1996 National Information Infrastructure Awards:
AT&T NII TELECOLLABORATION AWARD WINNER, 1996
Entry: Electronic Cafe International
Organization: Electronic Cafe International, Los Angeles, California
Website: http://www.ecafe.com
One of the longest-running experiments in telecollaboration and the digital communications is still one of the finest examples of human interaction across the information infrastructure.
Electronic Cafe International is a global network of public venues -- computerized cafes -- dedicated to telecollaboration between people in cyberspace. The Electronic Cafe International is a place where anyone can explore and exhibit creative uses of real-time, human-to-human multimedia telecollaborations. Founded in 1984 the ECI now has more than 30 interconnected affiliates around the world. The result is a virtual networked laboratory to support artistic and cultural collaboration between people in different cultures and communities.
In the virtual environment of electronic communications, human relationships are of increasing importance. As a community, the ECI network is committed to building new international models and relationships for telecollaborations between geographically separated participants.
The results of the ECI's telecollaboration have come in many forms. They've created new genres of art, such as Tele-poetry, and The Musical Conversation, both of which are collaborations between geographically separated performers.
The ECI has also pioneered new uses of analog telephone lines, digital ISDN lines, and Internet networking capabilities to create hybrid multimedia networks not available from any single service provider, thus providing models of emerging telecollaborations environments that will influence the development of the national and global information infrastructure.
"The Electronic Cafe International is responsible in so many ways for demonstrating the potential of networked collaboration. We owe these pioneers recognition and thanks for the work they've done for nearly two decades, playing a key role in developing what we are now calling the NII," said Robert Gelman, a judge for the AT&T NII Telecollaboration Awards, "I hope that this example inspires future generations of innovators to create equally innovative new ways for us to live and communicate throughout the world, and to make the world a better place."
The AT&T NII Telecollaboration award honors uses of the infrastructure that improves real-time collaboration across organizations, categories and multiple technologies. Uses that exemplify new ways people use technology in collaborating for improvements to the way they live, work or play. Uses, for example, that promote partnering, new ways of working together, distributed imaging and document and information sharing. Note: entries must include real-time collaboration to be eligible.
The Telecollaboration Finalists:
ATM Research and Industrial Enterprise System (ARIES) Project
The ARIES Project is a high-speed ATM testbed network, used for
information
sharing in oil and gas exploration, with both terrestrial and
satellite
high-speed links.
DIANE Diversified Information and Assistance
Network
Project DIANE is a teleconference consortium whose members collaborate
with
one another to develop and support interactive video and multimedia
teleconference-based education, community service and economic
development
programs.
Fiber Weaves Indiana's Cultural and Education
Communities Together
Distance learning technologies, through two-way interactive video,
are a
pivotal medium for connecting Indiana's cultural communities with
schools.
Space Bridge to Russia Telemedicine Project
Space Bridge to Russia employs nonproprietary, open Internet technologies
to
promote collaboration and to improve delivery of health services
and
information at significantly reduced costs.
The Telegarden
The Telegarden allows WWW users to view, water, plant seeds, and
choreograph
mpeg movies in a remote garden filled with living plants.
end.
Kit Galloway/Sherrie Rabinowitz, Co-Founders
Electronic Cafe International and ECI-Santa Monica
www.ecafe.com
Telecollaboration (Sponsored by AT&T): Honors uses
of the information infrastructure that improve real-time collaboration
across organizations and/or Award categories and multiple technologies.
Uses that exemplify new ways people use technology in collaborating
for improvements to the way they live, work or play. Uses, for
example, that promote partnering, new ways of working together,
distributed imaging and document and information sharing -- anytime,
anywhere, in any form. Note: entries must include real-time collaboration
(e.g., text, video) to be eligible.
Telecollaboration Category Chairs:
- Mary Spada, Principal, Global Growth Strategies
- Sam Whitmore, Editorial Director, PC Week
Telecollaboration Advisors:
Brian Kahin, Harvard Information Infrastructure Project
Bob Lambert, Vice President New Technology, The Walt Disney Co.
Mario Morino, Chairman, The Morino Institute
Curt Reimann, former Director, Malcolm Baldrige Quality Awards
Program
Dr. Harry Saal, former President & CEO, Smart Valley Inc.
