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authorNorbert Preining <norbert@preining.info>2019-09-02 13:46:59 +0900
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+\title{Hyper-G: Information---the Next Generation}
+\author{Klaus Schmaranz}
+%\inst (Graz University of Technology, Austria\\
+%kschmar@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at)}
+\begin{Article}
+
+\begin{abstract}
+
+The first part of the paper deals with problems and shortcomings of
+electronic publishing today that have up to now prevented the really
+big breakthrough. In the following sections the use of Hyper-G, the
+first second generation Web system for distribution of electronic
+publications on the Web as well as on \acro{CD}-\acro{ROM} is discussed. It is shown
+that the object oriented database architecture of the Hyper-G server
+overcomes most of the problems of today's solutions. The last section
+contains a short description of journals and books that are already
+utilizing this new technology.
+
+Please note that throughout the paper the name Hyper-G is used
+describing the technology of the system. The server itself as a
+product is available under the product name HyperWave.
+
+\end{abstract}
+\section{Introduction}
+
+Speaking about portable documents one will easily realize that
+portability of documents has several faces. Mainly portability means
+that documents can be transported on the Web. This implies that the
+document format chosen has to be compatible with several hardware and
+operating system platforms. So far one can make sure that interesting
+information is useful for the majority of Web users by choosing the
+right format.
+
+Although a well chosen document format makes sure the documents are
+usable for readers this is only the first step to really portable
+information. Documents on the Web only make sense if interested
+readers can find the information they desire. Thus easy location of
+documents has to be considered to be part of the portability aspect
+too. Besides easy data retrieval transmission speed is a sensible
+point to be considered. Readers having to wait annoyingly long for
+documents or having to deal with broken connections are very likely
+not to be interested in electronic publications at all.
+
+Considering that at the moment an estimated 300 million users from
+different cultures and speaking different languages have access to the
+Internet, multilinguality of documents becomes more and more
+important. Although with today's methods it is not possible to
+translate documents to other languages on the fly there is a lot that
+can be done. One can consider publishing papers in more than one
+language and mechanisms can be implemented to give the user the
+possibility to look up unknown terms. Dictionaries as well as
+glossaries can be made available for specialized areas.
+
+Electronic publishing naturally does not only mean to publish
+documents on the Web. There are also a lot of potential readers of
+electronic publications that still have no Internet access. To keep
+costs low the system chosen for distribution must be able to support
+both Web and \acro{CD}-\acro{ROM}. Otherwise the amount of work doubles because these
+versions have to be prepared seperately.
+
+A look at electronic documents on the Web shows that at the moment
+most of the Web sites serving electronic publications are run by
+universities and only a few are operated by publishing companies on an
+evaluation basis free of charge. However electronic publishing in the long
+term is surely driven by publishing companies which means that
+charging mechanisms and user as well as group access management are
+highly important topics.
+
+In the following sections you will find a detailed discussion of the
+features of Hyper-G, the first `second-generation' Web server [Maurer
+96] that make electronic publishing easier and more effective
+than ever before. This includes navigation issues that help the
+readers to find their way through the electronic jungle. Also the
+standpoint of publishing companies concerning billing and access
+rights is considered making sure that the system will fit their
+needs. Additionally turnaround time from submission to appearance of a
+paper and the cost effectiveness of this process will be discussed.
+
+
+\section{Using Hyper-G for Electronic Publishing}
+
+Before discussing new publishing paradigms let us have a closer look
+at Hyper-G. Using Hyper-G for electronic publishing solves a lot of
+the problems mentioned above and opens the way for completely new
+electronic publishing paradigms.
+
+Hyper-G automatically supports hybrid Web and \acro{CD}-\acro{ROM} publication
+without additional effort as has been successfully proven over the
+last two years with \acro{J}.\acro{UCS}, the Journal of Universal Computer Science
+by Springer-Verlag [Maurer 94].
