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cover design: antonio fdez.coca © 1998 • http://dmi.uib.es/people/acoca • e.mail: antonioc@ipc4.uib.es • University Balearic Islands. Spain
Welcome to "Student Perspectives on the
Future of Content". In 1997, the Electronic
Publishing sector of DGXIII/E-4 published
through Techserv a discussion document
called "The Future of Content". It encapsula-
ted the views of strategists, academics, rese-
archers, industrialists and users. It contained
input from people at all points of the content
value chain: creators, publishers, managers
and consumers. Its purpose was to assist the
European Commission to determine the
orientations that a research and develop-
ment programme in multimedia content
should take.
Kieran O'Hea
Techserv
February 1998
e-mail: kohea@ip.lu
http://elpub.ml.org
As main organisers of the Forum of the European
Master of Arts in Interactive Multimedia (MA IMM),
which was the setting against which vision state-
ments on The Future of Content were collected, we
would like to tell the readers a little more about it.
The Forum gathers the Master students and staff
for one week every year, together with guests from
Universities and Companies across Europe. It is a
stimulating event full of exciting discussions
amongst students, staff, guests. About 60 master
students of 17 different nationalities, 20 lecturers
coming from The London College of Printing of the
London Institute of Higher Education Corporation,
the École Nationale Supérieure de la Creation
Industrielle (Paris) and the Dublin Institute of
Technology and Universitat de les Illes Balears
took part this year. Guest speakers were from
Spain, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal
and UK.
Martin Casey
Anne Courtois
Garret Dalton
Sandra Guedenzi
Tyrone Hannick
Kamol Khunvitayapaisal
Altan Koraltan
Owen Kelly
Eric Lachaud
Alan Lambert
Alan McLeod
Conor McMahon
Renate Minoga
Colm Murphy
Gary Nolan
Tania Ruiz
Lisa Salem
Matthew Sharwood
Claudia Torres
Chris Timmerman
Lam Wai
Judith Whittaker
For a long time, Zoop had been looking for his per- The images are perfect, clean and shining, even
fect-landscape, which would allow him to get the though each time it is more difficult to find ancient
adequate dose to recover the mental-breath-balan- things to base memories on. They are already sear-
ce in order not to disappear and dilute into the chers of books, old photographs or films out of
swarm of ultra-autonoumous-beings from the which one can extract a light reference of what
Outside. used to exist.
The landscapes flow and reach everywere perfectly
The perfect-landscape must be comfortable and instantaneously.
enough for him not to miss the termical seat of the
micro-transporter which takes him to work every- Zoop can not believe it, the exhumed postcard
day. must be seven hundred years old. One can see a
still sea on it, which seems to be limitless. It is the
Zoop understands that he has found the missing first time Zoop sees something like that and feels a
piece which enables him to integrate himself com- strange vertigo.
pletely into the outside whole. His blood pressure The title on the card identifies it as “sea”...from now
increases for a moment, and he thinks that it is only on, Zoop sea. The photograph became yellow a
a dream and that it is not possible to have so much llong time ago and, in many places, little particles of
luck. paper made thin cracks which merged whith the
He sweats abundantly under his super insulating waves.
suit, and he is afraid that the old postcard he holds
with delicaty can disintegrate. Zoop sighs.
He closes his eyes and smiles underneath the anti-
He has no doubts about the quality of the image, pollution mask.
and he takes a glimpse at the immense sea, a sea Zoop knows he will be able to get his undistorted,
without any of those disgusting virtual whales. pure, bright, yellow sea whenever he wants to.He
will plunge into it by only wishing it and switching on
Zoop has spent years dreaming of an image like the signal.
that and he has finally found it. It was down there,
at the four hundred-metre subway where he works. The transmission centres work at their full capacity,
but the most difficult thing is to find images that can
Other people have already enjoyed and praised the provide a base for reproducing the perfect-lands-
advantages of being able to see their own perfect- capes
landsapes, people which they found anywere in the
city. These people can be seen, any time of the day, Zoop will always be able to see his piece of rustling
happy, looking far away, at the horizon, not being yellow sea, inmersing him into a dream of hyperre-
aware of anything else. The crowd brushes against ality.
them with their super transportators, and some
absent minded even crash into them, but it does not
seem they care.
Martin
nombreCasey.
del autor
DIT
Nkosi@hotmail.com
e.mail del autor
The question for the future of content is, How can tated with the easy navigation of content. This con-
we stratificate content. tent does not have to be impersonal. The personal
soap box should have the capacity to reflect the
In the context of the commercial world time is personality and the eccentricity of the user .What is
money. With this in mind there seems to be far too required is the development of an organisational
much time wasted finding the content that we requi- model. This catagorisation can be based on many
re. different metaphors. Possibly through the introduc-
tion of colour coded sections on the internet.
Recently I was required to write a paper on the
French thinker Baudrillard. I though that the WWW Addressing the question of rescources, it is more to
would be the best scource reference available to do with the funding of explorations of models of
me. I was bombarded with 365 218 references to catagorisation , than with control of content. With
this French thinker.This obviously blew my mind this stratification of content there would not be that
and right away I knew that I would infinately never feeling of information overload. This catagorisation
have enough time to sift through this information. of content would not restrict the web but rather free
This was a problem and a problem that I feel is it up. In this case looking at traditional models of
beginning to destroy the WWW. organisation and applying them to interactive digital
media may be the way forward. This as I have sta-
We are reaching a point where we cannot distin- ted is about access to information. Currently going
guish between good and bad content. There is not- to the library seems to be the better alternative,
hing worse than searching for something and hopefully through the stratification of information
having to wait for the search engine to find your (content) we will be able to harness the benefits of
specific request. When the engine find the request digital media. We do not have the time or patience
we are bombarded with thousands of interpreta- to sift through thousands of page of URLS to find
tions or pages which relate to your request. exactly what we want. In other words if we do not
Considering that time is money, there is only so categorize the internet it will become nothing more
much time to read all this information. We need a that a waste bin.
model to categorize this content.