Category: Telecollaboration
Presenter: Erik K. Grimmelmann
Title: Vice President, AT&T
Erik K. Grimmelmann, Service Integration
and Realization vice president for the AT&T WorldNet Service,
has had extensive experience developing the technology and applications
involved in telecollaboration. In 1989 he joined AT&T Computer
Systems where he was product manager for the AT&T Rhapsody
System, the first groupware offering that included workflow automation.
An architect of the strategy to use AT&T's network as an applications-hosting
environment, Grimmelmann helped craft agreements with Lotus and
Novell that led to the creation of AT&T Network Notes and
AT&T NetWare Connect Services offerings.
"The winners of the National Information Infrastructure
(NII) Awards represent real-life benefits delivered through the
NII and give us an encouraging look at what is possible in the
future. These examples will help all Americans understand the
promise and potential of the information superhighway. And, as
others continue to create exciting innovations of their own, our
lives will be enriched for generations to come."
Vice President Al Gore
Project Overview
Electronic Cafe International
Electronic Cafe International: A global
network of public
venues dedicated to creative telecollborations and the
exploration and exhibition of creative uses of real-time
human-to-human multimedia telecommunications.
Entrant name:Kit Galloway and Sherrie
Rabinowitz, Co-Founders of
Electronic Cafe International
Website: http://www.ecafe.com
Email this entrant directly at: ecafe@earthlink.net
How Best to Review this Entry:
All of the above! COME EXPERIENCE
an event live at ECI. We are more than our Website/s alone,
but visit it as well.
View the accompanying video tape we sent, but come see
the people, the place,
and the multidude of tele-collaborative event produced
over the ECI-Network.
Summary: Electronic Cafe(tm) was
founded in the Orwellian year of 1984.
Electronic Cafe International established in 1988, is a
growing international
network of multimedia public venues for showcasing creative,
multi-cultural,
multi-disciplinary, collaborative telecommunications --
ECI creates a networked
lab, to support collaboration and co-creation between people
in different
cultures, countries and language "We," ECI are
the longest established
international collective exploring collaborative multimedia
telecommunications,
cultural diversity, and the arts in a truly hybrid networked
environment. ECI is a
networked cultural research lab, a unique international
network of multimedia
telecommunications venues with over 30 affiliates around
the globe.
Highlights: Creative Integration--technically,
socially, artistically. You'll see
that ECI operates simultaneously and interactively on many
levels. On our web
site check out "Highlights." All of these Highlights
have some off-line video
recorded and, in some cases site documentation, paper documents,
drawings,
and photos. Many Highlights were technological firsts and
many of them
represent different collaborations with different venders.
They represent original
telecollaboritive projects, many already have spin-offs
and have been copies.
Look for the telecollaboration of artists; look for the
collaboration between artists
and technology-technicians; think of the telecollaborations
required to
co-produce activities like these across a network. Look
for the public inclusive
environs. Look at the number of telecollaborative events
performed publicly, or
that involved public participation.
Objective(s): It's clear that
in the virtual environment of information and
electronic communications the modes of communications,
the connecting
networks and the human relationships that are created and
maintained through
them are of increasing value and importance .The ECI Network
is, as a
community, committed to building new international models
and relationships
for projects of creative telecollaborations between geographically
separated
participants: re. A "commons" for global electronic
space, with enough
audio/visual & graphics power to facilitate the exchange
of ideas in an
international multi-lingual environment.
Results and Benefits: Please check
out the "Highlights" on our WWW for a
more complete picture of the results of the network and
telecollaboration. Each
of the events and activities over the years at ECI have
opened up new
opportunities for experiment and development -- Art genres
like Tele-poetry, and
The Musical Conversation between geographically separated
performers work
quite well using both internet-based and non-internet technologies
and have had
great and good effect on the people it touched. Most ECI
performances and
activities incorporate the visions of several geographically
dispersed
collaborating artists. Patrons around the world participate
in interactive events.
