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Subject:Re: Hyper/Multi media From:Brian Daley <briand -at- MEI -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 19 Jan 1994 09:22:31 -0600
Simon North, et al,
Personally, I think the term "multimedia" is a terrible one (even though I
use it, too). No one agrees about just what multimedia is. In its
strictest sense, it's the combination of more than 1 media, so I guess a
hypertext document that has audio would be multimedia. But that's not the
image most people have of multimedia. To me, online (hypertext) docs
become multimedia when you add some sort of motion, be it animation, video,
or whatever. I won't advocate this, but maybe we should call it
"interactive electronic documentation using sound, animation and/or video."
Of course, then NO one would know what we mean.
Applying my definition of multimedia, I would not automatically consider
CD-I multimedia, because it is possible to create a CD-I "document" that
uses no motion. I think whether or not something is multimedia is
independent of (1) the platform used to author/playback and (2) the media
used to store the doc. It relies more on what the doc looks like when you
use it.
Concerning document technology strategy, I'd love to see what you come up
with! Presently, we are considering CD-ROM distribution, so we're a bit
behind you. I am real interested in pursuing online distribution systems,
and I think a big minus right now is transmission speeds. Hopefully within
15 years we'll have much of the "Information Superhighway" in place. This
would give us the ability to plop our docs on a server and let field
service engineers access the online database for information while they're
on site. We who publish lots of (expensive) paper sometimes drool at the
idea of putting a hundred thousand pages on a CD. But I think the ultimate
goal is to just stick your update in the database and it's there the next
time anybody wants it.
Brian Daley | Marquette Electronics, Inc.
briand -at- mei -dot- com | Diagnostic Division - Technical Communication
(414) 362-3133 | 8200 West Tower Avenue
FAX: (414) 357-5988 | Milwaukee, WI 53223 USA
