Transcript No Slide Title

Information Society Technologies
Key Action III
Multimedia Contents and Tools
6th Call for Proposals
Norbert Brinkhoff-Button
DG Information Society
European Commission
Agenda
1
2
3
4
5
6
Objectives
Implementation
Call 6
Call 7
Do‘s and don‘ts
Non-research actions
IST Research Programme
KA1
Systems & services
for the citizen
KA2
KA3
New methods of work &
Electronic Commerce
Multimedia
content & tools
Cross Programme Themes
KA4
Essential technologies & infrastructure
Research networking
Textual, audio-visual,
3-D, VR… content, streamed
& emerging
technologies
over Future
Web, IDTV,
broadband,
WAP, GPRS, UMTS
KA3 Strategic goals

Convergence in media production

Creative & innovative multimedia businesses

Competitive mobile services

Skills & competence of European workforce

Cultural identity / diversity
Thematic thrust

Knowledge acquisition, representation &
management
– Middleware to create, access, filter, search & retrieve,
visualise, spatialise, auralise, translate, summarise, deliver, …
– Applications: E-publishing for TV or Internet broadcasts;
Virtual learning labs; Libraries online; Multilingual e-business;

Universal multimedia access
– intuitive interfaces for natural interaction: voice,
visual, haptic… Example: Natural WAP, GPRS, UMTS…

Standardization
– contribution to content standards (JPEG, MPEG…)
Actions & time to market
Short term (2-4 years)
-
Longer term (up to 10 years)
Applications
Futures
Investigate content forms
Apply new content
and service models
technology in
Technology
radically different
publishing,
Develop
from today's; eg:
eBusiness,
e-Learning,
innovative middleware
training,
digital
to create, access, filter, search
heritage,
libraries,
& retrieve, visualise, spatialise,
etc
etc
auralise, translate, summarise,
deliver, … digital content
Research, develop and embed natural, personal,
interactive, multimodal and multilingual capability at
all levels
Support
Build IT & multimedia competence
Showcase, document and publish research results, including
standards
Conduct technology foresight and market watch
Example: VISIONS - Virtual Storytelling
Titre de la diapositive
Why VISIONS?
VISIONS is a professional virtual reality software devised to help
authors build prototypes of interactive 3D content. It is aimed at
those working in film, television, animation, publicity, theatre,
events, interactive software, games and web-page design.
Above all, it is intended to be easily used by people with modest
design and computer skills. Its cutting-edge design allows
anyone to use it with just few minutes worth of training. Key
users such as French director Mathieu Kassovitz, Irisia, HD
Thames or the BBC have expressed needs for virtual mock-ups
of their work.
http://www.visions4d.com/index2.html
Example: ARTISTE
An Integrated Art Analysis and Navigation
Environment
Advanced image content analysis
techniques, distributed hyperlink-based
navigation methods, and object relational
database technologies.
http://www.artisteweb.org/
Example: DERIVE
Distributed real and virtual LearningEnvironment for Mechatronics and Tele-Service
The DERIVE project,
experimenting with mixed
reality-virtual reality
Integration of different reality and
virtuality oriented views for distributed
learning. A construction kit (suite of
modular building blocks) will enable
students and teachers to link real local
learning resources (machines, devices,
actors, sensors) with distributed virtual
ones (simulators, animators) by means
of a new kind of telecoupling
mechanism.
Example: E-MATTER
E-Mail Access through the Telephone
using speech TEchnology
Resources.
Mutilingual e-mail
access using
spontaneous
speech and text
verification through
the fixed and the
mobile networks.
Example: AVIR: Audio-Visual Information
Retrieval for Interactive TV
A video object (the player)
Can be separately edited and even taken out of the
scene
AVIR has developed state-of-the-art DVB technology for the next-generation
interactive TV with high-capacity home recorders. This involves an Electronic
Program Guide on a personalized TV receiver+recorder with intelligent search &
filtering for consumers to browse more easily through TV channels. It has
contributed directly to MPEG7 standards for video editing (see pictures) and was
one of the “hits” at IBC2000 in Amsterdam.
Philips - NL & F (LEP); RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana - I; Tecmath - D; TV Spielfilm Verlag - D; University of Brescia - I;
University of Paris, Pierre et Marie Curie - F ; + BBC Archive - GB (sponsor)
Overview of calls
300
Projection over 5 Calls:
250
200
Props
577
202
207
206
26

