the first link shown below, and then wait for the 'Video' label to appear in the lower right-hand corner. Click on that label, and then you'll see the featured Wright Brothers movie clip, which was itself the subject of an earlier Planet story. Because the AP links to historical videos are shown in chronological order, the 1903 sequence is likely to remain permanently at the top of the list! The FirstFlight site, developed by Peter Whalley and his colleagues, continues to be the recipient of extensive publicity and web traffic from around the world. Relevant links AP History of 20th Century FirstFlight featured AP movie simulation FirstFlight site FirstFlight First on AP Planet-News-Story85 Construction of UfI Observatory Begins Event Participation/Organization John Domingue, 9 Jul 1999 Yesterday saw the first public viewing of a number of web-based services, constructed collabor atively by KMI and IET's International Centre for Distance Learning, which will form a significant part of the University for Industry's National Observatory. By capturing, contextualising and semantically indexing best practice within EU funded ADAPT projects the observatory will provide a highly valuable resource for the UfI. The web services demonstrated in London build on top of a number of KMI technologies including: KMI Planet, Enrich and our own knowledge modelling language. The OU will receive a grant of and pound;100K to create the observatory as part of the Marchmont project. Web sites demonstrated: Marchmont Planet News Page Marchmont Discussion Site Relevant web links: The Marchmont Project International Centre for Distance Learning The Enrich Project The University for Industry The ADAPT Programme Construction of UfI Observatory Begins Planet-News-Story84 Macromedia European User Conference - UCON-99 Event Participation/Organization Peter Scott, 1 Jul 1999 The 24th and 25th June 99 saw the Newport Bay hotel in the Euro Disney Resort in Paris hosting the Macromedia European User Conference - UCON-99. There was a very large gallery of some hugely excellent multimedia and web projects from European Companies. Most of the folk there were from the average small 5-20 folk multimedia and web firms - though most of the very big players had representation. Amongst all the enthusiastic users there seemed to be at least 20-30 or so keen and helpful macromedia folk there. I must say that having been made very cynical recently about how slowly and poorly most academics were taking to media and the web after some very depressing conferences some of the work on show here was somewhat shocking a clumsy pun . It is easy to become smug about the jolly cleverness of ones own work - but when you see what some of these small focused commercial projects can deliver all collected together like this and then hear them talk you though it - one can can be pretty bloody impressed. I have posted a full report , but for this story have abstracted a few headlines and urls. Some Headlines The 7.02 shockwave release wont be out for a couple of months, but will have quicktime 4 controls and non-rectangular movies in a window. The Flash team are bullish about the ecommerce potential of their editable text features of flash 4 - they now have a 4 5 strong KPMG team on site! Personally, I am impressed by their powerful implementation of mp3 for streaming audio. And the implementation of a shockwave flash player on the Palm Pilot v5 was very sweet. There was an awful lot of games driven discussion esp. through their new site at shockwave.com and the new remote app that will accompany the 7.02 shock release; so even the power of the multiuser server which MPath will make industrial strength was discussed in this context - but the serious teaching and commercial applications of these things are very powerful. Some Urls Checkout Roy Stringers new concept navigation site http://www.navihedra.com . Then try this neat little example of actor casting cute animated postcard/cartoon type idea 'zouga tv' at http://flash.tf1.fr/zouga/ . Checkout http://www.Ss7x7.com for their way cool livejam797; very nice multiparty music-mixing demo. If you want to hook up with the important MultiUserServer chat you need to checkout http://poppy.macromedia.com for Sarahs pages. A more full version of this story see : http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/scott/reportage/eucon99/ Macromedia European User Conference - UCON-99 Planet-News-Story83 'KMi Focus' Feature Marc Eisenstadt, 20 May 1999 'Open House', the Open University's award-winning monthly staff newspaper, features a four-page colour supplement entitled 'KMi Focus' in the May 1999 issue. This Planet story serves to provide links to followup details for Open House readers. The May 1999 supplement was suggested by Open House editor Malcolm Lane as a way of following through on the comments of the recent KMi Review Panel, which suggested internal publicity as a way of keeping Open University staff up to date with the latest KMi activities. The items below augment the 'KMi Focus' headlines with Web links through which readers can experience first-hand the actual implementations behind the work described in the paper document. Front Page KMi at a glance: kmi.open.ac.uk Flight simulation / Cartier Launch: firstflight.open.ac.uk/santos KMi keeps BP flowing: kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/bp KMi in print: kmi.open.ac.uk/knowledgeweb Community Links Heronsgate School on the Web: www.heronsgate.milton-keynes.sch.uk History of flight: firstflight.open.ac.uk Course Life Hank D309 success: kmi.open.ac.uk/people/snw2/hank Access for disabled students: met.open.ac.uk Voice on the net: met.open.ac.uk/alcet/report New Research Smart Digital Libraries: kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/scholonto Creating a compelling experience: kmi.open.ac.uk/stadium Knowledge Discovery Tools: kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/bkd Next Generation Knowledge Management: kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/enrich 'KMi Focus' Feature Planet-News-Story82 Meet-O-Matic: The World's Simplest Cross-Platform Meeting Arranger Technology Related Event Stuart Watt, 29 Mar 1999 Today sees the launch of the first proper release of Meet-O-Matic: a simple Web-based cross-platform meeting arranger. Borrowing ideas from the previous Luigi program, Meet-O-Matic is a significantly simpler and easier to use meeting arranger program. If you want to organise a meeting, simply go to the main page http://meetomatic.open.ac.uk/ , and use the calendar interface to select some possible dates. Meet-O-Matic will then give you a web URL which you can email to your friends. They can click on the link and get to a calendar page to choose the dates they can make, and then register those dates with Meet-O-Matic. As the meeting's organiser, Meet-O-Matic will keep you informed of the meeting's progress, either by email if you type in your email address or through the web. Meet-O-Matic was conceived, designed, and developed by Marc Eisenstadt, Anthony Seminara, and Stuart Watt. Any comments and suggestions will be gratefully received. Meet-O-Matic: The World's Simplest Cross-Platform Meeting Arranger Planet-News-Story81 Stadium webcast to BP Amoco Technology Related Event Peter Scott, 26 Mar 1999 On the 25th March 1999 a Stadium Webcast team went down to the Wytch Farm BP Amoco oilfield in Dorset to help their Water and Gas Control project capture and share some of their expert knowledge with colleagues through the company. In two webcasts lasting about 40 minutes each, 3 oilfield engineers spoke live through the KMi Stadium from the floor of a working field stores shed to around 50 colleagues seated at their desks inside the BP intranet around the world: from Bogota, through Houston to London and Aberdeen. Some participants came to both live events . The event was introduced by John Davies from Wytch Farm, who set the context of the presentation and the technology it was examining: the use of inflatable tools in water and gas intervention. The main section of the presentation saw a BP engineer from Aberdeen, Andrew Patterson, controlling a presentation which was streamed to the remote clients and which included slides, animations, a section of a simulation, and some movies and vr shots of the inflatable device. At the end of the presentation the BP speaker was joined by a Baker Oil Tools Senior Applications Specialist from Houston, Gordon Mackenzie who answered questions about this downhole technology. Just under half of the remote audience participated in this question and answer session. A replay was instantly available for participants who could not make the live session, and is now part of a significant legacy web site on the BP intranet with further multimedia and support for workers to continue thinking about the topic. Initial feedback about the event and all the Stadium technologies used here has been very positive. According to one participant in Aberdeen, speaking about the first session: The webcast was an excellent example of using new technology to distribute information, and I can see many applications for this approach in the future. I wonder how much it would cost to have the same 35 people in one room, in terms of expenses, never mind the man hours! Once commercially sensitive aspects of the presentation have been cleared it is hoped that a version will be available on the public internet via KMi. Stadium webcast to BP Amoco Planet-News-Story80 LORD PUTTNAM VISITS KMi Visit Chris Valentine, 18 Mar 1999 Lord David Puttnam visited KMi on the 18th March to see research and development work, led by Dr Peter Whalley, into how the Web can be developed within the school curriculum. In particular, the novel approach of using historical and contemporary experiments to support th e National Curriculum. This includes First Flight and the Mars Buggy . After leaving KMi, Lord Puttnam visited Heronsgate School to meet pupils who are involved with Dr Whalley's developments. The school's Web site reflects this involvement which has been very highly rated - it is one of the two Web sites included in BECTa's Gallery . Lord Puttnam has a key role in the DfEE in leading the design of the 'School of the Future' within the Learning Zone of the Millennium Dome . LORD PUTTNAM VISITS KMi Planet-News-Story79 LibDem Education Spokesman Visits Visit Chris Valentine, 18 Mar 1999 The Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Higher Education, Mr.Phil Willis, today visited the University. After a meeting and introduction by the Vice Chancellor, he was shown details of the popular new course T171 'You, Your Computer and the Net' by John Naughton of Technology. Dr.Peter Scott then demonstrated some of KMi's current research projects. Later, Dennis Bancroft of the School of Education held a discussion on the key aspects of Special Needs Education. Mr. Willis, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough and a former head teacher, is a passionate advocate of lifelong learning and a strong opponent of the imposition of fees on HE students. Relevant links: The Liberal Democrats Mr.Phil Willis, MP OU course T171 'You, Your Computer and the Net' The School of Education LibDem Education Spokesman Visits Planet-News-Story78 Review Panel Site Visit Visit Chris Valentine, 10 Mar 1999 The KMi Review process enters its next phase today, as the formally-constituted Review Panel spends a full day visiting KMi. The KMi Review, as specified by the OU Academic Board in 1995, was established to undertake the task of assessing how well KMi performed with respect to its original goals. The terms of reference of the Review Panel stipulate that it should: Review the extent to which the Institute has met its original aims. Evaluate the contribution of the KMi to the OU and the international research community. Evaluate the 'state of KMi', with respect to a what it is doing, b where it is going, and c how it functions. Make recommendations for the medium and long term future of the Institute. One key purpose of the site visit is to undertake discussions with individual researchers to get a better feel for the nature of their work. The panel will also engage in detailed discussions concerning managerial, financial, and logistical aspects of KMi with Profs. Eisenstadt and Vincent, and Business Manager Jerzy Grzeda. Membership The Review Panel has eight members, as follows: PVC Learning Technologies and Teaching Chair - Prof. Diana Laurillard Two nominees of the PVC LTT i one external with a research record in Knowledge Media and its application to Learning and Teaching Dr. Jonathan Darby - Oxford; head of Technology Assisted Lifelong Learning programme ii one internal. Dean or Head of unit which could apply KMi research in course production or presentation. David Asch, form er Dean of Business School Two nominees of the Director of KMi i one external with a research record in Knowledge Media and its application to Learning and Teaching Prof. Ron Baecker, U. of Toronto, already visited on 23rd February ii one internal. Professor with research interests allied to knowledge media and its application to Learning and Teaching Prof. Bob Spicer, Earth Sciences PVC Strategy and Planning - Prof. Geoff Peters PVC Research and Staff - Prof. Alan Bassindale Secretary for Technology Development Secretary - Peter Wilson Following today's visit, and a formal write-up, the Review Panel will 'recommendations for the medium and long term future of the Institute' to a forthcoming meeting of the OU Academic Board. Review Panel Site Visit Planet-News-Story77 INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE MILLENNIUM AWARDS ADVISORY COMMITTEE Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 3 Mar 1999 Following the earlier announ cement of a UKP 0.7million grant from the Millennium Commission, a newly formed Advisory Committee met for the first time today in the Knowledge Media Institute. The main tasks of the Committee are to oversee the Open University and the Living Archive Millennium Awards Scheme, provide advice on future developments, and advise the Millennium Commission on which 300 parents will receive Awards about UKP 2,000 each during the next 2 years. Members of the Committee present at today's meeting were: Mrs Sue Cox, Headteacher, Bushfield School, Wolverton; Professor Marc Eisenstadt, Director, Knowledge Media Institute; Mrs Marion Hill, Living Archive Board Member; Miss Tracy Holland-Smith, Marketing Department, Gedas UK Ltd; Mr Julian Hunt, County Records and Local Studies Manager, Aylesbury; Mrs Marilyn Moffat, Governor Walton High and Parent Heronsgate School ; Mr Chris Stevens, Head of Special Educational Needs and Inclusion, BECTa British Educational Communications and Technology Agency ; Mr Roger Kitchen, General Manager, The Living Archive and Project Manager; Professor Tom Vincent, Deputy Director, Knowledge Media Institute and Project Manager; Mrs Jane Whild, Scheme Coordinator. INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE MILLENNIUM AWARDS ADVISORY COMMITTEE Planet-News-Story76 READOUT: From R and D to Production Technology Related Event Chris Valentine, 2 Mar 1999 The Office for Students with Disabilities are starting to mail CD-ROMs to blind students in a new service for 1999. In the past the only