447 lines
20 KiB
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447 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 11:48:23 -0800
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From: Digital Media Perspective <perspective@digmedia.com>
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Subject: Digital Media Perspective 95.02.20
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This publication should be viewed
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with a monospaced typeface
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such as Courier or Monaco
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________________________________________
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DIGITAL MEDIA PERSPECTIVE
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________________________________________
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February 20, 1995
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________________________________________
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Table of Contents
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Editorial:
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Letting publishers be publishers
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Demo 95:
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The Experiential Report
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Small Newspapers, Big Possibilities
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Conference Announcements
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Inside the February issue of
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Digital Media: A Seybold Report
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Who We Are,
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How to Reach Us
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How To Subscribe to DMP
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and Get Back Issues
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________________________________________
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Editorial:
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Letting publishers be publishers
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By Neil McManus
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A fiery dispute broke out between Apple and The Voyager Co. this month
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after Apple removed Voyager's "Who Built America?" history CD-ROM
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from a software bundle it was selling to schools. According to
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Voyager, Apple asked it to create a sanitized version of the CD-ROM
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for the bundle in response to complaints from some school districts
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about certain references to birth control, abortion and
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homosexuality. Voyager refused to edit the disc, and Apple allegedly
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told Voyager it would stop selling the title. Voyager officials then
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fired off a release entitled, "A CD-ROM Faces Censorship: Apple stops
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distribution of 'Who Built America?'"
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The Apple-Voyager flap spilled onto the pages of newspapers, such as
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the Wall Street Journal, and triggered some public email missives
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against Apple by outraged historians and others. I'm sure Apple could
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have handled the situation better, but on a certain level the company
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was just clumsily responding to the wishes of some of its customers.
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As Voyager's release points out, "Apple has the right to sell what it
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wants." Assuming Voyager's account of the situation is accurate
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(Apple says it's "re-evaluating" whether to continue distributing the
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title), Apple may have inadvertently done the CD-ROM industry a favor
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by demonstrating why computer and system software companies are
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better off staying out of the content publishing business.
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Although Voyager may be guilty of grandstanding, the company has
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shown itself to be an honest publisher in standing by its material.
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The fact that Voyager's disc has created a stir means it's probably
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worth viewing, as the best history is always provocative. Frankly,
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Apple's ignorance of what a book publisher does is clear: In
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demanding an edit of the material in "Who Built America," it tried to
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usurp Voyager's role and responsibility in the editorial process.
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The dispute immediately got me thinking about Microsoft, a company
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that's attempting to be both a neutral system software company and an
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honest content publisher of CD-ROMs, such as Encarta. It's a
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balancing act that may be ultimately impossible to maintain. System
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software companies should act like phone companies -- common carriers
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that are neutral to whatever content is carried through their
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unifying technology. Publishers, on the other hand, should act like
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Voyager and refuse to water down their material to please every
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constituency. In fact, publishers know they can't possibly please
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everyone, so they are free to make bold, honest decisions about the
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content of their products.
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Dave Grenewetzki, executive vice president of Mindscape (formerly
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Software Toolworks), said that when his company agreed to produce an
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early version of the Newsweek Interactive CD-ROM, officials at his
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company argued with Newsweek executives over who would be the
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"publisher" of the disc. The argument ended when everybody realized
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that software publishers have a different connotation for the word
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"publisher" than editorial publishers in the book and journalism
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trades.
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For the Microsoft Home division, its software is more than just
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neutral computer code; it carries ideas. But the company is designing
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products using the software model, often placing more emphasis on the
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interface than the information inside. In at least one case, Digital
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Media has learned, Microsoft cleansed a title of potentially
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offensive material.
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A member of Microsoft's CD-ROM publishing team recently acknowledged
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that the company gets angry letters about the content of Encarta,
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which means it must be doing something right. But the fact that the
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Home content publishing team is part of a company best known for its
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system software makes me wonder if there are hidden or subtle
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pressures to avoid creating controversy.
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The Home division would be better off if it were spun out as a
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separate company -- perhaps combined with Bill Gates' other content
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company, Corbis (formerly Continuum). Then the Microsoft Home team
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could be true publishers, in every sense of the word.
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________________________________________
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Nothin' But Good Times Ahead?