+
+The kernel of the Hyper-G server is an object-oriented distributed
+network database with a separate link database. Information structure
+as well as document meta information are a basic part of the concept
+[Kappe 91]. This makes it possible to present the user with a seamless
+world-wide structured information space across server boundaries.
+
+The document structure gives readers the possibility to locate
+interesting papers easily since all the information can be structured
+by topic, by journal or by other criteria that are
+important. Structure in Hyper-G is achieved by the use of collections
+that themselves can hold collections or documents. This concept allows
+it to build structured information trees where the contents of a
+collection need not even reside on the same server as the collection
+itself. Collections or documents can be members of arbitrary many
+collections without physically copying them. The result is that
+different structures can be applied to the same dataset and users
+can choose the most logical structure for their purposes.
+
+Document meta information such as author, title, keywords, creation
+date, modification date as well as expiry date and many more, support
+the readers in getting as much information as possible. Naturally
+document meta information is searchable and full text searches may
+be performed. The scope of searches is user definable and can be one
+small part of one server or even the whole content of all servers
+worldwide in one single operation. Even when doing searches on
+multiple servers it is not necessary to know about the server
+addresses.
+
+More than that: meta information cannot be applied only to documents
+but also to hyperlinks! This means that links can have types, such as
+annotation links, inline links, also version links for documents where
+multiple versions exist and many more.
+
+Hyper-G servers do not provide read access only, write access is also
+possible. Read and write access to documents are controlled on a
+user and group access right basis and billing is integrated in the
+server.
+
+All links in Hyper-G servers are stable [Andrews 95], which
+means that dangling links (links pointing to nowhere) are
+impossible. Whenever a document is moved from one location to another,
+even across server boundaries, all the links pointing to that document
+automatically point to the new location. This kind of stability is
+achieved using \acro{URN}s (Uniform Resource Names) instead of \acro{URL}s
+[Berners-Lee et al.\ 94]. \acro{URN}s can naturally be mapped to \acro{URL}s when
+accessing a Hyper-G server with a standard WWW or Gopher client. If
+documents are deleted all the links pointing to this document remain
+open and are hidden. Whenever the document reappears the links are
+closed again.
+
+Not only are all links stable, they are also bidirectional. Accessing
+a document on a Hyper-G server readers do not see only the outgoing
+links of documents but also all links pointing to the document from
+the outside. Links can be followed in the reverse direction, which would
+not be possible using first-generation Web servers. This very special
+feature is achieved by the separate link database of Hyper-G
+servers. If links were embedded in the documents themselves as is the
+case with first generation Web servers this would not be possible.
+
+The separate link database has another advantage: it makes
+every document hyperlinkable even if the document format does not
+allow links [Maurer 96].
+
+Amongst other structuring elements Hyper-G supports the concept of
+clusters. A cluster contains several documents that are related to
+each other and therefore should be viewed together. As an example out
+of chemistry 3\acro{D} molecular models could be clustered together with an
+explanatory text. In this case the user would get the 3\acro{D} model in one
+window together with the explanatory text in another window.
+
+Clusters are also used to serve multilingual documents. Documents in
+different languages are clustered together and the user then gets the
+document matching his language preferences. In first-generation Web
+systems the only possibility to have multilingual documents is to
+let the user choose the language on the entry page and then follow
+different paths through the server for different languages. This
+approach causes a lot of work for server operators and the readers
+have no chance to change the language while reading. With Hyper-G only
+one path through the server has to be maintained and the readers can
+switch between multiple languages on the fly [Andrews 94].
+
+Versioning of documents is also supported using clusters. Different
+versions of a document are clustered together and the reader can
+switch back and forth between different versions on the fly. To
+support the server operator and keep maintenance of multiple document
+versions easy a special parser is available. When updating documents
+this parser tries automatically to find the positions of all
+hyperlinks of the old version in the new one.
