Many people consider visualization to be the ability of computer systems to process data and display it pictorially. However, visualization is not the computer's capability to generate pictures and graphs from data, but rather the human's capacity to utilize effectively the output from the computer to understand the data. Visualization does not require a computer. A reader can visualize the scene in a well-written textual description, and a person can visualize the route to the office. However, for the purposes of the N/X, the visualisation of interest is the visualisation a person achieves in using a computer.
The model below shows conceptually how the various building blocks of the visualization process relate to each other.
NATO Research Technical Group IST-059/RTG-025 interprets visualization as a human activity supported by technology. It is a means by which humans make sense of complex data. The RTG considers visualization technologies, such as search engines, algorithmic processes and display devices and techniques, but only in relation to how they help humans to perform their tasks effectively. The RTG emphasizes the human use of the computational subsystem in ensuring that the right information is available in the form and at the time needed.
The Workshops of the Network of Experts are not NATO sponsored workshops, and operate under quite different procedures. Whereas a NATO Workshop is a formal entity, approved by the Research and Technology Board through one of its Panels (the Information and Systems Technology Panel in the case of IST-059/RTG-025), a Network of Experts Workshop is a voluntary association of interested persons, coordinated by the "Network of Experts Coordinator and attended by any N/X member who cares to come.
A N/X Workshop typically emphasises discussion of issues rather than presentation of results, and even though many members of the N/X are from commercial organizations, attempts are made to make all presentations rather more relevant to visualisation issues than simple "show and tell" to advertise the successes of some particular system or approach. NATO Workshops, on the other hand, have a formal agenda of presentations, are advertised generally to NATO and PfP nations, and are open to interested parties on payment of the registration fee.
Informal Proceedings of earlier N/X Workshops are available on the Web (including several PowerPoint presentations for download). Hard copy might perhaps be available by contacting the N/X Coordinator (for e-mail see below). .
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