Abstract: While there is a lot of hype around various concepts associated with the term Web 2.0 in industry, little academic research has so far been conducted on the implications of this new approach for the domain of education. Much of what goes by the name of Web 2.0 can, in fact, be regarded as new kinds of learning technologies, and can be utilised as such. This paper explains the background of Web 2.0, investigates the implications for knowledge transfer in general, and then discusses its particular use in eLearning contexts with the help of short scenarios. The main challenge in the future will be to maintain essential Web 2.0 attributes, such as trust, openness, voluntariness and self-organisation, when applying Web 2.0 tools in institutional contexts.

Abstract: MPEG-21 Digital Item Adaptation (DIA) allows for a media codec agnostic multimedia adaptation approach which enables the implementation of generic adaptation engines. However, DIA is optimized for static, server-based adaptation. In this paper we introduce novel mechanisms to extend the DIA approach towards dynamic and distributed scenarios. This facilitates the placement of generic adaptation nodes which perform media codec agnostic and dynamic adaptation anywhere along the content delivery path. To validate our work we implemented such an adaptation node and evaluate its performance.

Abstract: Today’s increasing variety of media data results in a great diversity of XMLbased metadata, which describes the media data on semantic or syntactic levels, in order to make it more accessible to the user. This metadata can be of considerable size, which leads to problems in streaming scenarios. Other than media data, XML metadata has no concept of “samples”, thus inhibiting streamed (and timed) processing, which is natural for media data. In order to address the challenges and requirements resulting from this situation, the concept of streaming instructions is introduced. In particular, streaming instructions address the problem of fragmenting metadata, associating media segments and metadata fragments, and streaming and processing them in a synchronized manner. This is achieved by enriching the metadata with additional attributes to describe media and XML properties. Alternatively, a style sheet approach provides the opportunity to dynamically set such streaming properties without actually modifying the XML description.

Abstract: Enabling transparent and augmented use of multimedia content across a wide range of networks and devices is still a challenging task within the multimedia research community. Within multimedia frameworks, content adaptation is the core concept to overcome this issue. Most media adaptation engines targeting Universal Multimedia Access (UMA) scale the content w.r.t. terminal capabilities and network resource constraints and do not sufficiently consider user preferences. This paper focuses on a hybrid recommender technique for configuring a cross-modal utility model that guides adaptation of multimedia content. This approach additionally considers the user environment as well as demographic user data which leads to a personalized and increased multimedia experience. Based on a related adaptation decision technique we show how it is possible to offer a personalized adaptation for the individual user. We present a detailed evaluation of the approach based on results earned by subjective tests.

Abstract: Content adaptation is an important issue of multimedia frameworks in order to achieve universal multimedia access (UMA), i.e., to enable consumption of multimedia content independently of the given resource limitations, terminal capabilities, and user preferences. The digital item adaptation (DIA) standard, one of the core specifications of the MPEG-21 framework, supports content adaptation considering a wide range of networks, devices, and user preferences. Most adaptive multimedia frameworks targeting the UMA vision do not consider utility aspects in their adaptation decisions. This paper focuses on a generic semantic-based audio–visual utility model for DIA that aims to enhance the multimedia experience for the user. Our proposed model is able to take the semantics and the perceptual features of the content as well as the users' specific utility aspects into account. Based on a detailed analysis of these constraints, we will show how the model reacts on individual input data. For choosing the best adaptation decision considering resource limitations on client and server sides as well as network characteristics, we evaluate four algorithms for performing this adaptation decision taking task. We will discuss results according to some use case scenarios.

Abstract: Providing transparent and augmented use of multimedia content across a wide range of networks and devices is still a challenging task within the multimedia research community. Multimedia adaptation was figured out as a core concept to overcome this issue. Most multimedia adaptation engines for providing Universal Multimedia Access (UMA) scale the content under consideration of terminal capabilities and resource constraints but do not really consider individual user preferences. This paper introduces an adaptive multimedia framework which offers the user a personalized content variation for satisfying his/her individual utility preferences.