alternative to printed units were audiocassettes, but research by Professor Tom Vincent's Multimedia Enabling Technologies group within the Knowledge Media Institute has brought together electronic text and digital audio in the ReadOut program , written by Mary Taylor. Following several pilot schemes with small numbers of students, 5 courses are being offered as a service by OSD in 1999 and the CDs for A103 will be mailed later this week. Each ReadOut CD contains the text of all the printed blocks, with descriptions of images, in a browser which is accessible with enabling technology such as synthetic speech or magnification. The text is linked to digital audio recordings of the material, synchronised by paragraph, effectively giving a computer interface to many hours of audio cassettes, helping blind students to study more effectively. READOUT: From R and D to Production Planet-News-Story75 HEFCE WORKSHOP ON ALTERNATIVE MEDIA FOR DISABLED STUDENTS Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 29 Jan 1999 A successful one-day workshop on 'audio versions of learning materials for print-disabled students' was held on the 28th January. It was attended by people with responsibilities for supporting disabled students in higher education institutions in the UK. This workshop pr ovided an opportunity to disseminate the outcomes of the METG DREAM Digitally Recorded Educational Audio Media project which is funded 102k UKP by HEFCE. The workshop included 'hands on' experience of how to record learning materials, interfaces for studying with alternative media to print, and the transformation of images and diagrams into audio descriptions . It included methods of digital audio recording, interfaces for accessing audio in a learning context, and the relationship to enabling technologies. Highlights of the day included: a presentation by Paul Barefoot, CJ Smith Recording Centre on current OU provision of audio tape services; the ReadOut interface developed and presented by Mary Taylor; an introduction to the new DREAM recording sofware being developed in conjunction with Academic Computing Services by Chris Valentine; and, a discussion about the experiences of blind students using alternative media by Terry Brady. A demonstration of the Rio provided an opportunity to look into the future for new devices that will provide enhanced access to audio versions of learning materials. HEFCE WORKSHOP ON ALTERNATIVE MEDIA FOR DISABLED STUDENTS Planet-News-Story74 British Council 'Alliance' grant for D3E Project Awards/Praise Simon Buckingham Shum, 26 Jan 1999 The British Council has awarded a follow-on grant to KMi's D3E Project and the Universite de Provence. The Council's Alliance Programme was set up to foster Franco-British research, and this grant will enable KMi to continue its 1998 collaboration with Nathalie Bonnardel's research team who specialise in cognitive ergonomics. They will be evaluating the usability of the D3E Publishing Toolkit, which converts a conventional HTML document into an easily navigated, interactive discussion document which can be critiqued. The project entitled Towards Designing Scholarly Documents for the World Wide Web is part of ongoing research at KMi into new forms and processes for scholarly peer review and publishing, as exemplified by the electronic Journal of Interactive Media in Education http://www-jime.open.ac.uk Project leader: Dr Simon Buckingham Shum http://kmi.open.ac.uk/sbs Digital Document Discourse Environment D3E http://d3e.open.ac.uk Alliance: The British Council Franco-British joint research programme http://www.britcoun.org/france/frajoint.htm British Council 'Alliance' grant for D3E Project Planet-News-Story73 Schools' Wireless Link to Net via Churches and KMi Technology Related Event Marc Eisenstadt, 21 Dec 1998 Christmas '98 sees the launch of an innovative scheme linking schools in Milton Keynes with churches, the Open University, and the Internet. A 'wireless internet connection' provides high-speed access for entire school networks by relaying signals from Heronsgate, Denbigh and Loughton schools via Christ the Cornerstone and Bow Brickhill Church steeples and onwards to the Open University and out onto the Internet at large. The researchers behind the scheme emphasize the creation of original material by children, but also deploy a 'safe surfing' filtering regime to ensure that school children access only relevant and appropriate materials on the net. The scheme was triggered by the work of OU researchers Peter Whalley and Shamus Foster, who had been developing novel computer-based curriculum materials at Heronsgate school for the past several years with teacher Neil Robinson and his 10-12 year old pupils. Dr. Whalley knew that the pupils would benefit from high speed Internet access, and appr oached Professor Marc Eisenstadt, Director of the OU's Knowledge Media Institute, about the possibility of installing wireless aerial links. Eisenstadt had been in discussion with Chris Woods, ICT Coordinator at Denbigh School, who had the brainstorm of using the tallest buildings in Milton Keynes as 'relay stations' for the signals, and the Woods' idea of a Church connection caught on. The schools The three schools have very different facilities and different curriculum interests, but share the view that ubiquitous Internet access can be a great learning facilitator. In the case of Heronsgate Middle School, teachers and pupils have been using dozens of Apple Macintosh computers for a number of years to advance their studies of art, history, science, English, music, maths, design and even cinematography. Their web site features content entirely created by the children as part of their curriculum work. 'This site shows what can be achieved by children who are given the ability to create their own multimedia content while working to solve problems as diverse as understanding the Wright Brothers' aerofoil design, controlling a home-built robot on a mock Martian landscape, and replicating the artistic style of Modigliani,' enthuses Dr. Whalley. The Heronsgate site was nominated one of the Ten Best Educational sites in a recent Times Educational Supplement survey. Denbigh School is an ICT powerhouse, with Technology College status, a large network of over 200 multimedia PCs, an advanced graphics design suite of 20 high-end Apple Macintoshes, long-standing experience of international email and conferencing facilities, and now high speed Internet access for every PC in the school. Roger Conibear, head of Denbigh, launched the school-wide Internet scheme this week saying, 'This is another indicator of Denbigh's strong track record in providing the best facilities for its pupils, and remaining at the forefront of new technologies.' Loughton Middle School is one of Denbigh's partner schools, and was one of the firs t schools of its kind in the UK to install a relatively advanced networking infrastructure for 8-12 year olds. The setup involves a Windows NT network supporting 19 Windows-95 multimedia PCs. 15 of these are concentrated in a dedicated ICT suite, with additional satellite stations around the school. Loughton ICT coordinator Tracy Wade said 'We are looking at creative uses of ICT across the entire curriculum, and the challenge has been to integrate ICT smoothly into our timetable.' Headteacher Andy Cox added, 'We are delighted to be able to fund this out of our National Grid for Learning grant.' Wireless with filters Blaine Price, who has been supervising the setup at the OU's Knowledge Media Institute, explained the rationale behind the chosen technology: 'While the wireless internet connection involves a medium-sized capital expenditure in the first instance on the order of and pound;6-15K per school, depending on the need for intermediate repeater stations , it has the advantage of negligible ongoing costs and extremely high bandwidth,' said Mr. Price. 'ISDN can deal with perhaps a dozen simultaneous users, but quality of service begins to degrade quickly. The wireless service provides more than 30 times the capacity, and scales up nicely as an independent provision for each new school that acquires this capability.' In addition to the wireless net connections, the other key feature of the service is the filtering software. This is seen by the schools as an essential ingredient of 'safe surfing' so that children are not inadvertently exposed to some of the more questionable material on the Internet. Although there are thousands of sites of great educational benefit, some percentage of sites are not worth exposing the children to, particularly at Primary School age. Finally, the schools have been saving enough on their phone bills that they can now make an annual donation to the churches as a recognition of their service in providing the intermediate repeater stations. Visit the school websites: Heronsgate School: www.heronsgate.milton-keynes.sch.uk Denbigh School: www.denbigh.milton-keynes.sch.uk Loughton Middle School: www.loughton.milton-keynes.sch.uk Tree/animation adapted from 'The Friendship Tree' Poem and illustration by Ashley, at Blue Mountain Christmas Cards , with thanks. Schools' Wireless Link to Net via Churches and KMi Planet-News-Story72 Medical Guidelines Project Launched Awards/Praise Marc Eisenstadt, 23 Oct 1998 KMi's role in European-funded research continued to expand this week with the signing of a 262KECU and pound;187K contract under the EU INCO-Copernicus initiative. The full project, entitled 'Medical Guideline Technology: Representing, Interpreting and Sharing Cost-effective Standards', resulted from a successful bid by Dr. Zdenek Zdrahal. The project brings 105KECU and pound;75K to KMi, and involves partners from Maastricht University NL , Czech Academy of Sciences CZ , University of Economics CZ , and The Centre for Informatics, Health Statistics and Medical Documentation RO . The project, which builds on KMi's existing knowledge modelling expertise, aims to develop methodology and software support for creating, representing and applying medical guidelines. In particular, the project goals are: Design and implementation of techniques for computer representation of medical guidelines MGL which integrate generic recommendations for specific medical circumstances generic medical guidelines with site-specific conditions site ontology and an applicable cost model. Design of a computational model for applying MGL to uncertain or incomplete patient data and implementation of reasoning algorithms for calculating optimal decision with respect to the given MGL, cost model and a selected criterion. Three pilot applications in the same medical domain but in countries with significant differences in the health care system, available resources and organisational structure both from EU and CCE . Evaluation and comparison of benefits for the different health care conditions will be undertaken. Related Links Research on Knowledge Modelling and related topics in KMi KMi's Knowledge Web book and site see especially chapter 13 . Maastricht University NL Czech Academy of Sciences CZ University of Economics CZ Medical Guidelines Project Launched Planet-News-Story71 Published today: 'Educational Authoring Tools and the Educational Object Economy' Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 22 Oct 1998 A special issue of the Journal of Interactive Media in Education JIME is published today focusing on Educational Authoring Tools and The Educational Object Economy This issue reports the work of the East/West Group, a research consortium of US publishers, universities and educational software companies. It addresses concerns ranging from multimedia authoring tools for educational applications, to communities sharing interoperable components and tutorial resources, to new challenges and business opportunities for publishers. The contents of the issue, listed below, are available as HTML and Adobe Acrobat, with several including interactive demonstrations and videos. Over the last year, the articles have been debated on the web by the authors, reviewers and wider community invited to participate during the open peer review phase . The most interesting discussion threads are preserved, linked into the final articles, and remain open for further comment. We hope you find this special issue a valuable resource, and welcome your contributions to the ongoing discussions of this work. Simon Buckingham Shum Open University Tamara Sumner Open University Jim Spohrer EOE Foundation Special Issue Editors Background JIME is an award winning, peer reviewed journal and an action research project at the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute, investigating social and technical dimensions to new forms of scholarly publishing. JIME places particular emphasis on using networked media to deliver interactive software demonstrations, and to facilitate constructive discourse between authors, reviewers and peers. To receive announcements of PrePrints as they become available for open peer review, new Articles and Reviews, and other journal-related new s, subscribe to JIME News via the website. CONTENTS JIME Special Issue October, 1998 Educational Authoring Tools and the Educational Object Economy http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/ Educational Authoring Tools and the Educational Object Economy: Introduction to this Special Issue from the East/West Group Jim Spohrer EOE Foundation Tamara Sumner Open University Simon Buckingham Shum Open University Educational Publishing and the World Wide Web Ann Marion and Elizabeth H. Hacking Houghton Mifflin Company Publishing New Media in Higher Education: Overcoming the Adoption Hurdle Leslie G. Bondaryk PWS Publishing Company, Boston Learning Technologies in Support of Self-Directed Learning Gerhard Fischer and Eric Scharff University of Colorado A Model for Distributed Curriculum on the World Wide Web Tom Murray University of Massachusetts Scaleable Integration of Educational Software: Exploring The Promise of Component Architectures Jeremy Roschelle SRI Jim Kaput University of Massachusetts Walter Stroup Dartmouth University of Texas Ted. M. Kahn DesignWorlds for Learning Learn to Communicate and Communicate to Learn Alexander Repenning, Andri Ioannidou, James Ambach University of Colorado Shop Class for the Next Millennium: Education through Computer-Enriched Handicrafts Mike Eisenberg and Ann Nishioka Eisenberg University of Colorado Authoring Content in the PAT Algebra Tutor Steven Ritter, John Anderson and Olga Medvedeva Carnegie Mellon University Michael Cytrynowicz Nortel Published today: 'Educational Authoring Tools and the Educational Object Economy' Planet-News-Story70 Knowledge Web book launch Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 13 Oct 1998 The Knowledge Web: Learning and Collaborating on the Net is the first major book describing a significant portion of KMi's research in one volume. The book, published this week by Kogan Page, was edited by Marc Eisenstadt and Tom Vincent, and includes contributions from 23 authors, mostly working in or directly affiliated with the Knowledge Media Institute. The individual contributions reflect the diverse range of new developments in learning technology by bringing together researchers in the learning and cognitive sciences, multimedia enabling technologies for disabled