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IRList Digest Volume 4 Number 24
IRList Digest Saturday, 30 April 1988 Volume 4 : Issue 24
Today's Topics:
Announcement - Xanadu acquired to produce commercial product
- Sparse distributed memory prototype being built
- Hyperties at the Smithsonian
- OSI Implementor's Workshop
- The Coming of Age of Electronic Text seminar
News addresses are
Internet or CSNET: fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu
BITNET: foxea@vtvax3.bitnet
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 88 03:33:29 PDT
From: :@gnu.ucsf.edu (John Gilmore)
Subject: Xanadu acquired by AutoDesk, to produce commercial product
The Xanadu hypertext project, conceived by Ted Nelson about 15 years
ago and continuing on a shoestring and volunteer labor ever since,
has finally gone commercial. They held a press conference at the
recent West Coast Computer Faire, with this press release:
Sausalito, CA, April 6, 1988 -- Autodesk, Inc. announced today
that it has signed an agreement to acquire an eighty percent
equity interest in Xanadu Operating Company, of Palo Alto,
California. Xanadu is the developer, along with concept
originator Theodor Nelson, of the Xanadu(TM) Hypertext System.
The Xanadu Hypertext System stores, manages, and manipulates
text and graphical information. It is a new funadmental tool for
information processing in the work group environment.
... "Combined with Xanadu's technology, these resources will allow
us to delover true hypertext products within the next eighteen
months..."
... [Roger] Gregory added that Xanadu will deliver a preliminary
Xanadu Hypertext System for research institutions and advanced
developers later this year.
... Autodesk sells AutoCAD, the most popular CAD software package
in the world.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 88 03:56:39 PDT
From: :@gnu.ucsf.edu (John Gilmore)
Subject: Sparse Distributed Memory Prototype being built at Stanford
Pentti Kanerva did some interesting work at Stanford on how human
memory physically works, and how it can be usefully modeled. His PhD
thesis, _Self Propagating Search: A Unified Theory of Memory_, Report
CSLI-84-7, from the Center for the Study of Language and Information,
details this work. He is now involved in building a prototype digital
hardware implementation of his memory model:
"Sparse distributed memory is a generalized RAM for long (e.g. 1000 bit)
binary words. Such words can be written into and read from the memory,
and they can also be used to address the memory. The main attribute of
the memory is sensitivity to similarity, meaning that a word can be read
back not only by giving the original write address but also by giving
one close to it as measured by the Hamming distance between addresses.
"Large memories of this type are expected to have wide use in speech
and scene analysis, in signal detection and verification, and in
adaptive control of automated equipment -- in general, in dealing with
real-world information in real time.
"The memory can be realized as a simple, massively parallel computer.
Digital technology has reached a point where building large memories is
becoming practical. This research project is aimed at resolving major
design issues that have to be faced in building the memories. This
report describes the design of a prototype memory with 256-bit
addresses and from 8K to 128K locations for 256-bit words. A key
aspect of the design is extensive use of dynamic RAM and other standard
components."
Stanford technical report CSL-TR-87-338 of February 1988 describes
the prototype. It is available from the Computer Systems Laboratory
at Stanford.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 88 19:48:31 EDT
From: Ben Shneiderman <ben@mimsy.umd.edu>
Subject: ties again
...
Hyperties at the Smithsonian
Visitors to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum will have a
chance to learn about opportunities to volunteer for archaeological
digs by using a novel computer system. Two IBM Personal Computers are
installed at the end of the exhibit on "King Herod's Dream" -- the
ancient Roman port city of Caesarea, located in Israel. The exhibit
focuses on the rise of urbanism in ancient times and the
archaeological methods used during the past 20 years of excavations.
Visitors use the "finger mouse" touchscreen to let their fingers do
the walking over world and regional maps plus pages of text. By
touching highlighted words users can move from article to article and
retrieve information about almost 200 archaeological digs taking place
this summer.
The Hyperties software package was developed at the University of
Maryland's Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory during the past five
years under the leadership of Ben Shneiderman (Associate Professor of
Computer Science). Dan Ostroff and Richard Potter were two of the
leading graduate students who participated in developing the software
and the touchscreen strategy. Dr. Catherine Plaisant-Schwenn
coordinated the efforts to complete the software and assist the
historians in producing the database.
The GOVA (Guide to Opportunities in Volunteer Archaeology) database
was developed under the direction of Ken Holum (University of Maryland
Professor of History). Diana Everman constructed the database while Karen
Norman prepared the graphics and maps.
The exhibit will be at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum from
March 22 to June 19, 1988. Then it will travel to six other museums
during the next two years.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 88 14:24:45 EST
Subject: Note for IRList - OSI Workshop (ODA)
From: king%golfer.dayton.ncr.com@RELAY.CS.NET
Here is a brief announcement of the upcoming OSI Implementor's Workshop:
A meeting of the OSI Implementors will be held at the National Bureau of
Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland, May 2nd through the 6th. This workshop
provides a forum for presentation and discussion of the issues associated
with implementation of the standards under OSI. They include:
Directory Services Tue-Thur
FTAM Tue-Thur
Lower Layers Wed-Thur
ODA/ODIF Mon-Wed
Security Wed-Thur
Upper Layers Wed-Thur
Virtual terminal Tue-Thur
X.400 Wed-Thur
OSINET TC Tue
Network Management Mon-Tue
Executive Committee Tue
Tech. Liaison Group Mon
Plenary Dinner Wed
Plenary Fri
Four of these workshops are held throughout the year. For further
information contact Robert Rosenthal, Chairman at the National Bureau
of Standards.
