Social Support Quality in Internet Based Information and Communication: From "Digital Divide" to "Voice Divide"

National and international studies demonstrate that the number of teenagers using the inter-net increases. But even though they actually do have access from different places to the in-formation and communication pool of the internet, there is evidence that the ways in which teenagers use the net - regarding the scope and frequency in which services are used as well as the preferences for different contents of these services - differ significantly in relation to socio-economic status, education, and gender. The results of the regarding empirical studies may be summarised as such: teenager with low (formal ) education especially use internet services embracing 'entertainment, play and fun' while higher educated teenagers (also) prefer intellectually more demanding and particularly services supplying a greater variety of communicative and informative activities. More generally, pedagogical and sociological studies investigating "digital divide" in a dif-ferentiated and sophisticated way - i.e. not only in terms of differences between those who do have access to the Internet and those who do not - suggest that the internet is no space beyond 'social reality' (e.g. DiMaggio & Hargittai 2001, 2003; Vogelgesang, 2002; Welling, 2003). Different modes of utilisation, that structure the internet as a social space are primarily a specific contextualisation of the latter - and thus, the opportunities and constraints in virtual world of the internet are not less than those in the 'real world' related to unequal distribu-tions of material, social and cultural resources as well as social embeddings of the actors involved. This fact of inequality is also true regarding the outcomes of using the internet. Empirical and theoretical results concerning forms and processes of networking and commu-nity building - i.e. sociability in the internet, as well as the social embeddings of the users which are mediated through the internet - suggest that net based communication and infor-mation processes may entail the resource 'social support'. Thus, with reference to social work and the task of compensating the reproduction of social disadvantages - whether they are medial or not - the ways in which teenagers get access to and utilize net based social sup-port are to be analysed.

Video Search: New Challenges in the Pervasive Digital Video Era

The explosion of multimedia digital content and the development of technologies that go beyond traditional broadcast and TV have rendered access to such content important for all end-users of these technologies. While originally developed for providing access to multimedia digital libraries, video search technologies assume now a more demanding role. In this paper, we attempt to shed light onto this new role of video search technologies, looking at the rapid developments in the related market, the lessons learned from state of art video search prototypes developed mainly in the digital libraries context and the new technological challenges that have risen. We focus on one of the latter, i.e., the development of cross-media decision mechanisms, drawing examples from REVEAL THIS, an FP6 project on the retrieval of video and language for the home user. We argue, that efficient video search holds a key to the usability of the new ”pervasive digital video” technologies and that it should involve cross-media decision mechanisms.

Developing and Deploying an XML-based Learning Content Management System at the FernUniversität Hagen

This paper is a report about the FuXML project carried out at the FernUniversität Hagen. FuXML is a Learning Content Management System (LCMS) aimed at providing a practical and efficient solution for the issues attributed to authoring, maintenance, production and distribution of online and offline distance learning material. The paper presents the environment for which the system was conceived and describes the technical realisation. We discuss the reasons for specific implementation decisions and also address the integration of the system within the organisational and technical infrastructure of the university.

Matching Software and Context in Open Learning Scenarios

We describe the use of log file analysis to investigate whether the use of CSCL applications corresponds to its didactical purposes. Exemplarily we examine the use of the web-based system CommSy as software support for project-oriented university courses. We present two findings: (1) We suggest measures to shape the context of CSCL applications and support their initial and continuous use. (2) We show how log files can be used to analyze how, when and by whom a CSCL system is used and thus help to validate further empirical findings. However, log file analyses can only be interpreted reasonably when additional data concerning the context of use is available.

Bemerkungen zu kunsthistorischen Informationssystemen; vornehmlich aus der Sicht der Informatik

Der Einsatz von Informationssystemen hat in der Kunstgeschichte sowie auch in anderen Bereichen der Geisteswissenschaften eine lange Tradition. Gesteuert wurde dieser Einsatz in vielen Fällen davon, was zuständige Wissenschaftler als Erfordernisse der Informatik ansahen. Betrachtet man die Informatik etwas genauer, so lässt sich feststellen, dass Prinzipien, die zunächst abstrakt und grundlegend erscheinen, häufig eine ganz bestimmte technische Situation widerspiegeln und außerhalb eines recht eng definierten Rahmens nicht angewandt werden können. Dies ist vor allem der Fall in Bezug auf Informationssysteme und die Logik der Informationsbeschaffung. Innerhalb dieses Bereiches hat sich der technische Aspekt in den letzten Jahren extrem gewandelt. Es wird deshalb dafür plädiert, dass technische Erfordernisse (welche leicht missverstanden werden können und sich schnell wandeln) nicht als primäre Richtlinien für die Herstellung von kunstgeschichtlichen Informationssystemen dienen sollten, sondern die Erfordernisse für den Einsatz solcher Informationssysteme selbst, die in ihrer Anwendung deutlich werden. Wenn die Informatik als Referenzpunkt für die Herstellung solcher Systeme gelten soll, sollte sie anhand präziser technischer Literatur definiert werden und nicht anhand von Reflexionen über die Bedeutung einiger weniger technischer Begriffe, die leicht missverstanden werden können.