+
+Other special features of Hyper-G are glossaries and automated
+glossary hyperlink creation. A glossary in Hyper-G is defined as an
+arbitrary collection of explanatory documents that are classified by
+their titles and keywords. Hyperlinks to glossary items in a document
+are then automatically created by a special parser that searches for
+the glossary items in the text of the document. Automated creation of
+glossary links is at the moment supported for \acro{HTML} and
+\acro{HTF} documents, \acro{PDF} and PostScript support are under development.
+
+To make creation of referential hyperlinks easier a
+{\it Vocative Hyperlink Creation Language} (\acro{VHCL}) has been
+implemented. This language supports the description of document
+context and potential hyperlinks in that context. As an example
+typical phrases like ``see also page \emph{nn}'' would be recognized by the
+program and a link to page \emph{nn} would automatically be created.
+Journals normally have their well defined citation rules making it
+easy to write a \acro{VHCL} program that recognizes citations and
+automatically creates inter document as well as intra document
+hyperlinks. As is the case with glossary links this feature is at the
+moment implemented for \acro{HTML} and \acro{HTF}; \acro{PDF} as well
+as PostScript
+support are under development.
+
+
+\section{Providing Quick Access}
+
+As has been mentioned earlier it is extremely important to provide
+quick access to information otherwise it would be worthless. Since
+Internet is neither very reliable nor fast considering long distance
+data transfer it is necessary to mirror documents to several servers
+world-wide. Doing this readers are able to choose the server that is
+geographically most convenient for them in the network sense.
+
+Implemented in Hyper-G are two mechanisms that make long distance
+transmissions effective: first a cache is implemented that works as
+all the well-known proxy servers do. Although caching can help a lot
+it is surely not enough, because lifetime of documents in the cache
+can be rather short depending on the traffic. For this reason a second
+mechanism called replication is implemented.
+
+Replication means that documents from one server can be mirrored to
+other Hyper-G servers and the replicated documents know about the
+original.
+%The benefit of replication is that users are no longer
+%forced to know about mirrored documents but get the local document
+%automatically instead of the remote one. As an example a user could be
+%connected to a Hyper-G server in the USA and finds an interesting
+%document in Austria. If a replica of the document exists on the server
+%in the States the user automatically gets the replica instead of
+%downloading the original from Graz. It is not necessary that the user
+%knows about the replica, everything is done automatically.
+This functionality is one of the benefits of using \acro{URN}s instead of \acro{URL}s, it
+would be impossible to implement it for first generation systems using
+\acro{URL}s.
+
+Besides caching and replication readers can actively utilize the
+ability to have write access to their personal home
+collection. Instead of defining bookmarks on their local computer they
+can insert references into their home collection on their Hyper-G
+server. The benefit is that their ``bookmarks'' are then accessible
+from wherever they connect to the server,
+%It is not necessary to sit on their desktop machine to access them
+which is especially ideal for people who are travelling a lot.
+
+
+\section{New Publishing Paradigms}
+
+Having a closer look at the way electronic publishing is done today
+one will mostly find \acro{HTML} or \acro{PDF} documents that are very
+similar to
+their paper based counterparts. Often a search engine is provided to
+make location of interesting papers easier, all other benefits of
+doing publishing electronically are mostly neglected. For the reader
+of electronic publications nearly no value is added compared to paper
+based articles. Worse than that---considering \acro{HTML} documents the
+possibility to do high quality printouts for archival purposes is
+lost. This is surely not enough to make electronic publishing on the
+Web a success.
+
+In the above section discussion was about the special Hyper-G
+features. Utilizing them allows completely new electronic publishing
+paradigms that are no longer driven by technical demands and
+shortcomings of certain document formats like \acro{HTML}. Instead authors
+can concentrate on the content rather than the document format and
+choose a format convenient for them without loosing important
+hypernavigation features.
+
+As an example a paper about new chemical structures could consist of
+3\acro{D} models of molecules that are clickable. The hyperlinks could then
+lead to spectrum images that are then linked to some additional text
+based explanations in, for example, \acro{PDF} [Adobe 93]. A video of an
+experiment, naturally again with hyperlinks to explanations, completes
+the presentation.
