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What is the history behind the Multimedia Content & Tools Key Action (KA3)?
The rapid convergence of mobile communication, digital broadcasting and network infrastructures calls for rich multimedia content that is adaptive and responsive to the needs of European citizens, businesses and public organisations. The impact of digital services and products on the economy and society is enormous.
The Multimedia Content & Tools Key Action is a product of this exciting and rapid development in ICT. Research and technology focused initially on data telematics in the early 1990s, and evolved into the expansive field of multimedia in the latter part of the 1990s combining interactive, virtual and mixed reality content.
KA3's present status owes as much to the European Commission's earlier funded research, such as the Telematics Applications Programme - TAP was part of the Fourth Framework Programme or FP4 - and covered electronic publishing, libraries and Cultural Heritage, education and training and language engineering.
Of the activities launched under the FP4, the educational multimedia task force (EMTF) stands out as it significantly changed the dynamics of Commission-funded research. The EMTF developed synergies among programmes concerned with the use of information and communication technologies, as well as those focused on education and training, and open and distance learning.
The Multimedia Systems domain of ESPRIT focused on the development and demonstration of new platforms and tools, which created an excellent research base to build multimedia content and tools in the programme that followed, the Fifth Framework Programme (1998-2002).
Within KA3, digital content has found a dedicated place - for the first time in a Commission research programme. The Key Action is structured into five topical areas capturing the manifold interests in multimedia production and use:
- Interactive electronic publishing;
- Digital heritage and cultural content;
- Education and training;
- Human language technologies;
- Information access, filtering, analysis and handling.
What does multimedia mean to the average person?
Multimedia content is taken in a broad form to cover text, audio and visual elements. Customised to the user's preferences, interactive and multilingual, it is delivered over channels such as the internet, mobile services, interactive TV, etc. It serves the purpose of informing and entertaining such as in (Web-)TV broadcasts or personalised information services, and to enrich our knowledge and to acquire skills, for example in digital libraries or virtual classrooms. Consult KA3 for a more formal definition or Multimedia Glossary on this site for more multimedia terms and definitions.
What about the future of multimedia?
The growth in multimedia content is unprecedented. Last year's global production of print, film, optical and magnetic media was estimated to equal up to 250 Megabytes for every man, woman and child on earth, and this is growing year on year.
Lucent Technologies estimates the media industry's revenue to be into the trillion-dollar mark, significantly larger than telecommunications industry. More dramatic changes to the industrial landscape surrounding digital content are expected over the next few years. If Europe is to become globally competitive and to participate fully in the Information Society on both economic and social levels, action to address new media content and services at European level is considered vital.
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Last updated: 22|07|2003