Popular culture is explored: Ambient music is created by
DJ's in several cities at
once while audiences in different cities dance together
in the same live projected
image-space. Analog telephone lines, digital ISDN lines,
and Internet
networking capabilities are often used in concert to create
a hybrid multimedia
network not available from any one service provider, thus
enabling us to model
emerging telecom environments years before they are alleged
to arrive in our
homes. For example, a performing artist in one city might
transmit live video,
MIDI data and audio signals to another city, where the
artist's image is projected
life-sized while MIDI control data activates lights, theatrical
props, musical
instruments, and robotics. Many of the ECI events and activities
are cybercast on
the Internet via CU-SeeMe or other TCP/IP video technoques
using multiple
ISDN connections to the net. ECIs connected by ISDN include:
ECI-SANTA
MONICA, CA (Headquarters); ECI-PARIS, FRANCE; ECI-COPENHAGEN,;
DENMARK; ECI-LAB, NYC; ECI-NEW YORK CITY, (The Kitchen);
ECI-AUSTIN, Texas; ECI-RIO DE JANEIRO; ECI-JERUSALEM;
ECI-TOKYO; ECI-TORONTO; ECI-DUBLIN; and our affiliates
in places like
SAN FRANCISCO and SANTA FE. Several new sites are joining
the ECI
Network, we have over 30 ECI-Affiliates and ECI-Friends
around the world
including: Moscow; Telluride, Co.; Managua; Woodstock,
NY; And Las Vegas.
How those results were measured:
Everything done at ECI is video taped
off-line. The result is probably the largest archive of
documented interactive
telematic experiences/experiments in the world, ranging
from kids projects,
MIDI music, Virtual Reality, and education. Beside standard
ECI recording, the
different project user groups often had their own documentation
done in
collaboration with ECI. For example, the bilingual book
done by 2-3rd graders
about telecommunications, about specific technology used
at ECI and their
experience at ECI.
Innovation: A BROADER CONTEXT
ENABLES A MORE DIVERSE AND
RICHER CONTENT: Since its inception, Electronic Cafe International
has
produced hundreds of events espousing a philosophy of global
cultural diversity
and inclusion -- thus technological diversity and alternatives
to the Internet alone
became a prerequisite for establishing multimedia connections
including
point-to-point, and bridged connections for multipoint-to-multipoint
multimedia
linkups. Technologies range from multi-point color motion
video via H.320
video transmission, ISDN speeds from 128K to 384K, analog
video phones that
can be audio-bridged together with all types interfaced
to the video standards
acceptable to the internet. Shared screen environments,
MIDI data, file transfers,
email, audio conferences, tele-robotics manipulations,
and even fax machines are
combined to perform and facilitate specific telecollaborative
tasks. The dictates of
reality require that a wide variety of technologies be
used to realize our
philosophy of multimedia inclusion on a truly undiscriminating
global scale.
This distinguishes the ECI Network
and its long term commitment to a vast
variety of telecollaboration technologies from the more
recent emergence of
Internet cafes that are springing up. The hybrid mix of
technologies incorporated
in the ECI Network accommodate not only high-end capabilities,
but also has
made a long term investment in low-end multimedia technology
that enables ECI
to collaborate with peoples and communities of the world
that have not had, nor
will not in the near future, have access to the resourceses
to support multimedia
on the WWW.
How this project came about: ECI
is the next step in a lineage that
begins... In 1977, we worked with NASA , funded by CPB
and NEA to do a
series of aesthetic research projects called "The
Satellite Arts Project", a live
interactive "virtual space" satellite performance
between dancers at both ends of
the U.S.A. In those days, satellites were the only practical
means to move live
video over oceans. In 1982 we did a lab at Loyolla Marymount
University
entirely in virtual space. Multi-disciplinary graduate
students, helped study and
describe the phenomenological experiences of the "image
as place."
Some of our older work continues
to have an influence on us and the network,
like the unmediated communication of "Hole-In-Space":
A Public
Communication Sculpture," 1980. For three evenings
in November we lit up
giant, rear projection screens with life-sized images connected
by satellite in an
window at Lincoln Center in New York and a window in The
Broadway Store
in Century City in LA. Unannounced, NO PUBLICITY, no signs,
no
explanations, no local self-view video monitors. People
encountered life-sized
images of people in the other city whom they could see,
hear, and talk with.
For seven weeks in 1984 we manifest
Electronic Cafe (The original cyber cafe
network) as part of the Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival.
We used LA as a
model for an international multi-lingual, multicultural
network. We linked
cafes/restaurants in several language groups and culturally
diverse communities
throughout L A with a UNIX-based computer network featuring
a keyword
searchable index so that people could find topics of discussion
or establish new
topics. We embellished the computer network with the ability
to store and
retrieve thousands of captured video images and collaboratively
created line
drawing in a multimedia archive that the public contributed
to and could retrieve.
All sites were able to exchange or conference in video,
audio, and use the
collaboratively drawing alone or to annotate the video
images together in a
realtime shared-screen environment a decade ahead of the
www.