Abstract: Time- or history-management systems are implemented in a lot of existing applications. The visited web pages in browsers, the undoing list in nearly every editor or the recorded differences in version control systems are only some examples where time-based information plays an important role. Every kind of information (no matter if we talk about the last headlines in the newspaper or the last user inputs on the workstation) without an explicit date description is nearly useless. Due this fact we are wondering why no global time axis for recording general time-based information is integrated in today’s operating systems. We will introduce a time model to record all kinds of user actions and general time-based events as well. As a second part we will analyze how the visual output system can profit from such a global time axis as well. Up to now it takes a great effort to implement animated user interfaces and so they are rarely found on today’s software market. With the global conjunction of time it is possible to generate animations automatically for every kind of information. We explore the ways of using the time dimension for information presentation (for timely and not timely information as well). We will evaluate these so-called 4D user interfaces1 and introduce a programming model to take advantage of the time-dimension in multiple ways.

Abstract: The visualization of temporal information should not be seen as a special case. A lot of applications take already advantage of the time factor (e.g. capturing user events) but nearly all of them implement this feature completely proprietary. So why do we not embed the time as a ”first class citizen” in today’s operating systems that every application can use time based operations in an unified way. Such an invention would not only improve and standardize the capturing of temporal events but it would be of benefit for a temporal visualization system too. Within a 3D visualization space and a global time axis we introduce a printf4D() 1 method. With this method it is possible to display images, videos, text strings or any other kinds of information in an automatically animated way. As a first proposal we demonstrate this function in a ”flow of information” metaphor where information-objects are not displayed all at once but in a flowing manner over a certain period of time. Additionally we will show that printf4D() is not limited to temporal data. It can be extended automatically to any kind of static information.

Abstract: Is Web 2.0 just hype or just a buzzword, which might disappear in the near future One way to find answers to these questions is to investigate the actual benefit of the Web 2.0 for real use cases. Within this contribution we study a very special aspect of the Web 2.0 the folksonomy and its use within self-directed learning. Guided by conceptual principles of emergent computing we point out methods, which might be able to let semantics emerge from folksonomies and discuss the effect of the results in self-directed learning.

Abstract: Folksonomies, collaboratively created sets of metadata, are becoming more and more important for organising information and knowledge of communites in the Web. While for a single user the difference to keyword assignment is marginal, the power of folksonomies emerges from the collaborative aspects. Folksonomies are already issue of research.Within this publication we analyse underlying statistical properties of broad folksonomies aiming to identify laws and characteristics, which allow inferring properties for folksonomy based retrieval. The actual benefit of folksonomies for retrieval and the derived methods are concluded from experiments with aggregated data from del.icio.us1.

Abstract: The evaluation of retrieval mechanisms for inter-method comparison is necessary in academic as well as in applied research. A major issue in every evaluation is in which way and to what extent the actual perception of the user from the target user group is integrated. Within multimedia retrieval systems the impressions and perceptions of users vary much more than in text retrieval. Empirical studies are a common tool in social science and offer a way to research the correlation between the user perception and the computed similarity between pairs of multimedia documents or a query and the set of results. This approach can be used to complement and extend current evaluation approaches. Within this contribution we summarize general methods from social science and psychology for the interested reader in the area of computer science with some knowledge about statistics. Furthermore we give two examples of undertaken empirical experiments and their outcomes. Within the first one the perception of users is investigated and compared to factors like background and gender, while in the second study metrics are tested upon their ability to reflect the notion of similarity of users. Both experiments aim to give examples and insight on how empirical studies can be used in multimedia research in general and multimedia retrieval evaluation in special.

Abstract: There is a number of image retrieval systems which allow a fast similarity search in large image databases. But to our knowledge there are no image retrieval systems which bring together information extraction from the image as well as object recognition and classification of the object analyzed. This paper introduces techniques to enable the extraction of botanical characteristics from visual features to support semi-automatic plant recognition. The identification of plants requires recognition and determination of plant species specific features such as bloom colour, inflorescences, shape of blooms, number of petals and shape of leaves. Our approach is to improve an existing medicinal plant database, called MedPhyt, by this basic requirement. We demonstrate the first steps towards a semiautomatic system for the identification of a plant species or at least plant families by the combination of both bloom colour and contour information under consideration of a specific content and knowledge domain using the features of MPEG-7.