learners, and artificial intelligence. In addition, there is a complementary World Wide Web site which contains up-to-date examples of the work through which readers can explore and engage in on-line experimentation. Relevant links The Knowledge Web site Order the book from Amazon.com Kogan Page Publishers Knowledg e Web book launch Planet-News-Story69 and pound;650K Organizational Learning Project Launched Awards/Praise Marc Eisenstadt, 1 Oct 1998 Today marks the official start of a and pound;650K KMi-led European project entitled 'ENRICH: Enriching representations of work to support organizational learning.' The project, conceived and written by KMi's Tammy Sumner, John Domingue, and Zdenek Zdrahal, will bring more than and pound;300K directly into KMi. The full ENRICH project, to be managed by Dr. Zdrahal, will support a team of 4 KMi researchers and ancillary staff to integrate and rollout our existing efforts on knowledge management, knowledge representation, digital document discourse environments, and visualization. The key goal of ENRICH is to develop tools and methodologies supporting organisational learning addressing three core business needs: a Supporting individuals and groups to continuously reflect on and improve work practices. b Supporting distributed groups to share 'best practices' and improve their coordination efforts. c Promoting the establishment of 'virtual centres of excellence' that serve to identify core competencies and nurture their development by bringing people together across time and geography with relevant expertise. Project details Abstract Full report Acrobat PDF format, 20 pages, 462K . The Enrich web site and pound;650K Organizational Learning Project Launched Planet-News-Story68 Clayton Lewis reports school science model-building experiments Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 25 Sep 1998 Model building by adult scientists is richly rewarding intellectually. Can the intellectual benefits be reaped by young children who build animated computer models as part of their science study? This was the opening question posed by Prof. Clayton Lewis, on research sabbatical in KMi from the University of Colorado Computer Science department, who presented a fascinating talk about the sTc Science Theater/Teatro de Ciencias Project. This has been introducing multimedia simulation tools into school science lessons in a range of different school settings. Prof. Lewis reported both positive and negative findings, highlighting the complexities in designing productive model building tools for school age students. sTc Project publications can be found at: * http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~crader/ Clayton Lewis can be contacted in KMi until mid-December Clayton Lewis reports school science model-building experiments Planet-News-Story67 MILLENNIUM AWARDS SCHEME APPROVED Awards/Praise Tom Vincent, 22 Sep 1998 Following the recent visit by Lord Dalkeith and the subsequent meeting of the Millennium Commissioners, the proposal for the 'Open University and Living Archive Millennium Awards Scheme' has been approved subject to contract . A grant of approximately UKP 0.7million has been offered for the Scheme by the Millennium Commission. The Culture, Media and Sport Secretary of State, Chris Smith also a Millennium Commissioner said 'Through these Schemes the Millennium Commission is investing in the grass roots of society where people have the energy, passion and commitment to make a difference where it matters most - in their community.' The purpose of the Scheme is to provide parents with children at school the opportunity to realise personal aspirations relating to the use of information and communication technologies ICT . Groups of parents usually 5 will form CLUTCH Clubs. These groups will work on community history projects using ICT to both develop and present a wide range of projects that illustrate the history of their local community. The outcomes of the projects will be published on the Web. Parents with little or no experience of ICT will be encouraged to apply for awards. The Scheme is scheduled to commence in 1999 and, during a 3 year period, 300 parents with children in schools within about 25 miles radius of Milton Keynes will receive training and support from the 'OU and LA Training and Support Centre' located in the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute . They will have access to high quality equipment and facilities, and a workstation that will be located in the school where their children attend. The project will be led by Professor Tom Vincent MBE, IET/KMi, The Open University, and Roger Kitchen, The Living Archive . Professor Vincent is seen in the photograph with a parent, Mrs Alexander, who has aspirations to update her skills in searching for historical information, gain new ICT skills, and gain a greater understanding of her children's work at school. She is seen here with Stuart and Jane who are demonstrating the Mars Buggy which is used at Heronsgate School within the control technology part of the curriculum. The Scheme will be launched in 1999 when full details of how parents can apply will be circulated. MILLENNIUM AWARDS SCHEME APPROVED Planet-News-Story66 New KMi Modelling Language Launched at Summer School Technology Related Event John Domingue, 18 Sep 1998 'Hank', the new cognitive modelling language developed in KMi by Paul Mulholland and Stuart Watt, proved itself at this year's D309 Cognitive Psychology residential school. Four groups of students took part in Hank's first live trial, learning the language from scratch and developing a small psychological model in it over the course of two days. All the students were very positive about the new language. They found it easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to connect to psychological theories, which is its intended role within the course. Hank has been designed to be simple to learn and use by non-programmers. It uses a combination of grid views, rather like spreadsheets, and flow charts, along with state-of-the-art software visualisation technology, to make it much easier to grasp than Prolog, which is currently used in D309. Among the comments students made about Hank were: 'Hank could be used in real life. As a gardener I could use it to keep a database on trees: level of shade and light, growth rate. I could write a rule to find the best conditions.' 'You can easily see what some else's Hank program is for' 'You can learn psychology by going through step by step and thinking 'what do we humans do?'' 'Basically, Hank is fun. You can fiddle with it and see what it does.' For more information, see Paul Mulholland's Hank page at http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/paulm/hankpage.html 'Hank' is named in honour of the late Dr. Hank Kahney, Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology at The Open University, who had a vision of template-based programming that would make computing more accessible to psychology students. New KMi Modelling Language Launched at Summer School Planet-News-Story65 Knowledge Discovery: BKD at KDD Technology Related Event Marc Eisenstadt, 16 Sep 1998 With the backdrop of the Fourth International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining KDD-98 , the Open University presented the new version of Bayesian Knowledge Discoverer BKD , the knowledge discovery program able to extract Bayesian Networks from possibly incomplete databases, developed by the joint effort of the Knowledge Media Institute Marco Ramoni and the Department of Statistics Paola Sebastiani . KDD is the leading international conference in the fast-growing field of data mining. This year, it was hosted by the Mariott Marquis Hotel in Times Square, right in the heart of Manhattan. BKD was presented to more than one hundred participants during the 2-day special session devoted to software and research prototype demonstration. The package continues to be used at over a thousand sites worldwide, as reported in an earlier Planet story see archive . Links to relevant items Ramoni and Sebastiani's Bayesian Knowledge Discovery Project Marco Ramoni's home page Paola Sebastiani's home page Knowledge Discovery: BKD at KDD Planet-News-Story64 Millennium Commissioner visits KMi Visit Chris Valentine, 3 Sep 1998 Lord Dalkeith, a Millennium Commissioner, visited KMi on the 3 September together with Rob Luke, Manager of the Millennium Awards Scheme, to discuss a proposal for an Open University and Living Archive Millennium Awards Scheme. The aim of the proposal is to encourage and enable parents of schoolchildren to gain new skills in the use of computer and information technologies, and an understanding of their use for teaching and learning in their children's schools through research of local history and the sharing of their findings with their community through the Web and contributing to local archives. The proposal brings together the skills and experience of the Multimedia Enabling Technologies Group in KMi and the Living Archive . Small groups of parents will form CLUTCH Computer Literacy Understanding Through Community History Clubs which will be associated with schools where their children attend. A high quality Training and Support Centre would be located in KMi. Watch this space for the outcomes of the proposal which we hope will be known by the middle of September. Millennium Commissioner visits KMi Planet-News-Story63 Alliance brings French Researcher to KMi Event Participation/Organization Mike Wright, 5 Aug 1998 KMi is pleased to hav e Jean-Christophe Beaud visiting the D3E group for the month of August. Jean-Christophe is a graduate student at the Centre for Research in Cognitive Psychology CREPCO at the University of Provence , France. Jean-Christophe is visiting KMi as part of an Alliance funded project awarded to Dr. Tamara Sumner of KMi, and Dr. Nathalie Bonnardel of CREPCO. Alliance is a joint programme from the British Council and the French Ministere des Affaires MAE . As part of the project to assess an environment supporting scholars in creating and publishing multimedia documents on the Web, Jean-Christophe will help conduct a study of real designers using D3E to design a publication site. More information about the project can be found at http://kmi.open.ac.uk/~tamara/alliance98.html . Alliance brings French Researcher to KMi Planet-News-Story62 EU Funded Collaboration Starts Visit Mike Wright, 3 Aug 1998 Martin Dzbor of the Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia, is currently visiting KMi as part of a collaboration with Zdenek Zdrahal on an EU funded Socrates/ODL project. As part of the project, they are preparing a technical specification for a knowledge based software support and training environment for users of a software package designed to model and simulate dynamic systems. The simulation package runs on powerful computers, accessed over the web. The support environment will help users to prepare models of their problems for simulation. EU Funded Collaboration Starts Planet-News-Story61 KMi Planet orbits Japan Event Participation/Organization Mike Wright, 31 Jul 1998 John Domingue and Tamara Sumner presented papers at APCHI'98 Asia Pacific Computer Human Interaction held in Japan on 15-17th July. John presented a paper co-authored with Peter Scott about KMi's intelligent news server , Planet - the system in which this news item is stored. Tamara presented a paper co-authored with KMi's Simon Buckingham Shum on aspects of KMi's D3E Project . While the economic turmoil in Asia meant cancellations from delegates from some countries, the conference still had over 190 attendees from 15 countries. Held over three days in the Shonan Village Center south of Tokyo Hayama-machi, Kanagawa , the conference gave the opportunity to hear of research taking place in the Asian Pacific Rim area, and to present to this community some of KMi's work. Invited talks were given by Hiroshi Ishii MIT's Tangible Computing Group , Gerhard Fischer University of Colorado, and Alan Kay Walt Disney Imagineering. A recurring theme of the three talks challenged the community to think about interfaces and design beyond the GUI, and encouraging thoughts about our future and society in which computers will play a part. The APCHI'98 proceedings are available from the IEEE Computer Society E-mail cs.books@computer.org, order number PR08347; ISBN 0-8186-8347-3. As yet, the IEEE hasn't put proceedings on-line. APCHI'98 was sponsered by the Information Processing Society of Japan . The next APCHI will take place in the year 2000 in Singapore 1999 will be skipped. The first APCHI, APCHI' 96 , was held in Singapore; the second APCHI was incorporated within Interact'97 . KMi Planet orbits Japan Planet-News-Story60 Can KMi change the weather? Event Participation/Organization Mike Wright, 31 Jul 1998 Tamara Sumner and Mike Wright of KMi were recently invited to give a talk to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research's UCAR Office of Programs UOP in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A. Over a morning and part of an afternoon, an enthusiastic audience were delighted to hear about The Open University, and the research projects being persued in KMi. As a resource centre for institutions conducting atmopsheric science education and research in North America, they were very interested in the resource based approaches of The Open University. The UOP has a number of projects developing and distributing multi-media educational software and weather data for use by member institutions. Some programs such as Unidata have been using the Internet for a number of years for the distribution of data and resources to higher education. The UOP also manages oportunities for visiting scientists, graduate and postdoctoral research, and training fellowships with visitors from around the world. The University Corporation for Atomspheric Research UCAR , headquartered in Boulder , is an organisation created and governed by 57 U.S. and Canadian universities. It undertakes research in many aspects of the atmospheric sciences in addition to running the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research NCAR . While the visit hasn't stopped the summer rains in Milton Keynes, it has heightened awareness of The Open University and KMi in a large resear ch organisation. Can KMi change the weather? Planet-News-Story59 David Kolb on books, hypertext and architecture... Visit Simon Buckingham Shum, 30 Jul 1998 David Kolb, Professor of Philosophy at Bates College, Maine, USA, gave a fascinating talk today, entitled 'Ruminations on Argument in Mixed Company'. He explored the possible advantages that hypertext might play in argumentative texts which seek to persuade the reader, as encountered in philosophy, and much other scholarly writing. What new affordances might hypertext offer that is hard, or even impossible, to do on paper? What are the new literacies that this implies on the part of writer and reader? Kolb illustrated his points with hypertext examples, and drew parallels with architectural theory's grapplings with place, form and function. Further details on Kolb and his work at: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/kmi-speakers/kolb/abstract.html David Kolb on books, hypertext and architecture... Planet-News-Story58 