After Electronic Cafe in 1984
we felt that we had reached "the limits of model."
All of our previous work begged to be developed. The next
step was
"community," a permanent multimedia collaborative
public network. In 1988
ECI opened with its first international link with Paris.
Real-time collaboration aspects:
The whole philosophy and design of
ECI, the entire focus of our work has been real-time collaboration
between
people separated by geographical distances. Please look
at the Highlights on our
WWW for examples of successful real-time telecollaboration
The ECI Network
organizes and produces live performances and encounters
in "virtual space."
Most ECI performances and activities incorporate the visions
of several
geographically dispersed collaborators, and occur in more
than one place at the
same time: Analog telephone lines, digital ISDN lines,
and Internet networking
capabilities are often used in concert to create a hybrid
multimedia network, thus
enabling us to model emerging telecom environments years
before they are
alleged to arrive in our homes. Many of the ECI events
and activities are
cybercast on the Internet via CU-SeeMe using ISDN connections
to the net.
Users & Technical
Electronic Cafe International
Date of first use: 03/01/84
How many people (approximate, per month): 5,001-50,000
Frequency of use: Several times per day
Geographic focus: Global
Who the users are and where they
use the project: Users and
collaborators range from computer and industry processionals,
educators,
students, world class artists, children, and the general
public interested in
participating in and modeling a multimedia information
and telecommunications
environment . Local users at each cafe participate in events,
meet local user at
other ECIs and plan events together.
How the project works, how users
use it: NOT JUST ANOTHER
CYBER ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK: For over a decade, ECI has
functioned not only as a pioneer but as a leading community
conducting ground
breaking aesthetic research in the exploration of real-time
networked
collaborative multimedia environments. Users and collaborators
range from
computer and industry processionals, educators, students,
world class artists,
children, and the general public interested in participating
ECIs organize
themselves in different ways to accommodate different users
and activities.
Many ECIs are "event driven," which means sometimes
there will be a public
performance of networked music, for example and audiences
at each site pay
admission. Sometimes ECI is reserved for college class
that connects with
another school for distance learning. Sometimes an organization
takes over ECI
for its own programming and people. The Network of ECI's
communicate
among themselves and to the larger world via an assortment
of telecom media
not limited only to the Internet. We do it all, and we
provide the opportunity for
anyone to experience or use or facilities to develop and
produce multimedia
networked events.
User Feedback: Example: On many
occasions groups of developmentally
challenged adalts or children. have come to the Cafe in
Santa Monica and used
its facilities to talk to a similar group from our Cafe
affiliate, The Little City
Foundation in Chicago. "They ran the entire system
and used the video phones.
Usually people like this are kept in their own constituency
groups. Getting all
sorts of people together and giving them access to the
technology in a non
intimidating environment is what ECI is about. We want
all people to be able to
come here and imagine what is possible, and what they can
do together. - ECI
introduced, encouraged, and is now embraced by the deaf
community who can
use the video conference tech at a faster 384 ISDN transmission
rate to actually
sign and communicate. The delights of Deaf Signing TelePoetry
has now been
introduced to the hearing community.
Example ECI-Net communiqué:
Saturday, April 27, 1996 Japan Standard Time.
More than ten students will practice the Taiko drumming
at the Electronic Cafe
Tokyo. Remind you that the time will be 17:00 Friday in
Santa Monica, 20:00
Friday in New York and Toronto, 22:00 Friday in Rio, 02:00
Saturday in Paris
and Copenhagen, and 03:00 in Jerusalem. This is not an
official session; my
attempt is not just have a workshop at the cutting-edge
venue, but to test digital
transmission of Taiko sounds via video-comm system; this
time I would like to
test Apple's QuickTime Conferencing...
Copyright 1995 BPI Communications,
Inc. The Hollywood Reporter June 14,
1995, Wednesday HEADLINE: Digital media awards sponsored
by Motorola
given BODY:The Interactive Media Festival's 1995 international
jury honored
several exceptional works with Arc Awards recently at the
Variety Arts Center in
downtown Los Angeles. The Arc Insight Award went to Kit
Galloway and
Sherrie Rabinowitz of the Electronic Cafe in recognition
of their ground breaking
work in telematic space and networking.