1,218 proposals received

274 actions selected 
22,5 % global success rate

Total of 624 contracts
handled by INFSO.D in 2001
150
100
50
(FP4 legacy + IST + eContent +
INFO2000 + MLIS + IAP)
0
1st
Call
2nd
Call
e-Publishing
Education
Information Access
3rd
Call
4th
Call
Culture
Language
5th
Call
Budget overview
160
Projection over FP5
146.5
140

Total net intervention:
438 M€
 73% of which committed in Calls 1-5
 117.9 M€ left
for Calls 6-8
120
100
80.7
80
61.9
58.4
60
40
54.5
26.9
20
5
4.4
0
1st
Call
2nd
Call
3rd
Call
4th
Call
5th
Call
6th
Call
7th
Call
8th
Call
Note: All figures relating to 5th Call or higher are purely indicative.
Success indicators
% of proposals ranked:
39%39%
34%
31%
27%
% of proposals selected:
33%
31%
25%
Quality and success consolidating
at high level (success in RTD: 25%)
5th Call
4th Call
3rd Call
2nd Call
1st Call
5th Call
4th Call
3rd Call
2nd Call
1st Call
17%
15%
Distribution of participants (Call 4)
35%
30%
25%
20%
Received
Retained
15%
10%
5%
Record share of SME‘s
s
th
er
O
N
p
N
rP
LE
S
N
rP
R
C
EE
H
E
0%
SM
SME = Small and Medium
sized Enterprises
HEE = Higher Education
Establishments
RC = Research Centres
NrPS = Non-research Public
Sector
LE
= Large Enterprises
NrPNp = Non-research Private
Non-profit
Partnership patterns
Depending on scope:
 6-8 participants
 20-30 months duration
 1.8 M€ funding, on average
 3-4 M€ funding when justified
 Corsortium: technology, business & users
(citizens/consumers)
 Efficient management
WP 2001: what‘s new in KA3

Concentration: from 17 to 11 AL‘s

Longer term RTD (5-10 years)

„x-Content futures“

New paradigm: „Semantic Web“

International Cooperation encouraged

Re-focussing of Take-up

More articulated support needs
KA3 Roadmap 2001
Call 6
Electronic
Publishing
Area
Digital Content
& Cultural
Heritage
Education &
Training
Human Language
Technologies
Information
Access
Crossprogramme
Actions
Call 7
Publishing digital content
Heritage for All
Next generation digital collect.
Self-Learning for Work
X-Content futures
Competence building
KA3 Support Measures
E-Learning futures
Natural & multilingual interactivity
Multilingual Web
Semantic Web Technologies
X-Content futures
Competence building
KA3 Support Measures
E-Learning for youth
Use of geographic information
Multimodal & multisensorial dialog
Call 6 Timetable
Publication: 27 January
 Close: 25 April
 Evaluation: end of May
 Commitology: June
 Negotiation: July-August
 Contracts: from September on

Bring time-to-contract down to 180 days !
Digital Content & Cultural Heritage
Strategic RTD objectives through to 2005:
improve the accessibility of Europe’s scientific and
cultural collections (cultural landscape)
 develop sustainable cultural environments
 focus on high-quality representations of artefacts
and collections
 provide a test platform for technology trials
 expanding the vision towards other areas of cultural
multimedia activities
driven by the research problem not the content

Core research agenda



unified access - easy, integrated access for the user
to multiple collections, and formats
– access, navigation, interoperability & networking
improved functions and services from digital
collections
– systems and tools for managing resources, digital
objects, high volume resources
digital preservation - sustainability over time
– digitisation & surrogates; born-digital
Implemented through annual workprogrammes defined
in Action Lines
Projects and emerging clusters

Cluster 1: DL applications
– distributed resources, DL models
and tools
– multiple formats - text to broadcast
archives
– cultural (eg fine arts) and scientific
(data & software) resources
– metadata and interoperability
– new services and business models
22
Projects and emerging clusters