+
+All the documents in the example above carry meta information like
+keywords and can therefore easily be located in a search.
+
+Acceptance of electronic publications is highly dependent on their
+quality. For electronic publishing quality does not only mean high
+quality contents, which can be assured by an appropriate refereeing
+process. Stability of electronic publications is at least as
+important. Technically it is easy to change electronic papers after
+publication but this is unacceptable. Instead Hyper-G's annotation and
+versioning mechanisms can be used to alert the reader of new results
+or errata. In this case the paper is not changed at all, only
+additional information is added to the paper. Therefore all citations
+of the paper that existed for the original version are still valid and
+the reader can choose to browse annotations and newer versions of the
+paper on demand.
+
+Annotations in Hyper-G are hyperlinks pointing to the document that is
+annotated. Since Hyper-G's links are bidirectional the reader simply
+follows an annotation link backwards to read the annotation. The use
+of \acro{URN}s in a link database instead of \acro{URL}s embedded in documents
+guarantees that the annotation links are stable. This means that an
+annotated document can be moved around in the server or even from one
+server to another without generating annotations that point to
+nowhere. All links that pointed to the document before are then
+pointing to the document at its new location.
+
+Being able to examine the neighbourhood of a paper makes it possible
+to find other interesting papers on the same topic that very likely
+are difficult if not impossible to locate if only unidirectional links
+were possible as is the case with first-generation Web servers.
+
+
+\section{Turnaround Time and Cost Effectiveness}
+
+One of the most time consuming processes of electronic publishing is
+refereeing. Up to now refereeing normally means that a paper copy of
+the submitted paper is sent to the referees who send a corrected paper
+copy back. The annotated version is then sent to the author. If there
+are misunderstandings between referee and author the document is
+usually sent back and forth several times.
+
+A much faster turnaround time can be achieved if refereeing,
+corrections and clarifying misunderstandings can be parallelized. The
+logical way is to do refereeing electronically. Using Hyper-G's
+electronic annotations this task can be performed easily: papers are
+inserted into the Hyper-G server with read access only for the
+referees and if the referees agree also for the author.
+
+The referees then comment on the papers using the annotation
+mechanism. If desired annotations can also be made readable for the
+author, so the author is able to react immediately on the referees'
+comments. More than that -- the author himself could also annotate the
+referees' comments to clarify misunderstandings. Naturally the author
+as well as the referees remain anonymous [Maurer 95].
+
+This kind of refereeing shortens the time used for the whole process
+significantly because the authors are able to do corrections in their
+papers and clear misunderstandings while refereeing is still in
+progress. There is no longer a need to send papers back and forth
+between referees and authors.
+
+Naturally it would be too optimistic to think that refereeing can
+usually be done within days instead of weeks. There is nothing that
+can be done about referees that are too busy, but most of the time
+it helps a lot to do everything in parallel instead of sequential.
+
+An additional benefit of this kind of refereeing is that the whole
+process from submission over refereeing to publication is
+automatically documented and can be stored for archival purposes.
+
+In general electronic publications are considered to be cheaper than
+paper based publications. This is true if both the electronic as well
+as the paper based version of a paper have the same contents and the
+electronic version only provides full text search as added value. This
+is not true if one wants to utilize all the additional features that
+lie in the electronic nature of the medium. The final step of
+inserting the paper into the server is in this case not only the
+insertion itself. Also hyperlinks as well as structure, eventually a
+version of the paper that is split into single sections or versions of
+the paper in different formats have to be prepared. Naturally there
+can be other electronic specialities like Java scripts or 3\acro{D}
+navigation rooms and many more. All that is very time consuming if it
+has to be done by hand. The whole process is critical in terms of cost
+effectiveness and should be automated to the highest extent possible.
+
+Using the special tools that Hyper-G provides such as the {\it Table
+of Content Generator}, the {\it Glossary Hyperlink Generator} and the
+{\it Vocative Hyperlink Creation Language} automates the additional
+work to the maximum extent possible. The steps to be performed at
+insertion are limited to running the tools and controlling them. All
+reference and glossary link creation is done automatically.
