Lost in e-Translation

e-research : Lost in Translation

Reading through the terminology associated with this topic, I feel that I am “Lost in Translation”, as I read through literature filled with a foreign language. I am just familiar enough with this e-language to be able to construct just a basic form of a conceptual understanding. I can’t help but feel that Hollywood has had some influence here! As I learn about the emerging Semantic Web, which will be able to provide a future digital repository that will enable a heightened ability to “collaborate, share and preserve digital resources”, I cant help but be reminded of “Terminator” and “The Matrix”, especially as the Grid system that will support this Semantic Web will allow computers to communicate with one another and without the need for human input! Mmmm!!! A bit of a frightening thought really, but we humans can’t help ourselves, we have a need to discover how far we can push the boundaries. Reading through the literature I can’t help but think that a computing engineering background would have helped me cope with the constantly emerging new terminology. Thank God for the University of Queensland website, found at

http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~eresearch/

that provided an excellent interpretation service for me. So what have I learnt apart from the Hollywood factor? I now know that Grid technologies “facilitate communication and sharing of resources and knowledge between geographically dispersed populations”, that these grid technologies along with semantics are need for Multimedia Indexing to enable a user friendly ability to share and use audiovisual programs, (a concept that is very appealing to me after having been through a harrowing experience trying to upload am mp4 file on the Blackboard/MyUni platform) and that Middleware is needed as the go-between that connects different computer software programs to allow the easy transfer of information across one platform to another. This latter and all the preceding technologies will facilitate the collaborative approach to research in a cyber environment that heightens the ultimate transfer and building of knowledge between one human to another.

Finally, reading through the NCRIS and SAPAC sites I discovered that developing a concept map for this subject, would also help me understand how one granting body is related to another through the very complex web of interrelated funding sources that can be accessed through both federal and state levels. In summary, I gathered that the different government bodies recognise the importance of investing huge amounts of funds into the development of new and emerging technologies that will support the creation of digital repositories of knowledge, for enhanced human collaboration .