Abstract: Currently, much research aims at coping with the shortcomings in multimedia consumption that may exist in a user's current context, e.g., due to the absence of appropriate devices at many locations, a lack of capabilities of mobile devices, restricted access to content, or non-personalized user interfaces. Recently, solutions to specific problems have been emerging, e.g., wireless access to multimedia repositories over standardized interfaces; however, due to usability restrictions the user has to spend much effort to or is even incapable of fulfilling his/her demands. The vision of user-centric multimedia places the user in the center of multimedia services to support his/her multimedia consumption intelligently, dealing with the aforementioned issues while minimizing required work. Essential features of such a vision are comprehensive context awareness, personalized user interfaces, and multimedia content adaptation. These aspects are addressed in this paper as major challenges toward a user-centric multimedia framework.

Abstract: This paper introduces aWeb-based guidance system which supports optimized presentations of sights or exhibited objects on different types of available stationary and mobile consumer devices, possibly running different operating systems. This is accomplished by adapting both the objects’ content, as well as their presentation to the current usage context. Content thereby may be encoded in different presentation formats like video, audio, image, and marked-up text. The usage context embraces a set of properties describing the current usage environment of the guide. This includes, for example, the consumer device’s capabilities, its current location, and the user’s preferences. Both, the content adaptation and presentation services are based on standardWeb technologies for increased interoperability. Finally, the guidance system is augmented with a Web-based content management and a statistics module, which enable for remote content administration and usage evaluations, respectively.

Abstract: The adaptation of multimedia resources is a common method to enable the transport and consumption of audio-visual content in constrained environments. An important aspect in this field is adaptation decision-taking, which aims to find adaptation parameters that maximize the quality for the consumer while considering the constraints of the networks and terminals involved. In this paper we focus on improving the adaptation of audio-visual content by maximizing the perceived quality. This can be realized by using a multimedia quality model and content-related metadata. We present an approach to derive this content-related metadata from subjective tests and use it for adaptation decision-taking within the MPEG-21 multimedia framework.

Abstract: The MPEG-21 standard defines a framework for the interoperable delivery and consumption of multimedia content. Within this framework the adaptation of content plays a vital role in order to support a variety of terminals and to overcome the limitations of the heterogeneous access networks. In most cases the multimedia content can be adapted by applying different adaptation operations that result in certain characteristics of the content. Therefore, an instance within the framework has to decide which adaptation operations have to be performed to achieve a satisfactory result. This process is known as adaptation decision-taking and makes extensive use of metadata describing the possible adaptation operations, the usage environment of the consumer, and constraints concerning the adaptation. Based on this metadata a mathematical optimization problem can be formulated and its solution yields the optimal parameters for the adaptation operations. However, the metadata is represented in XML resulting in a verbose and inefficient encoding. In this paper, an architecture for an Adaptation Decision-Taking Engine (ADTE) is introduced. The ADTE operates both on XML metadata and on metadata encoded with MPEG's Binary Format for Metadata (BiM) enabling an efficient metadata processing by separating the problem extraction from the actual optimization step. Furthermore, several optimization algorithms which are suitable for scalable multimedia formats are reviewed and extended where it was appropriate