Technological Infrastructure:
The Network of ECI's communicate among
themselves and to the larger world via an assortment of
telecom media not
limited only to the Internet. ISDN-based CU-SeeMe; ECI-www
sites; Direct
28.8Kbs modem links; Midi music and midi data provide remote-control;
ISDN-based video & audio conferencing bridges; Composite-image
performances and Composite Public Spaces are created in
site, sound, and
interactive data; Yamaha Disklavier pianos are played by
people on other
continents. This is not simply one networking architecture
mastered by one
segment of the industry. On occasions we bring up T1 lines
for High-Speed data
and point-to-point video for special events and multimedia
environmental
research. Because ECI is a global Net committed to everybody
being a part of
the conversation, we maintain our analog network of b/w
still frame video
phones which can be used anywhere and that community defined
by technology
gets mixed in to the multi media transmission over the
internet or H.320 video
network. This allows communities who don't have ISDN or
in many cases
access to the internet to participate. ECI connected by
ISDN include:
ECI-SANTA MONICA, CA (Headquarters); ECI-PARIS, FRANCE;
ECI-COPENHAGEN,; DENMARK; ECI-LAB, NYC; ECI-NEW YORK
CITY, (The Kitchen); ECI-AUSTIN, Texas; ECI-RIO DE JANEIRO;
ECI-JERUSALEM; ECI-TOKYO; ECI-TORONTO; ECI-DUBLIN; Our
affiliates in SAN FRANCISCO, SANTA FE With several new
sites joining the
ECI Network, and over 30 ECI-Affiliates and friends AROUND
THE WORLD
including: Moscow;; Telluride, Co.; Managua; Woodstock,
NY; And Las Vegas.
Vision
Electronic Cafe International
Success Factors: The right idea
in community and technology interface! Since
1984 we have focused on cross cultural telecollaboration
in the context of a
public venue. The "cafe" = an informal community
commons indigenous to all
communities and ECI was the first to make this association
and to actually
manifest the tele-hybrid. It has now been replicated and
reaffirmed throughout
the industry and popular culture as a major conceptual
theme and the ECI
philosophy is loosely reaffirmed by the emergence of internet
cafes. ECI is the
original model for all of this and has been a cultural
icon for over ten years. ECI
continues to expand and demonstrate what the future of
the telecollaborative
public venue will be as a "real place" as well
as in terms of the cross-cultural
telecollaborative potentials of realtime multimedia. Because
of the way ECI runs,
it is very appropriate for different special interest groups
to inhabit the place
comfortably so that a class of Jr. High School students,
feels as welcome as a
Java user group, or as an avant garde artist. What goes
on at ECI-Sites and over
the links that connect them is important to the acculturation
of global cyberspace.
ECI creates the context in which the human aspirations
for a realtime multimedia
telecollaborative environment can be acted out. For years,
ECI has been the only
effort to model a global network of public venues to facilitate
community access
to experience these new media and all of their forms. Encouraging
the public so
that we have an educated citizenry who can say, "Well
can it do this?" or "What
about if we try this?"
Future Plans: ECI is growing.
More ECI sites are opening and other venues
want to become affiliates. ECI has the reputation of pushing
the envelope with
quality work and is known to do the best and the most in
terms of creative
multipoint telecollaborations. The creative community has
the opportunity to
create and participate in a vibrant and mature networked
community that has as
its objective collaborations between cultures, ideas, disciplines,
and technologies
that supports creative human-to human collaboration. The
ECI-Networked lab
increases the ability of all ECIs to gain support from
local telco's and venders.
Because ECIs have qualified people who know how to interface
with the
international communication infrastructure the individual
ECIs become local
consultants and venues for product demonstrations, exhibitions,
and hybrid
performances. The ability to act internationally, draw
on real experiences from
the community, and speak to a wide range of people increases
the value of
ECI-Net and helps to support its on going development.
But there are the
growing pains of our collective success and the ECI community
are on the cusp
of redefinition.
Wish List: Yes! We want to establish
an ECI/Industry Lab for the Aesthetic
Research of Tele-collaborations. We are looking for Industry
partners.
Never enough. We have found that
the human asperations of the creative
community (The content providers) are always in the need
to field test and
evaluate new and emerging technology/tools to determin
if they will facilitate
their objectives.
We have always tried to extend
our reach to the knowledgebase of experts and
the genius of novices.
Commentary on Barriers: ...Although
we are experiencing a convergence
too often we are forced to use technology designed for
corporate culture --
electronic meeting aids and conventional video conferencing,
and the latent
results of asynchronous packet-switched networks, etc.