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Demo 95: The Experiential Report
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By Mitch Ratcliffe
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Is this visionary or just collective delusion? I'm writing from my
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room in a posh Palm Springs resort while the heavyweights of the
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computer industry jam questionably on their electronic instruments in
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the bar below. It's just good clean fun, right? But you've got to
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wonder if these folks know they don't have products for the rest of
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us. The scene puts me in mind of Nero about two years before Rome
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actually burned and the population still had to play along.
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The question confronting the computerists: How dumb do they think the
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general public really is, and how offended will people be if they
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guess wrong? There's a lot of talk at these high-level conferences
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about the evolution of a consumer's computer, but it's buried in the
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same jargon that has been used to make information systems managers a
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class of specialists, vying to DOS our living rooms.
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What goes undiscussed at Demo and similar conferences is what the
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applications touted by industry executives mean and what is the
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social impact of the computer. I've seen countless copyright
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violations during product demonstrations when, out of good clean fun
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or a grab for a laugh, nerds have freely pasted a photo of the
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Starship Enterprise or a video clipped from a major motion picture
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into their documents. So, good-bye intellectual property? Publishers,
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the entertainment industry, and countless other content providers
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these computer folks want to win over in the march to the future
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experience unadulterated horror at the undoing of their business
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models. One entertainment executive here just shook her head when I
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asked about an image snatched from one of her company's television
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shows.
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Likewise, there's no discussion of privacy, nor is there much concern
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about the idea that computer and telecommunications companies will
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have access to the preferences and predilections of their customers.
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A Microsoft employee ranted in response to the a question about the
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destination of name and birth-date information entered by users into
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the Bob operating environment. (They call it a social interface,
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because it's got characters that dance and wish you a happy
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birthday.) "Don't you know that I can get an entire dossier of
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information about you in just 24 hours that describes your purchasing
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habits, credit status and income?" The unanswered question: Would
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Microsoft be receiving Bob users' names and birth dates?
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So, just to make the point that these issues are germane, Digital
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Media did a little privacy busting of its own to determine where the
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conscience of the computer industry lies. I found it squarely in the
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craw of the libido.
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There's a little-known feature in the SpectraVision on-demand
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television system. When the system runs out of VCRs, rather than deny
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new customers access to a film, it gives them a choice of the movies
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currently playing. Having discovered that the 560-room Stouffer
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Esmeralda resort, where Demo was held, had only 15 VCRs serving
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SpectraVision users, I guessed the system often would be full; which
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meant that we would be able to access a list of films playing most
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evenings. A further check revealed that 80 percent of the rooms in
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the hotel were rented by Demo attendees. At 11:15 PM on Sunday, Feb.
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5, 13 of the 15 pay-per-view films running were pornography. The most
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popular title was "Marilyn Chamber's Intimate Fantasies," followed
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closely by the scintillating work of Christy Canyon.
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Not one word of the conference was dedicated to higher-level issues,
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like privacy, the theft by machines of meaningful work now done by
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people, and the diminution of skills transferred into machines.
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Take the Vivace box demonstrated by Coda Music Technology which is so
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simple to plug in that "any high school professional can do it,"
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according to the company. The box (at $1,000 a pop) is an affront to
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musicians everywhere. It plays along with a performer, adjusting time
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and pitch to match the performer's. It encourages no new musical
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skills, like learning time, staying in tune, etc. "We sell musical
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experiences," said John Paulson, chairman and CEO of Coda. It's
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karaoke for the orchestral musician. They want to put these things in
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schools. Why not hire more teachers, so the people learning all this
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musical skill have something to do with their lives?
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"Our job is to lay down a groove," Paulson said. "Vivace allows the
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flawed model of teaching music to finally be changed." I imagine a
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future when the kids show up to play in the band and can't understand
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why the band doesn't shift time to keep up with them, and the skill
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to transpose a song from one key to another is lost. Kids would be
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better off getting together to practice their French horn, not
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playing alone in a room. Music is social business, not simply rote
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skill that can be mastered by sitting in a room with a machine.
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On other fronts, Demo 95 was dominated by Web authoring and browsing
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applications, mostly for Windows. The clear trend in net surfing will
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be the hierarchical menu, which will sort sites and HTML documents by
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relevance to users' queries.
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And the Demo God (an appellation granted by Demo host David Coursey
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on the coolest demonstrators) of the event, from my vantage point,
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was Nick d'Arbeloff of Wildfire Communications. Rather than use a
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computer and spend his 12 minutes in front of the industry dragging
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us through a series of screens and justifications for some software,
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he simply picked up a phone and had a conversation with his
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voice-activated software agent, known as Wildfire.
