CCAP Research Community

The Media Lab @ the University of Art and Design: Helsinki :

Includes four research groups:

ARKI: Which looks at the social effects and potential of digitalization in everyday life

Projects (but are not limited to) include Mediaspaces which looks at the effects and potential of convergent platforms in a domestic space - this includes ‘Design TV’ which plans to develop streaming media channels. P2P Fusion; a really interesting P2P system that is one of a couple recently developed that are focussing on a distributed framework capable of offsetting the server (and potentially social) costs that large scale P2pP databases necessitate. Here a distributed client does much of the heavy lifting in terms of information transfer while a central database handles the DB services. The Fusion software is concerned with making rich media available for remixing and metadata tagging and redistribution. This is a step away from most p2p projects which maintain a user/consumer distinction along the lines of broadcast media. The emphasis here is as much on making stuff as getting stuff. Maybe this is a distribution and collaboration model that the Dynamic Media project should look at closely. I must say at the moment Tribler.org a project of the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands is more developed and more decentralized - admittedly without the important collaborative functions. I am sure there will be a number of competing platforms for a while as several open source and university projects look to ‘front-ending’ bit-torrent style P2P. This form of distribution and social network potentially moves away from web2.0 models with sacrificing any of web2.0’s much loved functionality (paper pending on this). The IP redesign project looks at the legal and social costs regarding the inadequacy of current IP laws in the face of a network culture - acknowledging that their p2p projects (as indicative of a prevailing tendency) problematize our ‘legacy’ approach to intellectual property.

The Learning Environments for Progressive Inquiry Research Group : Focuses on research and development of innovative learning environments - involved with the LeMill CMS for the open distribution of learning resources amngst a number of others. Will return with more information.

Systems of Representation : An interesting research looking at transferring elements of traditional culture to the ‘virtual’ world…using visualization reserach, 3d modelling, Digital cartography. (lovely simple Plone driven site as well).

Crucible: A digital narrative and storytelling research centre. I’m out of time but will return to this.