The challenges of digital media: Research issues and future directions

A recent report by a panel of experts that advise the US President (Information Technology Advisory Committee)? concluded that federal research on Information Technology (IT) is seriously inadequate. It urged spending on IT research to be increased by US1.4 billion by 2004, focussing on longer-term "visionary and high risk" projects that industry is unwilling to support itself. This Information Technology for the 21(st) century initiative (IT2) concentrates on long-term IT research (software, human-computer interfaces, information management, scalable information, and high-end computing), advanced computing for science and engineering with emphasis on multidisciplinarity, and research on social aspects of the information revolution. It is clear that there are significant issues to be addressed in many key areas of information technology. This paper examines some of the research issues in the area of digital media.