Information server for highly-connected cross-media publishing

Over the last decade, we have seen a significant increase in the number of projects aiming for integration of different kinds of media(mixed-media integration). However, most existing approaches tend to focus on the media technologies rather than on concepts for information integration and linking that enable users to move freely back and forth between various media information sources. In this paper, we discuss the issues of information semantics and granularity that arise in the design of highly interactive mixed-media information systems and present a general, flexible information server that meets the requirements of publishing information on different output channels (cross-media publishing). Specifically, we introduce the iServer framework as a generic link management and extensible integration platform and digitally augmented paper is presented as one specific application of the iServer technology. A case study shows how cross-media publishers could profit from using more elaborate information systems and some of the authoring issues of mixed-media information environments are discussed.