Next-generation multimedia messaging

This paper discusses some technical aspects of multimedia messaging systems. By 'messages', we mean non-real-time communications containing various media (text, speech, FAXed document images, video, electronic ink, etc.), passing between users over enterprise-wide telephony and data networks, and collecting in 'multimedia mailboxes'. Messaging, like 'digital libraries', is an application domain for indexing, retrieval, searching, etc.-but it offers some significantly different challenges and opportunities. We discuss some technical implications of the expected contents of messages, waiting time in mailboxes, and the particular needs of messaging users.