Brussels, 19 June 2003

Participants:

Overview

The informal meeting between Mario Campolargo, Kim H. Veltman and E-Culture Net representatives brought to light three related problems in European IT-infrastructure policy and deployment:

1) The visibility problem: By itself, advanced Infrastructure, e.g. GEANT does not produce readily visible results. The added bandwidth cannot be demonstrated without content that is able to demonstrate how large bandwidth networks transform the way things are done. From IST’s point of view this problem pertains primarily to advocacy towards the political decision makers.

2) The communication problem: IT infrastructure is not value adding in itself. The value can only be created in application areas. The apparent problem is that technologists (network specialists) and the users (application specialists) do not speak with each other. This might be caused in equal degree by different vocabulary (communication barrier) and by differences in objectives (i.e. objectives of one group cannot be communicated in the frame of reference of the other group).

3) The integration problem: Even though most components needed to carry forward the European Research Area to an Information Society (cf. E-Europe) are present today, their integration poses a challenge yet to be surmounted.

In addition, Dr. Tosten Fröhlich from Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics presented their Cybernarium which has as its core idea Edutainment with High-Technology:

•numerous attractive exhibits based on VR and AR technologies
•success at international exhibitions and fairs
•immense public interest
•idea to make these technologies accessible to everybody.

In principle, the Cybernarium is planned to open in Darmstadt as a permanent “museum” for Virtual Reality exhibits. At present, Cybernarium has not yet a permanent building, however, the proven track-record of successful Virtual Reality exhibitions (e.g. January 2002) proves that the concept is valid. The presentation was well received and a GEANT-connection to the permanent Cybernarium was envisioned. With this connectivity provided, the Cybernarium at Darmstadt would become a very important step towards Mauricio Forte’s concept of Virtual Heritage Centres. (The Presentation, available online at eculturenet.org, provides detailed information.)

Details

ad 1) Visibility
Most prominent applications of high bandwidth networks are in the area of high-energy physics and most of the 25 million funds for testbeds are most likely spend on these application areas. These applications are not very spectacular and the advantage of higher bandwidth boils down to faster transmission of data, hence there is no conceptual advantage that could be demonstrated. IST Infrastructure is looking for applications in the field of culture that could demonstrate that new ways of working become possible through GEANT. Overall the visibility problem is one of concept and of finding and defining suitable pilots and demonstrators.

ad2) Communication
The desire to “get GEANT to listen to user communities” was expressed several times during the meeting, as was the intuition that “there are communities that can profit greatly from Grid and GEANT”. The “tension between the focused approach of the technologists and the holistic approach of social and cultural science” was noted as constituting the core of the communication problem.

A solution of the visibility problem by using applications or content from the cultural field must overcome the communication problem. Quite simply, the application or content is of no interest to the technologists (in fact it is beyond their scope), while the technology is merely a means to an end for the cultural scientists, which is still widely disregarded. Solving the visibility problem would amount to using cultural application as “marketing vehicle” for technology infrastructure. It is understandable that e.g. an archaeologist would consider this use of a reconstruction (building on several years of field research) inappropriate if not insulting.

The common interest can only be economic. The example of NUME (Nuovo Museo Electronico) of the Univerity of Bologna that runs at CINECA (near Bologna) was used during the meeting to show the win-win situation on economic grounds.
IST – Infrastructure would be prepared to extend the GEANT network over the last mile from CINECA to the University of Bologna (UNIBO) under the testbed-budget, primarily to transport the NUME onto a VR interface at the Brussels IST premises for presentation purposes (Laval Mayenne Technopole developed a mobile, immersive VR Interface that could be set up in Brussels in a day’s time). UNIBO gains access to the European high-bandwidth infrastructure in return for the use of NUME as demonstrator of the power of the infrastructure. This would allow UNIBO to link with other universities in using reconstructions and other broadband content in their daily teaching activities.

It was agreed that Kim H. Veltman and Frederic Andres would identify possible candidates for a presentation of the GEANT infrastructure scheduled for October 2003. The requirement posed by Mario Campolargo is a proposal “that shows how both sides can profit”.

This first demonstrator might develop in a first set of centres of excellence to serve as testbed for broadband, cultural content; leading towards Mauricio Forte’s vision of Virtual Heritage Centres. A tentative list of such centres in the field of collaborative work, authoring and creation was identified:

ad 3) Integration
Veltman suggested that new interplay was needed between/among five areas now supported by the EC, namely,
· Digital Libraries
· Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality
· Distributed (Digital) Video Production (DVP)
· Collaborative Creation qua TV/Video
· E-Learning

Mario Campolargo provided a short overview of the Commissions vision re: Grids:

This view was further defined at the Information Meeting for Grids and Complex Problem Solving on 20. June 2003:

It became apparent in the ensuing discussion between Mario Campolargo, Kim Veltman and Frederic Andres that the primary problem is one of communication between the technologists of the infrastructure (GEANT) layer and the developers at the application level. The Grid middleware, in the opinion of the Commission, would most likely be developed from an application point of view, however, technological integration of middleware and infrastructure would need better communication. There was again agreement that applications from the cultural field should be included into the development cycle of future GRID architecture, alongside with astronomy and high power physics.

In addition it became very clear, that the term integration in the vocabulary of the Commission refers either to technological integration or, most prominently, to integration of similar activities across national boundaries. The much-needed interdisciplinary integration, envisioned by Kim Veltman, has yet to receive the attention of the Commission. It could be that interdisciplinary integration is perceived to be too demanding at the time and that it could become a central concern in the future once national and technological integration is achieved to a satisfactory degree.