KMi helps London Mathematical Society launch e-journal Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 15 Jul 1998 The London Mathematical Society has launched its flagship electronic journal, the ' LMS Journal of Computation and Mathematics ' [http://www.lms.ac.uk/jcm ] . KMi's D3E Project Tammy Sumner, Simon Buckingham Shum, Mike Wright and Malcolm Story worked with the LMS in defining requirements e.g. internet infrastructure, journal design and staffing , and interviewing programmers. During 1997, the LMS web programmer Adam Worrall took one of KMi's 'hot desks' for staff from collaborating organisations, and with full access to KMi's facilities and team members, worked to a tight schedule to prototype the journal, culminating in the publication of its first issue in June. Prof. Wilfrid Hodges, the coordinator of the journal's launch, confirmed the value of their collaboration with KMi: 'Adam Worrall's time with you gave every sign of running perfectly. The London Mathematical Society is very pleased with the results, and very grateful to you and KMi for the facilities and help that you gave Adam. We particularly appreciate the steps that you and your team took to make him feel at home at KMi, your generosity with suggestions and your willingness to discuss all aspects of the software that Adam was developing. With many thanks for a profitable collaboration.' Digital Document Discourse Environment: D3E is a publishing toolkit and web server environment for converting conventional documents into interactive document-discussion sites [ d3e.open.ac.uk ] Journal of Interactive Media in Education: JIME is an award winning e-journal published using D3E [ www-jime.open.ac.uk ] KMi helps London Mathematical Society launch e-journal Planet-News-Story57 From Net Newbie to Web Guru in four days Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 14 Jul 1998 Four groups of women studying for an NVQ in Media and IT skills have undertaken a crash course in internet skills, taking them from their first experience of browsing the web to web page design and site maintenance in 12 hours over 4 days. During this time the separate groups have created their own homepages, made their group sites, and integrated them into a collective site for the course. Unlike much computer training, the course has avoided platform or software dependence - so that, having learnt the fundamentals governing HTML pages and web-based graphics, students have a foundation from which to learn for themselves on different computers with different software when they leave the course. In the second stage of the course students will work collaboratively to design a trial web site for an organisation as a large-scale project. The course is part of a collaboration between the Multimedia Enabling Technologies Group METg and the Community Arts organisation, Living Archive. To view their work so far: http://oiler.open.ac.uk/webskills98/ From Net Newbie to Web Guru in four days Planet-News-Story56 Ramoni Fellowship at UMass Event Participation/Organization Marc Eisenstadt, 6 Jul 1998 From 1st July to 1st October 1998, KMi Research Fellow Marco Ramoni will be working as Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, one of the world's leading laboratories in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, according to a recent Business Week survey. The Experimental Knowledge Systems Laboratory, directed by Paul R. Cohen, invited Marco Ramoni and Paola Sebastiani, newly-appointed lecturer at the Open University's Department of Statistics, to apply some of the theories and methods they developed in the Bayesian Knowledge Discovery Project to the EKSL robotic project, which is exploring the idea that machines should acquire their own conceptual systems or ontologies through interaction. Links to related items/stories: UMass Experimental Knowledge Systems Laboratory Business Week's 'World's Leading IT Research Labs' survey Ramoni and Sebastiani's Bayesian Knowledge Discovery Project Marco Ramoni's home page Paola Sebastiani's home page Paul Cohen's home page at UMass EKSL Ramoni Fellowship at UMass Planet-News-Story55 Data Mining Tool for Win95/NT as user base exceeds 1000 Technology Related Event Marc Eisenstadt, 22 Jun 1998 KMi Research Fellow Dr. Marco Ramoni has announced the launch of the latest version of his popular Bayesian Knowledge Discoverer BKD . BKD is a data mining tool which can extract reusable knowledge from databases, using sound and accountable statistical methods, even when data is missing or incomplete. BKD Version 0.1 and Version 0.2 Unix, AIX, and Mac versions have already been distributed to over 1000 sites worldwide. The capabilities of BKD Version 1.0 Beta include: estimation of conditional probability from data, extraction of the graphical structure from data, goal oriented evidence propagation, missing data handling using Bound and Collapse discretization of continous variables, automated definition of nodes from data, conversion from and to the proposed standard Bayesian Networks Interchance Format BNIF , Graphic User Interface and movie-based on-line help. System requirements BKD Version 1.0 Beta for MS Windows 95/NT requires MS Windows 95/NT, 32 MB RAM 64 MB preferred , and 30 MB of free diskspace. Details and download Project details and a copy of BKD Version 1.0 Beta for MS Windows 95/NT can be obtained from the WWW site of the Bayesian Knowledge Discovery Project at http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/bkd Data Mining Tool for Win95/NT as user base exceeds 1000 Planet-News-Story54 Microsoft 2 day visit Visit Simon Buckingham Shum, 9 Jun 1998 Members of Microsoft's group developing learning technologies for distance education visited the OU on 9th and 10th June. Hosted by Diana Laurillard PVC Technology , Jim Ptaszynski, Eric Rait and David Kosbie spent a day in KMi, discussing several projects with staff, before presenting their own work in the afternoon. They continue their consultations tomorrow with the Business School, Technology Faculty, Institute of Educational Technology and Academic Computing Service, concluding with a meeting with the Vice Chancellor Sir John Daniel. Microsoft 2 day visit Planet-News-Story53 John Rieman presents 'JSketch' Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 9 Jun 1998 5 June'98: John Rieman Boulder, Colorado presented an innovative drawing package called JSketch, designed to support the rough sketching that is so crucial to initial, creative design work. He contrasted this to conventional drawing and painting programs which obstruct the free-form lines that underpi ns informal sketching by producing inelegant, or over-precise forms. Abstract and contact details on the KMi Visiting Speaker's page: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/kmi-speakers John Rieman presents 'JSketch' Planet-News-Story52 BT Fellowship for Watt Awards/Praise Marc Eisenstadt, 29 May 1998 Dr. Stuart Watt, joint Lecturer in Knowledge Media and Psychology, has been awarded a prestigious Short-Term Research Fellowship by BT Research Labs. Stuart will spend six weeks at BTRL in Martlesham Heath this summer, continuing his innovative work on intelligent agents and the concepts underlying the very notion of agency. According to the web site describing the BT Research Lab's Research Fellowship scheme, located at www.labs.bt.com/recruitment/fellow , 'The BT Short-Term Research Fellowship Scheme aims to establish beneficial links between the company and academia by offering researchers the opportunity to carry out a short project usually six weeks in one of BT's internationally renowned research centres. The scheme is open to lecturers, professors and PhD-qualified research assistants who are working in relevant disciplines. ... We are keen to receive imaginative proposals that address any field of research which you feel may be relevant to a global telecommunications company. Not surprisingly, our interests are wide ranging and cover far more than the 'traditional' engineering disciplines, extending from such matters as how to transmit information at ever higher rates, through to the im pact of modern telecommunications on society and vice-versa . Proposals for projects which seek to innovate or to challenge current thinking are particularly welcome.' The BT Web site goes on to state: 'The Short-Term Research Fellowship Scheme offers a unique opportunity to work for a short period within one of the world's leading telecommunications laboratories. You will have the chance to see at first hand the technological and business factors influencing BT's research today; this may help influence your own research in the future. During your time with BT we'll be keen to learn more about your own department's research activities and how BT can maintain links beyond the Fellowship period. Travelling and accommodation expenses will be paid and an honorarium of and pound;3,600 will be awarded on completion of the project.' You can read an overview of Stuart's research work on 'Sympathetic Agents' at suilven.open.ac.uk/stuart/agent.html BT Fellowship for Watt Planet-News-Story51 Best Paper Award for KMi Student Awards/Praise John Domingue, 13 May 1998 Trevor Collins, a final year PhD student in KMi, has won the 'Best Student Paper Award' at this year's IEEE World Congress On Computational Intelligence held in Anchorage, Alaska May 4-9, 1998 . This congress is made up of three conferences on: Evolutionary Computation, Neural Networks and Fuzzy Systems. Trevor won his award for his paper entitled 'Understanding Evolutionary Computing: A hands on approach', which describes how his novel software visualizations aid in the development and use of evolutionary programs. Evolutionary computing is the study of robust search algorithms based on the guiding evolutionary principal of 'survival of the fittest'. Developers and researchers in this field often experience difficulties in applying their algorithms to new problems and find it hard to understand the search paths their programs take. Trevor's PhD attempts to alleviate these problems by providing a structured framework for visualizing the execution of evolutionary algorithms and programs. Relevant sites/links: Trevor Collins' home page IEEE World Congress On Computational Intelligence Best Paper Award for KMi Student Planet-News-Story50 Lifelong Learning Minister Visits Open University Visit Chris Valentine, 6 May 1998 On Wednesday 6th May Kim Howells MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Lifelong Learning at the Department of Education and Employment visited the Open University. He was welcomed by the Vice Chancellor Sir John Daniel, and visited a number of OU units to see, first hand, how the University makes Lifelong Learning a reality through supported open learning. Dr Howells entered parliament in 1989 and is MP for Pontypridd. In opposition, he has spoken for Development and Cooperation, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Home Affairs and Trade and Industry. His current government position in Lifelong Learning at the DfEE has seen the publication of a Green Paper on the Learning Age and the planning prospectus for the University for Industry. At the OU, Dr Howells discussed the emerging Lifelong Learning policy landscape, and was shown given a range of views of the OU and its work including discussions with the OU students association, and varieties of technology development such as the T171 course You, Your Computer and the Net . Here in KMi, Dr Peter Scott gave a brief tour of the unit and discussed some our work at the interface of knowledge and media. Relevant sites/links: Department of Education and Employment Green Paper on the Learning Age University for Industry . UK Lifelong Learning Lifelong Learning Minister Visits Open University Planet-News-Story49 KMI LINKS TO OPENING OF NORTH BIRMINGHAM COLLEGE RESOURCE CENTRE Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 1 May 1998 Baroness Tessa Blackstone , Minister for State for Further and Higher Education, was the guest of honour at the opening of a new Learning Resource Centre LRC at North Birmingham College NBC on the 1 May 1998. LRC provides excellent facilities for staff and students. It is the electronic hub for the College. The Centre has state-of-the-art applications on Apple Macintosh and PCs. Open Access Suites provide students with opportunities to access the Internet as part of their course work and for general interest. The link to KMi was provided by the use of KMi Planet to carry the story of the opening at which Peter Whalley and Tom Vincent were guests of the Principal and Chief Executive, Mrs Joan Short. Links were also made by a demonstration of students accessing the Mars Buggy and the potential use of VoxChat. KMI LINKS TO OPENING OF NORTH BIRMINGHAM COLLEGE RESOURCE CENTRE Planet-News-Story48 Authoring Tools and the Educ. Object Economy: JIME Special Issue Event Participation/Organization Simon Buckingham Shum, 9 Apr 1998 A special issue of JIME went live today for open peer review, following several months' intensive author-reviewer debate: Authoring Tools and The Educational Object Economy: http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/ The issue's concerns range from multimedia authoring tools for educational applications, to authoring communities struggling to share interoperable components, to new challenges and business opportunities for publishers. An integrating concept is the sharing and extension of educational Java applets via an Educational Object Economy This issue has been submitted by the East/West Group , a research consortium of US publishers, universities and educational software companies. The issue is open until 15 May'98 for anyone to contribute to the author-reviewer discussions, after which articles will be revised in the light of the discussions. The Journal of Interactive Media in Education is edited and published by KMi as an action research project into new forms of scholarly and technical publishing. JIME uses D3E Digital Document Discourse Environment to generate its sites, which tightly integrate an article with a structured annotation and debate area. KMi Contacts: Simon Buckingham Shum [ sbs@acm.org ] Tamara Sumner [ T.Sumner@open.ac.uk ] Authoring Tools and the Educ. Object Economy: JIME Special Issue Planet-News-Story47 Historic Movie On Display At Last! Chris Valentine, 31 Mar 1998 NEWS FLASH April 1st, 1998 - Historic Movie On Display At Last! Cinefilm of one of the defining events of the 20th century has at last been restored, 94 years after it was taken. Everyone must have seen the classic image of Orville Wright's first flight, but what they will not have realised is that they have only been looking at a single frame taken from a film and not a photograph. First Flight Site Historic Movie On Display At Last! Planet-News-Story46 DfEE Millennium Projects Team Visit KMi Visit Chris Valentine, 31 Mar 1998 Chris Wells, Divisional Manager, and John McCann from the DfEE Millennium Projects Team visited KMi to see a range of multimedia and Web developments. The day commenced with a visit to Heronsgate School to see a number of examples of children using applications to support the curriculum which have been developed by the Multimedia Enabling Technologies Group. This included the Mars