Edited volume of papers resulting from the International Conference on Digital Convergence: the Future of the Internet and World Wide Web, held in April 98 Brings together state-of-the-art developments in the Internet and WWW, and will be of great interest to those working in these areas

List of Contributors.- 1 Introduction.- 1 Broadband Internet: Future Applications and Challenges.- 2 The Future of Content: Towards a 5th Framework Programme in Multimedia Content &Tools.- 2 Cultural Issues.- 3 Digital Convergence at the User Interface.- 4 Cultural Objects in Digital Convergence.- 5 The Role of 3D Shared Worlds in Support of Chance Encounters in CSCW.- 6 Agent-Based Facial Animation.- 7 The Use of Dynamic Behaviors in a Network-Based Animation System.- 8 Virtual Rehearsal Over Networks.- 9 WWW Television News in Context: Organizational Practices and Media Products.- 10 Live Internet Broadcasting: Some Unique Experiences.- 11 Jogging the Memory: Dynamic Visualization Over the Web.- 12 "Thin" vs. "Fat" Visualization Clients.- 13 How to Build a Pan-European Multilingual Information Distribution System.- 3 Technological Issues.- 14 A Distributed Object-Based Architecture for Remote Rendering on theWWW.- 15 Multi-User Visualization: a CORBA/Web-Based Approach.- 16 Scene Capture and Modeling for Three-Dimensional Interactive Stereo Television Broadcasting.- 17 Semi-Automated Construction of Virtual Scenes from Cinematographic Data.- 18 Video Search and Retrieval: Current Practice and Future Evolution.- 19 Video Compression in MPEG-4.- 20 Implications of Television Over the Internet.- 21 The Implementation of PANIVE: a PC-Based Architecture for Networked Interactive Virtual Environments.- 22 Applications for 3-, 4- and 5-Sided CAVES.- Author Index.

Although the computer's life has been relatively short, it has brought about an information revolution that is transforming our world on a scale that is still difficult to comprehend. This digital convergence is shaping society, technology and the media for the next millennium. Areas as diverse as home banking and shopping over the Internet; WWW access over mobile phone networks; and television systems such as Web TV which combine on-line services with television. But convergence is not just about technology. It is also about services and new ways of doing business and of interacting with society. Digital convergence heralds the 'Information Revolution'. Edited by John Vince and Rae Earnshaw this important new book on Digital Convergence: The Information Revolution is an edited volume of papers, bringing together state-of-the-art developments in the Internet and World Wide Web and should be compulsory reading for all those interested in and working in those areas.