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When computer technology fades into the background of our lives it
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will have achieved consumer electronics status. Until then, it's
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always going to carry a workaday reputation.
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________________________________________
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Small Newspapers, Big Possibilities
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By Margie Wylie
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You don't have to be the New York Times to sell an online newspaper.
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In fact, it might help if you're not.
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Big prestigious newspapers may have the money, the clout and the
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fancy technology, but small newspapers have the kind of content that
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plays well online.
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The big boys have learned through bitter experience that cloning
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their broadsheet dailies online won't cut the electronic mustard, but
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they haven't figured out what will, and quite honestly, they've put
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very little effort into the question. Small weeklies and their ilk
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have the content that people are willing to go out of their way to
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get: local, specific and customized information.
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Little league scores, weddings, movie listings, restaurant reviews,
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local school lunch schedules, and a lost-and-found may seem like
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pitifully small potatoes to the editors of the Detroit News and Free
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Press, but that's exactly the sort of information that the
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twice-weekly News Herald has used to beat that big metro paper out of
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its top-selling slot in the Michigan communities it serves. With a
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circulation of only 95,000, the News Herald today prints several
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different demographic versions for the 21 community and 19 school
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districts within its purview. On Sundays, the Heritage Sun dedicates
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a section to each community.
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Now the News Herald is expanding online. For $10.95 per month,
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readers get 30 hours of Internet access, e-mail service and daily
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updates to the forthcoming issue. According to publisher Fredrick
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Manuel, the newspaper's staff gathers more local information than
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they can ever publish. And that, from the silly to the sublime, will
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go online too. With its French-MiniTel-like scrolling text interface,
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the service won't be a marvel to behold. In fact, it was designed to
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accommodate the oldest of computers and modems.
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Community and regional publications like the News Herald aren't
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offering custom-tailored, localized information because their
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publishers are savvier about information networks. Au contraire.
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Small publishers are offering exactly the sort of information they
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always have, as it just happens that they are in the right place at
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the right time. What they are quickly finding out is that while not
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many people care what the San Francisco Chronicle thinks about the
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federal budget, they'll pay to know where the best or the closest
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Thai restaurant can be found.
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Very few small papers realize what a strategically important spot
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they occupy, if only temporarily, in the electronic spectrum. They
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have the content, they have the flexibility and they have the
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attitude to play the electronic information services game. If they
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ever get serious, they might surprise publishers of dailies who are
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just trying to survive, rather than thrive, in tomorrow's information
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age.
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(For a more complete look at the future of newspapers, see the March
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1995 issue of Digital Media.)
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________________________________________
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Conference Announcements
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_____________________________
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NetWorld+Interop 95 Las Vegas, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas,
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NV Conference: March 27-31, 1995; Exposition: March 28-30, 1995
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First of five venues in four countries, Vegas N+I touts itself as the
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gathering place for the network computing community. Focusing on
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enterprise applications, network management and connectivity, this
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three-day conference also features InteropNet, which links a slew of
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vendors and their multiple platforms directly to the Internet for
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perusal. Engineer and executive conferences, two-day tutorials and
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one-day workshops are offered along with independent forums for
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network analysis, OS/2 and NetWare.
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Conference fees: $895 for three days, special packages for
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conferences, tutorials, workshops
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Contact: Softbank Expos, P.O. Box 5855, San Mateo, CA 94402-9637
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voice: 800.488.2883, 415.578.6900 outside US - fax: 415.525.0199
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Email: info@interop.com
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gopher://programs.interop.com
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http://www.interop.com
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___________________
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Seybold Seminars 95, Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA Conference:
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March 28-30, 1995; Exposition: March 29-31, 1995
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Seybold Boston's fifteenth anniversary conference brings graphics and
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electronic publishing industry professionals the tools and techniques
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transforming their respective fields, including Internet publishing,
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digital delivery systems and workflow management. Demos and tutorials
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evaluating these can be found in the New Technology Labs on the
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exposition floor, alongside the Seybold Electronic Art Gallery
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sponsored by Fractal Design, and the Type Gallery, which will feature
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over 200 new typefaces. Printer's symposium and 16 tech courses are
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slated as well.