Buggy and Virtual Springs. Our visitors also had the o pportunity to experience a Web cast following an earlier live event involving the OU Business School and KMi. The DfEE Team have overall responsibility for a range of Millennium projects including the Millennium Dome. DfEE Millennium Projects Team Visit KMi Planet-News-Story45 Macromedia's Sue Thexton visits KMi Visit Chris Valentine, 24 Mar 1998 Sue Thexton, Managing Director of Macromedia Europe , visited KMi to see a range of developments that involve the use of Macromedia Director for multimedia authoring. There was parti cular interest in seeing applications such as the Virtual Microscope, Topic Accessed Video and the Virtual Leaf. Shockwave applications seen included First Flight and the Dynamic Pump. Macromedia Europe and KMi are sponsors of the Information Society Creative Awards ISCAs . Awards were presented by Mr John Battle MP , DTI Minister, at an event held at the Institute of Directors, London, on the 11th March. Macromedia is a leading supplier of graphics and multimedia authoring software. Products include Director 6 Multimedia Studio, Freehand and Flash. Macromedia's Sue Thexton visits KMi Planet-News-Story44 Fresh transatlantic plaudits for FirstFlight pages Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 16 Feb 1998 A site under the auspices of The American National Science Foundation has listed FirstFlight among its hotlist of education resources for schools. The widely-regarded ' Exploratorium ' posts a monthly list of ten cool sites: ' FirstFlight - This visually attractive site explores the Wright brothers' first flight. You can check out the experiments that lead to the successful flight. The site includes a flight simulator that requires the Shockwave plug-in.' Fresh transatlantic plaudits for FirstFlight pages Planet-News-Story43 New KMi Book Event Participation/Organization John Domingue, 2 Feb 1998 In the past decade, high quality interfaces have become standard in a growing number of areas such as games and CD-ROM-based encyclopedias. Yet the overwhelming majority of programmers edit their code using a single font within a single window and view code execution via the hand insertion of print statements. Software Visualization SV redresses this unbalance by using typography, graphics, and animation techniques to show program code, data, and control flow. Software Visualization: Programming as a Multimedia Experience, published by MIT Press, describes the history of SV, techniques and frameworks for its construction, its use in education and program debugging, and recent attempts to evaluate its effectiveness. The book has a strong KMi presence as two of the four editors and around a quarter of the chapters authors are from KMi. More information on the book can be found at the MIT Press overview . There's also a website for KMI's research on SV New KMi Book Planet-News-Story42 KMi Featured at UNICOM Online Training Event Event Participation/Organization Marc Eisenstadt, 2 Feb 1998 KMi's Marc Eisenstadt and Blaine Price are featured speakers at UNICOM's Interactive Learning/Online Training Seminar and Workshop, taking place 3-4 February 1998 at the Commonwealth Institute in London. The seminar is part of UNICOM's annual series of seminars aimed at business and academic educators and trainers, designed to summarise the latest developments in the field. Marc Eisenstadt will be delivering an address entitled 'Beyond Virtual Classrooms: The new Knowledge Media and Real Telepresence'. Blaine Price's talk is entitled 'Practical Worldwide Large Scale Distance Teaching via the Internet: Four years experience an the Open University'. Both presentations will include background principles, walkthroughs of examples, tutorial advice, and summaries of lessons learned over the past few years. Relevant Links will open in fresh window Online Training Seminar Announcement Programme overview and presentation summ aries UNICOM Home Page KMi Featured at UNICOM Online Training Event Planet-News-Story41 Denbigh School Sixth-Formers To Team Up With KMi Visit Marc Eisenstadt, 20 Jan 1998 A half-day visit took place on 20th January 1998 to foster further cooperation between KMi and Denbigh School, and to explore possible projects which could be undertaken by Denbigh Sixth Form pupils. The visit followed hot on the heels of the successful link-up of Denbigh and KMi via a wireless local area network installation on 6th January, 1998. Chris Woods, Head of IT at Denbigh, was accompanied by 16 pupils. and nbsp; The visit was divided into the following sessions: 9:30 Background to the Open University and Knowledge Media Institute Marc Eisenstadt 9:45 'Sampler' of some KMi projects Peter Scott 10:15 Parallel hands-on workshops: Workshop A: Basic HTML and audio-on-the-net Marc Eisenstadt Workshop B: Macromedia Flash animation Anthony Seminara Workshop C: Streaming Video Peter Scott Workshop D: QuickTime VR Chris Valentine 11:15 Coffee 11:30 Brainstorming about possible project options Tom Vincent + those above Denbigh School experimental web site Denbigh School Sixth-Formers To Team Up With KMi Planet-News-Story40 KMi Hosts 10th Psychology of Programming Conference Event Participation/Organization John Domingue, 8 Jan 1998 Despite the fierce storms the new year saw KMi host an international conference on the Psychology of Programming PPIG , with speakers from the US, mainland Europe, Israel and Russia. One of the predominant features of the PPIG conferences has been their openness to the variety of contrasting concerns relevant to programming. This year was no exception as we had papers on prog ramming for children, autonomous agents, the psychology of technical review meetings, programming for non-programmers, syntonicity and the use of imagery in program comprehension. We were fortunate to have two invited speakers, Alexander Repenning and Allen Cypher, who are at the forefront of their fields. Alexander Repenning is one of the world leaders in end user programming environments. He created the examplar end user programming substrate, Agentsheets, which can be used to create domain-oriented programming and simulation environments. The construction paradigm employed by Agentsheets consists of a large number of autonomous, communicating agents organised in a grid, called an Agentsheet. Agents utilise different communication modalities such as animation, sound, and speech. Agentsheets have been used in diverse domains such as art, artificial life, environmental design, games, genetic programming, network design, kitchen design, and visual programming. Allen Cypher is one of the foremost researchers in the field of Programming by Demonstration. His book 'Watch What I Do' published by MIT Press is a classic in the field. Allen is also the co-creator of Cocoa, a program that enables children to create their own simulations and games, and to publish them on the World Wide Web. Cocoa now has a large web site and is currently used by hundreds of school children. Before Cocoa, Allen created one of the best known programming by demonstration systems: Eager. Eager constantly watches your actions on the computer, and when it detects a repetitive activity, it writes a program which will perform that activity for you. The PPIG website can be found at http://www.ppig.org/ KMi Hosts 10th Psychology of Programming Conference Planet-News-Story39 Scores see Mars Buggy at MacWorld Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 7 Jan 1998 A collaborative project between KMi and Mac ADB controller manufacturers Beehive Technologies has seen up to 100 visits by show attendees to the KMi/Heronsgate Mars Buggy overnight. Beehive have a number of Apple Macs on their stand at the San Francisco exhibition with browsers pointing to the buggy pages . Visitors to the stand can see the hardware in action and drive the buggy for themselves over the internet. The Mars Buggy has also gained fame with the Institue of Physics , who have listed it on their PhysicsWeb pages as this week's Editor's Choice . Scores see Mars Buggy at MacWorld Planet-News-Story38 Open and Florida State Universities Collaborate Visit Chris Valentine, 17 Dec 1997 President of Florida State University, Dr. Talbot Sandy D'Alemberte, visited the Open University on Tuesday 16th December to progress details of OU/FSU collaboration. He met with Gary Slapper, Director of the Law Programme at the Open University Business School, visited Marc Eisenstadt here in the Knowledge Media Institute, and joined Bob Masterton, Keith Williams, Graham Nixey, and Monica Howes of OU Worldwide for detailed discussions about ongoing OU/FSU activities. Visit Florida State University 's main web page, or: Visit the OU/FSU joint Resource and Production Centre . Open and Florida State Universities Collaborate Planet-News-Story37 Euro-Award for KMI Awards/Praise Enrico Motta, 8 Dec 1997 KMI has been awarded 22,500 Ecu from the European Commission to carry out research in the area of knowledge-based systems. This grant will fund a pilot study on the development of an intelligent brokering service which will enable third party knowledge-component reuse through the World-Wide Web. The total budget for the project - called IBROW3 - is 100K Ecus, and the funding will be provided in the context of the Framework IV Long Term Research Programme. The IBROW3 project is a joint collaboration between four european academic institutions: the University of Amsterdam, the Spanish Centre for Scientific Research, the University of Karlsruhe and The Open University. The scenario envisaged in IBROW3 is one in which intelligent applications will be developed primarily by selecting and configuring pre-existing components from distributed libraries, thus significantly reducing development costs and improving system quality. The initial pilot study will test the feasibility of the approach proposed for IBROW3. If this initial phase is successful, then a second, extended phase is planned, which will require funding for about 1,300,000 Ecus. In particular, KMI will be responsible for defining the specification of the library of reusable components and for testing the approach on a number of design applications. This work will draw on recent research by Enrico Motta and Zdenek Zdrahal, which has produced a library of problem solving components for design. The KMI contribution to IBROW3 will be conducted by Enrico Motta. Relevant Links Project Description Relevant KMI Research Euro-Award for KMI Planet-News-Story36 The Berrill Building Opened at the Open University Event Participation/Organization Jez Grzeda, 27 Nov 1997 SIR KENNETH BERRILL formally opened the Open University s newest building today. The Knowledge Media Institute occupies the top floor of the Berrill Building, and visitors - apart from getting an overview of KMi's myriad research projects - are afforded a memorable view over the eastern flank of the new city of Milton Keynes, where the Open University was founded nearly 30 years ago. Sir Kenneth Berrill GBE, KCB , has recently retired as a Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the University s Council, in which capacity he had served the OU with great de dication for more than a decade 1983-96 , having been a member of Council since 1978. Born in 1920, Sir Ken is an economist, and was educated at LSE and Trinity College, Cambridge. He is a former Fellow and Bursar of King s College, Cambridge; Professor at MIT, 1962; Special Adviser to the Treasury, 1967-69 and latterly Head of the Government Economic Service and Chief Economic Adviser to HM Treasury. He was head of CPRS, Cabinet Office 1974-80; Chairman of the Securities Investment Board, 1985-88; Chairman of Vickers Da Costa, 1981-85. His wife Jane is an OU student, and both are keen on the sport of sailing! The Berrill Building Opened at the Open University Planet-News-Story35 Voxware License Boost for KMi Stadium Technology Related Event Marc Eisenstadt, 24 Nov 1997 Princeton, NJ and Milton Keynes, UK -- November 12, 1997 - Voxware, Inc. Nasdaq: VOXW and the Open University today announced their agreement to license Voxware speech and audio compression technology for use in developing environments for the Open University's large-scale, interac tive educational events over the Internet. Voxware, Inc. is a premier developer of speech and audio compression/decompression codec technologies for Internet Protocol IP communications. The UK's Open University has been a leader in supported distance learning for almost 30 years, and has a current enrollment of some 160,000 students working towards a BA, BSc or postgraduate degree. [The above paragraph begins a joint press release which appeared on 12th November 1997 at the Voxware Inc. home page 'What's New' section at http://www.voxware.com The press release begins with the following heading and subheading: 'UK's Open University Licenses Voxware Technology for Distance Learning Over the Internet' 'Voxware's voice and audio compression licensed for use in developing worldwide, interactive educational broadcasting environments' The press release continues as follows: ] The UK's Open University leads the world in applying new technology to distance learning environments. Through its Knowledge Media Institute KMi , it is exploring new ways to host voice-intensive events, discussions, tutorials and Webcasts on the Internet. KMi plans to use Voxware codecs and development toolkits to build voice-enabled research prototypes for delivering real-time synchronized audio and multimedia experiences to very large audiences. 'Voxware for us is the Rolls Royce of compression algorithms,' said Professor M. Eisenstadt, director of Open University's Knowledge Media Institute. 'We looked at many technologies, and found that Voxware gives us the best end-to-end performance and subjective 'quality of experience' over dial-up modems.' The Open University is building 'remote telepresence' environments in which students and lecturers will be able to interact in real-time. 'We envision our experimental environment, called KMi Stadium, as a way to host events of various types, from small chat rooms to enormous Webcasts that may rely on linked servers distributed across several continents,' added Professor Eisenstadt. 'We know that the audio channel can carry the lion's share of 'presence,' an important component of effective remote learning and collaboration on the 'Net. Therefore quality audio over today's packet-losing, modest-bandwidth infrastructure is crucial.' Even good compression, according to Professor Eisenstadt, is not sufficient to overcome the poor voice quality usually experienced over today's Internet. Voxware technology was chosen because it provides a comprehensive solution to quality problems, and because it allows platform independence for the development of the Open University's prototypes. The licensing agreement encompasses the Voxware Compression Toolkit VCT , including RT24 and RT29 MetaVoice TM speech codecs, AC10 and AC16 MetaSound TM audio codecs, and Voxware's proprietary VoiceFont and reg technology. It also includes the Voxware Conferencing Platform VCP , a client/server software development kit used for integrating large-scale voice conferencing capabilities into other applications, as well as creating custom interfaces. In addition, the agreement includes the basic version of VoxPhone TM , a ready-to-use Internet telephony application from Voxware that allows people to speak with other users over the 'Net. 