Humanities and Arts: Sharing Center Stage on the Internet
draft-ietf-harts-guide-02

quot;, or
   the MacIntosh ".au" format, these files typically take a very long
   time to download even a few seconds of audio.  The size of these
   formats makes them too inefficient for widespread use on the net
   today.

   It is however possible to do "useful" audio over the net. The
   emerging "de facto" standard seems to be _RealAudio_, based on the
   freely distributable server/player application, _RealAudio_ version
   2.0, developed by the Seattle based company Progressive Networks.
   First released in 1995, RealAudio allows useable digital audio in
   realtime over a 28.8 kB line, and has already been put into service
   on the home pages of most major record companies as well as in many
   niche applications.  In addition, RealAudio provides a "Voice mode"
   optimized for understandable speech transmission over a 14.4kB line.

   Unfortunately the quality of _RealAudio_ leaves much to be
   desired.  In particular, the sample rate in Music Mode is only 8Khz
   (as compared to CD quality 44.1 Khz), meaning that all high
   frequencies above 4khz are simply missing.  The resulting audio is
   still pleasing to listen to, but sounds very dull and dark.

   More information about RealAudio can be found at www.RealAudio.com.

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   Clearly Digital Audio is the way of the future, but until more
   bandwidth is available to the average person, it may not be the way
   of the present.  Fortunately, at least in the area of music, there is
   an interesting alternative.

   MIDI (the Musical Instrument Digital Interface), as developed for
   electronic musical instruments (keyboards, samplers, drum machines,
   etc.) works well for certain kinds of music over the net.  It
   involves sending no sound sources at all, just the description of the
   music -- kind of like the score, without the instruments.  If the
   receiver has the right instruments on their computer (such as the
   sounds defined in the General Midi soundset found on many
   soundcards), they can play back the musical score.

   The big disadvantage to using MIDI is that other than the limited
   selection of sounds in the General Midi set, it is extremely
   difficult to make sure the music sounds more than approximately like
   the original.  And there is no way to handle non-MIDI instruments
   such as guitar or voice, so it is useless to hear the new song by
   your favorite rock and roll band.

   The big advantage to MIDI is how fast it works over slow net
   connections.  For example, five minutes of music, fits in a mere 30k
   file, and usually will not take more than a few seconds even on the
   slowest of dialup connections!  This makes it ideal for applications
   such as networked games, or music to go along with a web page.   

   There are many ways of embedding MIDI files into HTML documents,
   for WWW distribution.   

   Anyone who wants to add MIDI to a page can choose to use existing
   public access MIDI file banks, of which there are many, or to produce
   new MIDI themselves.

   Crescendo is one package available for embedding MIDI files in
   HTML http://www.liveupdate.com Crescendo works for both MacIntosh and
   Windows. 

   Helpful Links: Publicly Available Audio and Music Applications
   http://reality.sgi.com/employees/cook/audio.apps/public.html 

   Music of J.S. Bach for keyboard
   ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/MIDI/SONGS/CLASSICAL/BACH/HARPSICHORD/

   RISM (repertoire of manuscript sources), plus other access to
   online scholarly music resources. http://rism.harvard.edu/RISM/

   Crescendo is used in the web pages at http://mcentury.citi.doc.ca
   along with a growing number of others.  One very interesting use of
   Crescendo occurs on the Music Theory Online publication, a serious
   scholarly site for publishing and debating musicology and music
   theory.  Articles there now routinely include short musical examples,
   a great sign of the future of scholarly publishing in the age of

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   dynamic, interactive content.
   http://boethius.music.ucsb.edu/mto/issues/mto.96.2.4/ 

   Formerly, debate on musical form and structure occurred in the
   pages of journals, referring usually to music examples in terms of
   its visual notation.  This notation requires a certain degree of
   training to decode, effectively restricting the potential readership
   to those with this professional training.  With sound examples
   embedded directly in the text, at least the aural effect of the music
   comes across, even to those unable to read the notation accurately.
   This shift is appropriate to the newer trends in music scholarship,
   which talk about music in terms of its social and cultural context,
   instead of only in formal terms.

5.6  Content Design Issues

   Know your intended audience.  If you want more people to see your
   work, you'll need to make it more accessible. 

   Many sites are very careful about what content they will allow access
   to.  If you want all audiences to be able to view your work, make
   sure you are careful about your content and language.

