Project No.: 5003-045333 01.06.96 - 31.12.99

Project leader: Dr. Dimitri Konstantas, Centre Universitaire d’Informatique (CUI), University of Geneva
e-mail: dimitri@cui.unige.ch

Name of project: HYPER NEWS: Hypermedia Newspaper

Partners: Théophile Bouchat, Ringier Romandie, Lausanne

Funding: Sfr 642,504.-

Summary:
HYPER NEWS, part of the MEDIA integrated research project, covers the development and implementation of a prototype system for the distribution of electronic documents in a commercial environment. The specific target application consists of an electronic newspaper for commercial news distribution over the World Wide Web.

The system comprises two elements: Hypermedia Electronic Newspaper (HEN) and Electronic News Server (ENS). The "newspaper" aims to help readers save time when looking for items of information they are actually interested in. The use of hyperlinks make it possible to retrieve articles on a particular subject from several different servers. Older articles can also be accessed at any time to trace a subject back. The hyperlinks are put together individually according to each user’s specific needs.

The ENS must make the supply of information marketable by analogy with the print media. Servers will contain other forms of multimedia information such as video and audio clips or three-dimensional graphics, in addition to text and images. The project will pay special attention to data to be used for charging, data security and copyright.

The goal of phase one was to develop a pilot application to present the advantages of the MEDIA approach for commercial electronic document distribution. The application drawn up for the case of newspaper articles is only a special case. Other electronic documents (books, scientific articles and memoirs, etc.) call for other mechanisms and concepts for electronic commercial distribution.

Phase two will bring out this aspect above all, dealing with more voluminous electronic documents than newspaper articles. The large amount of time it takes to download a book over an ordinary modem is such an aspect. Other document types such as music and video will also be investigated.

The planned expansion of HyperNews systems will build on the applications already developed in phase one and will incorporate findings of the KryPict and ASAP projects. "L’Hebdo" magazine is available as a partner for practical trialling.

Cooperation:
The project is operated by the information technology center of the University of Geneva in collaboration with the weekly magazine "L’Hebdo".