Abstract
The production, distribution, and consumption of information goods have endured numerous challenges over the years. Most recently, the Internet and digital consumer technologies have severely disrupted established intellectual-property regimes, enabling the near costless reproduction and distribution of information commodities. In addition, sophisticated tools have enabled new collaborative spaces (such as blogs, social websites, and so forth) formedia production and distribution, posing new challenges to traditional creator-producer-consumer paradigms. This article analyzes the present situation's main technological characteristics, its economic implications, and the industry's response-and outlines a possible solution to the problems.

Abstract
The challenge of managing large scale media assets has led to the development of metadata schemas that are expected to enable efficient search and retrieval of multimedia content. Those approaches propose schemas that can range from simple keyword based descriptions to complex hierarchical organization of information. However, effective media asset management requires more than content searching and retrieval: underlying infrastructures are usually complex, require the use of a number of different equipment and management decisions have to be done based on information available from the multimedia metadata layer as well as on data describing system resources and capabilities. In this paper we propose a new ontology that aggregates information from different sources and enables a top level business oriented view of multimedia archives.

Abstract
The amount of on-line information content is growing without apparent limits. The lack of a coherent and consistent structure for its expression leads to increasing problems in terms of desired information retrieval and rendering. Multiple initiatives have been undertaken to bring forth such a global coherence. Nonetheless, it is still unattained. The informational landscape is highly fragmented in terms of the formats of the information object (IO) and their semantic interconnection, which is still incipient. This work exploits a loose and common sense based analogy between the Internet and the brain for the development of a new and versatile, MPEG 21 based data structuring format (termed Cognitive Object Format), for the description of information objects, equating them to cerebral memories. The objective is to enable an easier and more pervasive human (machine aided) or automatic interpretation and access to IO and their meanings in order to contribute to the development of a coherent base for their declaration and structuring.

Abstract
In this paper we present an experimental approach for QoS-aware and bandwidth-efficient transmission of multimedia sources over ATM networks. VER video sources are statistically multiplexed at the application level and the UPC parameters of a single connection for the aggregate traffic are dynamically renegotiated with the network during the session lifetime, A statistical multiplexer computes the required bandwidth for the aggregate traffic and dynamically assigns bandwidth according to the performances requested and network resources availability. A dynamic UPC manager using feedback information sent by the network, may initiate a renegotiation of traffic parameters upon receiving a request from the statistical multiplexer. Performing the connection admission control procedures for the aggregate traffic, allows significant reductions in the value of the total peak rate when compared to the sum of peak rates of individual connections. It also reduces the burstiness of the flow submitted to the network, thus increasing the lifetime of each set of UPC parameters.

Abstract
The evolution of Television towards de digital domain is opening new opportunities but also new challenges both to users and system managers. Audiovisual television archives will be an essential component of the whole digital television operators systems, as archived information needs to be available to a wide range of users. This paper presents the work developed at INESC Porto within the VIDION project and the experiments on merging television, computer and telecommunications concepts and technologies by the use of software agents and CORBA to assist in solving problems of information and system configuration and management in a TV archive. Aspects such as definition of the problem, architecture proposed and current state of the work will be the focus of the paper.