La notion essentielle en matière d'édition multimé- fil conducteur sont des archaïsmes et l'altération de
dia est l'interactivité. Cependant, actuellement, l'in- la linéarité est fondamentale. Il faut que le lecteur
teractivité des produits multimédia se réduit a des puisse créer son propre cheminement, sa propre
propositions de thèmes sous forme de table des voie.
matières, parmis lesquels le lecteur fait son choix.
Ces thèmes sont pré-écrits et les cheminements du Ainsi, lors de la consultation d'un contenu d'infor-
lecteur dans l'information lui sont imposés. mation, le parcours du lecteur ne doit plus se faire
Ainsi, malgrés tous les avantages apportés par ce en fonction des choix, des liens qu'on lui impose.
nouveau support, à savoir, les liens hypertextes, le Le lecteur doit pouvoir créer lui-même le contenu
son, l'image animée, la cinétique typographique..., qui l'intéresse en créant ses propres liens et non
cette soi-disant interactivité est limitée. pas suivant le contenu de l'information qui devra
Ne peut-on pas imaginer qu'un tel media puisse être écrit, mais aussi les lois qui géreront la façon
prendre en compte le comportement des individus? dont le contenu d'une publication se générera, de
manière à répondre à tout lecteur.
En effet, l'interactivité, ce n'est pas faire un choix
entre différents thèmes de manière à entrer dans Il faut donc créer ces lois, développer des pro-
l'information comme c'est le cas dans un livre. grammes informatiques, des agents intelligent qui
L'interactivité, la réelle intéractivité, ce ne doit pas pourront régir la génése de tels contenus propres à
uniquement être le lecteur qui s'adapte au contenu répondre à chaque individu. La puissance de plus
comme c'est encore le cas avec les CD-Rom et les en plus grande de nos ordinateurs et le temps réel,
sites internet où il suit les voies qu'on lui a tracé. Le le génie de nos informaticiens et l'intelligence artifi-
contenu doit lui aussi pouvoir s'adapter au lecteur. cielle semblent pouvoir offrir un ensemble de rée-
Ainsi, on peut imaginer que l'avenir de l'édition lles potentialités en matière d'interactivité person-
électronique peut être de proposer des contenus nalisée. Le lecteur deviendra alors, après l'auteur,
d'informations, des développements de raisonne- le principal acteur de la génése de la publication.
ments ou des concepts qui puissent se générer en Les écrits pourront s'adapter à la réalité de leurs
fonction du comportement de ses lecteurs, de ce lecteurs.
qu'ils sont et de ce qu'ils savent. N'est-ce pas cela la véritable interactivité?
En effet, pour tout lecteur, la seule réalité qui soit, Utopie? Peut être pas tant que ça...
est la sienne et la seule interaction qui lui importe,
est celle dont il a besoin. Ainsi, en termes d'inte-
ractivité, le point de départ d'une démonstration, le
<HEAD>
<A HREF="http://Tomorrow"> is when the computer will know and understand us and will
be our mentor in our quest for knowledg: our agent>
</BODY>
In the 'post
information' revo-
lution the real cha-
llenge is not having
access to infinite informa-
tion, but rather, acquiring
the desired information in the
simplest and most direct man-
ner. It could also be called a
'control revolution' a radical shift
in who makes choices about
information experience, and
resources. It will now be the user, through his Their interaction is not just confined to us by any
delegates, who decides when and what informa- means. As a result of their altruistic attitude, we
tion to view and access. A form of ‘object orienta- can be guaranteed that once we send one 'ant' on
ted’ structure/environment, where all service ele- a mission that he/she will, together with his com-
ments, not only work together, but help define and rades, working in parallel, ensure the maxim
build each other. results possible. These mobile 'ants' travel on any
existing Web or communication channel gaining
Let's start at the start! A computer is defined as a information and simultaneously collaborating with
"machine that stores and processes data". `filtering ants’ located at the base, who based on
Obviously this bears little resemblance to our our current state of mind/requirements, will rely on
requirements of it. Lets just redefine it based on the ‘notification ants’ to present, or not, the fin-
its new functionality: ‘collection of digital 'ants' dings to us. These representatives will have the
(anything is better than computer!), existing on a power to bargain and swap information with other
network medium, working together in an object agents, who belong to other clients. We will in
orientated manner. addition be guaranteed the best representation
possible, through our war ants.
These 'ants' will become our friends, interaction
with them will not be hygienically standard, but rat- The idea is that once the user has identified a
her will be intuitional and they will learn our man- need for content then he/she sets up a communi-
ners and habits. If we require one of our 'ants' to cation channel to manage the content. As the con-
perform a task he/she will provide us with a perso- tent is changed at the source, the channel trans-
nalised service, we are their master after all. mits or manages and updates the content on the
He/she knows us and wants to serve us and is clients’ machine. All content can thus be dynamic.
prepared to do this relentlessly, based on their The emphasis will be on user attention, with the
eusocial (inherent sacrificial makeup) character. target users paid to pay attention to any advertise-
ment. Publicity will be tapered to the individual's
requirements and interests.
Titulo
The future
del ensayo
of content
Sandra
nombre
Guedenzi.
del autor
LCP
s.gaudenzi1@lcpdt.linst.ac.uk
e.mail del autor
The 20th century has invented the computer, the is a machine where supports such as CD-Roms,
21st will have to deal with it. DVD, World Wide Webb are creating new ways of
expression. But what is peculiar about these new
When a question like ‘the future of content’ arises, supports is that they are not adding a new ‘code’
a lot of considerations can be made. Will digital (words, images, sounds...), they are just mixing
content force a convergence between the actual them together in a different way. Our new support
medias, who will be the creators of this content could be seen as a ‘remix’ of our old ones. Of cour-
(artists or technicians), will we have too much infor- se the big novelty is that we can interact with the
mation, how will we select it, who will benefit from medium and, in this sense, we read and use it in a
it... but, to my eyes, all this is not the most interes- completely new way. But has the content really
ting part of the debate. The content and its support changed? Not really. What has changed is the way
are intrinsically linked, and we can’t speak about we assimilate it.
the future of the first without analysing what will
happen to the second. So, to come back to the original question, what
If we translate print, video, film or sound into series about the future of content?
of 0 and 1, what happens to it? Apparently nothing. Until we consider the digital revolution through the
We still have a word, an image or a sound... but this computer and its actual supports, the content will
time it appears through a computer screen. Has not drastically change as such, what will change is
this changed the content of what we have impor- its authors, its distribution and its public. What will
ted? This is all to be discussed. really change the content is the event of virtual rea-
lity.