   Another content design issue is tool friendliness.  Some machines
   have limitations which will not allow them to see or hear what you'd 
   like them to.  For example, older or less expensive models of
   monitors may have monochrome, or one-color displays, or display only
   16 colors, or 256 colors.  If you create and view images which look
   fabulous with a 64,000 color display, you may want to test them using
   a 16 color display to see what the effect is.  Sometimes you can
   modify your image slightly to get a wider audience while only having
   a minor impact on the effect.

   The following sites give you pointers on what to consider when
   designing a web page that is content- rich:

   - Sun's Guide to Web Style - http://www.sun.com/styleguide/
   - Yale C/AIM Web Style Guide - http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/
   - Web Development - http://www.december.com/web/develop.html
   - A Guide to Creating a Successful Web Site =
     http://www.hooked.net/~larrylin/web.htm
   - Bandwidth Conservation Society - http://www.infohiway.com/faster/
     This is resource for web developers with an interest in optimizing
     performance. 

   See Section 6 for other issues and challenges relating to content.

5.7  Publicizing your work

++  advertising on the net.  point to Sally's doc.

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6.  Issues and Challenges

   The Internet has many issues and challenges, among which are
   security, privacy, property rights, copyrights and freedom of speech.
   Security issues involve both the security of your data, as well as
   your image.  Viruses can be transmitted easily over the net, and
   precautions should always be taken.  If you choose to keep your own
   information available on the net it can be the subject of vandalism
   and theft.  You may also find yourself being persecuted for the
   information you provide as more and more people join the Internet
   community and feel the need to impose their morality upon it.

   This is no different from any society.  We must draw our own lines,
   and our own conclusions.  This section is terribly brief, and
   entirely summary in nature, and is in no way intended to be
   comprehensive.  It is intended to warn you and advise you.  If you
   have real concerns about your property rights, copyrights, and/or
   personal rights, please do your own research.  Internet laws are in
   such a state of flux that they are changing as I write this, and they
   will be changing as you read it.

   At last check, however, freedom of speech was prevailing in the
   United States, and so far the government has not upheld any laws
   prohibiting the exhibition of anything on the Internet.  Support your
   local constitutional rights.
   

6.1 Security Issues

++ See Section 10. but describe here also.
++ Security of content, site, ownership.

6.2 Viruses

   A "virus" is a program that modifies other programs by placing a copy
   of itself inside them.  It cannot run independently.  It requires
   that its host program be run to activate it.

   The damage caused by a virus may consist of the deletion of data or
   programs, maybe even reformatting of the hard disk, but more subtle
   damage is also possible.  Some viruses may modify data or introduce
   typing errors into text.  Other viruses may have no intentional
   effects other than replicating itself.

   Viruses can be transmitted over the Internet inside other programs,
   but usually they are transmitted by floppy disk.  Your best bet is to
   purchase a really versatile and up-to-date virus checking program
   from your local software retailer, and run it over every floppy you
   plan to read, and every program you plan to run, as well as
   periodically over the entire machine.

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   Computer viruses are enough like organic viruses that many of the
   same precautions apply.  Early detection is key.  Diligence will
   mitigate potential damage, but frequent incremental backups are your
   best strategy for recovery.

6.3 Rights

++ Intro to protecting your copyright on the Internet.
++ References: Copyright law, cases, etc.
** Remember Laws on Intellectual property are constantly changing!
++ examples of: copyright, trademark, disclaimers, international
++ concerns big issue re: other countries who do not recognize US law
++ goes both ways... respecting others copyrights

++  The implications of the Telecom Reform Bill with regard to
++  Freedom of Speech.
++ Censorship issues, need *your* help.

++ INTERNATIONALIZE: ie: Canada will not allow the import of anything
++ that is "degrading" to women.  Etc.

6.4 Conducting Business over the Internet

++ Secure transaction are possible, pointers to pgp, etc.

6.5 Netiquette

++ The Responsible Use of the Network document outline, and pointers. 
++ ie: AVOID SHOUTING

   FYI 28 "Netiquette Guidelines", (Also RFC 1855), October 1995.

++ It never hurts to keep silent until you know your audience better.
++ Not being offended by others, ie: don't take it personally
++ keeping in mind international cultural differences, etc.

7.  Glossary

++ point to userglos, trainmat, and useful stuff that needs to be on
++ the same doc. for ease of use

   FYI 29 "Catalogue of Network Training Materials", (Also RFC 2007),
   October 1996.

   FYI 22 "Frequently Asked Questions for Schools", (Also RFC 1941),
   May 1996.

