Server: Netscape-Commerce/1.12 Date: Tuesday, 26-Nov-96 00:07:03 GMT Last-modified: Thursday, 15-Jun-95 00:38:00 GMT Content-length: 2972 Content-type: text/html PERSONAL INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE GROUP


Michael Hawley,
Assistant Professor
of Media Technology
Olin Shivers,
Research Scientist

The rise of the global digital net as the primary communications medium for the planet is perhaps the most important technological innovation occuring in society today. The grand convergence of information services---through the phone system, news media, video broadcast and other channels---is by now a common topic in the public agenda. The Personal Information Architecture group addresses one of the central questions of this new technology: how should one interact with the flood of digital information soon to become available to the individual? In short, how do you touch a planetful of bits?

One means toward that goal is the BodyNet, a kind of "personal local wireless network" that integrates various digital information appliances. Interoperability among most such devices -- watches, cameras, cellular phones, laptop computers -- is now all but nonexistent, thus restricting their flexibility and accessibility to the worldwide digital network. Initial BodyNet work includes the development of languages and software to coordinate these personal appliances.

Another project, called the Livingroom of Tomorrow (LoT), seeks to re-invent our living spaces so that we can naturally and comfortably receive this deluge of information. The Library Channel project, meanwhile, is developing new technologies that will essentially bring the resources of the public library into the home -- or perhaps into one's back pocket -- through the BodyNet and the LoT.

The PIA group collaborates with several outside sources, including the Library of Congress, the National Geographic Society, and Scientific American. We also are creating the "Information Architecture Group," a consortium of furniture makers and other industrial sponsors who will help design new, personalized applications for home-based education and entertainment. MIT resources include the LCS, the Media Laboratory, and the School of Architecture.