Lets come back to the link between the content and
its support. The day we will be able to immerse ourselves into
Imagine a book. The book is the support (we could a virtual world that will contain all the information
also call it ‘media’) and the content is the novel that that is now available around us, then we will beco-
it contains. We could take a newspaper or a maga- me the support for it. The day we will not read a
zine (other supports that are using words) they novel but live it, there will be no such thing as the
would result dramatically different in the content (an book or the intermediate between someone’s crea-
aricle is not a novel). If we step to television the link tion and our perception. We will be in the novel and
between content and support is even more clear: so we will also be part of the content.
the use that television makes of image is proper to
the medium itself (see the difference between tele- This is the real revolution: when content will be
vision and cinema). space, smell, life and not word, video, imagination.
So for the content creator (writer, director, musi- This is the future we cannot even imagine because
cian...) the first choice is the medium that will con- we are used to interpretate or use a support; we are
tain its message, the content will then find its way not used to ‘be’ the support ourselves and to crea-
of expression depending on the support that has te the content while it is happening.
been chosen.
The future of content is to be life, and stop being
If we want to see how the digitalisation of informa- content.
tion is changing our world we could start analysing
the new support that it has created. The computer
Tyrone
nombre
Hannick.
del autor
LCP
t.hannick1@lcpdt.linst.ac.uk
e.mail del autor
Where do we begin?
As we evolve we see patterns from the past being replayed, re-enacted before
us. In the same way, what will forge the future of content are patterns from its
own past.
Where this all begins is when humans began to interpret their perception of their
natural and social environment, be it faded paintings on cave walls or etchings
on monoliths.
As the necessity for communication intensified we developed symbols to
express meaning in the form of language and then text.
Finally as content increased in volume, and modes of expression, in order to
allow us to manage and digest it, its form moved from the solid (paper, celluloid)
to also encompass the fluid (analogue, digital).
Although the tools and means of production may change we will always create
content, as it is intrinsically linked to our being, our expression of our existence.
What will change in the future is reflected in the way we are transforming our
concept of time. We evolve at an increasingly faster rate, the flux of information
has intensified pushing our abilities to absorb it all to its limits.
As concerns the management of this glut of content we will require the develop-
ment of artificial entities which mirror thought processes, to help us absorb.
Kamol Khunvitayapaisal.
nombre del autor
LCP
k.kamol1@lcpdt.linst.ac.uk
e.mail del autor
The Euro Cult would be a digital weekly magazine about the Europeans' culture.
For instance, art; music; cooking and sport. It would be published on the internet.
The text would be in a mixture of languages. For instance, an article about Italian
cooking for British readers would be in English. From place to place in the text the
words would be replaced by Italian words, i.e. (cooking instructions) put spaghet-
ti in boiling water for 10 minutes. The word 'water' would be replaced by the Italian
word, which is printed in a different colour from the English language, and there
would be a pop up dialogue box explaining the meaning and grammar, when the
word is clicked (activated). Also, there would be sound teaching how to pronoun-
ce the word. There would be several different levels of integration of the langua-
ge. The advance level will have more integration of the languages. For the profi-
ciency level, the readers could choose to read purely written in Italian language.
This integration of languages would apply to other languages which are officially
being used in the European Union. If the article is about England and published
for Spanish readers, it would be published in Spanish and mixed with English
words. This scenario would apply to other EU's official languages.
I believe language is living. The nations would integrate if their members adapted
one another culture and languages. This concept is a kind of melting pot and is
the one which once created the Afrikaans language.
Altan
nombre
Koraltan.
del autor
LCP
koraltan@lcpdt.linst.ac.uk
e.mail del autor
nombre
Owen Kelly.
del autor
DIT
e.mail
okelly@dit.ie
del autor
There are many tools that exist today to create con- To this end we return back to the original statement
tent in a digital form. With the emergence of a desi- ... content is king! However, in this new medium
re to no longer be a passive partaker of content but content clearly cannot exist without the tools and
an active subscriber, we must look beyond the digi- hardware to house it. Through the collaboration of
tal page to the creation and delivery of interactive the technical and creative disciplines the percep-
documents. The author must have the ability to cre- tion of the computer and its place in our lives has
ate such a piece without the need for an indepth been altered radically. This perception has positio-
technical understanding of the underlying stuctu- ned the user as the driving force in content deve-
res.To this end, a tool is needed that provides the lopment. Perhaps the designers and technicians
creative user with the ability to author a piece that should take a step back and rewrite this adage and
can incorporate audio, video, text, graphics and express it from the users perspective ... CONTEXT
animation in an interactive environment. Such tools IS KING!
exist today but are positioned in the production pro-
cess at a level far above the content creator and
have seemingly insurmountable learning curves.
