With SCALEX, museums can prepare and realise adaptive, knowledge-based exhibitions and exhibition components for use in site and online.

Joanneum Research

JOANNEUM RESEARCH – located in Graz, Austria - is a non-profit technology centre, concentrating in applied R&D available to business, industry and administration. The company is organised into six research divisions which cover the topics of environment and energy, electronics and sensor technology, materials and processing, economy and technology and information technology. Each division consists of a number of research institutes. Their highly-qualified staff of more than 380 people working in 16 research units implement their know-how in all sectors of innovation, both at national and international levels. Their service includes specifically geared development tasks for small- and medium-sized companies, complex interdisciplinary national and international research assignments as well as tailored techno-economic consulting.
The Institute of Information Systems & Information Management (JRS/IIS) is building the central part of JOANNEUM RESEARCH information technology division. It concentrates on the combination of classical information systems, digital media and communication technologies, thus developing spectacular applications at an international level. The institute has a long background in R&D activities on a European level, co-ordinating and participating in several IST projects in FP5 and ESPRIT projects in FP4.

The Institute is organised into two research groups which mainly concentrate on the following areas:
• Web information systems, including
• Information technology in cultural heritage and digital libraries
• Computer supported training and education
• Digital Media

JRS Web information systems combine Internet technology and databases. They concentrate above all on the analysis of complex interrelationships and structures and on the design of special information systems that are not covered by standard products. Their particular speciality is the integration of digital films and videos in systems of this kind.
Efficient information systems provide museum employees and, especially, museum visitors a fast and easy access to requested information. The range of ongoing projects in the Institute deals with the scientific recording of museum inventories and the interconnection of libraries and all kinds of archives. These activities are performed through the exchange of meta data and the use of communication protocols referring to international standards. Therefore, SCALEX fits perfectly into a whole range of activities of the Institute and allows to extend and strengthen its position in the application area of museum related information systems.

Key Persons:

Werner Haas graduated in technical physics from Graz University of Technology in 1973. Previously he worked at the Institute for Hydraulics at the Graz University of Technology on a computer-aided measurement system. He then worked on the research and development of FE - models, extensive application and consultancy (mostly international) with emphasis on the integration of CAD, FEM and pre- and post processing.
From 1988 he has been an employee of JOANNEUM RESEARCH to co-ordinate information technology within the enterprise and to supervise a working group in the field of high-performance computing and computer graphics. From 1993 he has been head of the Institute of Information Systems & Information Management which covers a combination of classical information systems with communication technologies, computer simulation, visualisation and digital media concentrating on integrated telecom- and information technologies.
He specialises on multimedia data exchange, digital technologies for audio-visual and print media, in particular for video and film with extension of activities into the field of educational multimedia. He has actively participated in European Research Programmes (e.g. EUREKA, ESPRIT) covering Telematics, Educational multimedia etc.. He has been an evaluator and expert for ESPRIT in the areas of HPCN, MM, OMI and an evaluator for thematic calls (educational multimedia, information access). He is a member of national advisory boards and conducted numerous studies in consultancy and development projects.

Harald Mayer was born in 1965. He was awarded a MSc (Technical Mathematics – branch: information sciences) by the University of Technology in Graz for his master thesis on ”Progressive Transmission and Compressed Storage of Digital Images”. Since 1990, Harald Mayer works as a research engineer and project manager at JOANNEUM RESEARCH, Institute of Information Systems. His areas of experience and interest cover Web based information systems and educational multimedia technologies. He was also lecturing at the Karl-Franzens University of Graz (Unix seminar). Harald Mayer has about 9 years experience in project management and is currently head of the Web-based information systems group and manager of two major EC projects of the institute. He published about 20 papers within his research areas.

Christian Derler is senior scientist and together with Harald Mayer leader of the group Web Information Systems at the Institute of Information Systems and Information Management at JOANNEUM RESEARCH. His main tasks are management and technical co-ordination across various projects. His main research interests are Web based information systems, technologies, services and protocols with a current focus on Web services and the use of geographic information in modern information systems. Christian Derler has a MSc degree in Information Technology from Graz University of Technology; Master Thesis: "The World Wide Web Gateway to Hyper-G: Using a Connectionless Protocol to Access Session-Oriented Services". Before he joined JOANNEUM RESEARCH as a research engineer and project manager in 1995 he worked as a software developer within the Hyper-G development team at the Institute of Information Processing and Computer Supported New Media at Graz University of Technology.

Georg Mittendorfer is software engineer at the Institute of Information Systems and Information Management at JOANNEUM RESEARCH. His main research interest is software design and development of web information systems in particular in the area of knowledge based systems. Georg Mittendorfer studied abroad at Universidade Lusiada, Lisbon, Portugal. He has a degree in Jurisprudence from Karl Franzens University, Graz, Austria. He worked as a legal consultant in the GSM/DCS 1800 Project for Ericsson Austria in Vienna, 1999. He studied Software Engineering at the Hagenberg University of Applied Sciences, Austria. (Graduation: autumn 2003); Thesis on "Ontological Knowledge Representation" at the Institute of Information Systems and Information Management at JOANNEUM RESEARCH.

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