Professor Dr.-Ing. José L. Encarnacao
Professor at the TU Darmstadt
Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics in Darmstadt

CURRICULUM VITAE

José Luis Encarnação was born in Portugal in 1941 and has been living in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1959. He has been a professor of Computer Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt and there the head of the Interactive Graphics Research Group (THD-GRIS) since 1975. Besides, he has been the chairman of the board of the Computer Graphics Center (ZGDV) since 1984, and the director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics since 1987. He has also been the director of the Rostock divisions of the ZGDV (since 1990) and of the IGD (since 1992). In 1991, Professor Encarnação started a division of the Fraunhofer Institute in Providence, RI, USA (CRCG, Inc.), and in 1994 a division of the ZGDV in Coimbra, Portugal (CCG).

In 1967, he started his work in computer graphics at the Technical University of Berlin. Before coming to Darm-stadt, he held research and academic positions at the Heinrich-Hertz-Institute in Berlin (1986-1972) and at the University of Saarbrücken (1972-1975).

With regard to computer science, information technology and, especially, computer graphics as the technology for visualisation, interaction, and communication he serves as a consultant to governments, the industry, and several international agencies. Professor Encarnação also gives lectures and tutorials for universities, research institutes, associations, companies, and industrial groups in Europe and abroad. He holds leading positions in supervisory boards, managements, and advisory boards of national and international companies and research institutions (Portugal, USA). He is the German Chairman of the Board of the "German-American Panel on Technology Transfer" (1995-96). He has been involved in the development and implementation of several in-ternational R&D and educational cooperation programmes, especially between the Federal Republic of Germany (and/or the institutions for which he is responsible) and Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, and the USA.

Professor Encarnação is the German representative to the Technical Committee 5 of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP TC5, Computers in Industry). He was the Chairman of its Working Group 5.10 (IFIP WG5.10, Computer Graphics) from 1987 to 1994 and is now its Vice-Chairman. He is a member of the ACM, the ACM-SIGGRAPH, IEEE, the GI (German Computer Society), and of the Association of German Electri-cal Engineers (Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker/VDE).

Besides several honours, he was awarded with the German Federal Service Cross in 1983 and with the German Federal Service Cross First Class in 1996; in 1989, he received the Karl-Heinz-Beckurts Award for outstanding technical scientific achievements. He has been Fellow of the EUROGRAPHICS Association since 1987 and Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) since 1996. Since December 1990, he has had the honor-ary status of an "Invited Full Professor" at the Institute of Technology (Instituto Superior Técnico) in Lisbon, Por-tugal. In 1991, the title of an Honorary Profes-sor was conferred to Professor Encarnação by the Zhejiang Uni-versity in China, and he also received the honorary degree of doctor (Dr. h. c.) of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal. In 1992, he was awarded the "Silver Core" of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). He was the Steven A. Coons Award recipient from ACM-SIGGRAPH in 1995, and the Univer-sity of Rostock conferred to him the honorary doctor degree (Dr. E. h.) in 1996. In 1997, the German Computer Society (Gesellschaft für Informatik) awarded to Prof. Encarnação its highest award, the "Konrad Zuse Medaille".

Darmstadt, January 1999

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KEYNOTE SPEACH

i*Knowledge Networks
Individual Qualification in Learning Enterprises

Abstract

The upcoming worldwide usage of Internet technologies will change the usage of knowledge dramatically: knowledge will be distributed worldwide, accessible ubiquitously, and collaboratively used in virtual teams. This paradigm shift is driven by upcoming new technologies, will lead to a new knowledge products' lifecycle and will open possibilities for innovative knowledge usage scenarios. The term i*Knowledge Networks therefore reflects the facts of Internet-based distributed knowledge domains, human networks of virtual teams and interconnected intelligent devices.

The underlying technology of i*Knowledge Networks is the Internet, providing basic services for data access and the usage of remote compute resources. In the near future, we will see interconnected devices reaching from smart cards via appliances to PCs and big iron hosts, all speaking Java, the lingua franca of the Internet. Nowaday's proprietary data formats will be replaced by the self-describing XML and its different derivatives. The main leap forward will be the usage of networks of information appliances, programmable devices supporting individual user profiles. Moreover, the Internet itself will provide intelligent services by means of agent-based net-presence of users.

Based on these technological trends, new and innovative methods of knowledge management will arise. Knowledge has to be understood not as a private property, but as a tradable good. Methods have to be developed to treat knowledge as knowledge products and to support the complete knowledge product life cycle. The life cycle of any Internet-based product, however, is no longer a static, long term chain, but rather a highly dynamic network, where the classical roles of producer and consumer become volatile. Moreover, virtual teams collaborate in all stages of the life cycle. Therefore, the provision of integrated tools for communication, collaboration, and coordination is vital. In order to produce knowledge products in a team, it is essential to agree on common formats and standards. Therefore, the definition of meta-data describing the knowledge products is essential in order to support retrieval and re-use. Moreover, knowledge products have to be modularized in order to support high quality of the modules and to ease the construction of complex products out of elementary ones.

In the area of knowledge-based applications, new roles such as information brokering and knowledge tailoring will arise. With increasing knowledge domains, the brokering of information will gain importance. Besides human brokers and consultants, we will see in the future a major trend towards agent-based information brokers. Information brokerage will be the key for innovative knowledge management. Knowledge tailoring means the creation of knowledge products out of already existing standardized parts. While nowadays, the production of knowledge products is often still an individual art, in the future, the added value will be the tailoring of agreed standard components.

For the end user, i*Knowledge Networks offer the possibilities to communicate with other interested people in groups, to take advantage of online consulting in training on demand scenarios and to build his/her own curriculum; herewith supporting the goal of lifelong individual qualification. For the organisation, the integration of human resources collaborating in teams and the provision of distributed knowledge domains will support the idea of a learning enterprise.

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