co-NEXuS: researching and developing an intelligent knowledge
distribution system for the educational, social and cultural sector
[Abstract]
Luc Mertens
In many regards, so far, IT was thought of by computer scientists as having set up its own production
line. The products it delivered, the knowledge representation and distribution systems it supplied the
public with, developing alongside more traditional devices. The call i3 launched in 1996 introduced a
radically novel line of thought. Computer scientists were now supposed to research and develop the
intelligent integration of IT in existing physical infrastructures, either to enhance the social interaction
of local communities – the Connected Community schema – or to start envisaging physical
environments that are electronically signposted – the Inhabited Spaces schema.
Merging electronic and physical components – i.e. lifting the ontological difference between virtual
and real, many computer scientists still maintain -, meant that a new representational and distributive
paradigm had to be coined, a new R&D methodology developed and existing software accordingly
revisited or newly researched. What i3 actually called for, was for the computer scientists to start
considering the steadily reconfiguration of the literate organisation of the human landscape by IT and
to develop a new organisational model, which would have to expand both physically and
electronically, in order to provide the public at large with all embracing traffic rules.
The co-NEXuS paradigm
The projection methods, narratology and rhetorics co-NEXuS researched, can be considered as a
further development of the space + time matrix – the 4D format – through which, for instance, social
cohesion was engineered by Low Culture, the mass production system and the Social Movements
from the nineteenth century onwards.
Whereas in a 3D format the narratology and rhetorics that instruct the subject are derived from an
authoritative focal point lying in the far deep of the representation, in 4D representation the focal point
is put up front and supposed to coincide with the subject. So far, though, space + time 4D matrixes
were but appropriately curved to sustain focal coincidences with group invariants – cf., for instance,
target groups.
To overcome the collective perspective of 4D, very much along the lines set forward by Underground
Culture and the New Social Movement, co-NEXuS deconstructed and amended 4D, in order to
develop a narratololy and rhetorics that are consistent with the intelligent personal variants automated
filtering matrixes sustain. The representational and distributive paradigm co-NEXuS introduces, can
hence be called i4D – intelligent 4D format.
The co-NEXuS R&D methodology
The co-NEXuS project reassembled experts who have of old connected communities – the Public
Library of Turnhout (B); Linc, Leuven (B) and new media experts - Acs-i, Amsterdam + Icatt,
Amsterdam, and the HKU, Hilversum (Nl), the subcontractors . Moreover the co-NEXuS R&D and
the tests were done on an existing (application) site – i.e. not in a real life setting that was set up for IT
R&D purposes. Although, the application site of co-NEXuS were adult education organisations and
their students – low educated adults -, co-NEXuS is not an educational project. The application site
was chosen: (1) to maximise the access to the community network co-NEXuS is researching and (2)
because Adult Education organisations, deeply rooted in the New Social Movement, are the most
familiar with the organisational model co-NEXuS intends to expand further electronically and
physically.
Since i3 was about merging electronic and physical knowledge representation and distribution
systems, besides the usual interaction with IT experts, additionally, co-NEXuS interacted with
professionals from the educational, social and cultural sector. More particularly, with the partners of
the Socrates project: The Public and the Library. Within this project, starting from a physical
perspective, a methodology is being developed to construct a Common Distribution System for the
educational, social and cultural sector. co-NEXuS contributed to the first manual they published, and
will prominently contribute to the second one in which the techniques to integrate electronic and
physical distributive systems will be consolidated.
The co-NEXuS technology
To take up i3 challenges, co-NEXuS proposed to fully explore and exploit the Information Retrieval,
Communication and Production assets of IT. So far, most often, these components are researched and
developed separately. In the co-NEXuS program the Retrieval, Communication and Production
components have been integrated, to eventually make them accessible through a common ALD Agent Like Device.
The ALD co-NEXuS has been researching and developing does not only have to process the different
interaction components, but also attunes the information and communication access to the particular
demands of the public with the help of filtering and agent technologies. The interaction design is very
direct: The use of windows is avoided and the personal agent acts pro-active when the user decides to
follow its suggestions. The user has full control over his or her personal profile, which is the basis for
connecting people to other people or to content.
The co-NEXuS architecture consists of clients and a server. The co-NEXuS client is built in modules
(‘tools’), keeping the application open to further development. The client makes use of standard
Internet information (HTML, e-mail), storage and retrieval types (search engines, ftp). In conjunction
with additional server applications filling in the ‘missing links’ (i.e. dedicated software not available in
a ready-to-use format) for the ALD's functionalities (agent, filtering), the ALD is built efficiently and
remains open to future developments of standards.
Conclusion
To further i4D research and develop a common knowledge representation and distribution system for
local communities, (1) standards to seamless access the data that are delivered in different formats –
Information Retrieval - and (2) a social browser – Communication - will have to be further researched
and developed. Since these devices are now separately under research in other projects, for its
continuation, co-NEXuS proposes to i4D start integrating seamless information access and social
browsing devices.
Content related articles
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From The Rolling Stones and Disney-World to Current Literate and Scientific Idioms. In: The
Public and the Library: Methodologies for the Diffusion of Reading. Firenze: Polistampa, 1998.
p. 11-19.
Towards a User-Driven Participation model for the Educational and Socio-Cultural Sector. In:
The Public and the Library: Methodologies for the Diffusion of Reading. Firenze: Polistampa,
1998 , p. 99-103. (Also published in: i3 Magazine, March 1998)
Tintin as an Interface. In i3 Magazine, June 1999.