'The Open University is in the forefront of organizations that are developing innovative ways to enhance distance learning,' said Simon Fox, director of Europe, Middle East and Africa EMEA operations for Voxware. 'They bring to their educational projects an unparalleled depth of experience and unprecedented global reach. OU courses are available to all residents of the European union, and also reach countries as far-flung as Ethiopia and Russia. Voxware's technology is an ideal solution for providing high quality voice-based collaboration among geographically dispersed participants.' More information about the Open University can be obtained on the Internet at http://www.open.ac.uk or by contacting the Press Office, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, telephone: +44 1908 653248, fax : +44 1908 652247. About Voxware, Inc. Voxware, Inc., founded in 1993, develops, licenses and supports digital speech and audio products. Voxware's development toolkits enable hardware and software companies to create a new generation of audio-enhanced products for the Internet and other bandwidth-constrained environments. Its corporate headquarters are in Princeton, New Jersey, with regional offices in Tokyo, Japan and Nr. Oxford, England. Additional information about Voxware, Inc. can be obtained on the Internet at http://www.voxware.com, by sending e-mail to vox@voxware.com or by calling 609 514-4100 in the US or +44 1235 862120 in the UK. Voxware License Boost for KMi Stadium Planet-News-Story34 Mars-world in KMi Technology Related Event Chris Valentine, 18 Nov 1997 Having watched their control-buggy spend several years going up and down a short wooden maze , the children of Heronsgate School decided to build a more interesting environment. Their small-scale Mars landscape , complete with cave and evidence of rock paintings! has now been moved to the KMi, and the Heronsgate children can control their buggy through a web interface . The 'live' video pictures from the buggy arrive back at the school slightly faster than NASA's pictures did, but it is still quite a challenging task to control and program the buggy remotely. We hope to extend our research with BT to allow the children at Heronsgate to share their experiences by collaborating on-line with children in other schools. Mars-world in KMi Planet-News-Story33 Visitors witness Volcanic Edinburgh Visit Chris Valentine, 4 Nov 1997 Dr. Stuart Monro, Scientific Director, and Nina Ludgate Event Communications visited KMi's MultiMedia Enabling Technologies group to see protoype material for the Volcanic Edinburgh part of the exhibition currently under construction for the Dynamic Earth project in Edinburgh. A web page for the project, with sample QTVR movies, can be viewed at http://met.open.ac.uk/met_vr/v r_earth.html Later, they went on to Earth Sciences to see other geological materials in use in OU courses. The photo shows, left to right, Dr. Peter Whalley MET group , Dr. Dave Williams Earth Sciences , Nina and Dr. Monro looking at a custom interface for an Apple Pippin low-cost computer running a QTVR/Director virtual tour of Walton Church . Visitors witness Volcanic Edinburgh Planet-News-Story32 The Newest Virtual University Meets the Oldest! Visit Chris Valentine, 27 Oct 1997 On Friday 24th October 1997 a team from British Aerospace visited the Open University to talk about the British Aerospace Virtual University initiative. The team visiting the OU included the VC of this new University, Geraldine Kenney-Wallace; the Director and Registrar, Alan Millican; the Director of BAe Personnel, Terry Morgan; the Dean of the BAe Virtual University Business School, Clive Richardson; and the Dean of the BAe VU Faculty of Learning, Ian Grant. The BAe Virtual University team presented an update on the progress of their initiative to a select group from the OU, including the Vice Chancellor Sir John Daniel; Kitty Chisholm, Director of Development; Chris Wood, Director of Corporate Relations; and Prof Marc Eisenstadt, Director of the Knowledge Media Institute. In its turn, the OU group discussed how we are developing our own approach to supported open learning into the 21st Century. In the afternoon, the visitors were introduced in much more detail to the work of KMi with Marc Eisenstadt; and IET with Robin Mason; and the Business School with David Asch. There is clearly a great deal of potiential for synergy bewteen the UKs newest and oldest virtual universities. The Newest Virtual University Meets t he Oldest! Planet-News-Story31 Bill Morris, TGWU, visits KMi Visit Chris Valentine, 22 Oct 1997 Tuesday 21st O ctober, Bill Morris, General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, visited KMi. The purpose of the visit was Bill Morris' first meeting as a Trustee of the OU Foundation. Bill has a true passion for education, and is a committed supporter of the OU. The Transport and General Workers Union have given a 25,000 UKP donation towards the Harold Wilson Bursaries, to help increase access. We are honoured that Bill has chosen the OU as a cause to which he is willing to devote his personal time and creative energies. Bill was given a short briefing on how the OU works, had a short meeting with Colin Gray and Katrina Cryer, to talk about the OUBS and its work in the UK and abroad, before visiting the KMi, where he was hosted by Tom Vincent and Peter Whalley. After the Trustees meeting, Bill went on to the TUC annual retreat. The TGWU was founded in 1922 under the leadership of former dockworker Ernest Bevin, the union's first general secretary who later became Foreign Secretary in Britain's post-war Labour government. You can visit the TGWU's Web site at http://www.tgwu.org.uk/ . The photo shows, left to right, John Drysdale an OU Foundation Trustee , Kitty Chisolm of IET, Prof. Tom Vincent of KMI's Multimedia Enabling Technology group and Bill Morris. Bill Morris, TGWU, visits KMi Planet-News-Story30 David Brown, University for Industry visits the OU Visit John Domingue, 15 Oct 1997 David Brown, the Chairman of the University for Industry Design and Implementation Advisory Group and Chairman of Motorola, visited the OU as part of a fact finding exercise, prior to drafting his initial 100 Days Report to HM Government. David was accompanied by Jeannette Pugh, Josh Hillman and Nick Pearce. The DfEE has stated that it is committed to introducing a new University for Industry, to spearhead a skills revolution in the UK. Its twin objectives will be to boost the competitiveness of business and ensure that everyone can gain knowledge and skills which enhance their employability. It aims to bring learning to the workplace, the home and the community. During his visit, Mr Brown met with university officers including the Vice Chancellor and the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Technology Development to discuss the systems, processes and support mechanisms which underpin the OU's success. Over a two hour working lunch in the KMi, Mr Brown met with Prof Marc Eisenstadt and received presentations from Peter Scott KMi , Ches Lincoln Technology and Gilly Salmon OUBS . Ches illustrated how the OU supports students communication using conferencing systems like the FirstClass Internet Client. She showed how this is in regular use by thousands of student s, their tutors and counsellors. Gilly illustrated the work of the OU Business School including the recent developments in the Business Cafe. Peter demonstrated the new technologies which KMi is harnessing and shaping to support the students and staff of the OU, including the KMi Stadium project. http://kmi.open.ac.uk/stadium/ Mr Brown and his party also had an opportunity to discuss other research projects, which exemplify KMi's successful track record of collaboration with industry, with the institute's research staff. More information about the University for Industry may be found at: http://www.transcend.co.uk/LIFELONG_LEARNING/ufi.htm David Brown, University for Industry visits the OU Planet-News-Story29 Mark Resmer presents the Instructional Management System Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 13 Oct 1997 Following meetings with the Vice-Chancellor, Diana Laurillard PVC-Tech. Devpt. , and KMi research groups, Mark Resmer of Sonoma State Uni. concluded his visit to the OU with a KMi Seminar on the Instructional Management System IMS Project. The IMS seeks to make the web more educationally useful by developing 'a specific set of higher-order standards and tools that enable teachers, learners, software developers, content providers, and other parties involved in the learning process to create, manage and access the use of online learning materials and environments.' 'Overall, the IMS project attempts to address three obstacles for providing effective online materials and learning environments: Lack of standards for locating and operating interactive platform-independent materials Lack of support for the collaborative and dynamic nature of learning Lack of incentives and structure for developing and sharing content' The photo shows KMi Chief Systems Strategist Blaine Price demonstrating the electronic submission and processing of TMAs via the internet. The IMS Project web site: http ://www.imsproject.org Mark Resmer presents the Instructional Management System Planet-News-Story28 University of Toronto's 'KMDI' Gale Moore visits Visit Chris Valentine, 12 Sep 1997 Gale Moore is the Deputy-Director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute, an organization of over 50 faculty members from 20 different academic departments in the University of Toronto with a mission similar to KMi. Gale spoke about some of the work in KMDI including a demonstration of the Virtual Sandbox, a collaborative project with Xerox PARC. 'KMDI's mission is research and graduate education in the knowledge media arts and sciences. We design, develop, use, and study novel knowledge media, apply them to the creation and dissemination of knowledge, and seek to understand their implications for individuals, for organizations, and for society.' The institute's web page can be viewed at http://www.kmdi.org/ . University of Toronto's 'KMDI' Gale Moore visits Planet-News-Story27 Students' Newspaper on the Web Technology Related Event Chris Valentine, 5 Sep 1997 As part of ongoing provision of course material for print-disabled students, both on CD-ROM and the Internet, METg member Chris Valentine has been converting the OU Students' News paper 'Sesame' for Web presentation. In a press announcement from the editor: 'Sesame can now be read by print-disabled students linked up to the Web at http://met.open.ac.uk/sesame/ . The new service was initiated by Chris Valentine of the OU's Multi Media Enabling Technologies Group . 'Thanks for helping make this happen Chris,' said Sesame's editor Margaret Salter. 'I am delighted that people unable to pick up and turn the pages of Sesame can now enjoy keeping up with University news.' Students' Newspaper on the Web Planet-News-Story26 Webcast links key HE policy makers Event Participation/Organization Marc Eisenstadt, 5 Sep 1997 A live Webcast from KMi on Thursday 4th September linked some two dozen University Pro-Vice-Chancellors charged with steering policy on the use of new technologies in education. The event was the first of three phases of the ongoing 'Learning.Org' conference, created by Professor Diana Laurillard, The Open University's PVC Technology Development . Learning.Org is designed as a forum for senior management staff with particular responsibility for the overall strategic direction of the use of IT in teaching and learning within their university. The overall aim is to share practice and experience on the introduction of new technologies into teaching and learning. The Learning.Org Conference is planned as a multi-site, three-stage event, using the Web to optimise its value to participants. STAGE 1: On 4th September a half-day Web-based plenary session occurred, using Internet broadcast technologies to deliver 3 slide-based presentations, including on-line participation from delegates' desktops. The three featured presenters were: Professor John Arbuthnott, Vice-Chancellor, Strathclyde University, Chair of JISC, member of the Dearing Committee and Chair of its IT Working Group. Professor David Chiddick, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, De Montfort University, member of the Staff and Cost Effectiveness Working Group of the Dearing Committee. Professor Diana Laurillard, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Open University, member of the Dearing Committee, and of the IT, and the Staff and Cost Effectiveness Working Groups. Some two dozen key policymakers in similar positions from Universitites around the UK participated in the webcast, engaging in lively online discussion and debate, which will continue during the next two stages. STAGE 2: During the following two weeks delegates will be able to access the website, which will maintain the Stage One event and collect and display new comments using KMi's D3E discussion environment. STAGE 3: On 26t h September, a one-day meeting will be held at The Open University in Milton Keynes, organised as group discussion sessions around topics emerging from the two previous stages, and ending with a plenary session on ways forward. Relevant sites/links will open in a fresh browser window : Learning.Org Home Page Digital Document Discourse Environment Past KMi Webcasts Webcast links key HE policymakers Planet-News-Story25 AI and ED '97 Mirrors KMi's Interests Event Participation/Organization John Domingue, 28 Aug 1997 As the theme of the 8th world conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, held in Kobe Japan, was 'Knowledge and Media in Learning Systems' I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was that the current interests of the AI and ED community now closely match that of KMi's. The bulk of papers discussed the emerging roles of intelligent multimedia and distributed technologies as well as computer supported collaboration. There were workshops on Intelligent Educational Systems on the World-Wide Web and on Collaborative Learning/Working Support Systems with Networking. Also number of papers described use of animated pedagogical agents within learning environments. Most surprising was the fact that ontologies , a framework originating from the knowledge modelling community for enabling knowledge to be shared, are playing a significant role within the AI and ED community. Riichiro Mizoguchi, the local conference chair, is constructing a task ontology to enable intelligent educational systems to share knowledge and to be reuseable. This work is being carried out within an IEEE project . In his presentation on Distributed Intelligent Tutoring on the Web Peter Brusilovsky described his long term goal of having user model servers which would be used by multiple web based intelligent educational systems sharing a common ontology. If you want to find out more details on the conference I have the proceedings in my office. AI and ED '97 Mirrors KMi's Interests Planet-News-Story24 D3E generates Dearing Report Discussion Site Technology Related