Digital Media

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Digital Media

• Print

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• Hypertext was originally envisioned as a way to
  enliven printed text.
• idea of a hyperlink is to dynamically link a
  reference to its source.

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• If an author mentions a name in a book or
  article, the casual reader can digress from the
  main text and follow the link to learn a little
  more about that persons life and contextual
  significance. In the same manner, a historical
  event or cultural reference can be linked, such
  that the original text flows as intended and any
  digression is done at the whim or need of the
  reader.

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• The newspaper format is arguably one of the
  greatest beneficiaries of a digital presence in
  print media. The advantages are numerous, but
  amongst the most significant are the following.

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• Articles can be posted at any time the on-line
  version of a newspaper can avoid the usual news
  cycle deadlines required for a print version, and
  can therefore get the story up faster than
  before, and do so for the record deeper and
  more comprehensive than television coverage.

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• Corrections or updates can also be posted as they
  are noted or reported, thus minimizing potential
  damage if caught early, and correcting the record
  either directly or with a link after the fact.

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• The prior editions of the on-line paper are
  available, and are readily indexed for rapid
  search and retrieval of key information. An
  interested reader can, on a good site, follow a
  series of articles over time to see how the issue
  progressed.

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• It is necessary in most articles to provide some
  context and explanatory text for readers
  unfamiliar with the topic often this text can
  take up much of the space for the article, as the
  writer cannot assume that the reader has seen the
  preceding, topically related articles.

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• The on-line version of a newspaper can provide
  links to the preceding articles, which may, over
  time, enable a certain encapsulation of the
  antecedent information and possibly change the
  style of writing.

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• On-line articles can provide richer content as
  the textual references to people, places, and
  events are hyperlinked.

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• The presentation of a story on tornados can
  include background links to articles on how
  tornados are formed, stories of other tornados,
  and their seasonal propensity to strike narrow
  regions of the country.

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• Stories on foreign leaders or cultural events can
  benefit in the same manner from the inclusion of
  more substantial background references. And this
  work can complement the work of other sources,
  rather than duplicating the effort, pointing
  readers towards particularly relevant material.

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• Then there are routine but useful features such
  as the capacity to search various sections, such
  as the personal ads, the want ads, and the
  classified ads, for particular products or
  features.

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• An on-line newspaper does contain advertisements,
  and, even better, the paper can report how many
  people see the ads and how many click through
  to follow up on the ad, so these numbers are more
  reliable than the traditional print ad.

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• And there are advantages to the on-line process.
  Printing and distributing newspapers is quite
  expensive the paper itself, the newsprint, the
  printing press, the packaging and delivery of
  papers, the recovery of extra papersevery step
  costs time, money, and labor. NOT printing papers
  can actually save money.

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• There is also the observation that with a printed
  paper the company never really knows how many
  people are reading the different sections, or
  following specific story lines or topic areas.

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• The on-line version can compute exactly how
  many, or what percentage, of its clients are
  reading any given part of the paper. This
  information can, for better or worse, influence
  coverage and content of the paper.

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• The application of usage-data mining techniques
  will provide tremendous insight into how people
  are reading the paper, or, more precisely, how
  they are reading the on-line paper. This kind of
  information has never before been available, and
  it remains to be seen just how it will be used.

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• Ideally, there will still be room for coverage of
  topics other than celebrities and scandals.

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• The data could be used to mount a degree of
  personalization for individual readers, such that
  the weather forecast is localized, and the sports
  coverage lists local teams first, etc. In this
  way, the paper begins to cater to the natural
  interests of the reader.

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• . But there is a danger in this trend, in that
  if the paper changes many times a day, and it
  changes depending on who is reading it, then can
  it really stand as a paper of record? There
  are benefits to having some universal reference
  points, and excessive personalization can remove
  that communal experience.

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• All periodicals share to a greater or lesser
  extent the potential and problems associated with
  digital publication of newspapers.

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• One key difference is the length of the
  publishing cycle. Where a newspaper has a daily
  cycle for the main sections, and a weekly cycle
  for its features, magazines publish on a weekly
  or monthly basis.

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• The longer cycle influences the type of coverage
  that can be offered, though an important
  distinction should be made here between pop
  culture and celebrity-oriented magazines, and
  those that have a more thematic focus.

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• The former category tends to have short pieces
  that are more oriented to opinion or impression,
  while the latter tends towards more serious and
  longer pieces, with an emphasis on research and
  assimilation of a wider range of sources than is
  typical or possible for a daily publication.