J'aimerais que les Européens en général et leurs Afin de promouvoir un Service Public européen qui
dirigeants en particulier profitent de l'avénement dépasse l'expérience française, j'aimerais que la
des "autoroutes" de l'information pour se démar- Communauté européenne soutienne la production
quer du modèle de civilisation démesurément mer- et la diffusion d'informations et de services d'intérêt
cantiliste qui règne de l'autre côté de l'Atlantique et général accessibles à tous. Je pense notamment à
du Pacifique et qui occupe une place prépondéran- la mise en place:
te dans la production multimédia actuelle. - de bibliothèques en réseaux pour les écoles et les
Je souhaiterais que les Européens démontrent, par universités de l'ensemble des pays de la
leurs initiatives, que le multimédia peut être égale- Communauté
ment un vecteur de la démocratie lorsqu'il rappro- - de bourses virtuelles du travail qui recensent les
che les citoyens du savoir et qu'il propose par ce opportunités de formation continue et d'emploi
biais des services d'intérêt général accessibles à dans les différentes régions de la Communauté.
tous. - de guichets virtuels qui permettent l'accès aux
L'expérience du Minitel en France constitue à mon services publics des différentes régions de la
sens un exemple précieux du fait de la contradic- Communauté.
tion majeure qu'elle recèle. L'État français s'est - de forums virtuels (type IRC) sur lesquels pou-
engagé généreusement au début de cette expé- rraient être débattus des questions d'intérêt géné-
rience à fournir gratuitement un Minitel a tous les ral dans les différentes régions de la Communauté.
abonnés du téléphone. Cependant, comme Sega Il me semble que c'est en produisant des contenus
et Nintendo, l'État français fait payer l'accès aux de ce type et en permettant au plus grand nombre
informations et aux service qu'il diffuse sur ce ter- d'y accéder facilement que le multimédia européen
minal. Cette conduite contredit le principe du trouvera une place à part entière sur les autoroutes
Service Public pourtant si cher aux français qui de l'information.
assure à tous l'accès aux informations et aux servi-
ces d'intérêt général sans conditions de ressour-
ces.
Which would you rather read; a boring, incoherent What we must do is try new things, try new ways of
story written using a £1000 Gold Parker pen or a storytelling that engage the consumer and demand
riveting, page turner of a story written using a half- an interactive response. New ways of selling and
chewed pencil? Would you rather see a beautifully advertising to raise finance to produce new-media
photographed film with a cliched plot and uncon- shows. Not 'Banner-Ads', they're deader than
vincing characters or a film shot on a Sonycam for disco. Truly interactive advertising that will reap
sixpence, that has a unique plot and engaging cha- such huge rewards the old-media ad agency boys'll
racters? These are the choices that seem to lie be dust and bones. No idle boast this, if internet
ahead for the consumer of multi-media, particularly advertising revenues carry on at least doubling in
on the Internet. size every year, as they have for the last four, then
a schoolboy can determine that eventually, maybe
In Multi-media/Internet-land so much is being writ- in 10 years, it will be the advertising medium. Digital
ten about the latest metaphorical Internet pens, TV with its return path miracle should ensure that.
pencils and cameras that we are in danger of losing
sight of the real target that multi-media professio- The luddites at Saachi disagree, scoff at their sup-
nals should be aiming at: producing content that the posed 'dilemma', say sarcastically 'Yeah, we're
consumers want to consume. really scared'. Deep down they know. They know.
And they are very quietly assembling info and per-
Ah, that word..."content"!! Terrifies the life out of sonnel to hopefully place themselves in the fore-
otherwise sturdy commentators. They fear the front at the appropriate time, i.e. "When the net
question that haunts the development of multi- takes off" as Maurice is fond of saying. Wake up
media, especially the development of the internet, Mo, it has taken off and is climbing in altitude at a
so much that some of the most outrageous cods rate faster than even the most optimistic 'nethead'
wallop ever sprouted by the dying breed of the lud- would've believed four years ago.
dite old-media pros is regularly quoted in the press
and on TV as being "authoritative". Martin Amis No-one, absolutely no-one on this planet knows
considers the net a "worthless toy for talentless what the net will be like in 10, 5 or even 3 years
Geeks" - does he now. I wonder why? Fear, that’s time. The Redmont Behemoth invested $800m in
why. He feels excluded - doesn't understand - and its web TV channel, lost the lot. And if Bill doesn't
so fears. He is not alone. He fears "content" that know anything, who does? His fortunes luckily
might exclude him. saved his company but the mistake his huge ego
made of thinking he could form the net design it and
Content will be driven by talent - new media talent. dominate it was typical of the "old thinking", and
Talent that can connect two or more established long may it continue. His money can pave the way
forms of communication, add a little something else for our multitude of talents without even being
and produce exciting new multi-media content. aware of it.
Exactly what that content will be no-one can pos-
sibly imagine. Could Logie-Baird have envisaged Or as Bill would say (if he weren't the ego manic
Eastenders, Marconi BT's Friends and Family offer, that he is) "How do you make a small fortune on the
Bell Virgin Radio? Of course not. So how can we Internet? Start with a big one!"
foresee the future? Obviously we can't and it is stu-
pid and self-defeating to try.
Conor
nombre
McMahon.
del autor
DIT
cmcmaon@dit.ie
e.mail del autor
We speak through the content of media peripheral Our ideas express ourselves, they represent the
to our lives. Often we hear ourselves speak of a fundamentals of who we are and the unique space
fragment of a film, a song, a book or a poem, as we and perspective we can each occupy on this earth.
strive to ultimately communicate some vital ele- On the web this is our only real possession and the
ment of ourselves. virtual can never subsume this.
Softwares provide us with the tools of appropriation We can only protect this with respect, and for the
and we will use this technology as we do, to speak time being this is central to the future of digital con-
of ourselves. tent, of any shape, form or origin.
We will appropriate whatever it takes to do this and Maybe respect is the future of digital content.
the law cannot keep up. Maybe the web presently challenges our ability to
I write as an artist and this both excites and intri- respect the ideas, thoughts and feelings of others.
gues me. I wonder how I can protect my work and These are the elements of our conciousness, our
yet I cannot let this hold me back. I must take this conscience, which defines as nothing more than
chance. that which we are,
The web provides a highly kinetic space for the a human race.
collision and interaction of ideas, and we ultimately
cannot control or regulate this kind of environment.
Information now is provided in a large number of ways but all of it very partial.
Every time you get any kind of information you also get someone elses opinion or
point of vew about it.
When you make conclusions by your self, and then you discuss the topic you
make any conclusion more mature. People need to think more for themselves, the
content should be more in real form, less worked out to make our life easy.
