NINCH >> Computer Sciences and Humanities PRESS RELEASE   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SPRING 1997     CONTACT: David Green Marjory Blumenthal Charles Henry     Computing and The Humanities: Promise And Prospects, A National Arts and Humanities Computing Roundtable WASHINGTON, DC - A national effort to foster programmatic interaction between the humanities and the computer science communities could significantly enrich both disciplines. This was the unanimous sentiment of a recent roundtable involving a diverse group of researchers and executives from the arts, humanities and computing and communications communities on March 28, 1997, held at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, DC. This lively brainstorming meeting was hosted by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council and convened by an extraordinary collaboration of the Board with the Coalition for Networked Information, the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage, and the Two Ravens Institute. Unequivocally, participants urged further and wider multi-disciplinary discussions as a prelude to possible practical action. The Computing and the Humanities roundtable confirmed the organizers' expectations that further progress requires mutual focus on several key issues:     Digitizing Cultural Works Understanding the intrinsic qualities of arts and humanities material to enable appropriate conversion to electronic media; the development of a critical mass of electronic works; and the encouragement of the generation of new material that may only be possible via electronic media; Interoperability Developing cross-disciplinary and cross-media interoperability of systems and formats to enable researchers and the general public to search, find, and appraise a wide selection of humanities material in disparate physical locations, and to do so easily and creatively; Preservation & Access Facilitating the preservation of and access to relevant information resources over time and across a range of systems and media Planning Planning for the new capabilities and new organization of resources that newer technology will continue to make possible; Institutional Issues Understanding the need for institutional support for the deployment and maintenance of technical infrastructure, including networks, libraries of electronic material, and computer-based tools for working with humanities materials, as well as the nurturing of relevant human infrastructure, such as the support for cross-disciplinary collaboration; and Collaboration Identifying mutually satisfying mechanisms enabling humanists to work more effectively with industry and academic technologists to generate software and systems of value to humanists that also challenge computer scientists.             The Organizers   The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board's charter is a broad one:  to ensure that the United States makes every effort to develop and use the major national resources represented in computer science, computer technology, and telecommunications.  CSTB considers technical and policy issues pertaining to computer science, telecommunications, and associated technologies.  The functions of the Board include: Monitor and promote the health of the computer science, computing technology, and telecommunications fields, including attention as appropriate to the issues of human resources and information infrastructure; Initiate studies involving computer science, computing technology, and telecommunications as critical resources and sources of national economic strength; Respond to requests from the government, non-profit organizations, and private industry for expert input on computer science, computing technology, and telecommunications issues; and to requests from the government for expert input on computer and telecommunications systems planning, utilization, and modernization. CSTB actively disseminates the results of its completed projects to those in a position to help implement their recommendations or otherwise use their insights.  It provides a forum for the exchange of information on computer science, computing technology, and telecommunications. The Coalition For Networked Information (CNI) The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), is an organization for institutions concerned with realizing the promise of high performance networks and computers for the advancement of scholarship and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.  The Coalition was formed in 1990 by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Educom, and CAUSE. CNI pursues its mission through the aid of its membership, a 200-member task force made up of higher education institutions, publishers, network service providers, computer hardware, software, and systems companies, library networks and organizations, and public and state libraries. The National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage The National Initiative For A Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH),is a diverse coalition of cultural organizations dedicated to ensuring the greatest participation of all parts of the cultural community in the digital environment. Our vision of networked cultural heritage is of an integrated, distributed body of cultural material, seamlessly interoperable across many media, of the highest possible quality and fidelity, and easily usable and searchable by creators, scholars, the general public and by teachers and learners of all ages. NINCH's mission is to advocate for the inclusion of the cultural sector in all policy deliberations on the future of the information infrastructure and to educate policymakers, coalition members and the general public about the critical importance of translating the vision of a connected, distributed and accessible collection of cultural knowledge into a working reality. The Two Ravens Institute The Two Ravens Institute provides a forum of convergence for scholars, teachers, students, and writers, and others representing a number of academic and  cultural perspectives to explore the transformational changes of networked technology on the contemporary social fabric. The perspectives the Institute adopts represent a merging of humanistic, social science, and scientific methodologies in order to better understand,  and therefore predict, the effects of the digital revolution.  Fundamental assumptions of the Institute include the belief that the growing digital networks will best serve teaching and research only if those networks are ultimately susceptible to human choice, experimentation, and creative application.  The Two Ravens Institute undertakes 1) to refocus currently polarized and simplistic discussions about technology as it relates to culture,  education, and the individual in terms that recognize the complexity and ambiguity of these issues; 2) to invigorate these discussions with  perspectives normally associated with the humanities perspectives largely absent from current discourse; and 3) to foster an intellectual environment wherein individuals can assume greater responsibility for a strong and continuing democracy. A summary report on the Roundtable proceedings will be published in the fall of 1997 by the National Research Council. A report will also be distributed by the American Council of Learned Societies as an ACLS occasional paper.