Subject: SDL-News: Advanced HCIs
From: by way of Rick Reed TSE (Arve.Meisingset#kjeller.fou.telenor.no )
Date: Wed Dec 10 1997 - 19:57:32 GMT
The originator of this message is responsible for its content.
-----From Arve.Meisingset#kjeller.fou.telenor.no (by way of Rick Reed TSE) to sdlnews -----
Dear collegues
Representatives from SG2, SG4 and SG10 are organising a workshop on
Advanced Human-Computer Interfaces in 1998. See names of programme
committee. Enclosed is a call for papers, which I ask you to consider and
distribute to collegues who can take interest in this.
Sincerely yours,
Arve Meisingset, vice chairman of SG10.
CALL FOR PAPERS
to an ITU-T Worskshop on
Advanced Human-Computer Interfaces
for telecommunications management
Computing starts with the human-computer interface (HCI), and the outcome of
computing is presented at the HCI. Therefore, ITU-T invites experts to a
global
workshop for identifying
1. human-computer interfaces for managing telecommunications systems, and
2. software architectures and middleware for such HCIs
that can profit from standardisation.
The application area to be addressed is management of the Global Information
Infrastructure (GII) itself. The success of GII depends on its
manageability. This is
an extremely challenging area for human-computer interface design. Also,
advanced human-computer interfaces may require and impose new software
architectures and middleware. These two areas (1) and (2) are not covered by
current Telcommunications Management Network (TMN) standardisation.
Therefore, ITU-T wants to investigate what standardisation, if any, is
needed in
these areas. (See the attached project descriptions.)
To accomplish this goal, ITU-T calls for papers for a 2 days Workshop on
Advanced Human-Computer Interfaces.
PAPERS
Each paper should be organised as follows:
. Abstract providing a proposal of an area for standardisation and some
motivation for this proposal
. Description of the proposed human-computer interface technique and its
application area
. Proposal of the imposed software architecture and middleware, if any
. Identification of areas for standardisation within the scope of (1) and
(2), and
provide motivation for this need
Each paper should not exceed 7 pages including figures and references. Papers
should be written in Word, use 11 point Times New Roman fonts for normal text,
use one column, and Normal layout. The title of the paper should use 18 point
bold fonts, section headings should use 14 points bold fonts and sub-headings
should use 12 points bold fonts. Section numbers are not needed. Figures
should
be provided with a figure text. The style of references is the authors
choice. The
title of the paper should be followed by names and addresses of the authors.
Papers should preferably be submitted by e-mail to the address given below.
SUBMISSION
Papers should be submitted to
Arve Meisingset
Telenor Research and Development
P.O. Box 83
N-2007 Kjeller, Norway
Tel: +47 63 84 84 00
Fax: +47 63 81 00 76
Internet: arve.meisingset#fou.telenor.no
before 23 February 1998. Submission to the Workshop is open to all and
presentation at the Workshop is not restricted to ITU-T members. The papers
will
be reviewed by the following programme committee
Ed Israelski Lucent
Roberto Marion, CSELT
Beth Marshburn, Lucent
Arve Meisingset, Telenor Research and Development
Floris L. van Nes, Eindhoven University of Technology
Knut Nordby, Telenor Research and Development
Blake Wattenbarger, AT&T
Tom Winlow, Nortel
The members of the programme committee represent ITU-T Study Groups 2, 4
and 10.
Information of acceptance of papers will be communicated before 6 April.
Papers
will be reviewed on the merit of their technical quality. However, papers for
presentation will be selected from their applicability for standardisation.
This
means that authors do not have to put their proposal into a theoretical
context,
compare with other approaches and provide extensive references. However,
references to more detailed information are valuable.
VENUE
The workshop will be held in Dublin 14-15 May 1998. Participation is free of
charge.
Information on hotel booking and travelling will be provided later.
PUBLICATION
The programme committee is investigating a suitable means of publication. The
programme committee will process the results from the workshop into a
report to
be approved by Study Group 10, provided to the Joint Coordination Group on
GII,
and bring the results into the appropriate Study Groups within ITU-T. The
workshop is run under GII project M9 and the results will be used as input
to GII
project M10. See enclosed project descriptions.
Attachment A
M9. Advanced Human Computer Interfaces (HCIs) for telecommunications
management
Objectives:
Identify aspects of future HCIs and their tool interfaces for the
management of
telecommunications which are candidates for standardisation.
