🚀 go-pugleaf

In message <3235@sparko.gwu.edu> of 29 May 91 20:25:09, I asked for
references about current research in multimedia mail systems. Thanks to
all the people who responded to this reply:

  Michael J. Scott          (mike@sparky.uwaterloo.ca)
  Jonathan Postel           (postel@isi.edu)
  Terry Crowley             (tcrowley@diamond.bbn.com)
  Per Einar Dybvik          (per.dybvik@forskning.teledir.no)
  Dean Riddlebarger         (...!citi!sharkey!umich!samsung!nstar!towers!dean)
  Bill Hefley               (weh@sei.cmu.edu)
  Jonathan Rosenberg        (jxr@thumper.bellcore.com)
  Nathaniel Borenstein      (nsb@thumper.bellcore.com)
  Douglas B. Terry          (Douglas_B._Terry.PARC@xerox.com)
  Keith Edwards             (keith@cc.gatech.edu)

Here's the promised summary of the replies I received.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael J. Scott writes:

  Jens,
  
    I was at an Open Systems conference last week and a company called JTS
  displayed a software/hardware package which includes a multimedia mail
  facility.  It is called OpenImage and runs under OpenLook.  It also has
  capabilities to interface with database management programs and loads of
  other stuff like word processors, spreadsheets, etc.
  
    You may be interested in that fact that it allows a user to create 'files'
  which may include text, images, sound files and fax files.  The file can
  then be sent to someone else who can add/delete/modify any of the contents.
  This includes digitizing voice, scanning images, running OCR on scanned
  images or including faxes.
  
    It is designed to work on a distributed network, based on the client/server
  model.
  
    More info:
  
          JTS Computer Systems Ltd.
          5000 Dufferin Street
          Downsview, Ontario
          Canada
          M3H 5T5
          (416) 665-8910
  
      sorry, I don't have an e-mail address.
  
    ciao,
  
  --
  Michael J. Scott                       U of Waterloo Bioengineering Group
  mike@sparky.uwaterloo.ca               'Embryos Are Us'
  
  ###########  Fantastically mediocre .sig under construction   ###########

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jonathan Postel writes:

  Jens Kilian:
  
  Try the two issues of the IEEE Computer Magazine of October and
  November 1985.
  
  --jon.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Crowley writes:

  BBN/Slate (nee Diamond) is one such system.  October 1989 copy of Unix
  Review contains a description.

  Terry Crowley

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Per Einar Dybvik writes:

  Some articles:
  
  Postel, Jonathan. An experimental multimedia mail system. ACM Tr. on office
                    Infor. Syst. Vol 6, no 1, 1988
  Huitema, Christian. The challenge of multimedia mail. Computer Networks and
                      ISDN Systems. 17, 1989
  Smith, Hugh. XUA. Nottingham University.
  Crowley, Terry. Diamond (Slate). BBN, Boston.
  
  I can also tell you that we are currently working with a multimedia mail
  system where the keywords are:
   -, Digital video & audio
   -  Telephone answering
   -  Images & graphics
   - Fax gatewaying
   -  X11, X.400, ODA
  Thats all I can tell you at the moment.
  
  Per Einar DYbvik
  Norwegian Telecom Research Dept.
  email: pere@odin.nta.no

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean Riddlebarger writes:

  Well, I don't have the reference in front of me, but the Communications
  of the ACM issue from either one or two months ago had a couple of good
  overview articles about multimedia mail/news systems.  The global theme
  of the issue was digital video, and of course multimedia mail tends to
  fit into that category.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Hefley and Jonathan Rosenberg give the following references:

  Nathaniel Borenstein, Craig Everhart, Jonathan Rosenberg and Adam Stoller.
  Architectural Issues in the Andrew Message System.
  In IFIP WG 6.5 Working Conference on Message Handling Systems. Elsevier,
           1988.
  October 10-12, 1988, Costa Mesa, CA.
  
  Nathaniel Borenstein, Craig Everhart, Jonathan Rosenberg and Adam Stoller.
  A Multi-media Message System for Andrew.
  In Proceedings of the USENIX Winter Conference.  USENIX Association,
           Dallas, TX, February, 1988.
  
  Jonathan Rosenberg, Craig F. Everhart and Nathaniel S. Borenstein.
  An Overview of the Andrew Message System.
  In Proceedings of the SIGCOMM '87 Workshop: Frontiers in Computer
           Communications Technology.  ACM, Stowe, VT, August, 1987.
  
  In addition, you should look at the Diamond System (now known as Slate)
  done at BBN.  This is the only reference I have handy, but I think Terry
  Crowley reads this list (Terry: you out there?) and he can provide
  additional references.
  
   Robert H. Thomas, Harry C. Forsdick, Terrence R. Crowley, Richard W. Schaaf,
       Raymond S. Tomlinson and Virginia M. Travers
  Diamond: A Multimedia Message System Built on a Distributed Architecture
  IEEE Computer, (18/12), December, 1985

[I grouped these replies since this article is already long enough.
 Hope nobody gets offended. -jjk]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nathaniel Borenstein writes:

  An easier-to-find Andrew reference might be:
  
  Borenstein, Nathaniel S. and Chris Thyberg, "Power, Ease of Use, and
  Cooperative Work in a Practical Multimedia Message System",
  International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, April, 1991 (34).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Douglas B. Terry writes:

  The following paper discusses the use of voice in mail messages as well as
  other applications:
  
  Managing stored voice in the Etherphone system, by D. B. Terry and D. C.
  Swinehart.  ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 6(1):3-27, February 1988.
  An extended abstract appeared in Proceedings Eleventh Symposium on Operating
  Systems Principles, Austin, Texas, November 1987.
  
  ... Doug

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Edwards also offered references to the Andrew Message System.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks again to all repliers.

	Jens Kilian.

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