We need to be in a better
position to communicate directly to the venders to prepare
them for applications
that address the issues of telecollaboration in a public
venue. We and our
constituencies would also want to share in the licensing
of the technology we
invent. We make it all work by using pieces of everything.
This makes
operations and system configurations extremely complex
and difficult to delegate
to those with less than a command of several unique disciplines.
Advice: We are talking about public
venues. We can't advertise because we
can't hold all the people that come. Also the quality of
the event changes when
more and more people expect to be able to participate.
Still, we desperately need
to fill the void in the cultural landscape between impersonal
theme parks and the
exclusivity of private clubs. Science and Industry museums
have other kinds of
problems dealing with volume and traffic flows and an individuals
need for more
time. If success is measured in numbers served, I suggest
a turn-key franchise in
every community in a networked multimedia future that is
more stable.
ECI was also a Semifinalist in the Arts & Entertainment Category in 1996.
NII AWARDS PROGRAM ANNOUNCES FINALISTS IN SECOND ANNUAL COMPETITION TO RECOGNIZE OUTSTANDING USES OF COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES
Judges Narrow Field to 60 Nominees
LOS ANGELES, CA, NOVEMBER 12, 1996 - Judges in the 1996 National Information Infrastructure Awards program, the world's leading forum for the recognition of extraordinary achievement on the information highway, have announced Finalists in the competition to find the country's best uses of the Internet and related communication technologies.
The 60 Finalists represent the most creative and beneficial applications of the information highway in 10 different categories that touch on all areas of America's work, play and community life. The winners will be announced at a major awards ceremony to be held December 3, in New York City. A complete list of Finalists is available at the NII Website, http://www.gii-awards.com.
"All these Finalists have something important to teach us about how communications technology and the information infrastructure can be used to improve the health and well-being of people everywhere, in every aspect of our work, play and community relationships," said James Hake, Chairman of the NII Awards Program. "More than anything else, our hope is that the NII Awards will recognize leaders in this new digital communication age who can help educate and inspire others about the immeasurable potential presentedby the Internet and related technologies."
Nominees in the NII Awards Program range from powerful corporations, to entrepreneurs, to grassroots community organizations to individuals. They are competing for awards in Arts and Entertainment, Business, Children,Community, Education, Next Generation, Government and Health, and in two special awards, the NII Public Access Awards, sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, and the NII Telecollaboration Award, sponsored by AT&T. Categories are presided over by separate panels of judges comprised of recognized experts in each area.
The program is made possible by a wide range of supporters, including IBM,one of the pioneering organizations of the Information Age, and the sponsor of this year's Awards ceremony.
"IBM is delighted to support the NII Awards," said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager of IBM's Internet Division. "The NII Awards recognizes leaders who have successfully applied network technology and addresses issues of how the entire society works with and organizes itself around information in a connected world. We believe that the most important role of the Internet and network technology is to solve problems, create opportunities and enhance value, for business and for the community at large."
This year's NII Awards Finalists display an impressive range of talents and solutions.Participants include publishers of online magazines and newspapers, designers of children- and teenager-oriented World Wide Web sites, manufacturers of semiconductors, teachers, scientists and community organizers.
"This is the second time I've been a judge in the NII Awards program, and again I've found the whole process fascinating," said Bob Lambert, senior vice president for new technology and new media at the Walt Disney Company."I'm amazed by the depth and breadth of the entries--so many surprising things have popped out of the woodwork of America from both small groups and large organizations that have developed some truly clever applications of the information infrastructure."
Only two years old, the NII Awards Program has emerged as the most important competition for the recognition of information highway uses, and has won praise from a broad range of industry and community leaders, including Vice President Al Gore, who cited the NII's efforts to reward and showcase these especially beneficial uses of the information highway.
The Awards program itself has proved an overwhelming success: the 850 entrants that responded to this year's call for submissions represented a 50 percent increase over last year. Last year's winners ranged from the Alzheimer's Disease Support Center on the Cleveland Free-Net, to the National Materials Exchange Network, to the HotWired online magazine.
The expanded interest in this second year of the NII Awards reflects the continued explosive growth of the Internet and other kinds of networking technologies through all sectors of society, added the NII's Hake. "With new possibilities and potential applications being discovered every day, it's more important than ever that we recognize the best and hold them up as models of smart business and public benefit."
