Collaborative work and learning plays an important role in our global economy, which is increasingly based on knowledge production and fast innovation cycles. In a networked world such collaborative processes can only be executed through dedicated computer support. The Knowledge-based Virtual Collaborative Work Environments (CWE) research area investigates the design and development of next generation CWEs supporting research and advanced product-innovation oriented R&D activities within organizational and cross-organizational innovation processes. More
The central research topic of the e-Education research area is the investigation and development of an integrated conception of e-education in open and distance education, which includes aspects of electronic learning (e-learning) as well as electronic teaching. M-learning (mobile e-learning, originating from the mobility of our modern society) is seen as a special branch of e-learning in this context. The research area requires an integrative approach, which covers the whole spectrum of individual and cooperative learning in such a way that different learning types, styles, and situations are supported. More
Online publications are continually gaining importance. Be they electronic journals, reference databases, abstract services or independent publications (online dissertations, eBooks) - formerly printed works are increasingly being published in the Internet alongside their printed versions. Electronic resources are a central part of our cultural and intellectual heritage, but this material is at risk. More
Our applied research and development focusses on technologies supporting the development, deployment, and maintenance of web-based user interfaces for distributed, collaborative, and knowledge-based applications building on peer-to-peer information system technologies, digital library technologies, as well as on semantic representation and multimedia archiving technologies.
At present, our basic research thematically focuses on methods for the investigation of computer graphic technologies supporting information visualization in web-based user interfaces as well as on representationa and utilization of explicit location knowledge in model-based approaches supporting distributed, mobile, and collaborative applications.
Visual User InterfacesDigital Preservation
E-Sience and Knowledge Technologies
Collaborative Mobile Computing
In the course of the research project CargoScoreCard an integrated software system supporting the identification, calculation and communication of value-adding potentials of a modal shift for cargo traffic towards railway transportation will be implemented. It enables railway service companies as well as shippers to evaluate the benefit of railway transport with respect to financial, technological, social, and ecological aspects. Innovative visualization methods communicate the identified benefits, enabling stakeholders to effectively come to decisions. Through the integrated view of the benefits that railway transportation can offer to all parties involved in the transportation process, a sustainable development shifting goods transportation from road to rail can be achieved. More
Knowledge has become a factor of production. Hence, information access and knowledge exchange developed into decisive competitive factors. This holds especially true for intelligent, logical interconnection of knowledge in research. Today, computer-based, intense cooperative research gets termed as e-science. It is not only about technology, but also encompasses networking scientists in highly distributed environments. Due to its significance, e-science is subject of numerous international research initiatives. This study acquires the current state of German research activities in the area of e-science and identifies today’s deficiencies as well as desiderata. The study concludes with suggestions for action in the form of a draft for a research roadmap in the area of e-science. More
An advanced software framework for enabling the integrated development of semantic-based Information, Content, and Knowledge (ICK) management systems. More
Electronic resources are a central part of our cultural and intellectual heritage, but this material is at risk. Digital memory needs constant management, using new techniques and processes, to contain such risks as technological obsolescence. Risk begins before the digital record is created and continues for as long as the digital object needs to be retained. Digital preservation is too big an issue for individual institutions or even sectors to address independently. Concerted action at both national and international level is required. DigitalPreservationEurope, building on the earlier successful work of ERPANET, facilitates pooling of the complementary expertise that exists across the academic research, cultural, public administration and industry sectors in Europe. More
In the course of its "e-Science-Wissensvernetzung" initivative, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) promotes projects that bring e-science and networked knowledge management into applications. The goal behind is to foster innovative approaches for the collaboration of scientific disciplines as well as professional information and information-technology service providers in networks of scientific organizations. The initiative's overall complexity demands coordination of activities far beyond regular project administration. Moreover, the integration, dissemination and exploitation of results requires planning from an organizational level above the promoted projects. More
The long-term accessibility of all digital resources of lasting value must be preserved - this despite the changing conditions arising from rapid technological development. The aim of saving them as part of our cultural heritage is to facilitate an accurate account of our social, historical, technical and artistic development. Scientific work is always based on existing findings. The long-term accessibility of digital resources is therefore essential to ensure that our educational, scientific and economic systems remain competitive. More
In classical information retrieval research, the system-oriented viewdominated for a long time. In this view, users formulatethe query and then judge the elements of the ranked result list with respect to theirrelevance. This kind of information retrieval requires an explicit query formulation and leads in this way often only to a finding from already known and formerly stored data. More
The aim of SHAMAN is to develop the framework for the next generation of long term (more than 1 century) digital preservation systems and tools. It includes the definition of a SHAMAN theory of preservation integrating the analysis, ingestion, management, access to and reuse of information objects across distributed repositories. The data preservation capabilities offered will secure the authenticity and integrity of data objects through time.
EMTO is a database offering access to about 2000 digitized source texts from early modern philosophy and related disciplines like history of science and theology provided by libraries in Europe and overseas. In the present stage of its development, EMTO merely presents links to external resources. EMTO is an ongoing project.
Digital information has become an integral part of our scientific live. The rapid pace of technical change is causing data carriers and data formats to age quickly. The result is an acute threat to the long-term usability of digital objects which serve as sources for science and research. The necessity for long-term preservation has to be anchored in the social context of the national information, research and cultural policy, and the global integrations of science and research.
Teaching