   FYI 18  "Internet Users' Glossary", (Also RFC 1983), August 1996. 

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** words contained within this document which need to be defined for
** the audience: Boolean,

8.  Resources

++ Places to find more information of use and interest.
++ specific arts and humanities studies, projects, programs, getty

   Much of the information provided by this document was gathered
   from other documents.  Wherever important to the discussion, a
   pointer to the document was given, however, many more documents are
   available on many other topics.

8.1 Request for Comment

   One of the most important collections of informational documents
   about the Internet are written as Requests for Comment by the
   Internet Engineering Task Force.  The name Request for Comment is
   historical, as these documents are submitted by their authors' for
   the approval of the Internet community as Internet Standards, and
   valid Informational RFCs called FYIs, of which this document is one.
   Basically, if the IETF collective uses a tool or resource, they
   document its use in an RFC so that there is no mystery to its
   functionality, uses, designations, specifications, or purposes.

   More information on RFCs, FYIs, the IETF, and its organizations,
   documents, policies and purposes can be found in the RFCs themselves,
   by a number of means.

8.1.1  The ISI RFC-INFO service

   There are many way to get copies of RFCs over the Internet (see
   ConneqXions, Vol.6,No.1, January 1992).  Most of these simply access
   a directory of files where each RFC is in a file.  The searching
   capability (if any) is limited to the filename recognition features
   of that system.

   The ISI RFC-INFO server is a system you can search for an RFC by
   author, date, or keyword (all title words are automatically
   keywords). 

   RFC-INFO is an e-mail based service to help in locating and
   retrieval of RFCs and FYIs.  Users can ask for "lists" of all RFCs
   and FYIs having certain attributes ("filters") such as their ID,
   keywords, title, author, issuing organization, and date.  Once an RFC
   is uniquely identified (e.g., by its RFC number) it may also be
   retrieved.

   To use the service send e-mail to RFC-INFO@ISI.EDU with your requests
   in the body of the message.  Feel free to put anything in the
   SUBJECT, the system ignores it.  (All is case independent.)
   

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   See Appendix C.  Examples for using the RFC server RFC-INFO@ISI.EDU

9. References

++ should we create [#] footnotes?? i.e.: ISN doc, etc.
++ reference the publications and/or sites of key
++ arts and humanities organizations (e.g. Getty, NINCH)

10. Security Considerations

** jkrey points to site sec. handbook:
** "The "current" Work in Progress for the Site Security Handbook WG
** is the I-D - draft-ietf-ssh-handbook-03.txt.  This group is 
** working on a companion document for the "user".  Stay tuned for 
** the I-D.  They should have that out before San Jose."

   There are a wide variety of ways in which systems can be violated,
   some intentional, some accidental.  Of the intentional attacks, a
   portion may be exploratory, others simply abusive of your resources
   (using up your CPU time) but many are actively malicious.  No system
   is 100% safe, but there are steps you can take to protect against
   misconfigured devices spraying packets, casual intruders, and a
   variety of focused assaults.

   Your best defense is to educate yourself on the subject of
   security.  There are places on the net devoted to teaching users
   about security - most prominently, the CERT Coordination Center
   located at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon
   university.  You can point your web browser (or direct your ftp
   connection) to ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_faq to start.  This is a
   frequently asked questions guide and general overview on CERT.  It
   includes a bibliography of suggested reading and a variety of sources
   to find more information. 

   Next, you should probably read

   ftp://info.cert.org/pub/tech_tips/security_info

   which contains a (primarily based on the UNIX operating system)
   checklist to help you determine whether you're site has suffered a
   security breach.  You can use it to guide you through handling a
   specific incident if you think your system has been compromised or
   you can use it as a list of common vulnerabilities.  CERT also
   maintains a wide variety of bulletins, software patches, and tools to
   help you keep up to date and secure.

   Before you are even online, you should consider some basic steps:

10.1 Formulate a security policy.

   It should include policies regarding physical access procedures,

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   security incident response, online privileges and back-up media.  Put
   a message at the login to establish your policy clearly.

   An example:

   "This system is for the use of authorized users only.  It may be
   monitored in the course of routine operation to detect unauthorized
   use.  Evidence of unauthorized use or criminal activity may result in
   legal prosecution."