Perhaps most importantly, the NII Awards Program is a forum that brings together people from all areas of business and society who need more effective ways to trade ideas and experience about information highway projects, said Hake.
The NII Awards are supported by more than 70 sponsors. Corporate sponsors of the 1996 NII Awards include AT&T, IBM, the U.S. Postal Service, BellSouth, Sun Microsystems, Lotus, Netscape, CompuServe, Fujitsu, PriceWaterhouse, BBN, SRI Consulting, US WEST and Tandem Computers.
Media sponsors include TIME, Business Week, Business Communications Review, Business Wire, EE Times, Electronic Learning, Federal Computer Week, Government Technology, Hospitals and Health Networks, Inter@ctive Week, Internet World, Modern Healthcare, Network World, Telecommunications, PCWeek and Web Week.
Sponsoring organizations include the U.S. Information Infrastructure TaskForce, the C. Everett Koop Institute, The Morino Institute, the AmericanMedical Association, the American Library Association, the NationalEducation Association, the American Film Institute, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, ISTE, NCTET, the National League of Cities,the National Association of Counties, the Council on Competitiveness, the National League of Women Voters, among others.
For more information about the NII Awards, please go to http://www.gii-awards.com.
1996 NII AWARDS FINALISTS
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FINALISTS
CitySpace: Network Social Space
of the Future
DISCOVERY CHANNEL ONLINE:
ESPNET SportsZone
Firefly; the personal entertainment source for the Web
JBW: A Random Walk through the Twentieth Century
TerraQuest: Virtual Expedtions on the World Wide Web
BUSINESS FINALISTS
A&a Printers Print Production
Management System
Counsel Connect
Firefly, the personal entertainment source for the web
National Semiconductor's Website for Design
Silicon Investor (Financial Online Service)
The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition
CHILDREN FINALISTS
Cyberteens
FACES of Adoption: America's Waiting Children
FreeZone: an intelligent online community for kids.
MidLink Magazine: A Web-Olution in the Global Classroom
The National Missing Children's Network
STARBRIGHT World
COMMUNITY FINALISTS
Charlotte's Web:Building Communities
of Hope
Diversified Information and Assistance Network (DIANE)
East Palo Alto Gets Plugged In
GriefNet
SeniorNet
US EPA/USPS Environmental Recycling Hotline
EDUCATION FINALISTS
American Memory: Library of Congress
Historical Collections
CELLS alive!
The JASON VII Project Undersea Internet Site
NASA's K-12 Internet Initiative, NASA Ames Research Center
Odyssey in Egypt - The Interactive Archaeological Dig
Passport To Knowledge: Live From the Hubble Space Telescope
GOVERNMENT FINALISTS
FEMA -- An Emergency Lane on
the Information Superhighway
Minnesota Planning World Wide Web Home Pages
NSF FastLane Project
Public Access to Labor Statistics (BLS LABSTAT)
SEDAC Access to U.S. Demographic Data.
U.S. Federal Government Information Locator Service (GILS)
HEALTH FINALISTS
Applied Informatics -- Using
the NII to Coordinate Healthcare
Children With Diabetes Online Magazine
The Family Village Project
The Global Health Network
Join Together Online: Linking Communities Fighting Substance Abuse
OncoLink - An Internet-based Multimedia Cancer Information Resource
NEXT GENERATION FINALISTS
AQUARIUS > Home of the World's
First Underwater Web
I-WAY: Prototyping the Next Generation Internet
North Carolina Information Highway (NCIH)
Pine Ridge-Mayo Telemedicine Project
Remote Experimental Environment in Fusion Energy Research
STARBRIGHT World
PUBLIC ACCESS FINALISTS
Community Technology Centers'
Network (CTCNet) Public Access Program
epa.net - East Palo Alto Gets Plugged In
LinkNet: A Virtual Year On-Line
Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN)
Seattle Public Access Network (PAN)
Web Access Project (WAP)
TELECOLLABORATION FINALISTS
ARIES - ATM Research & Industrial
Enterprise System
DIANE Diversified Information and Assistance Network
Electronic Cafe International
Fiber Weaves Indiana's Cultural and Education
Space Bridge to Russia Telemedicine Project
The Telegarden
-- end --
From: "Ceparano, Donna" <ceparand@fleishman.com> cafe
To: "'ElectronicCafe'" <ecafe@earthlink.net> Cc: "'Parker,Dave&Mara'" <dmparker@gii-awards.com>,
"'Hake,Jim'"<jhake@accessmedia.com>
Subject: Notes from Electronic Cafe Conference Call
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 14:19:00 -0600
ELECTRONIC CAFE INTERNATIONAL
Telecollaboration Award
Messages:
* Model since 1984 for many of the new cybercafes springing up today (i.e. Apple, Intel/Starbucks).