Event Simon Buckingham Shum, 13 Aug 1997 Dearing Report Discussion Site: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/Dearing/ D3E Digital Document Discourse Environment has been used to generate a web site to serve as a forum for national discussion of the Dearing Report into Higher Education. The report's 93 recommendations to the government will be influential in shaping HE in the UK, and many bodies who submitted evidence to the committee are now responding to it. The web site has been designed to support structured pooling and discussion of commentaries on each recommendation, so that related material can be easily browsed. The D3E Publisher's Toolkit generates the integrated environment for browsing the recommendations and viewing/adding to commentaries. D3E Project: http://d3e.open.ac.uk D3E generates Dearing Report Discussion Site Planet-News-Story23 Mars Comes to MK! Technology Related Event Shamus Foster, 23 Jul 1997 Children at a primary school in Milton Keynes are investigating the Martian landscape using their own Pathfinder buggy - courtesy of Peter Whalley's Hyperbuggy software. Using pictures of the Mars mission from NASA's Pathfinder site, pupils at Heronsgate school have recreated the Mars rover's surroundings and are navigating them using their own buggy. The buggy is programmed by the children using an actor-based control language that allows them to develop their programs using role-play. For more information see the project reports on the Heronsgate school web site at: http://met. open.ac.uk/heronsgate/projects/mars/buggy.html For information on previous Hyperbuggy projects go to: http://met.open.ac.uk/heronsgate/projects/buggy/buggy.html Mars Comes to MK! Planet-News-Story22 Scottish Under Secretary visits METg Visit Chris Valentine, 21 Jul 1997 Ed Weeple, Under Secretary, Scottish Office Department for Education and Industry , and Graeme Dickson, Head of HE Division SOIED, visited KMI to discuss applications of IT for disabled learners with Professor Tom Vincent . During his visit, Ed Weeple was shown how developments in multimedia for disabled learners had brought benefits for all students. This was illustrated by the Virtual Microscope . He also met Peter Whalley who described his work on Virtual Science including the Virtual Leaf and the simulation of classic experiments including the first flight of the Wright brothers which has received widespread acclaim. The Under Secretary met Matthew Whalley in relation to the use of multimedia in training of eye surgeons and the training of people associated with the use of communication aids. Overall, the visit made a significant contribution to furthering the relationship between the OU and the Scottish Office. Scottish Under Secretary visits METg Planet-News-Story21 D3E used to publish interactive journal for Academic Press Technology Related Event Simon Buckingham Shum, 30 Jun 1997 The 'Digital Document Discourse Environment' D3E has been used to design and publish a special issue of the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, focusing on World Wide Web Usability, just published at: http://www.hbuk.co.uk/ap/ijhcs/webusability Published in parallel with the conventional paper issue, this special issue provides readers with the full articles in HTML and Adobe Acrobat format, plus interactive demonstrations of systems described in the articles, and tightly integrated commentary/discussion facilities. A special issue is an excellent way for a publisher to gauge the potential of next generation e-journal media for an est ablished journal and readership. KMi will be studying the usage and reader feedback on this special issue as part of the D3E Project's research, and to provide Academic Press with insight into the potential of e-journals. D3E: http://d3e.open.ac.uk D3E used to publish interactive journal for Academic Press Planet-News-Story20 D3E University Wide Discussion Forum Technology Related Event Marc Eisenstadt, 18 Jun 1997 KMi's experimental 'Digital Document Discourse Environment' D3E is now being used by the OU's Office of Technology Development to foster University-wide discussion about the Course Appraisal Model. D3E is a web-based discussion/debate enviroment in which the documents being discussed are embedded in the same environment as the discussion, to ensure a tight coupling between the two. The D3E 'engine', developed by a team led Simon Buckingham Shum and Tammy Sumner, now supports several new-media publications, including the KMi-hosted Journal of Interactive Media in Education and The London Mathematical Society's forthcoming Journal of Computation and Mathematics. The Course Appraisal Model was developed by Prof. Diana Lauriallard, PVC Technology Development to help OU course teams approach uses of new technology in a principled manner. As her paper explains, 'as Course Teams consider using new technology methods they will begin with an outline of the content and objectives of the course, some of which will lend themselves to the new methods. It is important for authors to plan student workload carefully when introducing new technology, so that there is a genuine shift from old to new methods, rather than a simple accretion.' Relevant Links will open in fresh window Course Apprasal Model and discussion internal staff only: please contact OU Office for Technology Development Overview of D 3 E The Journal of Interactive Media in Education is the first application of D 3 E. Its award-winning design is showing the way forward in the emerging world of scholarly e-journals. The London Mathem atical Society is now tailoring the D 3 E toolkit for their new electronic journal appearing later this year, the Journal of Computation and Mathematics . A special issue of the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies , published by Academic Press, is also currently being designed using D 3 E. D3E University Wide Discussion Forum Planet-News-Story19 MET Pres ence at Digital Talking Book Meeting Event Participation/Organization Chris Valentine, 11 Jun 1997 The METg's Chris Valentine recently attended a meeting to discuss the future world file format for digital talking books in Sigtuna, just north of Stockholm, Sweden. The meeting was attended by at least seven talking book libraries and eleven visually-impaired research and support institutions from around the world. The principle driving force behind the development of a standard has come from the development of DAISY... 'DAISY represents a radically new way to record, store, distribute and read Talking Books for people with print impairment, i.e. people who have difficulties reading printed information. The system is built upon digital technology, using standard personal computers as its hardware platform. The system is based on a general concept called 'Digital Audio-based Information System', DAISY.' The project was originally funded by the Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille, TPB, but now receives income from a 10 member consortium lead by the British RNiB. Both recording and playback hardware as shown above is being prototyped by the Japanese company Plextor, who expect world-wide sales into five figures of Plextalk playback machines to users of talking book libraries, expected to cost around $400. The DAISY system would be of particular benefit to the OU's Office for Students with Disabilities because of the need to edit recorded course material at regular intervals, an extremely time-consuming task using the existing cassette-based system. More details of the DAISY system can be viewed at the Labyrinten Data 's site. MET Presence at Digital Talking Book Meeting Planet-News-Story18 New Knowledge Discovery Software available at KMi Technology Related Event Marco Ramoni, 11 Jun 1997 Information Society uses information and generates data: companies store their transactions with costumers and suppliers, hospitals keep track of their patients' histories, public institutions record the behavior of citizens with respect to taxes, justice, health-care. All this information is stored in large and fast-growing databases. These databases represent a management challenge and an invaluable wealth: the challenge of effectively navigating through thi s sea of information and the wealth that could derive from the exploitation of these data to enhance planning, prediction and decision making. The newborn field of research known as Knowledge Discovery in Databases KDD is meant to meet these challenges by developing methods and techniques able to extract useful and reusable knowledge from real-world databases. Starting from June 10th, 1997 the Knowledge Media Institute will distribute a new Knowledge Discovery program called Bayesian Knowledge Discoverer BKD . BKD has been developed within a collaborative project between KMi and the Department of Actuarial Science and Statistics of City University . BKD is a computer program able to extract Bayesian Networks - also known as Causal Probabilistic Networks - from possibly incomplete databases, using a novel estimation method devised by researchers of KMi and City University. The methodology underlying BKD blends together statistical theories due to an Eighteen Century priest - the rev. Thomas Bayes, in the picture - with the most advanced Artificial Intelligence techniques for machine learning and automated reasoning under uncertainty. New Knowledge Discovery Software available at KMi Planet-News-Story17 NCSA basks in reflected glory - FirstFlight is mirrored at Illinois Technology Related Event Shamus Foster, 10 Jun 1997 Fresh from plaudits by the California Institute of Technology, Peter Whalley's FirstFlight site now has a states-side mirror at the University of Urbana-Champaign at Illinois, home of the NCSA. Sections of the site are being reflected at 'To Fly is Everything' the virtual museum of aviation at Urbana-Champaign. In particular, the simulation of the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk has so impressed the 'web-curator', Gary Bradshaw, that the simulation now holds pride of place amongst the exhibits. Bradshaw writes: 'I always get mad whenever I have a great idea about something, then someone else gets there first. Even worse is when they not only do it faster than I di d, but did it better than I could have ever hoped to do. I've long wanted to provide a simulation of the 1903 Wright flyer, but simply haven't had the resources to pursue this project. Now I find that a simulator has been put online by someone in the UK. What do you say to a group that beat you to the punch, created a superb simulation of the 1903 flyer, are kicking in a simulator of the Wrights' wind tunnel experiments to boot? I can only say 'Absolutely Fabulous!' I'm sure you will agree.' FirstFlight can be seen at: http://boiler.open.ac.uk/firstflight/ 'To Fly is Everything' is at: http://hawaii.cogsci.uiuc.edu/invent/i/Wrights/simulation/Wright_sim.html NCSA basks in reflected glory - FirstFlight is mirrored at Illinois Planet-News-Story16 Visit of Dr Hans Geiser, UN Visit Peter Scott, 21 May 1997 Dr Hans Geiser visited the Open University on Wednesday 21st May, 1997. Dr Geiser, Director of the UN Staff College in Turin, visited the OU to see its pioneering uses of new media technology. He had a meeting with Sir John Daniel Vice-Chancellor , and Bob Masterton OU Worldwide and was taken on a tour of the university's Knowledge Media Institute, and the Academic Computing service. Prof. Marc Eisenstadt introduced the Knowledge Media Institute to Hans. Marc showed him a number of the multimedia projects in KMi. He demonstrated KMi Radio and then presented our vision of how the KMi Stadium may revolutionize the presentation of distance education lectures. The Stadium is an experimental Java application that explores the use of large-scale telepresence focused on the broadcasting of realtime audio and video. Marc showed our visitor one showcase use of this framework which was recently presented at the IDLCON conference in Washington in the USA. This presentation was a presented by the Vice-Chancellor Sir John Daniel over the internet. Visit of Dr Hans Geiser, UN Planet-News-Story15 OU's First Exam Via Internet a Success Event Participation/Organization Blaine Price, 30 Apr 1997 Last week, three students made OU history by being the first to sit an examination via the Internet. Exams in odd places are not a new thing for the OU, as students have sat exams in nuclear submarines as well as many far off foreign locations, but this is the first time that the examination 'paper' has been delivered directly from Milton Keynes to the student just minutes before the exam was to begin. In this case, an envigilator had a secure password to retrieve the exam and ensured that the student did not consult other resources during the exam period. The students typed their answers into a word processor and used a simple drawing package to draw their diagrams. At the conclusion of the exam period the envigilator connected to another secure web page and uploaded the students completed exam paper to the central server. This kind of transfer meant that there was a central record of precisely how long each student had access to the exam paper and the time it was returned. This type of exam has implications on several fronts: students having the exam come to them rather than requiring them to travel to an exam centre--some exams could be designed for students to sit from their own homes students being able to type their answers, which, in this era of advancing keyboard skills in the general population, means that students can type faster and more legibly than they can write automated and semi-automated grading--exams with sections that can be graded automatically multiple choice, word matching, etc. can be totaled as the exam papers are returned to the server; it is also possible to provide a script marker's assistant which can report on keyword matches and aid the script marker in analyzing longer sections of prose. These electronic examinations are a part of continuing developments over the past 3 years in the Maths and Computing Faculty, in collaboration with the Knowledge Media Institute, where Open University teaching has been expanded world-wide via the Internet, including large scale fully automated electronic assignment handling and return. More ambitious electronic examinations are planned for November with an emphasis on scaling to larger numbers and increased automation. More information about the OU's courses via the Internet can be found on the I nternet Courses Home Page . OU's First Exam Via Internet a Success Planet-News-Story14 High Commissioner for Canada visit to KMi Visit Peter Scott, 23 Apr 1997 The Hon Roy MacLaren and Mrs Alethea Lee MacLaren visited Milton Keynes today. They spent the morning at the Open University and had lunch at the Knowledge Media Institute. In the afternoon they visited Bletchley Park and the Central Milton Keynes where they spoke with representatives of Canadian Companies in the City. In the evening they were the guests of the Vice-Chancellor and Lady Daniel at Wednesden House. In their time at the Open University they given presentations on their work by three Canadian nationals working here: Dr Joel Greenberg ACS , Blaine Price KMi and Robin Mason IET . They met with Bob Masterton OU Worldwide and Edmund Dixon OUEE to discu ss the international development of the Open University and our ongoing work in Canada. And thy were given a short tour of the BBC OUPC centre by Simon Newton. Over lunch they were introduced to the work of the Knowledge Media Institute, by Prof. Marc Eisenstadt. Detailed Story with pictures HERE . High Commissioner for Canada visit to KMi Planet-News-Story13 10,000 for Transformation of Language Course Awards/Praise Tom Vincent, 17 Apr 1997 On the 16th April, a 10,000 cheque was presented to Professor Tom Vincent on behalf of the OUDF by two OU graduates, Patricia Campbell and Judi Leighton, who were members of a 32-strong team of graduates involved in the campaign. The funding will be used to transform a language course into alternative media for visually impaired students using techniques that have emerged from R and D work by the Multimedia Enabling Technologies MET Group in KMi. This work will be in conj unction with the Centre for Modern Languages which was represented by the Director, Anne Stevens, at the presentation. Also present were Alison Binns, BDMO, who led the campaign, and Terry Brady who will be a consultant to the project. The successful OU Development Fund telephone fundraising campaign has raised money from OU graduates for a range of student-centred projects. Over 175k has been pledged over a 4-year period. Further information about the MET project can be found on the Web http://met.open.ac.uk/ . The project is led by Mary Taylor, MET Group. 