Prepared by Yuri Demchenko
October 18, 1999

Today's web is becoming self-organising and self-defining entity/structure that gains features of world wide Knowledge Web. Internet together with its web based information infrastructure changes platform and possibility of worldwide economic integration based on global access to information/knowledge without limitation to local technology development.

The necessary and important tools for navigating in such a new formation is Digital Libraries, Metadata information and information/network middleware infrastructure which forms Information enabled network infrastructure that allows advanced information discovery (defining information communities on the web as authoritative sources of information and information/knowledge/technology development centers). Web information communities definition need to become trusted.

Another problem with development and implementation of the new technologies that they are very high knowledge demanding and qualified workforce consuming. Possible solution for this problem is creating virtual knowledge-based communities on the web that will serve as place where researchers and researches meets, exchange of information and create cooperative self-contributive resources. The only what is needed in this case is providing free space, computation facility at portal-like service. Actually, this will/should lead to a formation of a new information/knowledge/communities infrastructure of the Web/Internet in the form of Knowledge/Learning Web or Information/Directory enabled network or Global Digital Library infrastructure.

All these tasks need high bandwidth and high computer power.
 
 

1. Initial assumptions - IBM Internet2 Center in Europe and its goals

1.1. Looking at public success of Internet2 program/campaign, IBM want to see/initiate (and be in the center of this) the same activity in Europe.

• High community impact and sound projects

• Cross-border and Multicultural business and development environment
• Multiprovider network infrastructure and cooperative elements like cache coordination
• Rich (cultural) information content, i.e. museums, monuments, etc.
• Different technological level and network coverage
• Multilinguality

• Forming IBM's image among A&R community
• Pilot testing of new products
• Forming devoted qualified workforce
• Possible output in establishing commercial services with IBM's leading in implementation

• Continuous testing and discovering new technologies/ideas

2.1. Existing application Internet2 projects

• Internet2 Digital Video Network and Digital Libraries - http://www.i2dvn.org/
• Network access to the Vanderbilt Television News Archive - http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/
• Network-Based Real-Time Full-Motion Stereo Imaging for Teaching and Research - http://renoir.csc.ncsu.edu/WLS/
• MPIRE (Massively Parallel Interactive Rendering Environment) Using Distributed Computing to Interactively View the National Library of Medicine's "Visible Human" - http://mpire.sdsc.edu/
• The Video Encyclopedia of the 20th Century: A Digital Library Demonstration -

• Colliding Neutron Stars Across the Atlantic Ocean (http://cactus.aei-potsdam.mpg.de) - astronomers to simulate-and then display in 3-D-the collision of two neutron stars by linking supercomputers on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. (Internet2 Universities: Washington University, St. Louis, Pennsylvania State University; Partners: Albert Einstein Institute, Argonne National Laboratory; Contact: Jason Novotny, novotny@nlanr.net)

• GIOD: Globally Interconnected Object Databases http://pcbunn.cithep.caltech.edu - physicists to access and analyze huge amounts of data resulting from atomic collider experiments using high-performance network links, data visualised using Java3D applications. (Internet2 University: California Institute of Technology; Partners: Hewlett-Packard, CERN; Contact: Dr. Julian J. Bunn, julian@cacr.caltech.edu)

• Remote Data Collection and Analysis of Synchrotron Data (http://www.bic.nus.edu.sg/inet99demo/) - biologists to understand the function of proteins by remotely controlling an advanced microscope. High bandwidth applications expedite access to, and processing of, data resulting from the few large synchrotrons located around the world. (Partners: SSRL, National University of Singapore: Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lab Collaboratory; Contact: Dr Tan Tin Wee, tinwee@pobox.org.sg)

• Virtual Collaborative Clinic (Internet2 Universities: Stanford University, University of California, Santa Cruz) - doctors to collaborate across the country by sending, receiving and manipulating high-resolution 3-D images in real time. Virtual Collaborative Clinic will allow doctors to plan and practice delicate operations in virtual space before they perform real operations.

