Activities of the IPC

The IntelligentPad Consortium's activities fall under the following categories:

1. IntelligentPad Research and Development As "advance technology" work on IntelligentPad we develop sample systems.

2. Standardization and Authorization of IntelligentPad We draw up and maintain the standard specification for IntelligentPad,and we test product versions for their conformance to this specification.

3. Dissemination and Education To promote the widespread acceptance of IntelligentPad, we hold events such as workshops and seminars.

4. Marketing and Public Relations The Consortium makes various IntelligentPad sample systems generally available over the Internet, as well as exhibiting them and giving talks at relevant events.

1. Research & Development Development Projects We are undertaking projects to drive forward IntelligentPad's applicability as a tool for real business. Two projects were started in January 1998, pursued respectively by three and four corporate members who responded to our calls for participation. Fiscal year 1997 Plaza Pad Development Project In this project our goal was to implement a forum for pad-based exchange of media objects, and to provide tools for processing and utilizing such objects. Fiscal year 1998 Piazza Project This project uses the plaza pad to support ad-hoc setup of virtual markets. It facilitates distribution of digital media and provides an environment in which markets for exchange or trade of digital media can be established freely. Fiscal year 1999 The Editing System Development Project for Regional Contents(Starting from September) The goal is to develop the editing system for regional contents and to make it a prototype model to apply for elementary and secondary school education.

Research Prior to the above projects we undertook the development and release of a number of implementations of IntelligentPad, using development groups within the IPC itself in cooperation with corporate members. Five versions of IntelligentPad have been released: UNIX, Windows (Fujitsu), Macintosh (Hitachi Software), a standardized version that conforms to the IntelligentPad standard specification, and a Smalltalk version from the "Digital Factory" project. These are in addition to the research versions under development at the Tanaka Laboratory in Hokkaido University. August 1994 Reference system developed on UNIX released along with its source code. September 1996 Standard-specification IntelligentPad sample system from Fujitsu Ltd. An alpha-level system for pad development was released to IPC members only, as was system source code. November 1996 Macintosh version by Hitachi Software Engineering. January 1997 IntelligentPad for Smalltalk (Digital Factory version) distributed to the IPC Technology Committee members. To promote the widespread acceptance of IntelligentPad as a media architecture we need mechanisms for distributing pads and charging for them. The IPC worked on these issues in collaboration with university researchers, and in 1997 the Technology Committee arrived at a preliminary design for a charging mechanism. A practical implementation was achieved in 1998 with the assistance of the Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA). To promote IntelligentPad's technological development we exchange research and application ideas with research groups at Hokkaido University and elsewhere.

2. Standardization of IntelligentPad and testing released product versions We produce and maintain the standard specification for IntelligentPad, and check that commercial versions provide a satisfactory level of functions and features. IntelligentPad cannot function as meme media unless the distributed pads themselves are mutually compatible. Once this is achieved, we can implement an environment in which pads can be distributed over the Internet, freely re-edited and re-distributed. Such an environment becomes an information distribution vehicle that lets people exchange their own personal forms of knowledge. To realize this goal, in 1996 the IPC made the first steps towards a conformance-checkable standard by having the Technology Committee and the Standardization Council (part of the Technology Committee) settle on a standard specification for IntelligentPad and produce a complete specification document. This standard defined IntelligentPad's standard features and a common API for pad development. Version 1 was circulated among IPC members in March 1996 for evaluation and feedback, in response to which version 2 was released in November of the same year. This version was made generally available through our Web site and on a published CD-ROM.

3. Dissemination and Education Workshops From time to time we organize workshops for both members and non-members. We introduce the latest status of IntelligentPad, and demonstrate recent examples of its application. In the 1997 fiscal year we also ran Pad Contests. These had "idea" and "padware" sections, and invited entries from IPC members or non-members showing concrete application examples that made good use of IntelligentPad's features. The contest ran four times. Ideas gathered from the contests have been applied insubsequent projects such as Piazza.

4. Marketing and Public Relations To help make IntelligentPad more widely known we engage in the following activities: Event participation At exhibitions and other events we give demonstrations and talks, and hand out descriptive material and CD-ROMs. We also provide publicity on the Internet, seeking to raise the general level of awareness of IntelligentPad technology. In fiscal year 1994... Object World / San Francisco (27-29/7/94) Multi Media '94 (Makuhari Messe, 12-14/12/94) Showed the Evaluation System, a Smalltalk/Agents version from Hokkaido University, and Windows and Macintosh product versions. A talk by Prof. Tanaka was well received. In fiscal year 1995... Intermedia Asia '95 / Singapore Multimedia Asia / Hongkong In fiscal year 1996... Intermedia Asia '96. Talk by John Cheuck, IPC director of global planning, (Singapore, 22-25/5/96) Internet World. Talk by Planning Committee members, (Tokyo, 15-17/5/96) Speakeasy Conference, Chicago (August) Digitalmedia World '96 (Makuhari Messe, 20-22/11/96) IP demonstrations In fiscal year 1997... Digitalmedia World '97 NICOGRAPH '97 / MULTIMEDIA '97 (Makuhari Messe, 26-28/11/97) In fiscal year 1998... ContentCreation + NICOGRAPH98 (Makuhari Messe, 25-27/11/98) In fiscal year 1999... Publishing IntelligentPad no Chosen (Japanese) (The Challenge of IntelligentPad) (Scheduled in September) IPC Web site Our Web site was built in July 1995, and has been an active source of IntelligentPad information ever since.