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Conference fees: $995, package pricings for courses
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Contact: Seybold Seminars, P.O. Box 5856, San Mateo, CA 94402-0856
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voice: 800.488.2883, 415.578.6900 outside US - fax: 415.525.0199
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Email: info@sbexpos.com
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http://www.sbexpos.com
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______________________________________________________
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The Fifth Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy - CFP'95, San
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Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel, Burlingame, Calif. March 28-31,
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1995
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Still the premiere forum for discussion of the vexing legal and
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ethical issues involved with digital living, CFP will provide
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seminars on constitutional, intellectual property and criminal law in
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cyberspace, as well as panels on information access, government
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regulation, privacy and the meaning of computers in everyday life.
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Conference Fees: $445. Tutorial Fees: $220. Registration is limited
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to 550 participants.
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Contact: P.O. Box 6657 San Mateo, Calif. 94403
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voice: 415.548.0840
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Email: CFP95@forsythe.stanford.edu
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http://www-techlaw.stanford.edu/CFP95.html
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________________________________________
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Inside the February Issue
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of Digital Media
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Should we call it Internewt now? New Speaker of the House Newt
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Gingrich has got the Internet itch. We take a look at how he and the
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Republican-controlled Congress may scratch it;
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An editorial calling for Microsoft to shed its pesky anti-trust
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problems by breaking the company to three pieces: The OS/Applications
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group; the Microsoft Network; and the finance software group;
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MUDs and MOOs aren't just for nerds anymore. These text-based virtual
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reality worlds attract thousands of users who spend hundreds of hours
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playing. Despite their lack of graphics, video or sound, MUDs and
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MOOs inspire loyalty in a very diverse group of players, including
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women, the market that many gaming companies have written off as
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unreachable. Today these Internet games are mostly free. But they
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just might be the biggest untapped market around for gamemakers;
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Now that multimedia producers finally have ScriptX in their hot
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little hands, will they know what to do with it? The complex but
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nearly limitless authoring environment still needs tools that are
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easy to use before it can make a dent in the current market, much
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less become the standard;
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A review of 2Market's CD-ROM and on-line service. This pioneering
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effort raises a shopping cart full of questions about how retailers
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can use multimedia and interactivity as effective sales and marketing
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tools;
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The Good Stuff: A list of Things Digital Medians Should Know.
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Digital Media: A Seybold Report, the monthly paper newsletter that
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sponsors Digital Media Perspective, brings its readers the most
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provocative analysis of the developing industry for interactive
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titles, smart networks and broadband applications. We turn an
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eclectic eye to the stories of the day to provide a more informed
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perspective with which readers can judge new technologies, new
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competitors and the assumptions driving the growth of the electronic
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economy. We question everything, and bring back the hard facts.
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Digital Media: A Seybold Report is available monthly for $395 a year;
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individual issues are $40. Call 800.325.3830/610.565.6864 (voice),
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610.565.1858 (fax), or send email to info@digmedia.com for
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information on how to subscribe.
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________________________________________
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Who We Are, Where to Reach Us
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Digital Media Perspective is a twice-monthly electronic newsletter
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produced by Digital Media: A Seybold Report.
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Publisher Jonathan Seybold
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Editor in Chief Mitch Ratcliffe (godsdog@netcom.com)
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Editor Neil McManus (neilm@netcom.com)
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Managing Editor Margie Wylie (zeke@digmedia.com)
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Senior Editor Stephan Somogyi (somogyi@digmedia.com)
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Editorial Assistant Anthony Lazarus (lazarus@digmedia.com)
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Editorial Offices 444 De Haro Street, Suite 126
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San Francisco, CA 94107
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415.575.3775 vox
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415.575.3780 fax
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info@digmedia.com
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________________________________________
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How To Subscribe to DMP
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and Get Back Issues
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If you'd like to receive this free electronic newsletter regularly,
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send us email at perspective-request@digmedia.com and we will put you
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on the list. The subject line of your messages should read "subscribe
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perspective". Please put your full name in the message's body; we
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would appreciate it if you would also include your title and
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organization in the message.
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You can get back issues of Digital Media Perspective by sending email
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(subject and contents unimportant) to our back issues server at
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perspective-backissues@digmedia.com -- it will respond with
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instructions on how to retrieve individual issues.
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Copyright (c) 1995 Digital Media: A Seybold Report. This electronic
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newsletter may be freely duplicated, reproduced or retransmitted, but
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only in its entirety. Excerpts used for the purposes of quotation
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must be attributed explicitly to Digital Media Perspective.
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