Glossary of Acronyms
NOTE: Expressions in bold and followed by an asterisk (e.g. “ASW-HSS project*”) appear in the glossary.
A
ARA© video-library
1) Acronym for “Audiovisual Research Archives”
2) The ARA is the general video-library of the ARA Program. This video-library broadcasts around 5,500 hours of (online) videos in about fifteen languages. The authors and directors of this collection form an “international community” of around 2,500 researchers, teachers, intellectuals, artists, politicians, journalists, professionals… working in some 85 countries around the world.
3) The ARA documents the main parts of research in human and social sciences. It also encompasses recordings of cultural and educational performances (exhibitions, concerts, lectures, etc.), audiovisual documentations of field research (on European emigration, the victims of the Latin American dictatorships, traditional food preparation, etc.) as well as reports and documentary films.
4) The audiovisual collection is composed on the one hand of productions created by ESCoM, 2001–2009 (and, at a much slower rate, from 2009 up to the present day) and on the other, audiovisual contributions belonging to other French and foreign institutions and/or to particular active researchers.
5) The URL of the official site of the ARA video library – available in eight languages – is: http://www.archivesaudiovisualles.fr/FR/.
ARA© Program
1) The ARA Program is a R&D project of ESCoM*, which was set up in 2001 as part of a French R&D project on semantic indexation of audiovisual resources.
2) The ARA program is dedicated to digital audiovisual libraries and their uses especially in research and (formal or informal) educational contexts as well as the promotion of scientific and cultural heritage.
3) The ARA program in particular develops resources and tools necessary for the processing (description, indexation, etc.) and online publication of audiovisual corpora.
4) Very detailed documentation on the ARA Program may be consulted online on the ARA website: http://www.archivesaudiovisualles.fr/FR/about4.asp.
ArkWork Program
1) Abbreviation for the “Arkeonauts’ Workshop”.
2) The ArkWork Program constitutes one of the experimental workshops* of the ASW-HSS project* dedicated to the constitution of an audiovisual corpus documenting research on archeology, the implementation of a metalanguage of description* for this domain of knowledge, the analysis of the corpus using the ASW Studio* and the publication of the analyzed corpus – also using the ASW Studio* – in the form of a Web portal offering many forms of access to the corpus in question: access by topics of knowledge*, access by thesaurus*, access by collections of filmic documents*, etc.
3) A particularly important point which was addressed in the context of the ArkWork program is experimentation with new logics of diffusion and promotion of cultural and scientific heritage via social networks and Web 2.
4) The ArkWork program is evolving through a series of concrete achievements: a Web portal comprising the ArkWork video-library composed of a corpus of around 135 hours of audiovisual texts on archeology; experimental video channels on YouTube, DailyMotion and Vimeo; Twitter and Facebook networks; “aggregations of contents via applications such as Scoop.it, Pearltrees or Netvibes; etc.
5) The URL of the ArkWork website is: http://semiolive.ext.msh-paris.fr/ada/.
ASW-HSS project
1) ASW-HSS is the acronym for “Audiovisual Semiotic Workshop for the description of audiovisual corpora in Human and Social Sciences”.
2) ASW-HSS is a research project of the ESCoM/FMSH financed by the ANR (National Research Agency) in France. Its reference number is: ANR-08-BLAN- 0102-01. ASW-HSS was started in January 2009 and officially finished in late December 2011. However, the results from this project can be used in new research projects.
3) The main objective of the ASW-HSS project is to develop metalinguistic resources* (i.e. a metalanguage*) for describing audiovisual corpora in order to transform them into resources per se, i.e. “tools”, “instruments” of knowledge in specific contexts and uses (particularly in research itself, education, promotion of cultural and scientific heritage, etc.).
4) The elaboration of metalinguistic resources for describing audiovisual corpora relies on the semiotics of the audiovisual text ([STO 03]) as well as on discourse analysis. The ASW metalinguistic resources* are notably comprised of i) metalexicons of conceptual terms (or concepts) that are necessary for describing an audiovisual text, ii) specialized models of description on analyzing a given structural aspect of an audiovisual text e.g. the visual or acoustic shot, the thematic or discourse level, etc. iii) an extensive thesaurus of predefined terms or “descriptors”.
5) The ASW metalinguistic resources are used in a sophisticated working environment called ASW Studio* composed of a workshop for segmenting audiovisual corpora, a workshop for describing audiovisual corpora, a workshop for publishing the described audiovisual corpora and a workshop for managing the metalinguistic resources themselves.