Cluster 2: Virtual Heritage
– visual representations using streaming
video, animation, 3-D, VR
– enhancing learning and game playing
– improving user interactions and
understanding of content.
– innovative Web-based services
Projects and emerging clusters

Cluster 3: Culture economy: new
business models
– creating an open framework for a European
cultural economy (OPEN HERITAGE)
– building regional networks supporting a
cultural economy (REGNET)
AL III.1 2 - Heritage for All
Aims to:
 Improve synergies and cooperation between
cultural institutions

Increase visibility and improve content building by
local/regional institutions

Encourage a bottom-up, grass roots approach mobilise, examples of good practice

Overcome social and cultural exclusion
Establishing an infrastructure for a dynamic citizendriven record of the cultural scene across Europe
AL III.1 2 - Heritage for All

Objective
Timeline:
3-7 years
– Support online communities in creating &
documenting the digital record of their societies
– Safeguard this record for the future

Focus
– Local resources in the global context - replicable
experiments in creating, discovering & aggregating local
resources
– Active participation of end users through online communities
– Digital archiving and community memory
Next generation digital collections

Aims to:
– Build on previous access and DL work - develop
leadership & excellence in research
– Address new distinct communities of users
– Improve resource interoperability & comparability
– Address issues surrounding diversity of content
and its accessibility over time
Developing content infrastructures for inclusive
cultural ecologies
AL III.1.3: Next generation digital collections

Objective:
Timeline:
5-10 years
– Improve access: quality, quantity for citizens &
professionals

Focus:
– Advanced DL applications - visualisation & VR in DLs
large scale networking archive/lib/museum resources
– Thematic ‘contextualised’ collections - interoperability,
ontologies, schemas
– User-driven - collaboratories, personalisation
– Dynamic content - preservation & archiving reference
environments
Practical information: partnerships

Players (consortia of European dimension)
– Cultural institutions - archives, libraries, museums
– Local and regional authorities (Heritage for All)
– Public/private sector partnerships for technologies
– Research institutes and universities (esp. DLs)

Cooperation
– National and regional programmes for heritage &
digitisation (Heritage for All)
– Other national and international DL programmes specifically EU/NSF agreement
Practical information: project models

Vertical (technological) RTD project:
technology challenges, mid to long-term, technology &
research teams lead, content owners - needs, validation,
content, demo of service applications

Horizontal (integrative) RTD project:
consensus driven, EU-wide infrastructures, scalability of
integration, alliances multiple institutional players,
organisational/service innovation, unique ownership of
content or uniquely competent to deliver the service
Education and Training

Objectives
– Blueprint flexible and cost-effective learning supported by advanced ICT
– Support new learning processes - life-long learning &
innovative pedagogical content

Research priorities
– Improve the learning process
– Develop high quality learning materials
– Ensure broad access to learning resources & services
III.2.1 Self learning for work

Objective
– Empowering individuals to define, procure and
manage their own learning for work

Focus
– Learner models
– Soft skills and informal learning
– Communities of learning
– Personal intellectual capital
Reflects a growing trend in industry away from centralised,
prescriptive training departments, towards investment in
individuals’ own learning programmes
III.2.2 eLearning futures

Experimental, longer term research aimed at
exploring new paradigms for learning,
supported by ICT

Driven by experts from cognitive,
social and pedagogical sciences

Anticipates future learning needs

Provides proof of concept
Practical information

Partnerships
– schools, universities, and related associations
– corporate universities & schools
– industry, professional bodies, training
providers, etc (esp. for Self-learning)
– researchers, technologists
– pedagogic staff, teachers, educators

Budget
– ~ 23-28 M€ total budget (two AL’s)
– i.e. 15-20 projects à1.5 M€ / project
Human Language Technologies

Mission: support e-business in a global context
and to promote a human centred infostructure

Topical areas: speech, natural interactivity,
knowledge management, translation and
multilingual tools

eCentres of gravity: mobility, eBusiness,
eSociety

Approach: relatively short term applicative
showcases and longer term research
III.3.2 Natural and multilingual interactivity

Objective
– more intuitive interaction with intelligent network
services and appliances thru robust dialogue and
unconstrained speech/language understanding

