The University of Michigan's primary role in the EVIA Project is in the encoding of video content and the development of metadata record and storage systems (Bluestream), making all pertinent media assets available to the production staff and eventually to end users. The University of Michigan also assists by linking the EVIA Project with academic affairs and budgeting to provide staff and facilities to these ends as well as working with the University of Michigan's ethnomusicology program and its dedication to teaching and research.

Bluestream
The University of Michigan is collaborating with campus academic units and IBM to develop a shared Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) infrastructure. Known now as "Bluestream," the DAMS infrastructure will integrate ingestion of data, assignment of metadata (similar to keywords), storage, retrieval, and manipulation in a way that will make media assets available to eventual end users. DAMS utilizes IBM's Content Manager and other software (including third-party software) for access, manipulation, and control of video, audio, images, and other digital content in a learning environment. Users are then able to ingest digital assets (image, audio, video, metadata), perform searches, and preview and retrieve assets. Tools include those for rich media creation, categorization, and editing. Storage management will ensure that assets are stored on the lowest-cost medium and according to university storage policy and procedures. [back]

Duderstadt Center
Located at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the Duderstadt Center has a wide range of computing resources available to support academic, research, and professional work of the university community, including media capture and conversion processes. The Center is a campus wide resource with a mission to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration, integrative learning, and exploration virtues that are shared with the field of ethnomusicology. This facility brings together information resources, information technology, production studios, and information professionals to support endeavors like the EVIA Project. The Duderstadt Center's role in the EVIA Project has been in providing special equipment and staff for encoding video content. The Center will continue to serve in its long term capacity in sustaining the EVIA Project. [back]

The Provost's Office
The primary responsibility of the Provost's Office at the University of Michigan is to oversee academic affairs and budgeting on the Ann Arbor campus. One of the goals of this office is to focus on academic and research programs and initiatives. The Provost's Office works with the UM President, the deans and faculty leaders of academic units, and the larger faculty to set academic priorities and allocate funding. Given the broad scope of Academic Affairs, numerous offices and entities are under the umbrella of the Provost's Office. These include the University Library and special libraries as well as numerous departments, programs, educational endeavors, and institutes. Lester Monts PhD, Senior Vice-Provost for Academic Affairs, serves as one of two EVIA Project Co-Principal Investigators. [back]

University of Michigan—Ethnomusicology
The program in ethnomusicology at the University of Michigan is designed to produce professional, productive scholars who are trained to take part in and contribute to the ongoing theoretical and methodological dialogues and debates of the discipline as a whole. Emphasis is placed upon training in teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in world music. The PhD program trains students to teach ethnomusicology and world music, and it develops students' ability to pursue original research. The focus of the program is on the theory and methods of the field in light of the changing nature and meanings of data and the complexities of interpretation. Since the ethnomusicology section is within a department of Western, historical musicology, graduates also are prepared to teach introductory college courses in Western music history and theory. [back]