6) The ASW metalinguistic resources themselves as well as the ASA Studio were developed, tested and validated in several experimental workshops*, consisting of intensive works of description, publishing and promotion of audiovisual corpora. All these experimental workshops may be consulted on the ASW-HSS portal: http://semiolive.ext.msh-paris.fr/asa-shs/.
7) All the activities and all the results of the ASW-HSS project are publicly available for consultation on its official site: http://www.asa-shs.fr/.
ASW© Studio
1) The ASW Studio is a working environment which facilitates the segmentation, analysis (description, annotation, indexation, linguistic adaptation, etc.), and online publication of audiovisual corpora as well as the management (definition, adaptation, etc.) of the ASW metalinguistic resources*.
2) The ASW studio comprises four main parts called “Workshops”: i) the segmentation workshop* for audiovisual texts (videos, for now); ii) the description workshop* for an audiovisual text and/or some parts (segments) of it; iii) the publishing workshop* for an audiovisual text or corpus of audiovisual texts; iv) the modeling workshop* for metalinguistic resources (concepts, configurations of concepts, thesauruses, etc.).
3) Each workshop takes the form of i) a specialized working environment* and ii) one of technical documentation, help files, concrete examples, etc. Hence, the ASW Studio comprises a working environment for the segmentation of a video, a working environment for the description/analysis per se of a video, a working environment for the publication of a video or corpus of videos and, finally, a working environment for scenario specification i.e. definition and development of the metalanguage that is needed to analyze and publish audiovisual corpora.
4) The existing working environments are not equally developed: the most elaborate environment is the one for analyzing audiovisual corpora. However, all the environments are operational. Similarly, the technical documentation which has to accompany each environment is often written in a rudimentary fashion.
5) In turn, each working environment possesses one or more software suites, computer applications etc. Interview* from the INA (Institut National de l’Audiovisuel) is the software which is currently used in the Segmentation Workshop*; Semiosphere* is a set of applications developed by ESCoM and which serves as a “technological building block” for the Publishing Workshop*; the working environment of the Description Workshop* is composed of a set of applications for managing libraries of information input forms (“models”) and the data generated by the analyst; finally, the Modeling Workshop* currently uses an xml editor called OntoEditor* (also developed by ESCoM) for defining metalinguistic resources*.
6) The ASW Studio was developed by ESCoM as part of the ASW-HSS project* (2009-2011) funded by the ANR (Agence National de la Recherche) as part of the “Programme Blanc 2008” (“2008 White Program”).
Segmentation Workshop©
1) The ASW Segmentation Workshop is a specialized working environment for cutting an audiovisual text into segments (“passages” or “sequences”) of interest to the analyst*. It is part of the ASW Studio*.
2) The ASW Segmentation Workshop now comprises a tool enabling us to cut an audiovisual text: the Interview tool which was originally developed by INA and then adapted to the technical needs of cutting audiovisual texts as part of the ARA Program*. In the coming months, the Interview tool may be replaced by betterperforming tools facilitating “multilayered” cutting as well and the segmentation of static images. The Segmentation Workshop environment has a set of technical and explanatory documents addressed to any person or institution wishing to use it.
Description Workshop©
1) The ASW Description Workshop is the working environment enabling the analyst to proceed to an analysis of an audiovisual text in its entirety or to one of its parts. It is part of the ASW Studio*.
2) The Description Workshop is composed of three main functional parts: i) a first part reserved for the meta-description* itself (i.e. the presentation of the analysis and its objectives); ii) a part reserved for the description of the audiovisual object in its globality; iii) a part reserved for the description of the specific segments* of the audiovisual text previously identified by the analyst.
3) Parts (ii) and (iii) of the analysis of the audiovisual text in its entirety and a given specific segment from an audiovisual text are again broken down into a series of more functional parts enabling the analyst to carry out a systematic description of his object.
4) The work of analysis of an audiovisual text is carried out as a series of interactive forms*. Each interactive form represents a model of description*. A model of description is formed from the ASW metalinguistic resources*. Hence, we distinguish a library of interactive forms dedicated to the meta-description (i.e. the explanation of an analysis, its content, its objectives, etc.), a library of interactive forms dedicated to the analysis of a video, an audiovisual text in its entirety and a library of interactive forms dedicated to the analysis of a specific segment forming part of an audiovisual text.
5) The interactive forms may be adapted to the specific needs of a given analyst, or a given group of analysts since each form represents a model of description* which was created from the ASW metalinguistic resources*. However, the adaptation of an interactive form sometimes requires a greater effort as regards adaptation and even re-definition of the models of description* or the ASW metalinguistic* resources which are necessary in order to elaborate a model of description*. This work of adaptation or re-definition of models of description is carried out using the ASW Modeling Workshop*.