10.1.1. Talk to your Internet Service Provider.

   Depending upon your provider and router management situation, there
   are a number of things your ISP should be able to do for you to make
   your site more secure.  Foremost, packet filtering on the router that
   connects you to the internet.  You will want to consider IP filters
   to allow specific types of traffic (web, ftp, mail, etc.) to certain
   machines (the mailhost, the web server, etc.) and no others.  Other
   filters can block certain types of IP spoofing where the intruder
   masks his or her identity using an IP address from inside your
   network to defeat your filters.  Discuss your concerns and questions
   with your provider - the company may have standards or tools they can
   recommend.

10.1.2. Make sure your systems are up to date.

   A significant number of incidents happen because older versions of
   software have well-known weaknesses that can be exploited from almost
   anywhere on the internet.  CERT provides a depository for software
   patches designed by concerned net.citizens, CERT's engineers and by
   the vendors themselves.

10.1.3. Use the tools available.

   Consider recording MD5 checksums on read-only media (the MD5-digest
   algorithm determines an electronic "fingerprint" for files to
   indicate their uniqueness -comparing more recent checksums to older
   ones can alert you to changes in important system files), installing
   tripwire on your systems (notes size and MD5 checksum changes, among
   other sanity checks), and periodically testing the integrity of your
   machines with programs an intruder might use, like SATAN and crack.
   [Details on MD5 are contained in RFC 1321.]

   Most files and fixes go through the basics before leaving you to
   figure things out on your own, but security can be a complicated
   issue, both technically and morally.  When good security is
   implemented, no one really notices.  Unfortunately, no one notices
   when it's not taken care of either.  That is until the system
   crashes, your data gets corrupted, or you get a phone call from an
   irate company whose site was cracked from your machines.  It doesn't
   matter if you carry only public information.  It doesn't matter if
   you think you're too small or unimportant to be noticed.  No one is

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   too small or too big, no site is immune.  Take precautions and be
   prepared.
   
11. Acknowledgments

   Joseph Aiuto
   Sepideh Boroumand
   Michael Century
   Kelly Cooper
   Lile Elam
   Dan Harrington
   Julie Jensen
   Walter Stickle

12. Authors' Address

   Janet Max
   jlm@rainfarm.com

   Scott Stoner
   stoner@artsedge.kennedy-center.org

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Appendix A.

++humanities computing projects, research projects, 
++text encoding project (michael century) need to maintain perspective 
++of the historic art archives and the "current" art in culture 
++AHIB?  Marty Harris, Susan Sigfried NIDGE?

   Examples of Projects on the Internet of Interest to the Arts and
   Humanities Communities

   The commonplace insight about the web as a new distribution
   channel for cultural products is that it effaces the traditional
   border between producer and consumer.  Publishers exploit two-way
   interactivity by re-designing the editorial mix to include reader
   response.  Here follows some examples of the way creative artists
   attempt to design structures flexible enough for significant viewer
   input.

   RENGA (http://renga.ntticc.or.jp) - An inspired transposition of a
   traditional collaborative writing practice into the realm of digital
   media supported by the NTT InterCommunication Centre in Tokyo.  Renga
   means linked-image or linked-poem, and draws on the Japanese
   tradition of collaboration which effaces the unique notion of
   original author.

   PING (http://www.artcom.de/ping/mapper) - by Art+Com, a Berlin
   based media centre and thinktank.  Art+Com is a leader in producing
   high-end net visualization projects.  Ping lets the browser add a
   link, which then becomes a part of the ongoing visual structure.  It
   is similar, in this sense, to the Toronto Centre for Landscape
   Architecture's OASIS site.   

   Art+Com's T-Vision project (http://www.artcom.de/projects/terra)
   which uses satellites and networked VR computers to permit an
   astonishing fly-in to earth from space: acclaimed as one of the most
   imaginative realizations of the potential of networked computing.

   OASIS(Image)INTERNET-DRAFT Toronto Centre for Landscape
   Architecture's OASIS site requires a specialized browser, but from a
   standard Netscape connection, you can view stills that give a sense
   of the beautiful images produced by the collaborative "design
   process".  It is introduced by its designers as follows: 

   Oasis is a shared 3-Dimensional navigational environment for the
   world wide web.  This virtual landscape allows one to bury their own
   information links throughout the terrain or to discover and connect
   to new information left by others.

   TechnoSphere (http://www.lond-inst.ac.uk/TechnoSphere/) Is
   TechnoSphere a Game?

   Yes and no. It's an experiment on a global scale, a chance to

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   develop complex artificial life on digital networks.  TechnoSphere is
   interactive like a game, but transgresses the linear boundaries of
   branching and hierarchical games narrative to enable freer movement.
   TechnoSphere is designed to encourage a non-linear experiential
   exploration.

