Due to the technical developments in electronics, digital representation is becoming more and more dominant compared to analogue representation of audio-visual (AV) content. For example, new capturing devices like digital video cameras enable professional content producers to directly produce high-quality movies for broadcasting and movie theatres in digital formats, e.g. MPEG or DV based video formats. Also, in the private domain the use of digital cameras is constantly increasing. This trend will most likely continue resulting in a continuous increase of the amount of produced digital AV content contributed by an ever increasing number of different providers and an increasing demand for new innovative services that engage AV content, such as distribution to the home, sharing between end users, and management of content.

It is quite impressive to see how asynchronous communication forms - like Instant Messaging and Blogging - have reached wide success, yet by offering support only to traditional, text-based information exchange. These two services are today at the basis of what has been defined as Social Networking, i.e. the possibility for individuals to interact, share, cooperate with others via the telecommunications technology . The impact of such services can be measured not only in terms of the specific and direct service provided to their user constituency, but also in terms of their contribution to the emergence of new communication styles and language patterns .

Particularly interesting are those Social Networks where the link among people is enriched by links to specific places and locations, according to the people-to-people-to-places model (P3) .

We believe that these models of interaction and cooperation can benefit from the introduction of technologies enabling a richer media exchange and enhanced AV content-based interactions at the Community level. As a proof-of-concept for this we would like to mention recent examples of community televisions that are ongoing in several European countries. In Rome, for example, in the Corviale suburb, people are actively participating in a low cost experiment of a local TV channel that is airing documents and reports related to the everyday life of the Corviale area .

The availability of pervasive and affordable mobile networking services is at the basis of another social communication phenomenona: Moblogging . In this communication paradigm people use their mobile terminals to update in real-time a web-diary or Blog, with the insertion of photo, videos and any other audio-visual content. Several commercial services are today available around the world, attracting millions of users that aggregate in forms of quite dynamic virtual communities.

We believe that these experiments are clear signs of new needs and demands arising from users communities and that their support could benefit greatly from the availability of new technologies and models for low-cost, pervasive content curation and distribution.

The overall goal of the CONTENT Network-of-Excellence is to integrate the research efforts of the members in order to address the technical challenges at the different system levels and enable easy-to-install and easy-to-use AV services in and between homes. In particular, the main technical objective will be to boost the potential of European Community Networking by improving the Content Distribution infrastructures for the delivery of live (streaming) content and interactive stored content, and by integrating, in an open way, tools and mechanisms that would enable the curation of multimedia assets and their subsequent access for the benefit of the communities of users, producing a set of appropriate services for them, both in the context of the “long tail” or applied to (re-purposed) assets created by traditional broadcasters.

CONTENT’s predecessor E-NEXT recognized that excellence cannot be sustained or promoted without investing in the education of young researchers. The European Doctoral School of Advanced Topics In Networking (SATIN) work will continue and will be the main instrument that CONTENT will employ to invest in education and prepare the next generation of researchers for the European Research Area.

In parallel, the consortium will perform exchanges, education and training of personnel inside and outside the network, dissemination of research results and, in general, spreading of excellence.