Abstract: Intelligent, server-side adaptation of multimedia resources is becoming increasingly important and challenging for two reasons. First, the market continuously brings up new mobile end-user devices to which the content has to be adapted as these devices support different display formats and operate on various types of networks. On the other hand, with the help of metadata annotations which are now available in the MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 standard, advanced forms of resource adaptations on the content level become possible. As none of the existing multimedia transformation tools and libraries can support all these different forms of basic and advanced adaptation operations, an intelligent multimedia adaptation server has to integrate such external tools and algorithms and perform an adequate sequence of adaptation operations on the original resource before sending it to the client. In this paper we present the results of the ISO/IEC MPEG core experiment on using Semantic Web Services technology as a tool for declaratively describing the semantics of adaptation services and constructing multi-step adaptation sequences in an open and extensible multimedia adaptation framework. We show how the semantics of adaptation operations can be captured in the form of input, output, precondition, and effects, how the problem of finding adequate adaptation sequences can be viewed as an Artificial Intelligence planning problem, and finally, how the existing MPEG standards are technically integrated into the service descriptions and how they serve as the shared ontology of the domain. Our approach both introduces declarative, knowledge-based technology into the involved multimedia communities and on the other hand broadens the application scope of Semantic Web Service technology in the area of general semantic service descriptions and automated program construction.

Abstract: Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a widely accepted standard for automatically detecting devices and services in a local area network as well as for describing and controlling them. In order to deal with multimedia devices and especially content, in 2002 the UPnP-AV standard definition was released. It defines device and service descriptions for Media Servers and Renderers. Thereby, the Media Server’s Content Directory Service allows an easy management and the exchange of metadata about the provided media data. Media content became browsable by semantic meta information about it. There are still two major drawbacks of UPnP-AV, which make its usage in real world multimedia communication scenarios very difficult. First, searching for similar content on distributed Media Servers with a huge number of media files is not economically possible. Second, the media content must be consumed by Renderers as provided by the Servers, independently of their terminal capabilities and network connections. In order to deal with these two drawbacks, this work proposes a novel approach of metadata integration and media transcoding in UPnP networks. First, the Media Server is extended by a Control Point which offers discovery of other Media Servers and fetches metadata from their Content Directories. Furthermore, it integrates the gathered information in its own Content Directory. Control Points are then able to query this Integrating Media Server for a desired content, and get a network-complete search result. Second, terminal and network capabilities of the Render-ers are taken into account in order to transcode and transmit the content in a suitable way for the consuming device. These two approaches of metadata integration and media data adaptation enable searchable logical views on tailored multimedia content in UPnP-AV networks.

Abstract: An adaptive multimedia proxy is presented which provides (1) caching, (2) filtering, and (3) media gateway functionalities. The proxy can perform media adaptation on its own, either relying on layered coding or using transcoding mainly in the decompressed domain. A cost model is presented which incorporates user requirements, terminal capabilities, and video variations in one formula. Based on this model, the proxy acts as a general broker of different user requirements and of different video variations. This is a first step towards What You Need is What YouGet (WYNIWYG) video services, which deliver videos to users in exactly the quality they need and are willing to pay for. The MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 standards enable this in an interoperable way. A detailed evaluation based on a series of simulation runs is provided.

Abstract: The focus of the workshop has been laid on the issues of the methodology and didactics of the history of informatics. A special interest has been devoted to contributions which document some aspect of Austria’s role in the field of informatics, or provide insight into the impact of informatics on the Austrian society. Informatics (computer science) is a thriving science yet its brief history is barely credited as an academic discipline. The existing body of historical literature, while small, includes some brilliant contributions, especially biographical and technological chronicles, as well as some excellent anecdotal treatments. Nevertheless, the methods and didactical approaches for examining the history of informatics are poorly developed; the number of conferences and journals dealing with these issues is few, as is the number of young scientists doing scientific research on the history of informatics. This is not because these topics are uninteresting or irrelevant; rather, the conditions for methodically well-founded research are lacking. The motivation of MEDICHI 2007 has been to contribute towards making the ‘history of informatics’ an accepted science and a valued component of Informatics education and research. Each submitted paper has been reviewed by 3 members of the program committee. From 12 submitted papers, 8 have been accepted as a full and 2 as a short paper to be presented. Additionally, 5 invited position papers, written by members of the program committee and 4 invited keynote talks have been presented in altogether 8 sessions. Each presentation is published in the proceedings at hand. The MEDIHCI 2007 workshop was also the venue for awarding the prizes of the 2007 Wolfgang von Kempelen Prize for Computing Science History. The organizers thank to all participants for their contributions and wish the reader an exiting tour through the proceedings