People deserve to think about information, not only swallow it as a tablet and we
will have to learn how to digest information again! That is a way to empower infor-
mation, compelling people to think and consequently inspiring and enriching their
minds.
Colm
nombre
Murphy.
del autor
DIT
cmurphy@dit.es
e.mail del autor
After the documentary you click on news and get a Interactive on-line programmes and games in
customised multimedia presentation detailing what which the viewers must participate will partly repla-
happened in your locality, nationally, internationallly ce some of the time spent passively watching the
and professionally today. Its drawn from different same television set. The range and choice will be
sources in languages but presented by a single diverse and not restricted by national or cultural
voice in the one tongue. boundaries.
Its then down to work to do a half an hour module For professionals, their precious time and constant
of the MA in interactive multimedia you are comple- need for more micro information will be satisfied by
ting through a Portuguese university. personalised multimedia on-line content. Their
expensive and time consuming chores such as
While this scenario is technically feasible today the checking an overseas company's credit rating, get-
prohibitive hardware and telecommunications costs ting business leads from planning permissions and
have meant few have developed the content to seeking trading links outside of their traditional mar-
make such a scene commonplace. In the future, kets in other countries and languages should beco-
the low distribution cost of electronic content will me easier.
mean the information which for geographical and
commercial reasons it was not viable to communi- Life enhancement content will also feature. Non
cate through a medium will become accessible to a profit support groups can proliferate linking people
mass audience. Another significant change will be with similar problems or who have faced similar
that the on-line audience's profile - mainly male, dilemmas who would otherwise never have had the
white, computer literate, upper middle class, wes- opportunity to communicate. Educationally, cour-
tern European and north American will also change ses will be able to be provided more economically
bringing more universal and varied content. and in people's own homes. They can pursue cour-
ses that geographically or financially had been out
The geographic location of the mass market of their reach.
audience, which previously TV, radio, newspapers
and other traditional forms of media had to cater for The most exciting content prospect is what we have
will, become much less important in future publis- not been able to yet imagine. Putting new media in
hing. Special interest content, original content sho- the hands of people and allowing open access
wing all sides to the story and detailed coverage should bring new types of content not borrowed
with feedback may become the norm if the new from traditional media into the new digital space.
medium of digital media is harnessed creatively
The developments in technology and their bountiful ning new channels to encourage the exchange of
contribution to the development of an industry enti- knowledge, the simulation of education and
rely based around the rearrangement of digital bits employment and the sharing of cultural experience
of data is well documented. However, there is one across Europe.
area, early in its stage of development , but nonet-
heless of great impending importance, which is "Language is not simply a reporting device for
worth exploring in the debate about the future of experience
electronic publishing in Europe: that of the common but a defining framework for it"
language - not a language restricted by words "Language, Thought and Reality", Benjamin Lee
alone but a language structured around a new Whorh, US Linguist (1856
semiotic system which incorporates image, sound
and user interaction. Importantly, content and design of this new media
also has to take on board the task of educating the
"What is the use of a book?" though Alice, population to be able to understand the emerging
"without pictures or conversation?" codes of communication: the new grammar or
"Through the Looking Glass", Lewis Caroll, Author semiology. Designers and content developers will
(1872) have to use the new tools to, not only shape infor-
mation for optimum quality, interpretation, availabi-
The multitude of possibilities to directly process and lity and delivery, but also to learn about the needs
combine well-established media have coined the of the population of Europe and ultimately straddle
term 'multimedia'. What this term fails to reveal is the hurdles posed by the characteristic diversity of
that it is not actually the convergence of the various the countries involved.
existing media which is most significant, but rather
the unique opportunity to realise the age-old ideal Digital delivery channels such as fibre optic net-
of common language a new language with no fron- works and electricity grids capable of delivering
tiers - a democracy of information within a frame- digital data at many times faster than current spe-
work of communication which acknowledge the eds of transfer are characterised by an accelerated
value of the receiver and sender as equal, effecti- rate of evolution. The industry also demands a
vely uniting them in a seamless transaction. dynamism from its work force capable of matching
Therefore the success of European electronic emerging opportunities within electronic publishing.
publishing lies in its ability to simultaneously provi- Perhaps of even greater significance is the deve-
de a strong foundation of a new semiotic, as well as lopment of wireless transmission networks, allo-
to fulfil its responsibility to the continual develop- wing remote access to information through high
ment of opportunity, democracy and economic bandwidth channels, therefore removing the geo-
prosperity. graphical restrictions of many industries and stimu-
lating an effective matchmaking medium between
As a consequence of this combination of technolo- supply and demand of skills. Other such catalysts
gical developments, multimedia content will evolve in this process are the liberated and deregulated
into a woven tapestry of integrated information, telecom companies in Europe and the race to
entertainment and services, available on-demand achieve even higher rates of data compression
by any user, at any time. The resulting media will which, together, combine to satisfy a correlating
provide users with a choice of sophisticated modes demand for increasingly 'media-rich' presentation
of communication which will stimulate understan- of information and service.
ding and communication across barriers, thus ope-
Joachim
nombre
Pietsch.
del autor
DIT
e.mail
jpietsch@dit.es
del autor
“Not to lie about the future is impossible and one can lie about it at will” Naum Gabo
All forms of information - from the human genome annotation. These titles will improve French pro-
to Mozart’s symphonies - are being digitzied. nounciation in a language course or read bed-time
Binary code does not distinguish between different stories to a child.
types of information and allows for cross-referen-
cing between media, i.e. film, music, print. It follows Because content is transmitted electronically
that images, sound and text will become equal and publishers will not have to worry about printing,
integral parts in electronic publications. This is the warehousing, transportation and retailing costs and
basis of multimedia productions today but the inte- will offer a wider variety of specialised, previously
gration of the media will increase further. unprofitable publications. The range and definition
of titles of the future publishers will become the key
Electronic content will start to replace traditonal to their success. Since there are no other related
media when an adequate content-player has been costs than content development and data-storage
invented. This is neither the Desktop PC or the inte- the publisher of the future becomes a content pro-
ractive television set. They are both immobile and vider or a rental service: for a flat monthly rate or a
strain the eye. In order to be successful the device rental fee the subscriber to the Penguin Internet
will need to be cheap, small and battery-powered. Service could have access to all their desired book-
It will be able to upload data into its in-built memory titles . This distribution model completely bypasses
and be able to display sound, text and audio. the retailer. Therefore, book, record and video
Simple controls through touch-screens or voice shops will become a thing of the past. They might
navigation will allow the user to navigate through be replaced by public unstaffed download stations.
content.
