Layne Nordgren

Multimedia CD-ROM:

Reveries of a Digital Future ¹

During the past year CD-ROM discs, computer- nerd cousins of the audio compact disc format, have surreptitiously crept into computer stores, bookstores, department stores, and mail-order catalogs across the country. Targeted at the home and office markets, these shiny discs deliver a wealth of information to the desktop computer and illustrate a trend toward the digitization and personalization of information. Vast stores of data, such as 360,000 pages of text or 72 minutes of compressed video, can be stored on a single disc, bringing libraries of multimedia data to individual desktop computers. Microsoft's Encarta multimedia encyclopedia, for example, stores over 25,000 articles of Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia as well as numerous photographs, graphics, animations, sounds, and videos. The top 50 CD-ROM discs listed in MacUser's November 1993 issue average about $50 each, little more than the cost of a textbook. Though some observers label CD-ROM a transitory technology, new disc titles continue to proliferate at a rate of four to six new titles per day. Potential buyers are left with a staggering array of choices.

This first generation of multimedia CD-ROM products provides a glimpse into a future of digital information publication and delivery. As media becomes digitized, the boundaries of publishing, broadcasting, and computing are disappearing. New kinds of digital publications are being developed which blend characteristics from all three fields. It is difficult to know whether to call them publications, software, programs or some other more encompassing term. Publishers are already beginning to prepare and protect their multimedia data with digital distribution in mind. Richard Snyder, head of Simon and Schuster, says "We are not a publisher. We are now a creator of copyrights for their exploitation in any medium or distribution system." [3]

Digital documents integrating not only text, but voice, music, animation, graphics, and video may soon be delivered to the computer desktop on demand. Combinations of CD-ROM, Internet, and online services are likely to become the new delivery channels. Though CD-ROM has a relatively fast publication cycle compared to print, it still does not meet the most up-to-date information needs. This is where supplemental network delivery of information may be particularly important to access and provide such quickly changing information resources such as news, weather, or current research. The result is that we will be able to access many different forms of media from a computer and include both static and dynamic resources.

As I collected data for the development of this article I reflected on the extent to which digital technology influenced my process of thought, reflection, and writing. Using my home computer, I organized my thoughts and ideas on a word processor while grazing on CD music from my CD- ROM player. I browsed through Microsoft's Bookshelf disc to check meanings of words in the dictionary and encyclopedia and consulted the thesaurus for alternative words and phrases. I actively hunted for more information about printing, publishing, and CD-ROM using Microsoft Encarta's multimedia encyclopedia disc as well as the TIME Magazine 1993 Almanac disc of TIME articles for the past four years. In the process I stumbled across other links that led me a little off track, but I enjoyed the diversions in my digital journeys.

Network resources were essential for obtaining information on the most current developments from experts in various fields. BITNET provided access to electronic media discussion groups such as PACS-L, HUMANIST, and CDPub. BITNET- delivered electronic journals such as PACS-L Review, TidBITS, and MeckJournal supplied timely information about new developments and trends. BITNET E-mail provided personal communication channels with colleagues across the country to discuss various issues.

My data collection was not entirely digital, however. I still used printed journals and books from our own library as well from other libraries via interlibrary loan. In couch potato mode, I watched a PBS program with leaders in telecommunications and electronic publishing fields discussing the future of information delivery services. I even talked with other people in person, over the phone, at home, and at conferences. The data I collected in both digital and non-digital forms led to some serendipitous links to other resources that helped my understanding. But I have to confess that navigating among these various kinds of data and their holders was difficult at best because my interfaces to the data seemed to be constantly changing, even among the digital formats.

Navigating the sea of digital data seems to be analogous to seafarers navigating through Antarctic ice fields. The data itself is like the Antarctic water: some of it is in a flexible liquid phase like the water in the sea; some forms a rigid, sometimes impenetrable frozen layer at the surface; and some is frozen in large floating icebergs. Digital data on a computer hard disk is like the liquid part of the sea: fluid, flexible and capable of recombination into many new forms. Like sheets of ice, print is beginning to melt at the edges and many print publications are already being prepared digitally. However, the full text of most publications is finally frozen back into print for mass distribution. Relatively few significant publications are available for digital navigators. Multimedia CD-ROM is like the surface of a large submerged digital iceberg of multimedia data... only one of many digital icebergs that will soon appear as publishers funnel their data into icy containers with different interfaces. Freezing and melting of the data seems likely to occur with increasing frequency as publishers exploit different kinds of storage and delivery mechanisms. Unfortunately, these phase changes only make the journey more confusing and difficult for the digital traveler.

For most present-day digital navigators, the seas of data still seem icy, cold, and hostile. The course is strewn with numerous obstacles and seemingly impenetrable boundaries. The learning environment often seems antogonsitic, with its arcane tools, poor documentation, and downright unfriendly interfaces. There is so much water, so many possible courses to chart, and such a staggering array of tools, equipment, and training needed for effective digital navigation. We can't even seem to develop any concept of how much water there is we don't yet know about... of how big some of the submerged data icebergs really might be... of how we should prepare ourselves for charting a course. We're required to learn new interface languages to chart our course while fighting to keep afloat in the ever-rising sea.

As a digital navigator, I fear that some of the data will become frozen and inaccessible and perhaps block my charted course. I wonder how many times I will be forced to change equipment and interfaces as I work with different kinds of data... and whether I will be able to afford these changes. I worry about how much learning will be required to understand and effectively work with dynamic, time-based media such as audio and video... and how I might integrate these data types into my interactions with other media formats. Perhaps the reason I face the sea of digital content with some trepidation is that I am really afraid of uncertainty and the unknown... the amount of data that will not make it to the level of information (much less knowledge or wisdom) because of the limitations of the digital access methods and interfaces.

Interfaces to digital data are in their infancy and many reveal failures of design. Warm, fuzzy feelings surface only infrequently for the digital voyager as publishers experiment with the new media and hollow out interface windows into huge and growing icebergs of data. Digital interfaces seem to be in the incunabular stage of development; all kinds of experiments for accessing the medium are occurring and many of them prove unsuccessful. In some of these audio and video icebergs, interfaces, access methods, and digital tools for working with these kinds of data are still being built. Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, noted at the Seventh Conference on Multimedia and CD-ROM that it is "like suddenly having the letters F, G, H, added to the alphabet after not having them before." Indexing and abstracting of the new media is either nonexistent or very rudimentary. Organizational schemes for time-based media like audio and video are non-existent or unsophisticated "so you are simply invited to make your own journey through someone else's unstructured subset of the data." Much of the data will not become information or knowledge until we have the necessary interfaces, organizational schemes, equipment, tool kits, and training to access the data.

Just as the compact disc and video recorder have found their way into our homes, digital information products will insidiously work their way into our lives, perhaps in forms we won't immediately recognize. Will we become victors or victims in our digital journeys? Will we be able to understand the digital topography in relation to the more familiar print landscape and select the best equipment and tools for the journey? Will we be able to adequately assess our options and make informed decisions? Though I can't envision the disappearance of print resources, digital technologies will provide us more choices for accessing and using the sea of data. Whether we like it or not, new digital tools will soon be essential to teacher and student, complementing and enhancing their use of print. Exposure to the liberal arts may affect the path of our response both to the technology itself and how or even if we use it. Training in the humanties can help us organize how we analyze, assess, and value digital resources. Skills developed in the humanities may help us to more effectively identify, evaluate, and select data from the digital seas, enabling us to convert the data into higher-order information, knowledge, and wisdom.

Notes