- Jim King j.a.king@dayton.ncr.com
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 88 09:27:47 EDT
From: Peter.Capell@CAT.CMU.EDU
Subject: SGSET Program
The Study Group on the Structure of Electronic Text (SGSET)
presents
"The Coming of Age of Electronic Text"
a seminar at Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Monday & Tuesday
May 23rd and May 24th, 1988
*****
The Purpose of the Seminar
The use of the electronic medium has, until recently, been limited to that
of a mechanism for composition, storage, and transmission of information to
the standard print medium. Publishers and database vendors have expanded
the medium to an industry providing electronic texts and databases.
Finally, the advent of inexpensive, high density storage, advanced function
workstations and personal computers, and networking capabilities have
created the potential for an explosion in electronic publishing.
The aim of the Study Group on the Structure of Electronic Text (SGSET) is to
bring together researchers, educators, librarians, publishers, and
information vendors to discuss the aims, needs, and problems of what is
becoming a new industry.
The purpose of SGSET's 1st Seminar is to identify and explore the practical
aspects of making large amounts of text and other information available for
general distribution in the electronic medium. We hope that this semianr
will be the start of a series of activities and working groups.
The program of the seminar will consist of five parts, each of which
addresses a pressing issue in moving electronic text forward:
o real-world experience with electronic text
o the capture of information
o processing of electronic text
o structuring text for interaction and retrieval
o issues in the economics of information
The presentations will feature discussion of mark-up language, projects
where the full text of documents have been or are being made available
online, the possibilities of hypertext, the problems of retrieval, copyright
issues, and the distribution of information.
*****
Monday, May 23rd 1988
8:30 Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:30 Opening of the Seminar
William Y. Arms
Vice President, Academic Services
Carnegie Mellon
10:00 Session I: Experience with Electronic Text
Chair:
Mark Mandelbaum
Director of Publications
Association for Computing Machinery
Speakers:
Stuart Rothenstein
Director of Publishing Systems
McGraw-Hill Book Company
James H. Morris
Professor, Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon
Discussion
12:00 Luncheon
1:00 Session II: The Capture of Information
Chair:
Adam Hodgkin
Director, Oxford Electronic Publishing
Oxford University Press
Speakers:
Jean-Paul Emard
Vice President of Advertising
Meckler Publishing
J. Sperling Martin
Vice President
Aspen Systems
Discussion
3:30 Session III: Processing of Electronic Text
Chair:
Richard A. Bowers
Director of Development
Applied Information Technologies Research Center (AITRC)
Speakers:
Thomas B. Hickey
Consulting Research Scientist
Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC)
Sandra Mamrak
Associate Professor, Computer and Information Science
Ohio State University
Discussion
5:30 Reception
7:00 Dinner
Introduction:
Dana S. Scott
University Professor, Computer Science, Mathematics and Philosophy
Carnegie Mellon
Speaker:
Howard Webber
Technical Director
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)
Topic: "A Manifesto for Electronic Publishing"
Tuesday, May 24th 1988
8:30 Continental Breakfast
9:00 Session IV: Structuring Texts for Interaction and Retrieval
Chair:
Martin Dillon
Director of Research
Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC)
Speakers:
Terry Noreault
Database Department Manager
Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC)
Catherine Plaisant
Research Associate
Human Computer Interaction Laboratory (HCIL)
William Zoellich
Vice President
Avalanche Development Company
Discussion
12:00 Luncheon
1:00 Session V: Economics and Information
Chair:
Marvin A. Sirbu
Associate Professor, Engineering and Public Policy
and Industrial Administration
Carnegie Mellon
Speaker:
Stan Besen
Senior Researcher
RAND Corporation
Discussion
3:00 Closing Panel Discussion
Chair:
Thomas Michalak
Associate Vice President, Academic Services and
Director of University Libraries
Carnegie Mellon
Panelists:
Michael J. McGill
Vice President, Research and Technical Planning
Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC)
Roberto Minio
Projects Coordinator
Gesellschaft fur Mathematik und Datenverbeitung (GMD)
*****
The cost of registration is $150.00, which includes everything except hotel
accomodations. A block of rooms has been reserved at the University Inn,
located, approximately 1 mile from the Carnegie Mellon campus. The single
room rate is $63.00 and the double room rate is $73.00. To make your
reservations call toll free: 1-800-245-6675 or in PA 1-800-242-1498.
Transportation to and from the seminar on the Carnegie Mellon campus will be
provided.
For further information please contact the SGSET Office at (412) 268-8599 or
send electronic mail to pc1y+@andrew.cmu.edu OR psc@cat.cmu.edu.
Ed,
I apologize for sending you this mammoth mail message. I realize that you
are no longer editing the IRList, however I do not know to whom I should
have sent this message otherwise. I wanted to make sure that subscribers
are reminded that the SGSET Seminar is coming soon, and to make them aware
of our speaker line-up. Thank you.
Peter Capell
[Note: This is not too long; I like to keep issues at around 13K so unless a
message is longer than that, there is no problem on my end. I believe you
are confused about editing changes, however - I am no longer editor of
ACM SIGIR Forum but am continuing to serve as editor for IRList. Issues are
coming out in batches because it is easier to make all the address changes at once,
and since this has been a very busy spring - I hope to get issues out on a more
timely basis in the future. - Ed.]
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END OF IRList Digest
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