The electronic distribution of content will also ena-
When such a device gains market acceptance elec- ble publishers to consolidate their losses from
tronic content will replace traditional media as copyright infringement. They will offer a much lower
rapidly as compact discs succeeded vinyl. Although purchase price on their products in order to make
the following discusssion is primarily concerned copyright violation less profitable.
with the replacement of print by electronic text the
arguments about the logistics of digital media are Publications will be customised for individuals.
equally valid for audio and video content. The gro- Content will be assembled and edited by search-
wing integration and customisation of digital media bots . The searchbot scans through all available
also implies that future texts will contain a lot of dis- information and selects titles according to search-
parate media. criteria and individual settings: i.e. interests, rea-
ding habits, preferences of mediatypes. The
Books (especially computer books) are often out of searchbot would compile a customised hitlist. This
date as soon as they are on the shelves. Future can be edited but once the searchbot is familiar
books will always be the most recent version. Also, with a user profile this should rarely prove neces-
titles will never be out of print. They will include sary. After accepting all or part of the selection the
hypertext indexing which points to internal or exter- searchbot initiates the transaction with the various
nal information. They will contain audio and video content providers and the user receives an itemi-
for additional explanation and allow for manual zed bill for each subscribed/rented item.
As soon as all that "cyber", "hyper", "virtual", "multi", "new" fuss will be over, and the
new
hyperbolic astonished way to talk about contemporary technology ceases it will be
time to create sense from it. The main danger of that Novelty worship is that it has
a strong subtext of scorn to history. It tends to omit the details that technology has,
been always new, that hypertext consists of text , that the world has always been
presented to us in a multisensorial way, and that the notions of Virtual and Real go
deeper than those of simple simulation.
history In that sense "multimedia" is in a prehistoric stage, but not because it is new, but
because of the old tendency to believe it is new.
The word “page” comes from the Latin word "pagus", which means field, cultivation
field. There is not limit in digital media for the creation of Pages the size of a field.
What comes to mind is what to sow on them.
Digital Media will certainly go further than the simple juxtaposition of multiple media
language elements. Since it occurs closer to the intersection between those media, it requi-
res urgent consideration be applied to the development of its own language; which
is already probably germinating from the transmigration of concepts from the arts of
time and space.
body to screen
“Pillow Book” is also an anticipation film on the form, it presents both memories and
diachronic events simultaneously on the screen. It is probably an early example of
how the choreography concept from dance is migrating to motion pictures; the ori-
ginal single main figure screen body now has to share the stage with others, and
manage to harmonize internal and external rhythms of action.
body to body
Besides the undeniable influence of media, we must be aware of how far technical
issues are also generating language. For example, Infographic 3D works, from the
very bottom of their creation process; with such an analytical split that characterize
contemporary digital tools, ignore almost completely the sculptural tradition. As a
consequent implication, it often remains representing vacuity over vacuum. Its lab
conditions limit the concept of material to the application of makeup over an empty
skeleton.
aestechnics
That emptiness-make up point is crucial because it perfectly define the point where
the limit is blurred between “technical” and “aesthetical” issues; and take us to the
question of the moment where that decision was taken (and probably also to the
question. Who made that "software"?). 3D is obviously influenced by the contem-
porary concern about "look", "lite" and "clean".
simulation Smell and taste seem so far impossible to digitize, at least until a "direct to brain"
interface is achieved. But what is possible is to synthesize, reproduce and deliver
taste and smell. Whether it will come together or not to "virtual reality" as it is now
defined depends on the moment where entertainment industry (or army) will be able
to seduce specialized chemical research teams to move from perfumes and ali-
mentary industry. Then, we could talk about simulation.
prosthesis The elements that allow us to make a part of a machine could be understood as
Prosthesis, but not to supplant a real organ but to extend the horizons of human per-
ception, without the risk of mystical drugs.
In the same sense of mysticism, Digital Places seem to be trying to come to repla-
ce those lost limbs that remain painful, as well as the 6th sense we supposedly have
left back in paradise. Or “virtual worlds”, like “cave art” was, are only a
kind of consolation for what was not trapped.
reality In digital media the immediacy of construction and presentation will eventually cast
aside reconstruction and representation. If an architect can walk into a buildings
during the design phase, there is nothing to prevent us to inhabit them. It will not be
fear that prevents a pilot to take off from a dark runway. If, for a doctor it looks the
same a patient a thousand km. abroad as a fictitious one, there is nothing to make
us more real.
simultaneity Simultaneity, and how it came to break the unity of our sensorial being is a major
issue in concern to the merging of simulation and telecommunication. Since the
invention of vehicles (or maybe since the very first act of motion) our perceptual
relationship between space and time had gradually change by simply experiencing
speed.
What is actually happening (and make that cliché understandable) is that the coe-
volution of men and machine (human and tool) is taking us to a different way to see
time and reality, which is nothing less than changing our Cosmology.
time The myths, condemned to incessantly change their appearance resist such hiber-
nation. Our awareness off lifetime is still merged in to the Greek myth of Chronus,
the father who devours his children. This approach of what time means to beings is
not exclusive to "west", even Hinduism lays particular stress on the destructive
aspect of time. Everything dies in time: "Time ripens the creatures, Time rots them"
(Mahabharata 1.1.188). "Time" (kala) is thus another name for the God of death,
Yama. Time seems to be for every culture an organizing parameter of the cosmo-
logos discourse.
