The Data and Information Application Layer (DIAL) ACCESS project uses plug-in technology to add NASA data visualization and access tools to the Adobe Director™ multimedia application authoring environment. This means that, with a little additional work, stand-alone data-rich applications can be authored as easily as any other software authored using Director™.

The Institute has staff and partners who are expert in a wide range of media and information technologies, as well as earth science, geography, sociology, and marine science.

The New Media Research Institute has wide-ranging interests in the theories and applications of information technology in education. We are particularly interested in the promise of geographic information systems (GIS) and in the future role of digital libraries. Below is a partial list of our current interests.

• Data access software applications for education
• Data visualization theories and application development
• Data metadata and server-side and middleware issues
• Multicasting in education
• Digital library organization
• Smart clients for digital library users
• Personal digital collections
• Sharable personal digital libraries
• 3- and 4D displays of information
• Data fusion between raster and vector data sources
• Distributed delivery systems
• Open access publishing informatics and sociology
• Social organization of digital communities