7. Conclusions
From the contents of the discussions after, and the remarks during the presentations held at the BRT, it became clear that there is a larger number of problems of very different nature, which need attention, should be solved by the technological or legal tools, or are simply considered as important by the group of participants.
These problems can be divided into the classes listed below. Due to the inhomogeneous nature of the problems, their sequence is only partly a result of logical choice.
Important problems and their descriptions:
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Diagnosis on the state of MM
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Technological level - medium; content level - low
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MM still seeking their own language and specialization, just like cinema in its early stage
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Personalisation and Privacy
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freedom towards (feeling of participation) and freedom from (possibility to switch off)
personal and related information should remain private and unavailable to anybody
- don't finance projects abusing privacy, even if detailed technical problems will be solved; example: systems explicitly using location of persons never limit the possibility of rejecting or simply blocking the selected content or class of content by the user
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Human-like communication
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three levels of communication: linguistic (content), meta-linguistic (context), extra-linguistic (information about our interlocutor) - from these, only the first one can be conveyed until now, while all the three are important
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therefore, analysis and synthesis of natural language is not all what is needed, although these still pose numerous unsolved problems
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Social acceptance of tools
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examples of unexpectedly positive and negative experience with new devices and services show that acceptance by the consumers is the main factor:
+ SMS
- WAP
- teleconferencing - used only in exceptional cases
- phones with image transmission (in the past)
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the requirement of non-exclusiveness (MM ''for all'') means that the simplicity of use is vital - no complex configurations, no complex linking of different devices (mobile phone with computer)
Conclusion: market pull is more important than technology push. Manufacturers can fail when ''creating the needs'', and these needs are far from actual needs.
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Cost and payments
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the customer (in Poland, in particular) is used to free access to the content available in the Internet; this simplification will not always remain true.
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questions related to electronic market:
- the security of payments generally perceived as low or very low
- micro-payments: the problem still unsolved
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Coping with the complexity
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managing and using the large databases having a designed structure is still a relatively complex problem
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mining the necessary information from data sources without an imposed structure is a challenge for professionals - how about the general public, then?
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methods of indexing multimedia content in the way which could support the intuitive search are needed
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no only the present quantity, but also the rate of multimedia production should be taken into account when estimating the necessary efficiency of the content managing tools; otherwise - information disaster
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Transmission capacity - the problem of mobility in MM
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Capacity versus price - will the systems beyond 3G become widespread? Other ways and standards than UMTS (GPRS - a cheap, still not fully exploited solution; EDGE; WLAN)? Should new infrastructure be built? New personal devices?
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Will the customer market pay for the investments related to increased transmission?
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Standards for admissible magnetic field intensity? Related health risks?
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Other technological problems not yet satisfactorily solved
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Compression of video content still suffering from many limitations, if very high compression ratios are required. This imposes the limitations on the content, which resolve themselves to the requirement of “less movement'', if acceptable image quality is to be maintained. Such limitations discourage creativity, reduce not only the artistic value of the content, but also the whole scope of applicability of MM.
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If real mobility is expected, then not only the main devices, but also the auxiliary equipment should be appropriately miniaturised. Example: different power supplies for devices, no standardisation even within the scope of one manufacturer.
Quick production of MM content. An example of the system for rapid production of MM presentations for learning and training, presented at the BRT, indicates that such tools should emerge also for other domains.
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