Hardman smart style for conveying information

Rector Magnificus, ladies and gentlemen, Human culture is embodied in the collection of information transmitted from one generation to another. It is based not only on storing this information, but also on conveying this information in such a way that the relationships within the information are understood. The era of multimedia and internet technology has not changed this overall goal in any fundamental way. Rather it has shifted some emphases, created new opportunities and, simultaneously, introduced new problems that need to be solved. Many researchers struggle with the non-trivial problems of transporting large quantities of multimedia data over networks to ensure that the end-user perceives a video and audio presentation free of glitches and hiccups. There are also, however, problems at the higher level; for example, that of selecting appropriate multimedia content for conveying the information to the user in a way that enhances the communication of the message. But first, I would just like to explain what this address is not about. Multimedia is more than the cool graphics and cute animations that are used to attract and distract on the majority of commercial websites. Internet is more than the marketing dream of dramatically increased sales through e-commerce, the huge fortunes that were won and lost with the inflating and bursting of the internet bubble and the content-free babble of internet chat groups. When these terms are used in combination, the buzzword hype increases exponentially and the first application that comes to mind, and indeed probably the largest single multimedia application on the internet, is Web video-porn. To avoid disappointment, this is not one of the focusses of the address, although, as a number of colleagues have pointed out, the problems and approaches I put forward today are equally valid for this particularly lucrative application. Having established a number of no-go areas, what is this address about? We begin with the assumption that a user requires some information (about flight times to Schiphol, about a recipe for chocolate cake or