CURRENT MEETING REPORT
Reported by Scott Stoner, Kennedy Center
Minutes of the Humanities and Arts Working
Group (harts)
Scott Stoner and Janet Max, HARTS Working
Group Co-Chairs, asked individuals in attendance to introduce
themselves and their interests regarding the arts and humanities.
They then outlined the agenda and goals of the meeting which were
focused primarily on review and expansion of the current draft
outline for an information document about the arts and humanities
on the Internet. Agenda items also included external review by
the field, dissemination strategies, and potential need for a
separate tools doc ument.
Participants were given a hard copy for
reference as they reviewed and discussed each section of the draft
document (the draft document was circulated online to working
group members prior to the meeting). Participants were also asked
to volunteer to contribute additional text to sections of the
document based on their interest and expertise as the discussion
moved forward. The Abstract was essentially approved as is.
Members recommended that the Introduction
more specifically define "humanities" as well as the
"arts", including what is commonly used by the National
Endowments at the federal level. It was also agreed that the Introduction
should respond to the basic question: What is the Internet? Points
to make include: The Internet is not new, but it is constantly
evolving, as has the World Wide Web. Content issues relate to
technical issues that, when solved, provide enormous potential
for developing and providin g access to the arts and humanities
globally. IETF provides the appropriate forum and resources for
working with arts and humanities users to develop new and innovative
Internet-based applications.
There was consensus that the second section
focus on "What the Internet means to the Artist", to
include information about 1) access to the global community, 2)
communicating with other artists, 3) collaborating with other
artists, and 4) presenting one's own work and sharing the work
of other artists on the Internet.
Members suggested the third section focus
on basic information about getting started and determining how
to best use the Internet (under the tentative title: "Finding
Your Forum"). This section should respond to such questions
as: How do I get there? Wh at is there? How can I contribute?
It would include brief explanations of basic hardware and software
needs, Internet service providers, online commmunications opportunities,
how to find resources, etc. Members suggested that examples should
be used whe rever possible and conclude with a "look to the
future" of the Internet.
The fourth section should focus on "Creating
Content", which would demonstrate the correlation between
the nature of arts and humanities-based content (e.g. music, visual
arts, etc.) and the various technology-based platforms and applications
available. This section should include many examples of the range
of applications available.
The fifth section should focus on "Issues
and Challenges" and briefly summarize key issues related
to the use and dissemination of arts and humanities content. This
should include the following topics: rights/permissions, censorship,
marketing/doing busi ness, not offending others, not being offended
by others, viruses, and security. The final sections of the document
should be devoted to a glossary, resources, acknowledgements,
and authors' information.
At the conclusion of the discussion of the
draft document, it was agreed that it would be most helpful to
create a Web site for the document that would be accessible for
working group members to contribute text and ideas at their convenience.
The Web site will be designed and hosted by Janet Max. Once this
is accomplished, members will be invited (and encouraged) to contribute
to and respond to others' contributions to the document, with
a goal to have a completed document ready for final review at
the next IETF meeting (June, 1996).
Working group members also agreed to make
the document available for review and contributions from invited
members of the arts and humanities community for a six-week period
prior to the next IETF meeting. Members felt it was necessary
to consider the de velopment of a separate tools document at this
time. The meeting was adjourned with an indication by the Co-chairs
that an announcement would be made to all HARTS list subscribers
when the Web site was ready for them to access.