|
|
| |
Projects in the area of Electronic Document Technology and Information Systems
- The ClassMate project (Jan Herman Verpoorten a.o.)
ClassMate is an application framework and software architecture for e-learning, focusing
on the reusability of both the software components and the content. The project is
initially funded by the University Board, with support of Sun MicroSystems, and started
in collaboration with colleagues from Computer Science and Physics Computer Science.
ClassMate is close to its publication as an 'open source' project (under the GNU license).
This applies to the core software classes of the framework and the interaction
components (plusschemas, demo applications, technical and user documentation, etc.). At
this moment, the framework is extended with an authoring environment for interactive
'ClassMate' content (in XML), and the management of sessions and session persistency
(e.g. exams) in a Learning Management System (also under development).
In essence, ClassMate is a highly specialised library consisting of educational widgets
and viewers, combined with a software core representing the modeling. Components are
not to be used in an IDE, but the target application is generated at runtime in the client,
based on an (XML) specification. The framework modeling is generic and covers an
entire range of educational applications. The results of this research are used in the next
project.
- Dynamic content from a user's perspective (Jan Herman Verpoorten)
Dynamic content is almost always understood as content generated at runtime and
dependent on particular variables. The presentation of such content is program-
controlled, rather than user-controlled. From a user's perspective very little seems
dynamic. The research focuses on possibilities for end-users to gain maximum control on
the view and structure of content, i.e. user-control instead of program-control. This way,
users might be able to optimize the presentation of content for a particular task. The
research approach focuses on an software architecture, capable to handle specialised
viewers and retrieval components. Viewers will handle the results delivered by the
retrieval components. Retrieval components will handle the delivered content and the
results of other retrieval components. Content (in XML) accompanied with (references
to) viewer and retrieval components can be viewed in several ways, dependent on the
user's preference and the nature of the content itself. This approach borrowes some
elements from IBM's UIMA concept, but is unique in its application and implementation.
- Reference architectures for cyber-classes (Leen Breure)
In the last years, several types of digital documents have been studied as classes (the
cyber-classes), among others with the purpose to improve the accompanying user
software on the basis of generic properties. In this project the research is focussed on a
class-specific interpretation of the data-, task- and presentation models for this user
software. These three together should offer builders within a particular cyber class a
foothold: a so-called reference architecture.
- Progenetor (editorial framework) (Leen Breure)
Encoding content in XML format is often looked upon as a valuable investment, because
it bears the promise of reusability. The use of structured mark-up, like XML, increases
precision in location and retrieval of content, but does not automatically generate new
texts. This requires editorial work: texts must be explored, before fragments can be
selected, arranged and, perhaps with slight modifications, aggregated into a new
structure. Particularly documents on cultural heritage must be made available in different
composition on different platforms (PC, web, mobile devices and in print) and will,
therefore, go through a detailed process of reviewing and editorial enrichment.
Most XML editors offer no project support beyond maintaining a simple list of the texts
being edited. However, users may want to switch between different tools, picking the
software most suitable for a specific task. A coordinating framework would be helpful,
which supports these activities: to maintain the content collection separate from an XML
editor and to provide easy access to the different programs used, integrating input and
output streams. This project will make such a framework available in the form of a tool
kit, named PROGENETOR. It will be based on templates and a special tag set, with an
HTML user interface, using HTML forms for entering parameters. PROGENETOR acts
as a thin layer of 'glue' between standard XML, XSLT and JavaScript code, and is
therefore easy to customize in detail. PROGENETOR is not another XML editor, but an
editorial application suitable for working with content collections on disk, at different
levels, and particularly useful at an authoring stage preceding publication through
software for dynamic websites, like Cocoon and eXist. It is written in Delphi, and has a
built-in XML parser and XSLT transformer (fully Internet Explorer compatible), which
makes processing fast.
- Vechtstreek-project (Leen Breure, Jörgen van den Berg, Hans Voorbij, Herre
van Oostendorp (CCI))
This project will study and deliver a generic modelling and implementation strategy for a
system that helps "to read" the cultural landscape: an integral multimedia presentation
based on underlying GIS-databases, with digitised cultural heritage material connected to
it. It will allow the same material to be viewed from different perspectives, on different
levels of detail to demonstrate the dynamics of the cultural landscape over time. The
dynamic aspect pertains to both, the presentation and the access of information.
Using personalisation and adaptation techniques the system will be capable of coping
with the dynamic information requirements of different user groups: (1) local and
regional civil services, policy makers in regional planning projects, (2) professionals
involved in designing and constructing projects, (3) local people participating in decision
making processes, (4) educational programmes, and last but least, (5) visitors from
outside the region wanting an in-depth acquaintance.
The region of the river Vecht has been chosen as example and test case, because it
is not only known for its rich cultural and natural heritage, but also because it is subject to
high pressure on space for construction activities, resulting in a decline of the traditional
agriculture. The river Vecht – streaming North from Utrecht into the former Zuider Zee
and being part of the lowland river system of the Rhine Delta – was used by the Romans
as a strategic connection route to the north. Castles built during the Middle Ages also
point to the strategic significance of the river. On either side of the river are lakes, and
peat lands turned into grassland. For centuries the peat has been dug out for burning,
leaving artificial lakes. Most villages are situated along the river, where from early 1600
onward, rich Amsterdam merchants built their country houses in Paladian architecture,
with formal gardens, high trees and lush parks, alternating with open agricultural land
and distant views, leaving a distinctive mark on the look and feel of the Vecht valley as a
cultural landscape. (for more information, see:
www.vensteropdevecht.nl
- A Semantic Structure for the Scientific
Article (A. de Waard, L. Breure, H. van Oostendorp). Despite the advent of computer centered ways of
creating and accessing scientific knowledge, the format of the
scientific research article has remained basically unchanged. In this NWO funded CASIMIR project we
develop in cooperation with Elsevier a model of a more appropriate form for research publications to structure
scientific articles, based on a rhetorical structure which is ubiquitous in
(natural) science papers. The model has three components: defining rhetorical
elements inside the documents, the identification of the argumentational
relationships between these elements; and the connection of data elements and
entities to external sources. In a next step of the project we will
model a corpus of articles and test the sufficiency of the model. In a
final phase we will develop and test appropriate authoring tools and
test these with real users.
|
|
|