Digital Reality, through simultaneous simulation and ubiquity, is taking us back (or
further) to a completely different approach not only to reality but to Time Itself
(Emit Selfit to Wim Wenders).As a possible model to those "new" cosmological
views, below are presented two examples coming from cultures we use to talk
about like if they where living in the past:
“The Hopi Indians have two different concepts of space and time. The first is all
that is manifested. This time is objective and comprises all that is or had been
accessible to the senses. The second is all that is manifesting. This is a subjective
concept and comprises all that will be acceptable to the senses. There is no exis-
tence in the way that a painting-by-numbers waits only for a colour. Thus the only
tense which might be considered in the Hopi language could be called "expectati-
duality ve- something about to be manifest or at the moment of inception.” (Whorf quoted
by Parkes in Times, Spaces and Places: A chronogeographic perspective)
"The Australian Aboriginalls envision the world through a cosmology called The
Dreaming. The culture heroes who swell in the "dreaming" not only made this
world and its creatures, but are still continuously concerned with its activities. On
initiation the Aboriginal becomes a part of this experimental "time zone" and sha-
res the life that comes from the dreaming. Trobriand islanders apparently concei-
ve of all past events (real or mythical) as included in a "universal" present. .. Their
creative past is united with the present and the future. .” (Parkes in op.cit)
unity Later, when we will get to a world where distances are abolished and total unity
restored.
nombre
Lisa Salem.
del autor
DIT
l.sale1@lcpdt.linst.ac.uk
e.mail del autor
When contemplating the future of content, one can or separated from the real world this medium and
take on the function of either two roles - prophet of its content will be. The accelerated advancement of
visionary. I choose the latter. The former is no more technology has been paid for at the expense of the
than a glorified game of odds like that of guessing advancement of content. We need to approach the
what the Christmas number one song will be. The creation of content with a mind slightly dislodged
latter is a perspective of what is possible. This is a from reality and from what we conceive as being
much more honourable role to pursue as it is when possible in order that we don't merely create a
we think deeply about what is possible that we can reproduction of what has already been. By limiting
forget convention and forge stronger and broader our vocabulary to words that already exist we are
foundations on which the future, in this case of con- stunting its growth. Like Dali we must be surreal,
tent, can be laid. unconstrained by reality, in order to innovate in pro-
portion with the advancement of technology.
Content, in terms of electronic publishing, is that
which fills a space that isn't actually there. Of cour- After all, content in terms of the future of electronic
se it is there in that we see, hear and believe that it publishing, is like Alice falling down the rabbit hole
is there, but in terms of the physical and actual it is into Wonderland. Defying the laws of gravity, she
not. This entity which we call cyberspace is at last fell slowly and for a long time, taking things out of
a virtual reality where we can be the centre of the cupboards that shouldn't be there and putting them
universe. In reality we try to convince ourselves that back in others as she went along, all the time
the worlds revolves around us on an everyday uncertain as to how, when, where and if she would
basis, only to be put back in our place by the laws land. Like Alice, we do not know where the future of
of nature and the cold light of day. In cyberspace content will land but we do know that we need to
we can hallucinate to our hearts content without embrace its creation while it is still falling without
ever actually having been deluded, in fact, almost the limited perceptions of what has gone before or
without ever actually having hallucinated at all! what has been relevant before. Cyberspace, like
Wonderland simulates our collective subconscious.
In my mind, cyberspace is a cross between a We create it at the same time as it is beyond out
potential Daliesque heaven and wild west America. control.But every thought we have or action we
Here we are pioneers, creators of content named take has repercussions within it and in this is the
Salvador fighting for the surreal content of our living essence of where our control lies. If we approach it
canvas like quasi Wyatt Earp's and bounty hunters. with a mind for the alternative and adventure, that
But like it was in the wild west, cyberspace is under is what we will find ourselves with. If we confine
construction. Its content will be created from what ourselves to what we think is possible, that is all we
we know exists already and from what we think will will end up with. The future of content as the inven-
exist in the near future. This means that our canvas tion of su-reality.
is still morphing and that by guessing what the next
formation will be we are actually creating it and
hence what will be its content.This canvas is also
dislodging itself from the computer and to what
extent it does this will influence how incorporated in
Claudia
nombre
Torres.
del autor
UIB
claudia@kmm.uib.es
e.mail del autor
The
socks in one dra-
wer, the shirt in the
other, the tooth brush in the
bathroom, the dishes in the kitchen,
the pillow on the bed, the lettuce in the refrigerator,
the bread on the table and of course, the fly in the soup, the
shoes on the table, the desert before the first dish, the lettuce
on the bed, the pillow in the kitchen, the tooth brush with the shirt
and the socks...
did the picture get moved?
Order that orders life, that orders what we see, what we feel, what we learn, what we do,
what we think.
Order: the ways to organise, the structures that let us apercevoir and learn what we are into.
In particular, what is what we get and what we learn.
Different for each religion, for each government, each economy, for each culture and for
each person. Also different throughout the history and the stories.
JUMP. JUMP. JUMP. Multimedia and the possibilities which it offers the-
refore appear related, not just in the technological
environments, but also to different ways to see
Can multimedia propose different perception the world, differents ways to get in touch with what
orders? different ways to organise the world? surrounds us.
JUMP. JUMP. JUMP. ... the fly in the soup, the shoes on the table, the
desert before the first dish, the lettuce on the bed,
Jump with different orders. Circular, triangular, the pillow in the kitchen, the tooth brush with the
square navigation; red, green, blue; from Japan to shirt and the socks...
Peru, from Scandinavia to Congo. Hop scotch Did the picture get moved?
does not only go to 1 or 2, to heaven or to hell,
We are currently in the era info-speed. Vast quantities of data are bombarded at
us as we simultaneously bombard data into a vast vacuum. The quantity of infor-
mation currently retrieved by a net search greatly surpasses the quality. The great
challenge is to able to filter out irrelevant and inaccurate information.
