Université de Montréal facility to feature interdisciplinary multimedia research

A new interdisciplinary multimedia research facility is set to open this fall at the Université de Montréal. Under the direction of André Caron, the Centre Interdisciplinaire de Technologie Émergente (CITÉ) will bring together about 25 researchers from the university to work on several projects surrounding new technologies such as e-books, wireless, metatagging and the Internet. Associate professors of the CITÉThierry BardiniPierrette BergeronMilton CamposYves MarcouxBrian MassumiSang NguyenAndré CaronLyne Da SylvaGilles DeschateletsJian-Yun NieMarc RaboyDaniel RobichaudAude DufresneHélène GirouxLorna HeatonPeter KropfSébastien RoyAlbert TabahJames TaylorJames TurnerBarthelemy Kuate DefoWith a $589,680 grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation along with seed money from the university, the schools of communications, computer science and operations research, and library and information science will build on 15 years of research themes developed by Caron. Caron tells Canadian NEW MEDIA the school is partly an outgrowth of extensive work he and his team of researchers did for the Chagnon family of Quebec, which sold Vidéotron ltée to Quebecor Inc. in 2000. He says he spent several years researching how families used the Videoway service in the early days of interactive television. He has also worked with Bell Canada on the household use of technology, including an in-depth survey of nine families that will form the basis for some new projects. On a parallel track, he has also worked extensively with the Charles Bronfman Foundation in media studies of children. The new facility was put under his stewardship because of that experience, he says, citing it as the reason he was asked by the university’s administration to design a multimedia program. In a new lab just being completed now and at two satellite labs located at the university, Caron and his team will study such topics as how newly amalgamated cities deal with technology and organizational communications, how to overcome challenges to the visually impaired navigating the Internet, and a project to archive and tag electronic material. They will also study how students use e-books and will build on Caron’s Bell Canada research to discover how youth use mobile communications and what the technology means to them. A multidisciplinary approach crossing traditional academic lines is important, he says, to get at the broader changes being wrought by technology in society. “In the last two or three years, we’ve been drowned in new technologies,” Caron says. “How do people live with these changes? The only way to get that is to put our anthropologist’s hat on.” The team of researchers he’s attracted to the project, he says, is drawn by his promise of reduced academic red tape and by the lure of seed money.

Université de Montréal facility to feature interdisciplinary multimedia research

Broadcast | July 11, 2003

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