Impromptu

Abstract: Communications between entities who may share common interests. For entities determined to be sharing common interests (e.g., searching using the same terms or topics, browsing a page, a site or a groups of topically related sites), options for communication among the entities are provided. For example, a chat room may be dynamically created for persons who are currently searching or browsing the same or related information. As another example, a “homepage” may be created for each query and contain various types of information related to the query. A permission module controls which entities may participate, what types of information (and from what sources) an entity can (or desires to) receive, what types of information the entity may (or desires to) share.

Abstract: There has been a remarkable neglect of instructed foreign languages in sociolinguistics, and this can be attributed to a traditionally ‘reflectionist’ view of the relationship between language and social structure, to a preoccupation with the home-school interface, and to the dominance of what Bernstein (1996) calls the ‘social logic of competence’. In combination, these concerns provide little scope for seeing how the value and social indexicality of a school foreign language (FL) might be reshaped within the micropolitics of classroom interaction, or how an FL might serve as a significant resource in the maintenance and accumulation of vernacular prestige. More recent conceptual developments, however, make processes like these more visible, and this is illustrated in an analysis of the impromptu use of German among adolescents in a multilingual school in inner London, where the aesthetics of performance (in R. Bauman's sense) play a significant role, both in the negotiation of identities and in the repositioning of an official code at school.

Abstract: This paper discusses the software architecture of Impromptu, a mobile IP-based audio computing platform, with an associated set of network-based applications and services. Impromptu merges the communication properties and universal mobility of the telephone with the multi-tasking and open protocol world of the handheld PC. Its supporting architecture handles multiple streaming audio applications, provides speech services for consistent audio user interfaces across applications, and enables user management of these varied applications running simultaneously.

Abstract: Interactive development environments are making a resurgence. The traditional batch style of programming, edit -> compile -> run, is slowly being reevaluated by the development community at large. Languages such as Perl, Python and Ruby are at the heart of a new programming culture commonly described as extreme, agile or dynamic. Musicians are also beginning to embrace these environments and to investigate the opportunity to use dynamic programming tools in live performance. This paper provides an introduction to Impromptu, a new interactive development environment for musicians and sound artists.