3.1. Hermitage (St. Petersburg) Online and images library with extended search capabilities (search by author, country, style and palette)
3.2. CLEVER Searching that use technology that allows defining authoritative source of information on the web based on iterative topic distillation (http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/k53/clever.html).
3.3. Current implementation for business information "communities" does not use full potentiality of the technology.
Video/streaming charging
3.4. Network storage and data replication (current grant of Micha Beck from Tennessee University)
3.5. Data mining technologies used for business applications
 

4. Possible areas of cooperation (grant applications)(but are not limited to):

4.1. Network Infrastructure projects

• Deployment of "active" network testbeds on top of Abilene/DANTE/NRENs.

• Defining/finding Authoritative information sources (defining web communities) in European A&R information resources/webspace - based on and aimed to further development of IBM's CLEVER Searching technologies
• Robust cataloging, indexing tools & capabilities (for example, data images indexing/searching/recognition (data mining technologies), close captioned text indexing, voice recognition indexing, color/palette recognition, human features recognition/identification (face, fingerprints)).
• Large volume content servers that will test the different aspects of the network applications/system.

• Collaborative and innovative ways to create and edit distributed high-quality digital audio/video content over a high performance network.
• Innovative distribution of video, audio and multicast to "off network" end users employing a variety of network technologies including such as wireless and satellite.
• Delivery of multicast and/or streaming video to classrooms.
• Scalable audio and digital video server systems/applications.
• User interface issues, data visualisation and the blurring of broadcast and Video on Demand systems.

• remote access to spatial/telescope data and data processing (Hawaii radiotelescope, etc.)
• Automatic/remote telescope/experiment monitoring (REMOTE FP4 projects - NL, Spain)

• Authoriotative/Trusted (Data) Object Metadata/Index Database/Repository

• needs new indexing technologies
• computing power
• Massive/big storage
• wide connectivity plus QoS/DiffServ for granting quality access for the experiments

• multicast technologies
• LDAP, Directory, indexing (Common Indexing Protocol) (WG-LDAP, WG-LDUP, WG-CIP, etc.)
• Large Scale Application Deployment (BoF LSD-2)
• Service Access Protocol (WG-SAP)
• Content negotiation (WG-conneg)
• Differentiated Services (WG-Diffserv, WG-…, etc.)
• Caching and replication (WG-WREC)

5. Known Projects and developments of TERENA members that can be benefit from European Cooperation

5.1. Streaming projects at SURFnet and related projects among TERENA members - http://stream.surfnet.nl/

• need bandwidth and special HW and SW for creating space/place for cooperative experiments across/between NREN streaming services and for Pilot implementation for education (education material dissemination)
• Also experiments with Satellite dissemination for regions with bad connectivity and for mobile events/courses

• need wide bandwidth, computational power and massive storage space for creating Research and Education Index for Europe (harvesting, classification, distillation), which
• will be used by national Indexing teams and projects for creating their own (in native language) indexing service
• creating cross-language Trans-European Professional/Subject Metadata/Thesauri as result of cooperative use of European index
• preservation of instant research (information) heritage, including copyright and citation issues

• need special computational power and bandwidth for continuing advanced research and experiments

• New works on images cataloguing, indexing and searching to be undertaken

• need high bandwidth and high computer power for creating and maintaining specially European oriented Web index database periodically updated

• need big volumes of data and powerful computers to run advanced/extended classification experiments

• need access to big data repositories to run special computational IA related experiments

6.1. DANTE/IST Research Program - http://www.dante.org/
6.2. Internet2 Network Application Program that needs high bandwidth and high computer resources for pilot implementation of new application and advanced technological researches in global network applications - http://www.internet2.edu/
6.3. CANARIE Inc. (http://www.canarie.ca/) ANAST Funding Programs on Advanced End-to-End Applications and the Advanced Network Technology that focus on

• key technological developments that are needed to support next-generation Internet networks in the areas of transport and middleware services and
• develop the key technological and other developments that are needed to allow Internet distribution of audio, video and other high performance applications.

• for cooperation on extending Center's project on developing countries and FSU countries

7. Possible/expected interest from other companies

• Hewlett-Packard - image handling technologies, indexing, video, data mining
• Agilent Technologies (Instrumentation and Analytical/Medical equipment HP spin-off) - medical images, data object access/indexing/cataloguing
• Microsoft - human interface, data visualisation, Databases/Metadata, images/video indexing/searching/distribution
• Ericsson - Directory, data indexing