Images proliferate, the net spreads, the volume rises. No one and everyone is in
control. We lie in a world which is information, not about which we have informa-
tion. Lyotard argues that knowledge and information have been profoundly chan-
ged in two ways:
1. Utility criteria: knowledge and information are produced only where they can be
justified on grounds of efficiency and effectiveness ("performativity")
2. Knowledge and information is more and more a tradable commodity.
This is where the danger arises there will be a price to pay for access to filtered
information. Who decided what seeps through and what doesn't?
The crucial factor for the development of digital media in the next century is to
make sure each individual will be in full control of his or her filter or 'intelligent
agent' as some like to call it and keep them from becoming repressive and
oppressive.
To view the file "inresmedia.dcr" please ensure your browser has the Macromedia Shockwave plugin for
Director (which can be found at: http://www.macromedia.com). Set your monitor to 800 x 600 pixels or gre-
ater. Open up the browser to its fullest and drag and drop the file into an empty browser window.
This work was realised with Macromind Director and Shockwave, if you are interested in receiving the file-
please contact Johnson Tsui at:
jtsui1@lcpdt.linst.ac.uk
Thank you.
nombre
Lam Wai.
del autor
LCP
l.wai.in1@lcpdt.linst.ac.uk
e.mail del autor
"Multimedia" will be the future of electronic publis- tions on how a reader MUST read his/her docu-
hing of all kinds - CD-ROM magazines, web pages ment.
even memoranda between colleagues in an office.
At the same time, multimedia should no longer be - easy to use
"multiple medias" as we see it today, but should be Since a future electronic publication user will be
seen as one single media itself. manipulating multiple medias at the same time in
the one document, the layout of these kinds of
In the future, we would expect an electronic publis- documents should be made as user friendly as pos-
hing user to connect to the publisher or other rea- sible. For example, a "pool" showing all the down-
ders at any time when he/she needs more informa- load documents; a "status field" showing active
tion on the particular chapter or topic he/she is rea- connection(s).etc.
ding. In other words the user will be the only person
to decide what information "to get or not to get". So - easy to transfer
we should put more effort into the presentation of As mentioned above, the users will be connected
different medias presented to the user, in a clear either to the publisher or even other readers while
and well-defined manner, rather than how to incor- he/she is reading an electronic publishing. So all
porate a multiple of medias in one single topic as the concerned documents including text, images or
we are doing today. videos should be optimised to the smallest possible
size to facilitate transference over a standard telep-
The following should be used as a general guideli- hone line.
ne for the future of content in electronic publica-
tions:
- easy to find
In the future of electronic publishing, we would
expect a user to be able to download multiple docu-
ments of different nature; text, video, sound, etc.,
from different locations into his/her local drives, eit-
her through the internet or intranet. We must provi-
de the users most "friendly" way to get whatever
information he/she is looking for.
- easy to read
After the user has downloaded all the necessary
documents, the user should be able to arrange
these documents in the way suits his/her reading
habit. For example, some readers might prefer an
image on the left margin with texts on the right and
others might prefer the image on the top centre with
all the text below it. There should not be any limita-
Judith
nombre
Whittaker.
del autor
LCP
j.whittaker1@lcpdt.linst.ac.uk
e.mail del autor
On the planet called Earth - and too complex. So the future lies in addressing
these problems and designing to satisfy the needs
How far do we think in the future? 1000 years - a of humans. This is the principle technical and
millennium? Is this a science fiction prediction as to design challenge of the emerging information age.
the world we are creating? Yes, in a way, as long as
these predictions can fit within the laws of physics. Electronically charged paper is being developed
My predictions are based on work that is under that can display different images. It physically
development. To go far into the future we will be resembles paper but the 'printing' of text and the
looking at earth from a 'ring' bridge built way out images would not involve ink or any additional
from earth at about the equator. The discovery by resources, so a newspaper printed on electronically
Buckinster Fuller of another form of carbon (C60) charged paper could be updated automatically
which is stronger than diamond would be a suitable everyday without requiring the viewers to do anyt-
building material for this ring. It would be a great hing. We would miss books and this is an interes-
saving in rocketry and the cost of space missions. ting development in bringing the concept of paper
From this ring new space 'cities' would evolve as into the digital age. It would have the result of tre-
the entire earth population could be housed in one mendously cutting down on waste paper and paper
'tower'. All present sources of power would become needing to be recycled. We will increasingly have
obsolete as a new 'vacuum energy' would be so vendor machine that can instantly give us legal
powerful that the equivalent of one coffee cup documents on request. Domestic appliances will be
would be 'enough to boil all the oceans in the designed with a computer based operating system
world'. There would be no problem with travelling such as a vacuum cleaner that works as a robot -
huge distances as research into controlling inertia vacuuming the house by itself. Information will be
(object mass) would allow us to travel anywhere on accessed totally by the interactive multimedia for-
earth almost instantaneously. Machine intelligence mat with unlimited choice between information and
could store the equivalent of 100 year old mans user. CD-ROMs will probably become obsolete as
memory into one petabit. Even today’s optical information will be accessed by TV. Instead of
fibres can transmit this amount of information in a being 'told' the user will have choice, and all media
matter of minutes. We will be able to control our will be designed to have interactively built in. The
memories and even have somebody’s else’s future of educational systems will function from a
memory implanted in our own brain. 'national grid' of linked computers that have educa-
tional programs easily accessible at any time so the
Now we are experiencing an emerging digital age teachers role would become less time consuming.
that is in its infancy. What is certain about the futu- The future content of these educational systems
re of electronic publishing is that digital technology will be vital to our next generations knowledge. The
will continue to grow and profoundly change, how internet will continue to become very big and more
we express ourselves and communicate to others intranets will be formed. The future of content
and how we view and interact with the world. The would be vast in size compared with what is availa-
media technologies are still crude, awkward and ble now and we will be able to access and absorb
impersonal and poorly matched to the human more information. Finally we won't die because our
needs of the users, and we are finding computers memories will be programmed into another per-
less user friendly and cumbersome as a product son's body or a machine.