RE 1003 - CoBrow

Collaborative Browsing in Information Resources

http://www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/~cobrow/

Lead sector Other sectors Start Project Duration in Months
RESEARCH EDUCAT. & TRAINING 1 January 1996 24

Project Objectives, Summary description and anticipated results:

Efficient retrieval of information and rapid dissemination of results is crucial for successful research and development in industrial and academic environments. The Internet and its plenitude of services is the major vehicle for this information interchange. The Internet is already the backbone of research and industrial development in the area of computer science, physics, and mathematics. It will most likely become the communication infrastructure for all other sciences within the next few years.

The Internet service with the biggest growth is the so-called World-Wide-Web (WWW), initially developed at a European research institution, CERN. The Web is a meshed network of hypermedia information documents. It is ideally suited for information browsing. Access is performed with hypermedia capable applications such as Mosaic and Netscape, which can be used from a personal computer.

CoBrow will combine the advantages of the WWW with the real-time multimedia communication capabilities of JVTOS (Joint Viewing and Teleoperation Services), a group communication and collaboration service developed under the 3rd Framework Programme. The integration of WWW/JVTOS will be done in a generic way in order to facilitate the integration of other similar real-time communication tools. This will allow researchers interested in the same topical area of the information resource, to interact and share multimedia information in real time.

The result of the project will be a new kind of service accessible on the network, which will considerably enhance the power of the existing services. The new service will be implemented as a tool usable in the Internet, and will be operated and validated as an experimental pilot service in the last phase of the project.

Major Validation sites:

Institution/ Organisations City/Town + Postal Code Region Country
ETH Zürich Zürich, CH 8092 CH
Lancaster University Lancaster, LA14YR UK83 UK
Univ. of Ulm Ulm, D-89069 DE14 DE

Other Characteristics of the Project:

Users Involved
Students and graduate students of the participating universities doing project research; researchers in the participating universities.
Technologies and/or approach used
World-Wide-Web and JVTOS will be combined. Meeting Places will be established for communication and collaborative work (CSCW) between reserachers at geographically different sites. User trials will verify the approach.
Expected benefits for the citizen
Improved research capabilities of industrial organizations. Better products and services. Faster availability of state-of-the-art technology.
Expected benefits for the users of the application
A new service accessible on the network, which will considerably enhance the power of the existing services. The new service will be implemented as a tool usable in the Internet.
Expected benefits for the European Industries
Faster development in the engineering sector. Better access to research results.
Contribution to EU-policies
Advances in the exploding telecommunication market.
Improved communication across national borders increasing research cost-effectiviness.
Improved communication between Industry and Research Institutions.

Coordinator:

Institution/ OrganisationsCity + Postal CodeRegionCountry
Universität UlmUlm, D-89069DE14DE
Parent company Controlling Company (Country)
n/a n/a

Contact person from the Coordinating Contractor:

Title, First Name, Name Dr. Konrad Froitzheim Address: Universität Ulm
Abteilung Verteilte Systeme
D-89069 Ulm
Tel: ++49 731 502 4146 Fax: ++49 731 502 4142
E-mail 1: frz@informatik.uni-ulm.de E-mail 2:

Other Contractors:


Participants Code Name of Institution/Organisation City + Postal Code Region Country
C2 University of Lancaster Lancaster
LA14YR
UK83 UK
C3 ETH Zürich Zürich, 8092 CH


Last Updated: 18 December 1996 - telematics@terena.nl (hosted by the SCIMITAR project)