Standardisation program: (1), 2
Project description:
The telecommunication network is believed to be the most complex system ever
created by humans. An educated guess tells that a modern telecom operator
requires an online data store larger than 1 megabyte per customer. In addition
comes historical data and backup data. For a GII of 1 billion customers, this
requires more than 1015 bytes for its management. The total data store for the
future GII can easily become much larger. The total data store and its
complexity
will be considerably larger than the managed network itself and it will
co-operate
in real time with the network. Management of the network via human-computer
interfaces will comprise many and large professions. The management systems
for the GII will be characterised by:
. great size
. great complexity
. great overlap of functionality
. great interaction between user functions
. great competition
. great security threats
. real time interaction with the network
. errors can have great effects
To provide overview and manageability of the GII data store will present
unprecedented challenges to the design of human-computer interfaces. Some
example challenges and opportunities are listed below, however, neither the
applications nor the indicated solutions are validated at this moment of
time. The
examples are:
1. how to correlate and present world wide signalling to identify
unauthorised use
of the GII;
2. how to analyse and present traffic losses to competitors;
3. how to overview, un-bundle and manipulate extremely large graphs;
4. how to automatically aggregate and generically manipulate parts of the
graphs;
5. how to design and use graphic query languages for very large networks;
6. how to convert various user interfaces automatically to multiple natural
languages;
7. how to provide speech/sound user interfaces for the management of the GII;
8. how to convert between and integrate representations on multiple media;
9. how to manipulate graphs by speech;
10. how to use three-dimensional graphics for the management of GII;
11. how to use animation for the management of the GII;
12. how to manage the GII by new human-computer metaphors and tools;
13. how to access GII data via the formal specification of the data;
14. how to create software automatically for service execution from
non-programming management interfaces;
15. how to design new interfaces by new HCI development and specification
techniques;
16. how to apply formal specification and analysis of HCIs;
17. how to provide formal language HCIs;
18. how to give end users and user organisations means to create, modify and
manipulate their own HCIs.
Several of the advanced HCIs will require software architectures, interfaces,
middleware, languages and specification techniques which are not met by
existing means. Neither are these needs met by existing technical standards.
Exploration of the possibilities will require contributions from HCI
experts, formal
language experts, computer experts and others.
A GII project may not be a sufficient means to provide the wanted
information from
the areas indicated above.
One intermediate step to achieve the project goal could be to arrange a global
work shop, open for papers both from ITU and non-ITU members. This work shop
could be an appropriate means to provide the needed background information.
The results from the workshop can be analysed and processed by a GII project
into a convenient document for use within the GII. The final outcome of the
project
can be a list of areas which may need standardisation within the scope of
GII. It is
not within the scope of this project to develop final architectures and
identify
interfaces. However, the project will serve as a requirement capture for more
detailed architecture work.
Lead body: Q.3/10
Collaborating bodies: Q16/2, Q16/4, Q13/10, and to be decided language
Questions like 5/10, 6/10, 9/10 and 10/10, non-ITU bodies?
Relevant existing International Standards, specifications, and other documents:
To be identified by the project.
Current work activities in ITU-T:
None.
Deliverables and time scale:
Call for paper: 3Q97 (modified to 4Q97)
Deadline: 4Q97 (modified to 1Q98)
Workshop: 1/2Q98
Report: 3Q98
Attachment B
M10. Software architectures for advanced Human Computer Interfaces (HCIs)
Objectives:
Provide a framework for identifying interfaces which are candidates for
standardisation between software components providing advanced HCIs.
Standardisation program: (1), 2
Project description:
Several of current software frameworks subject for standardisation lack
focus on
the HCI aspects of the software architecture, e.g.:
. ODP provides a framework for distributed computing, which certainly can be
applied for providing HCIs, but does neither address scoping and conversion of
data to the HCIs nor does it identify candidate interfaces appearing from
these
transformations
. TMN provides a framework of function blocks and reference points between
them and mappings into building blocks and reference points for TMN
functionality and communication. TMN does not cover the mapping from the TMN
boundary to the HCI, nor has TMN identified what functionality and candidate
interfaces can reside between the TMN boundary and the HCI
Some challenges for frameworks for advanced HCIs may be to provide:
1. Multilingual user interfaces and automatic translation between these
2. Multimedia and automatic conversion between various media
3. Access to data via the formal specification of the data
4. Formal language HCIs
5. Means for end users and user organisations to create, modify and manipulate
their own HCIs
6. Means to create software automatically for service execution from
non-programming management interfaces
Software frameworks for advanced HCIs are needed in the following areas:
1. Services provided by the GII
2. Management of GII networks and services
3. Development of management applications and services identified in the two
previous bullets
In addition to covering the above challenges and areas, the framework may
provide the following:
1. A systematic approach to specify architectures for HCIs. Most
architectures use
a rather ad hoc approach by identifying function blocks and reference points
between these: There is a need to distinguish (1) specification of data
(forms) and
relationships between these (e.g. in a predicate calculus like notation),
(2) function
blocks and data flow between these, and (3) program (module)s and control flow
between them.
2. Distinction between and integration of several dimensions of the
software: (1)
usage dimension, (2) creation dimension, and (3) life cycle dimension -
this can
imply nesting of the architecture.
3. Techniques/principles for how to derive (data flow) interfaces from the
(specifications in) the reference model.
4. Identification of and distinction between interchange formats of
communication
protocols and software interfaces (APIs) at each side of the communication.
The final results will
1. form an integrated part of ëthe definition of an integrated global
framework
reference modelí for the GII
2. provide a clear identification of interfaces to be standardised and for
middleware to be used within the scope of GII
Lead body: Q.3/10
Collaborating bodies: To be decided, but including language Questions like
5/10,
6/10, 9/10 and 10/10
Relevant existing International Standards, specifications, and other documents:
To be identified by the project.
Current work activities in ITU-T:
To be identified.
Deliverables and time scale:
Start: 2Q98, dependent on results from M9. (will be delayed according to
revised time plan)
Details to be worked out.
-----End text from Arve.Meisingset#kjeller.fou.telenor.no (by way of Rick Reed TSE) to sdlnews -----
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