Interactief archief

Having lots data is cool, being able to provide access to users generously is what matters at the end of the day for an archive such as Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision. As "access to data" is often seen as "providing means for searching", there is a long tradition in providing search tools for various use scenarios that nowadays often drills down to the "Google type" search interfaces people are used to. Although such interfaces may work perfectly for many use cases, the type of content (audiovisual media) and specific types of usage we see in our archive (re-use for new television production, research and journalism, education, entertainment) invites us to look a bit further and explore if there are better means than a standard search box to:

• entertain public users of our archive by digging up unexpected content or by providing personalised intersections of the archive
• help educators to effectively find content thats fits their lessons and students
• facilitate researchers and journalists to dig up the ingredients for their research or stories
• provide media professionals with content they could use even before they realise they need it

There are many different angles to the above, ranging from efforts to increase the (granularity of) available metadata to support the search process, to research into 'generous' interfaces to exploit the full potential of data in the context of its use. Also, there is research into the interfaces themselves, such as (embodied) agents that help the user with searching in a conversation, or interfaces that operate on the basis of location.

Please join us with your research if you are interested in the above. In our LABS we can provide you with data and use cases.