Does multimedia make a difference? (Panel)

Moderator: Prof. Paolo Paolini, Politecnico Di Milano Hypertext applications and tools in general deal with “passive” media. Values of passive media are static, in the sense that as time progresses their presentation (state) does not change. Values of active media have the property of changing presentation (evolution of the state), as time progresses. Active media such as video, animation and sound are becoming a “necessity” in most recent Hypertext applications. The panel discusses the impact of the introduction of active media in the area of hypertext. The impact of active media upon hypertext can involve several aspects: presentation of the content, design of the applications, structuring techniques of the applications, interplay between synchronization and links, runtime support, communication performances and techniques for LAN or WAN architectures. Panelists argue that: . Hypertext should remain well separated from Multimedia, being a separated field, with a different set of notions and needs; . A limited number of changes will be enough in order to adapt most of the Hypertext notions and techniques to multimedia; . A revolution is needed.