Publishing Workshop ©
1) The ASW Publishing Workshop is part of the ASW Studio. As its name suggests, it serves for publishing audiovisual corpora which have been processed and described beforehand in the ASW Description Workshop.
2) The Publishing Workshop enables us to publish audiovisual corpora in the form of a portal site (similar in type to ArkWork*, LHE* or CCA*) but also in the form of specialized folders (thematic folders*, bilingual folders*, educational folders*, etc.) or video-lexicons*, narrative journeys*, etc.
3) As part of a program of uploading of audiovisual corpora – in accordance with a pre-established publishing policy – the publishing process is automatically respected. This is the case, e.g. of the ARA portal* site but also experimental portal sites as part of the ASW-HSS project*.
4) However, the ASW Publishing Workshop opens the way for customized publishing, or even republishing* of already-published audiovisual corpora on the basis of publication models*, again represented by interactive forms*. It offers the writer/author* the possibility of reusing either already-published audiovisual corpora (for example in the form of a thematic* or bilingual folder*) or described and indexed corpora (in the Description Workshop*) to “create” (publish or republish) digital audiovisual resources according to his own needs or interests, taking account of his audience and their expectations. This option has been tested in the LOGOS* and SAPHIR* projects (to see concrete results, see the DLC* and PCW* websites.) On the contrary, it does not constitute an object of research for the ASW-HSS* project. The ASW Publishing Workshop, in its current version, has only the most basic functions for customized publishing/republishing of previouslydescribed and indexed or published audiovisual corpora.
5) The ASW Publishing Workshop is currently presented as a working environment* which is made up of a set of Web services developed by ESCoM and encompassed by the appellation Semiosphere*.
Modeling Workshop©
1) The ASW Modeling Workshop is one of the four workshops making up the ASW Studio.
2) It is used by the knowledge engineer or “concept designer” to define, develop, test and validate the models of description used in the Description Workshop*, as interactive forms, to analyze audiovisual corpora.
3) Currently, the Modeling Workshop takes the form of a piece of software which was developed by ESCoM* named OntoEditor* and which enables the software engineer to: i) develop and/or manage the metalinguistic resources needed in order to create models of description; and ii) create the models of description themselves by using the available metalinguistic resources. It also includes tools which were co-developed with INA-Research and which serve to convert the ASW metalinguistic resources* and the models of description* and publication* into OWL* (Web Ontology Language) standard and vice versa.
C
CCA Program
1) Acronym for “Culture Crossroads Archives”.
2) The CCA Program constitutes one of the experimental workshops* of the ASW-HSS project*, dedicated to compiling an audiovisual corpus documenting cultural diversity and intercultural communication, putting in place a metalanguage of description* for this domain of knowledge, analyzing the corpus using ASW Studio* and publishing the analyzed corpus – also via the ASW Studio* – in the form of a portal offering various forms of access to the corpus in question: access by topics of knowledge*, access by thesaurus*, access by collections of filmic documents*, etc.
3) A particularly important point which is addressed as part of the CCA program is the exploitation of audiovisual archives in the context of university education and the promotion of university heritage (produced, created by researchers, teachers and students).
4) The ARC program evolves through a series of concrete achievements: a Web portal comprising the CCA video-library which is composed of a corpus of around 140 hours of audiovisual texts; Twitter and Facebook networks; “aggregation of content from Netvibes, Scoop.it, etc.” and so on.
5) The URL of the CCA portal site is: http://semioweb.mshparis.fr/corpus/arc/FR/.
CONVERGENCE project
1) Convergence is a European R&D project which started in June 2010 and will run until February 2013. It is coordinated by the CNIT (Consorzio Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni) in Rome and financed as part of the 7th Framework Program; N°: FP7-257123). The aim of the CONVERGENCE project is to enrich the internet with a new model for a publishing-subscription service, focused on the content and based on a common container for any type of digital data, including individuals and real-world objects (RWOs). This common container, called Versatile Digital Item (VDI), is a structured packet of digital content and metainformation, identified in a unique way (as a website URL could be) which extends the concept of Digital Item defined by the MPEG-21.
2) The interest of ESCoM and the ARA program in this project is related to the fact that any use of an online video may be tracked via VDI technology. This opens the way to a circulation of digital content and an appropriation of the latter which respects the rights of their authors and owners. The chosen field of experimentation is the production, diffusion and sharing of culturally sensitive contents forming part of the intangible cultural heritage of the Quechua-speaking Andean communities (see the AICH program*).
3) The URL of the official site of the Convergence project is: http://www.ictconvergence.eu/.
