The offices of GMD-FOKUS in Berlin provided the venue for a meeting in December 1987 which signalled the birth of the ARGOSI project. The proposal gradually took shape over the following months, and after merging with another project proposal in the field of standardization of computer graphics, finally received funding from the Esprit programme in March 1989. The project stemmed from a recognition of the importance of computer graphics a'i an ena bling technology in many application areas, and of the need to build bridges between computer graphics and telecommunications. The overall aims of the pro ject were twofold: • Advance the state of the art in the transfer of graphical information across international networks. • Improve quality and applicability of standards in this area. This book records the key results of the project and the contributions the project has made to standardization related to the transfer of graphical information across open networks. Contributions have included a demonstration of a prototype appli cation - a road transport information system running over public international of a new data networks - shown at the Esprit '91 exhibition, the standardization FT AM document type allowing structured access to graphical information (represented according to the Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) standard) and major contributions to a mapping of the X-Windows protocol onto an OSI stack. The project also organized two international workshops. the first on Graphics and Communications, and the second on Distributed Window Systems.
