Name: Camillo Memory Theater (CMT) Sponsors: Getty Grant Program, University of California Humanities Research Institute, The Delmas Foundation, and the UCSB Committee on Research Directors: Mark Meadow and Bruce Robertson of the Department History of Art and Architecture at UC Santa Barbara Participants: exhibition visitors, humanities scholars, and general interest Internet users Goals: to create a structuring interface allowing efficient exchange of information among a diverse range of disciplinary and methodological perspectives while allowing participants to organize and customize his or her research results Name: History of Art and Computing (HAC) Sponsors: UC Santa Barbara's Office of Research, Office of Instructional Development, the David Bermant Foundation: Color, Light, Motion, and the Buckminster Fuller Institute Director: Victoria Vesna of the Department of Art Studio at UC Santa Barbara Participants: educators in art history, art studio, students, and general interest Internet users Goals: enable distributed communities access to a twentieth century survey of the development of the computer and those artists that were directly and/or indirectly affected by computing technology, and allow them to incorporate presentation and discussion in relation to their unique information needs Name: Interfaces to Creative Online Networks (ICON) Sponsors: UC Santa Barbara's Office of Research and UC InterCampus Arts (ICA) Director: Robert Nideffer of the Department of Studio Art at UC Irvine Participants: solicited media artists/theorists from an international community, and general interest Internet users Goals: researching and collaboratively developing alternative methodologies for interface design, information visualization, and navigation in relation to content through thematically sponsored projects, events, galleries, and online residencies Name: Networked Art Marketplace (NAM) Sponsors: UC Santa Barbara's Office of Research, Office of Instructional Development Director: Victoria Vesna of the Department of Art Studio at UC Santa Barbara Participants: solicited artists from an international community and general interest Internet users Goals: building new art-market models on the basis of attention economies and quality of information resources
To date we have focused on creating a modular software infrastructure around a basic data object (the "Public Space"), new algorithms in user representation ("Information Personae"), and three core components: 1) the "Content Manager"; 2) the "Mobile Agent Manager"; and 3) the "Public Space Server." The Content Manager is a receptacle for structured data and, is accessible through a number of queryable interfaces. The Mobile Agent Manager is responsible for the transport of objects and execution of requests throughout the network. Finally, the Public Space Server handles the delivery, visualization, and synchronization of content in single and multi-user public spaces. The entire system relies upon the Extensible Markup Language (XML) for the dissemination of structured content, independent from its visualization. We will be using complimentary technology, such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and the Extensible Style Language (XSL) for the dynamic rendering of that content.
The need to develop simple tools for parsing complex and heterogeneous content into sets of homogenous data objects was a high priority. Tools for three types of data sources were focused upon. An email parser was developed to extract information such as addresses, subjects, and activity on a subject, from large sets of email generated by communities formed on ListServs. The second tool developed, a Database "Handler", provides a simple interface into querying databases of any scale. Finally, a lightweight Web Proxy Server was written to allow a user or community of users to track and share their web browsing activities.
Agent technology was another area of development we focused on. There were two types of agents, "mobile" and "querying." A mobile agent system was designed using recently released mobile object technologies, which allow agents to be passed between different hosts running on different operating systems, and to collect data about each host visited before returning to their source. A variety of "Query Agents" were written to enable the ability to interface with web-based search engines, as well as other queryable agents. A "Translator Agent" was created with the ability to monitor any text I/O, including chat-type communication, and translate it in real-time to a number of different languages (French, Italian, Spanish, and German). This was accomplished by having our agent interface into a web page translation service provided by AltaVista. Finally, an existing agent communication protocol, the Knowledge Query Manipulation Language was evaluated with the aid of a small set of agents communicating with each other within a predefined system via KQML.
The third main of development was on collaborative visualization. The basic concept we worked with was that any community of users and their content can be used to created a "Public Space", which can then be visualized in a number of different ways. While several prototype systems were developed, the most important aspect of our research in this area was the conceptualization of a XML-based space tagging format, and protocol for communicating the state of any given space for evaluation and navigation. One of the prototype systems was the "Collaborative Desktop Environment" (CDE), a real-time shared three-dimensional space, supported by a Java-based client-server architecture. A talk was given on how this system could interact with the Alexandria Digital Library at the 1998 Digital Libraries conference hosted at UC Berkeley. Recently, we've also developed a number of two-dimensional vector graphic visualizations, which focus on the dynamic motion of data and the ability to "zoom" or traverse through hierarchical organizations of information. Finally, we've also begun developing simple clients for hand-held and mobile computing devices, such as the 3COM PalmPilot and laptop computers.
Project dissemination will take place at two main levels, both through the release of the testbed projects and the distribution of the results of the evaluative research. Each of the individual testbeds has a distinctive target audience, and the dissemination of the testbeds to these audiences will occur largely through active promotion and advertisement and selective solicitation. Many of the key participants have already been identified. For example, the Camillo Memory Theater is being developed partly within the context of a six-month-long UC Humanities Research Institute residential group that has 12 members and 15 visitors, many of them internationally renowned experts in their fields.
Development of the OPS:MEME technology will continue to be an evolutionary process, and early results will inform the further development and refinement of the technology for various testbeds and audiences. The dissemination of the results will be achieved over the course of the project, with the generation of testbed specific, cross testbed, and overall results. Each testbed's project staff will be responsible for disseminating testbed specific results. Project directors will target appropriate professional forums such as meetings, seminars, and academic publications for diffusing information about testbed experiences. Given the broad spectrum of disciplines represented by the proposal team, articles are likely to appear in such disparate publications as Aviso, Chronicle of Higher Education, College Art Journal, Computers and the History of Art, Journal of Material Culture, Leonardo, and Public Historian, and at professional meetings such as the College Art Association (for which two thematic sessions have already been scheduled for the 1999 conference), American Association of Museums, Ars Electronica, Cyberconf, International Symposium of Electronic Art, Virtual Reality World, and potentially many more. The cross testbed and overall results will be published in journals such as Artificial Intelligence & Society, and Journal of Behavioral Sciences (both of which have already agreed to devote special issues to the OPS:MEME project). The testbeds, are likely to be reviewed and critiqued in professional journals, generating further dissemination and discussion of the results. A proposal for an edited volume based upon our collective experience is also being planned, and UC Press has already expressed interest in a volume of the papers that will be held in conjunction with "Microcosms" and the CMT in 2001.
The project will also generate publicity in more popular venues. OPS:MEME will be of interest to technology writers from daily and weekly news organizations and a variety of media.