10,000 for Transformation of Language Course Planet-News-Story12 CalTech labels Whalley 'FirstFlight = cool site' Event Participation/Organization John Domingue, 9 Apr 1997 Peter Whalley's Firstflight project has been dubbed 'cool site' by the California Institute of Technology, in recognition of the project's novel approach to helping students understand the complexities of aeronautics. The project encourages individuals to experiment with the numerous parameter settings concerne d with air flow and wing shape, and then puts them directly in the Wright Brothers' cockpit so they can experience what the flight would have been like had their own wing design been implemented. The CalTech reference, headed 'First Flight - Cool Site!' says 'Peter Whalley is a multimedia researcher at the Open University in the U.K., and has been working on a flight simulation of the Wright Brother's frist flight. Data for the sim will be from some of the subscale wind tunnel tests and published by Frederick J. Hooven in Smithsonian and Scientific American.' Relevant sites/links will open in a fresh browser window : Peter Whalley's FirstFlight page CalTech Wright Flyer Project CalTech Cool site mention for Whalley's project CalTech labels Whalley 'FirstFlight = cool site' Planet-News-Story11 Web page for KMi-cosponsored ISCA Awards now available Awards/Praise Mike Lewis, 26 Mar 1997 The winners of the Information Society Creativity Awards 1996 have been announced. KMi's webpage, created by members of the MET Group, is available here . The site features RealAudio recordings of the citations by Ian Taylor MBE MP, Minister for Science and Technology; Douglas Adams, Author; Sir Terence Conran, Chairman Conran Holdings; Robert Youngjohns, MD Sun Microsystems; and Sue Thexton, MD Macromedia UK. Also available are summaries of each of the twenty winning projects, together with contact details. Web page for KMi-cosponsored ISCA Awards now available Planet-News-Story10 Vincent Addresses Apple European Education Conference Event Participation/Organization KMi Reporter, 17 Mar 1997 Prof Tom Vincent MBE, Deputy Director of KMi and Head of the Multimedia Enabling Technologies Group, is addressing the invitation-only Apple Europe Education Conference being held 17th-18th March in London. The conference, entitled 'Creating our Online Future - Imperatives for Education' is part of a European-wide series launched recently by Apple Europe to help Education set the agenda for response to the impact of IT. According to an Apple spokesperson, 'The conference will delve into methods of fully integrating the use of IT-tools, especially innovative tools, in lifelong learning.' The conference aims, as stated in the conference overview , state: 'The Conference will bring together 300 of the foremost thinkers from across the UK and Ireland to:- a crystallise and present the vital new concepts that Education must adopt; b enable Education, new Industry and Legislators to establish priorities; c focus the vision for Education in an online world and d stimulate fresh approaches. Tom Vincent's talk, entitled 'Multimedia and the Internet: Meeting Learners' Needs', is summarised on the conference speaker summary page . Vincent Addresses Apple European Education Conference Planet-News-Story9 VC to address Washington IDLCON from KMi Event Participation/Organization Mike Lewis, 14 Mar 1997 Vice-Chancellor Sir John Daniel will be giving the opening keynote address at the International Distance Learning Conference IDLCON-7 taking place in Washington DC starting on 24th March. But he won't be there. Instead he'll be delivering his 25-minute address directly from KMi using an innovative mixture of satellite TV broadcast technology and KMi's own Stadium software. The VC will deliver the first two-thirds of his talk to the live audience in Washington DC via satellite TV, and then switch to Stadium for the remainder of the presentation in order to drive home the point that this is the future, and the cost-effective way to reach large numbers of students in their homes worldwide. Roger Penfound of the BBC OUPC will be producing the satellite TV portion of the event, with technical assistance from Martin Rowbotham. Peter Scott and Mike Lewis will be handling the Internet Webcast side of the event, with support from Tony Seminara. Marc Eisenstadt will be attending the event in order to join Mel Bynum of IBM Global Education and Training, and to display first-hand the fruits of IBM/KMi collaboration at the IDLCON exhibition and conference. VC to address Washington IDLCON from KMi Planet-News-Story8 KMi On Show: Tomorrow's World Exhibit Technology Related Event KMi Reporter, 13 Mar 1997 KMi will join a collection of Open University high-tech exhibitions on display at the Tomorrow's World Live exhibition taking place at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre, 19-23 March 1997. KMi Stadium will be on display in a permanent video loop, and the Virtual Microscope will be featured as part of an Earth Sciences display running a 'consumer appliance': Apple's Pippin. KMi On Show: Tomorrow's World Exhibit Planet-News-Story7 London Math. Soc. choose D3E for new e-journal Technology Related Event Simon Buckingham Shum, 12 Mar 1997 The London Mathematical Society has chosen KMi's D3E Digital Document Discourse Environment as the environment for their new flagship e-journal, 'The Journal of Computation and Mathematics'. D3E is the tailorable shell on which KMi's experimental 'Journal of Interactive Media in Education' is built. The D3E team will be training an LMS programmer in D3E beginning ~April. Details of the Journal of Computation and Mathematics can be found at: http://www.qmw.ac.uk/~lms/jcm/welcomejcm.html KMi's JIME can be found at: http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/jime/ London Math. Soc. choose D3E for new e-journal Planet-News-Story6 BT joins KMi Club Event Participation/Organization KMi Reporter, 11 Mar 1997 BT has joined the growing list of household names sponsoring KMi research. In late February 1997 a contract was signed between the Open University and BT Research Labs to foster collaboration on the construction of a Virtual Science Laboratory. Professor Tom Vincent, head of the Multimedia Enabling Technologies group, conducted negotiations with Chris Fowler of BT, and clinched the deal for a project which will be headed at the Open University end by Research Fellow Dr. Peter Whalley BT joins KMi Club Planet-News-Story5 Sun to host Stadium TechTalk Event Participation/Organization Marc Eisenstadt, 4 Mar 1997 Sun Microsystems is hosting an internal KMi Stadium Webcast on March 12th 1997, featuring Adrian Cockroft. Dr. Cockroft will be speaking on the subject of Java sizing and web performance monitoring, and the event will be made available at multiple sites across the UK SWAN Sun Wide Area Network . This event complements Sun's 'tech talk' events which are normally conducting using telephone conferencing and conventional Web media browsers and slide shows , and is the first in a forthcoming series intended to explore the benefits of 100% Pure Java environments. Stadium is KMi's experiment in remote telepresence, and is described here . Sun to host Stadium TechTalk Planet-News-Story4 Zdenek's Truck hits the streets Mike Lewis, 3 Mar 1997 Dr. Zdenek Zdrahal, Senior Research Fellow in KMi, has helped design this truck recently exhibited at the IAA Hannover show. The truck cabin was designed by DccS Engineering, Prague for Skoda Liaz Comp. The design is a spin-off from the Encode project funded by the European Union under the Copernicus programme 420 kECU - Copernicus 940149 . By applying the Encode methodology the time needed to design a truck cabin has been decreased from 7-12 months to 2-3 weeks. The truck was introduced by Skoda Liaz at the IAA Hannover show in September 1996. About the truck project. Zdenek's Truck hits the streets Planet-News-Story3 KEML '97 Success Event Participation/Organization Enrico Motta, 28 Feb 1997 Last month we held the Knowledge Engineering Methods and Languages KEML '97 workshop here at the Open University. For information about the event, conference photos, and related sites, see: KEML home KEML-97 Schedule Conference poster Call for papers Conference attendee photos KEML '97 Success Planet-News-Story2 Andersen Consulting signs up for Stadium Club Event Participation/Organization Marc Eisenstadt, 27 Feb 1997 Andersen Consulting Inc. , one of the world's foremost IT consulting and accountancy firms, today joined a prestigious list of partners working with KMi Stadium. The others already on board include Sun Microsystems and IBM Global Edu cation and Training. Andersen Consulting signs up for Stadium Club Planet-News-Story1 Visit to KMI by Shadow Technology Minister Visit Peter Scott, 22 Jan 1997 Today Mr Adam Ingram, MP and Dr Phyllis Starkey visited the the Open University to explore its leading edge research in science and technology. After an initial meeting with Sir John Daniel Vice-Chancellor they were taken on tours of Science and Technology, the BBC OU Production centre and the university's Knowledge Media Institute. In the visit to Science and Technology they discussed the pioneering work of the OU with Professor Alan Bassindale, Dean of Faculty of Science and Dr. Mike Meade, Dean of Faculty of Technology. In the BBC centre Mr Paul Manners, Multi Media Co-ordinator, gave them a short tour of the Multi Media Unit where the BBC is developing an exciting range of programmes to support and enhance OU course materials. In the Knowledge Media Insitute they were given a tour by Professor Marc Eisenstadt, Dr. Paul Mulholland, and Mr Chris Valentine. Full story . Visit to KMI by Shadow Technology Minister Planet-News-Story0 Pre-1997 KMi News available HERE Technology Related Event KMi Reporter, 16 Jan 1997 In an effort to retain backward-compatibility with earlier editions of KMi-News, we have maintained links to the older KMi News Page . In addition to providing a summary of stories posted prior to the emergence of KMi Planet, the earlier news page also provides a direct link to five separate editions of the Newsletter, which we repeat here for convenience: Vol 1, No. 5 - Summer, 1996 Vol 1, No. 4 - May, 1996 Vol 1, No. 3 - March, 1996 Vol 1, No. 2 - January, 1996 Vol 1, No. 1 - October, 1995 Pre-1997 KMi News available HERE Meetomatic-Technology Meet-O-Matic Kmi-Stadium-Technology KMi Stadium Lyceum-Kmi-Technology Lyceum Farshad-Hakimpour Research Fellow Farshad Hakimpour Farshad Hakimpour Farshad Hakimpour kmi.open.ac.uk/people/farshad Jianhan-Zhu Research Fellow Jianhan Zhu Jianhan Zhu Jianhan Zhu kmi.open.ac.uk/people/jianhan/ David-C-Bradbury Research Fellow David C Bradbury David C Bradbury David C Bradbury Michelle-Suzanne-Bachler Java Developer/Researcher Michelle Suzanne Bachler Michelle Suzanne Bachler Michelle Suzanne Bachler kmi.open.ac.uk/people/bachler/ Jiri-Komzak C++/Java Developer/Researcher Jiri Komzak Jiri Komzak Jiri Komzak kmi.open.ac.uk/people/jiri Lukas-Trejtnar Research Assistant Lukas Trejtnar Lukas Trejtnar Lukas Trejtnar kmi.open.ac.uk/people/lukas/ Victoria-Uren Research Fellow Victoria Uren Victoria Uren Victoria Uren kmi.open.ac.uk/people/victoria/ Maria-Vargas-Vera Research Fellow Maria Vargas-Vera Maria Vargas-Vera Maria Vargas-Vera kmi.open.ac.uk/people/maria/ Dnyanesh-Rajpathak Research Student Dnyanesh Rajpathak Dnyanesh Rajpathak Dnyanesh Rajpathak kmi.open.ac.uk/people/dnyanesh/ Annika-Wolff Research Fellow Annika Wolff Annika Wolff Annika Wolff Vanessa-Lopez Research Fellow Vanessa Lopez Vanessa Lopez Vanessa Lopez Gary-Li Research Fellow Gary Li Gary Li Gary Li luntan.open.ac.uk/gli/ Trevor-Collins Research Fellow Trevor Collins Trevor Collins Trevor Collins kmi.open.ac.uk/people/trevor/ Peter-Whalley Research Fellow Peter Whalley Peter Whalley Peter Whalley kmi.open.ac.uk/people/whalley/ Arthur-Stutt Research Fellow Arthur Stutt Arthur Stutt Arthur Stutt Kevin-Quick Research Fellow Kevin Quick Kevin Quick Kevin Quick met.open.ac.uk/group/kaq/ Paul-Mulholland Research Fellow Paul Mulholland Paul Mulholland Paul Mulholland kmi.open.ac.uk/people/paulm/ Martin-Dzbor Research Fellow Martin Dzbor Martin Dzbor Martin Dzbor kmi.open.ac.uk/people/dzbor/ Zdenek-Zdrahal Senior Research Fellow Zdenek Zdrahal Zdenek Zdrahal Zdenek Zdrahal kmi.open.ac.uk/people/zdenek/ John-Domingue Deputy Director John Domingue John Domingue John Domingue kmi.open.ac.uk/people/john/ Voice-On-The-Net-Research-Area Voice on the Net Alexandre-Goncalves Alexandre Goncalves Alexandre Goncalves Alexandre Goncalves Gaston-Burek Gaston Burek Gaston Burek Gaston Burek Dileep-Damle Dileep Damle Dileep Damle Dileep Damle Neil-Benn Neil Benn Neil Benn Neil Benn kmi.open.ac.uk/people/benn/ Lin-Yang Lin Yang Lin Yang Lin Yang Liliana-Cabral Liliana Cabral Liliana Cabral Liliana Cabral Murray-Altheim Murray Altheim Murray Altheim Murray Altheim kmi.open.ac.uk/people/murray/ Maria-Macintyre Maria Macintyre Maria Macintyre Maria Macintyre kmi.open.ac.uk/people/macintyre/ Sylvia-Truman Sylvia Truman Sylvia Truman Sylvia Truman Yanna-Vogiazou Yanna Vogiazou Yanna Vogiazou Yanna Vogiazou kmi.open.ac.uk/people/yanna Bertrand-Sereno Bertrand Sereno Bertrand Sereno Bertrand Sereno kmi.open.ac.uk/people/bertrand Yuangui-Lei Yuangui Lei Yuangui Lei Yuangui Lei Joanna-Kwiat Joanna Kwiat Joanna Kwiat Joanna Kwiat kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/storymaking/ Charlie-Hou Charlie Hou Charlie Hou Charlie Hou kmi.open.ac.uk/people/hou/ Denlison-Sell Denlison Sell Denlison Sell Denlison Sell Clara-Mancini Clara Mancini Clara Mancini Clara Mancini kmi.open.ac.uk/people/clara/ Paul-Maceachern Paul MacEachern Paul MacEachern Paul MacEachern kmi.open.ac.uk/people/paulmac Mark-Gaved Mark Gaved Mark Gaved Mark Gaved kmi.open.ac.uk/people/mark/