+
+
+\section{Current Electronic Publications With Hyper-G Technology}
+
+The first electronic journal based on Hyper-G was \acro{J}.\acro{UCS} -- the Journal
+of Universal Computer Science by Springer-Verlag. It is a monthly
+journal covering all knowledge areas of computer science and
+additionally to the Web version a yearly \acro{CD}-\acro{ROM} and
+printed version
+are provided by Springer. Papers in \acro{J}.\acro{UCS} appear in two parallel
+formats: hypertext and hyperlinked PostScript. \acro{PDF} is planned for
+1997.
+
+Springer also publish Few Body Systems (\acro{FBS}),
+one of the most reputable Journals in physics. Started in January
+1995.
+
+Academic Press distribute the Journal for Network
+and Computer Applications (\acro{JNCA}) (former \acro{JMCA} and \acro{JMA}).
+Started in January 1996.
+
+Datenstrukturen by Ottmann and Widmeyer, the German bible of Data structures.
+This uses hyperlinked PostScript.
+
+Meyer's Lexikon, one of the most comprehensive German encyclopedias,
+is electronically available on a Hyper-G server on an n-user license
+basis.
+
+Addison-Wesley publish some 30 books electronically on the Web using Hyper-G.
+
+\begin{thebibliography}{99999}
+
+\bibitem[Adobe 93]{AdobePDF} Adobe Systems Inc.: Portable Document Format
+Reference Manual, Addison-Wesley (1993).
+
+\bibitem[Andrews 95]{AndKapMauSch95} Andrews, K., Kappe, F., Maurer,
+ H. and Schmaranz, K.: On Second Generation Network Hypermedia Systems, Proc.
+\acro{ED}-\acro{MEDIA} '95, (1995), 69--74.
+
+\bibitem[Berners-Lee et al.\ 94]{BLCaiLuoNieSec94} Berners-lee, T.,
+ Cailliau, R., Luotonen, A., Nielsen, H. and Secred, A.: The World-Wide Web.
+Communications of the \acro{ACM} 37, 8 (1994), 76--82.
+
+\bibitem[Andrews 94]{AndKap94} Andrews, K. and Kappe, F.: Soaring Through
+Hyperspace: A Snapshot of Hyper-G and its Harmony Client, Proc. of
+Eurographics Symposium on Multimedia/Hypermedia in Open Distributed
+Environments, Graz (1994).
+
+\bibitem[Kappe 91]{KapMauTom91} Kappe, F., Maurer, H. and Tomek, I.:
+ Hyper-G -- %
+Specification of Requirements, Proc. Conference on Intelligent
+Systems (\acro{CIS}) '91, (1991), 257--272
+
+\bibitem[Maurer 94]{MauSch94} Maurer, H. and Schmaranz, K.:
+\acro{J}.\acro{UCS} -- The Next
+Generation in Electronic Journal Publishing, Computer Networks and
+\acro{ISDN} Systems, Computer Networks for Research in Europe, Vol.\ 26
+Suppl.\ 2, 3, (1994), 63--69.
+
+\bibitem[Maurer 95]{MauSch95} Maurer, H. and Schmaranz, K.:
+ \acro{J}.\acro{UCS} and Extensions as Paradigm for Electronic
+ Publishing, Proceedings \acro{DAGS}'95, Boston Massachusetts, (1995).
+
+\bibitem[Maurer 96]{Mau96} Maurer, H. ed.: HyperWave -- The Next Generation
+Web Solution, Addison-Wesley, (1996).
+
+
+
+\end{thebibliography}
+\end{Article}
+\endinput
+%\end{document}
+
+--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dipl. Ing. Klaus Schmaranz
+Institute for Information Processing and Computer Supported New Media (IICM)
+Graz University of Technology, Graz/Austria/Europe/Earth/Milky-Way/Universe
+
+email: kschmar@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at,phone: +43/316/873-5611,fax: +43/316/824394
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------