Focus
– At home: interaction with networked information and
entertainment appliances; command and control of
complex home services and devices
– At work: technology-assisted interpersonal and group
communication, including virtual meetings and
multilingual dialogues
– On the move: interaction with and control of personal
information and communication appliances
Implementation

Examples of target actors
– Telecom, eTailers, Terminal manufacturers
– Home appliances, eGames, Information appliances
manufacturers
– Video conference software and services
– Car manufacturers, in-vehicle devices OEM suppliers
– Language technology industry
– Research centres and academia with the relevant
competencies

Other clues
– Big projects are not excluded, if justified
– Longer term, more researchy activities, are also welcome
– « Multilingual Web » open in 7th call
III.5.1 x-Content futures
Experimental AL, addressing new concepts
and paradigms and providing opportunities for
breakthrough research / high risk
 Topics between / beyond current AL‘s in KA3
 Time to market: 0-10 years (breakthrough RTD is

not necessarily long-term !)
Initial phases of RTD projects as well as full
blown RTD
 Open in Calls 6 AND 7

III.5.2 Competence building

Multimedia skills acquisition
– Addressing the IT/multimedia skills gap in Europe
– Experimenting with innovative eLearning solutions.
Demonstration of market potential and plans to
roll-out to other sectors.

Access to competence in multimedia
–
–
–
–
Reinforcing European leadership for the future, via:
World-class competence centres existing or emerging
Benchmarking: developments, technology adoption...
Sustainable business models / clear exit strategies
III.5.3 KA3 specific support measures

Emphasis in 2001: demonstrating, assessing &
disseminating results, as programme reaches
completion

Impact analysis: benchmarking of RTD results,
comparative analysis against international
developments; technology and market foresight

Spread of know-how: active dissemination of

lessons learnt outside the programme
… to be communicated widely in print and electronic
form, at relevant events, etc
Highlights in Call 7

Publishing Digital Content
– Interactive authoring, editing and delivery to multiple
platforms (iTV, broadband Internet, mobile devices, etc)
– Content management tools; new paradigms and business
models; E-production workflow

The Semantic Web
– Semantics based methods & tools (incl. ontologies), for
indexing, categorization, discovery and intelligent filtering
and profiling of multimedia information
– Information visualisation, for new navigation and searching
through unknown & complex information spaces
More highlights

The Multilingual Web
– Collaborative multi-language publishing of online (Web)
multimedia documents; automated translation of written
and spoken language, multilingual generation
– Information delivery over multiple channels according to
user preference, and in the language of the user

Cross-programme actions
– CPA2: Multimodal and multisensorial dialog modes
– CPA3: Use of Geographic Information
– CPA8: eLearning for European youth in a digital age

All spanning actions repeated
Do’s and don’ts
Warning signs - why proposals are rejected by
evaluators
– technology proposal  relevance to area not
proven or too general
– access proposal: “business as usual” 
portals or Web sites
– “ignore everyone else” proposal: no state-ofthe-art and no references to other work
– “echo” proposals: echo the call text, the
guidelines, ...
More do’s and don’ts
Remember:
real needs - solutions that people want
research with a purpose - meeting a challenge
realistic objectives - practical results
replicability of results - solutions others can use
right team - develop new alliances
Contacts and resources

Web resources:
– documents: http://www.cordis.lu/ist/calls/
– research areas:
•
•
•
•
•

http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/iep/home.html
http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult/
http://www.proacte.com/infocentre/ecinfo/
http://www.hltcentral.org/
http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/iaf/index.htm
Contact KA3 staff & get feedback on preliminary project ideas
- only just launched !

To support the production, dissemination and use of
European digital content and to promote linguistic
diversity on the global networks

Contributes to eEurope Action Plan:
"stimulate the use of internet”

First call tentatively scheduled for 15/3/01, focussed on
– Improving access to and expanding use of Public Sector
information
– Enhancing content production in a multilingual and
multicultural environment

http://www.cordis.lu/econtent/
Safer Internet Action Plan
Objective

To tackle the issue of illegal and
harmful content on the Internet.
Open Call for Proposals
Filtering
software and services
– close 31 May 2001
http://www.saferinternet.org/
http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/iap/