£14.5m in EU funds for "way out" research

IF the information society is genuinely to become the property of all of society - not just a technological elite - it has to breakout of the old model or paradigm of the office, and somehow become part of the community. To do so computer scientists must find new tools to access the world of cyberspace, argues Jakub Wejchert with an almost subversive and visionary passion.

Last week Wejchert, who works for the EU's information technology Esprit programme, launched the tendering process for two new research projects in the programme's long term research division. They are the result of Esprit's competition to design research fields which look beyond the immediate technical needs of the market to explore the relationship of information technology to the community - in effect to democratise it.

The EU is willing to put up some IR£14.5 million initially for the research on a matching funds basis.

Under the broad heading of i3 (intelligent information interfaces), Esprit is seeking project applications from research institutes, universities and businesses working in partnership on two broad themes: "the Connected Community" and "Inhabited Information Spaces".

The former asks researchers to come up with new ways of involving small local communities with information technology in a way that allows them to participate and shape systems designed for maximum access. The emphasis is on creating new types of access, or interfaces, in new places (such as hand held computers that link in to larger community computers in cafes or railway stations).

But the big issue, he says, is not just how you get access, but how you leave your mark. Asked to be more specific, Wejchert just shakes his head. The purpose of the project is to come up with the way out, to create new paradigms for the relationship between people and machines for the next century.

And if the subject material itself breaks new ground he hopes it will also produce a new research methodology. Wejchert argues that the sense of vision required to create such a new relationship inevitably means a partnership between scientists and artists, designers, and even social workers.

He hopes, too, that they will reverse the normal research process. Traditional technological advance, he argues, is top down. This must be bottom up.

The project on "Inhabited Information Spaces" seeks to explore new ways of bringing together interactively people and systems that are widely dispersed geographically. These may be new methods of teleconferencing or shopping or education in which both virtual and real worlds can coexist.

Experience has shown that research projects undertaken by small partnerships tend to be most dynamic. So for the EU's Esprit programme, Jakub Wejchert is hoping for a wide range of applications which must, under EU funding rules, include partners from at least two EU countries.

To help the process along he has established a Web "brokerage" page through which interested researchers can find their perfect partner. Already over 100 are on the page, not a few of them Irish.