E
ESCoM©
1) ESCoM (Cognitive Semiotic and New Media Team) is a research program run at the FMSH in Paris. Created in 1991, ESCoM specializes in the domains of text and discourse semiotics applied to issues of production, analysis and publishingdistribution of digital knowledge heritage.
2) In 2001, as part of the French R&D project OPALES*, ESCoM created the ARA program* which constitute, is most important experimental work.
3) Since 1994, ESCoM has regularly been involved in French and European R&D projects. Of these, the ASW-HSS project* is one of the most significant as it has enabled the team to carry out more than 10 years of R&D dedicated to the description, indexation and publication of audiovisual corpora in a digital context.
4) The URL of ESCoM’s official website is: http://www.semionet.fr/FR/default.htm
F
FMSH-AAR (FMSH-ARA) video-library
FMSH-AAR (FMSH-ARA) video-library1) The acronym for the French “Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme – Archives Audiovisuelles de la Recherche” Web portal.
2) FMSH-ARA is the video-library of the ARA Program* which contains and distributed the audiovisual recordings of the scientific events of the FMSH and/or funded, sponsored… by the FMSH.
3) Currently under development, FMSH-ARA benefits from the ASW metalinguistic resources* and from the ESCoM-ASW technological environment* developed as part of the ASW-HSS project*. ARA-FMSH constitutes one of the main experimental workshops* of the ASW-HSS project*.
4) The first version of the FMSH-ARA library was publicly available from late 2011.
L
LHE Program
1) Acronym for “Literature from Here and Elsewhere”.
2) The LHE Program constitutes one of the experimentation workshops* of the ASW-HSS project* dedicated to compiling an audiovisual corpus about the French and World literature, analyzing it using the ASW Studio* and publishing the analyzed corpus – also via the ASW Studio* – in the form of a website offering various forms of access to the aforementioned corpus: access by topics of knowledge*, access by thesaurus*, access by collections of filmic texts*, etc.
3) A particularly important point which is addressed as part of the LHE program is the work of the analyst* of the corpus. Far from reducing this task to a “simple” archivistic indexation, the analyst here is considered a specialist in the literary domain who is responsible for the highly complex task of explaining, and “showing” through his work, the added value (the interest, the relevance, the usefulness, etc.) of an audiovisual text or a part of an audiovisual text for a given audience.
4) The LHE program takes the form of a Web portal and an online video-library comprising around 150 hours of videos, most of which are minutely analyzed and indexed, as well as a series of specialized publications which are adapted to specific educational uses.
5) The URL of the LHE portal site is: http://semiolive.ext.msh-paris.fr/alia.
O
OntoEditor
1) OntoEditor is an xml editor, developed by ESCoM* for the creation and management of the metalinguistic resources* (hierarchy of conceptual terms, schemas and models of description, etc.) that are needed for analyzing audiovisual corpora.
P
AICH portal
1) AICH is the acronym for “Andean Intangible Cultural Heritage” which is a portal serving as an experimental field to the ASW-HSS project*.
2) The URL of the AICH portal is: http://semiolive.ext.msh-paris.fr/pcia.
S
SAPHIR project
1) SAPHIR (“System of Assistance to Hypermedia Publishing”) is a French research project financed by the INA (Institut National de l’Audiovisuel) and coordinated by INA Research which started in 2006 and finished in late 2010.
2) As part of a close co-operation with INA Research, ESCoM* focused its efforts on the semiotic analysis of audiovisual corpora, the definition of a metalanguage of description* adapted to the processing of corpora belonging to the ARA program* as well as a metalanguage of publication which favors the video-lexicon (genre). ESCoM also developed, as part of this project, an improved version of Interview*, tool of segmentation and “basic” description of videos, and integrated it into the working process* of the ARA program*.
3) The results of the SAPHIR project formed the main input for the R&D activities of the ASW-HSS* project.
ASW Studio©
1) The ASW Studio is a digital working environment* mainly developed as part of (and thanks to) the ASW-HSS* project financed by the ANR.
2) The ASW Studio is composed of several Workshops: i) Segmentation Workshop* for audiovisual data; ii) Description Workshop* for audiovisual data; iii) Publishing Workshop* for audiovisual data; iv) Modeling Workshop* for the implementation and management of the metalinguistic resources and models which are necessary for describing and/or publishing audiovisual data. The list of the workshops is not complete yet – other workshops may be added – especially a workshop more particularly dedicated to the technical and authorial processing (i.e. editing) of the audiovisual data.
3) The ASW Studio currently includes the ESCoM Suite* tools. However, tools and software which may be developed elsewhere could be added gradually.