   Body Missing (http://yorku.ca/BodyMissing/index.html)

   Toronto artist Vera Frenkel created this richly evocative site on
   the disappearance of art and memory as an extension of her Transit
   Bar installation.  It is conceived as a site open to new
   'reconstructions' of the artworks confiscated during the Third Reich.
   First opened to the public as part of the ISEA95 exhibition in
   Montreal, it has since earned widespread critical comment and praise. 

   Molecular Clinic 1.0   
   (http://sc_web.cnds.canon.co.jp/molecular_clinic/artlab_bionet)

   Molecular Clinic 1.0 ' is an art project realized through a
   collaboration between ARTLAB and Seiko Mikami, and is one of the most
   elaborate custom designed art projects yet created for the Web.
   During their initial visit users should download the MOLECULAR ENGINE
   VIEWER, which is a type of molecular laboratory for their computer.
   What they will see on the web site after this initial download is a
   virtual space containing a three dimensional computer generated
   Spider and Monolith object.  The user will be able to navigate
   through and into this virtual space and can zoom into the spider all
   the way to the molecular level.

   File Room (http://fileroom.aaup.uic.edu/FILEROOM.html) -
   Cumulative database info on Censorship, hosted in Chicago but
   conceived by Spanish artist Antoni Muntadas. 

   Idea Futures  (http://if.arc.ab.ca/~jamesm/IF/IF.html) - 

   Winner of the grand prize at the 1995 Ars Electronica competition
   for Web Sites, Idea Futures is a stock market of ideas, based on the
   theories of mathematical economist Robin Hanson.  The 'truth' of any
   claim is assigned a weight calculated by the amount of virtual cash
   which members of the exchange are willing to bet.  The scheme leads
   might lead toward a radical democratization of academic discourse,
   but just as easily, toward the trivialization of thought.  See the
   following for a philosophical critique of the system.
   (http://merzbau.citi.doc.ca/~henry/Matrix/Erewhon.html)

   Firefly (http://www.agents-inc.com/) also a prize winner at Ars
   Electronica in 1995, Firefly is an prototypical example of what
   enthusiasts call a "personal music recommendation agent", which makes
   suggestions for what you might like to listen to, based on a stored
   profile of your own likes and dislikes, and the evolving ratings
   submitted to the system by other members.  Worth visiting, if only to
   understand what all the fashionable hype about 'intelligent agents'

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   is all about; skeptics should know that even the promoters of these
   services admit the circularity of their systems: they're capable of
   reinforcing existing taste, but little else.

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Appendix B:  Some other URL's of interest

   Art on the Net
      http://www.art.net/Welcome.html
   Artist Memorials
      http://www.cascade.net/kahlo.html
   Writers
      http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/
      http://www.rain.org/~da5e/tom_robbins.html
   Photography
      http://www.nyip.com/
   Personal Journals
      http://grateful.dead.net/RobertHunterArchive.html
      http://www.cjnetworks.com/~jessa/
   Musical Groups
      http://www.dead.net (Grateful Dead)
      http://www.netspace.org/phish/ (Phish)

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Appendix C: 

   To get started you may send a message to RFC-INFO@ISI.EDU with
   requests such as in the following examples (without the explanation
   between []): 

        Help: Help              [to get this information]

        List: FYI               [list the FYI notes]
        List: RFC               [list RFCs with window as keyword or
                                 in title]  
         keywords: window
        List: FYI               [list FYIs about windows]
         Keywords: window
        List: *                 [list both RFCs and FYIs about windows]
         Keywords: window
        List: RFC               [list RFCs about ARPANET, ARPA
                                 NETWORK, etc.]
         title: ARPA*NET
         List: RFC              [list RFCs issued by MITRE, dated
                                 1989-1991]  
          Organization: MITRE
          Dated-after:  Jan-01-1989
          Dated-before: Dec-31-1991
        List: RFC               [list RFCs obsoleting a given RFC]
          Obsoletes: RFC0010
        List: RFC               [list RFCs by authors starting with
                                 "Bracken"]  
         Author: Bracken*       [* is a wild card matches everything]
        List: RFC               [list RFCs by both Postel and Gillman] 
          Authors: J. Postel    [note, the "filters" are ANDed]
          Authors: R. Gillman
        List: RFC               [list RFCs by any Crocker]
          Authors: Crocker

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