* Evolved from orig. model of community cafe to a networked laboratory of cafes throughout the world,
mainly for artists to collaborate.
* Constantly pushing the envelope beyond just being a point of access in a public space:
- use technologies beyond Internet, i.e. videoconferencing.
- thought leaders in regard to future technology applications.
- in touch with psychological aspects of what kind of environment public wants
- -resocialization- - antidote to cocooning.
* About integration -- of different technologies, cultures, age groups.
* Use performing arts and arts as way to define limits and capabilities for other types of businesses.
- Corporate culture changing to communal rooms (videoteleconferencing); more informal meetings where
creativity can be released.
* Connection to AT&T (sponsoring Telecollaboration Award) - can provide higher
bandwidth the Electronic Cafe needs.
Telecollaboration Examples:
* Use technologies that speed network so images, music, etc. can be part of telecollaboration in synchronous
real time (singing, drumming circles, dance together).
* Work with handicapped children to create music using a Timbuktu shared screen environment where kids
in NY and LA drew lines on screen that created musical notes on Disklaver pianos in both cities.
* Dancers in NY and LA dancing together in the image and choreographed whole performance in response to
the image.
Ideal Headlines:
-ARTISTS DEFINE NEW WAYS OF COLLABORATING- (Arts press)
-PUBLIC VENUE OF TOMORROW, TODAY- (Internet press)
USA TODAY
12/03/96 - 11:22 PM ET - Click reload often for latest version
Information group recognizes 10 innovative Internet sites
A prestigious award for breakthroughs
in the use of the Internet will be presented Tuesday to 10 pioneers
of better living
through cyberspace.
In its second year, the National Information
Infrastructure (NII) Awards - a cross between the Baldrige Awards
and the
Oscars - will be given to the likes of Electronic
Cafe International, which explores
creative uses of multimedia
telecommunications, and Charlotte's Web, an interactive community
in Charlotte, N.C.
"The reason (the NII) is so important
is because we are on our way to becoming a fully connected society,"
says Irving
Wladawsky-Berger, general manager of IBM's Internet Division.
"The most important aspect of a fully connected society
is not just the technology but . . . the applications of it and
how it will change business, entertainment, government,
education and health care."
The awards ceremony is tonight at the New York Hilton.
Other winners:
CitySpace, a cyberspace classroom
for artistic youths.
Faces of Adoption, which helps find homes for orphaned
children.
The Jason VII Project Undersea Internet Site, which brings
students to an undersea research lab on the World
Wide Web.
The NSF (National Science Foundation) FastLane Project,
for saving time and money by conducting business
electronically.
Starbright World, for using computers to help seriously
ill children overcome the isolation of hospitalization.
Applied Informatics, for coordinating health care service.
EPA.Net, East Palo Alto Gets Plugged In, for providing
residents of the California city with Internet access and
training.
The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, for financial/news
coverage.
"Just as roads and power grids were
the infrastructure of the old industrial economy, so the information
highway is
becoming the infrastructure for a new knowledge-based economy,"
says Don Tapscott, an NII Awards judge and author
of Digital Economy and Paradigm Shift. "It's changing the
way we create wealth, the way we learn and the way of our
social development."
By Lenita Powers, USA TODAY
GII AWARDS POSTPONED
We want to make you aware of some important
news regarding the 5th Annual GII
Awards. Key3Media (Formerly ZD Events) has recently completed
an evaluation of
the GII program and have decided to postpone this year's awards
program.
It is because we strongly believe in
the mission and value of the GII Awards that we
have made this difficult decision. Key3Media will be looking at
ways of building on the
experience and reputation of the GII Awards to create an even
bigger and better
program in 2001. We want to make sure that GII receives the focus
and investment
required to make this a truly global program with awards that
have real value to the
entrants, the winners and the industry.
As soon as a date has been determined,
we will post Call For Entries and the
process will continue. If an entry has already been submitted
for the November
Awards ceremony, it will be saved and re-instated for future evaluation.
You will not
be required to re-enter.
Thank you
Staff@gii