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• the magazine market is one of the most
  segmented markets that exists, with thousands
  of entries, many targeted to an extremely narrow
  demographic profile outdoors males between 18
  and 25 female runners between 18 and 30,
  middle-aged retired male golfers and, in a
  slightly mocking reference from a comic strip,
  young chewing gum enthusiasts1.
• 1 A recurring plot theme from the Calvin
  Hobbes strip, by Bill Watterson
•  

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• The market segmentation of magazines would then
  seem quite suitable to the web, as the web caters
  to this sort of specialization. Yet, in an
  observation not lost on many pundits, the most
  popular magazine about the emerging digital
  culture, Wired magazine, is primarily known for
  its print version.

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• And one of the more popular on-line magazines,
  Salon.com, doesnt have a traditional print
  presence. So the uneasy cohabitation that exists
  in the context of newspapers hasnt emerged to
  the same extent with magazines

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• One of the objectives of good web design is that
  the site retain key branding elements and
  consistent navigational tools, but that the
  content change on a regular basisdaily is good,
  multiple times a day even better in the view of
  some sites.

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• The human eye is trained to detect motion, and
  changewe pay more attention to a changed
  environment than one with which we are already
  familiar. Thus, if there is nothing new on a web
  site, the user gets bored, and moves on.

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• A simple port of the print version of the
  magazine to the web wont draw as many visitors
  as a version whose contents change more often.
  Thus, if fresh material is necessary to attract
  and retain web visitors, then an on-line magazine
  requires a change in its production process.

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• For example, the following changes might be
  considered
•          Make the cover page dynamic. There
  should be elements that change routine a
  featured graphic should change with each fresh
  load, such that each page is slightly different
  on each viewing.

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•          The featured articles might rotate in
  their relative priority or prominence on the
  page, with the freshest material getting the
  highest ranking.

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•          Similarly, based upon usage-data mining
  results, the hottest topics for that particular
  issue would rise in their prominence on the front
  page.

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•          Readers might receive the magazine, or
  at least see selected articles and sections, for
  free, but in return should register so as to
  provide feedback on who is visiting the site and
  what they are reading.

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•          The usage-data mining results that help
  determine user interest in articles and features
  could also be used to provide customized links to
  related topics in the current or prior issues,
  and to promote upcoming features so as to
  encourage a return visit.

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•          More controversially, the data mining
  can be used to selectively promote the products
  of sponsors or advertisersa reader who seems to
  respond to ads for childrens products will see
  more childrens ads, while a reader clicking on
  arthritis ads might be targeted for something on
  vitamin supplements.

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• Introduce rolling publication dates, such that
  rather than having the entire magazine come out
  all on the same day, features emerge at scheduled
  intervals, so that each week there is substantial
  new content available. Certain features, such as
  letters to the editor or special reports and
  updates, could be posted more frequently.

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•          The down side of using rolling
  feature publication dates is that there might not
  be a definitive September issue, or perhaps for
  only a short time would the on-line version more
  or less match the print version.

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•          Serialization of books or special
  reports that span several issues can be readily
  linked, such that new readers can easily catch up
  with the earlier material.

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• There are a variety of web-friendly features
  becoming more common, such as puzzles and games,
  and regular reader polls as to their opinions on
  the latest hot topic, but these should be used
  with some discretion!

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• There are larger issues pertaining to the
  economic model of the magazine how much is given
  away, and how much is sold? The paid
  subscription model has not worked so well
  on-line, as users are accustomed to getting
  content for free, and in the haste to build
  on-line readership most sites have quietly
  shelved the idea of collecting money directly
  from the readers.

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• One common model is for a magazines current
  issue to be free, but access to archived material
  comes at a price. Or, a two-tier model is
  established, where parts of the publication are
  free to anyone who cares to visit, but extra
  features (special reports, detailed studies,
  etc.) and value-added services (such as the
  archive search) only come with a subscription.

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• Books have been written off every few years as
  relics and certain casualties of the information
  revolution. Who would buy a dusty old heavy book
  when a digital version could be available, fully
  hyperlinked, without the fuss and bother of
  printing and storing books?

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• Each time the prediction has been made, dating
  from Vannevar Bushs Memex to the much-touted
  digital release of a Stephen King novel, the
  digital version has somehow not fully
  materialized, and books have persevered.

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• Perhaps the most appealing vision of the digital
  book of the future was designed by Alan Kay in
  1968 and later promoted by Apple Computer in the
  1980s, in a concept packaged as the DynaBook
  (presumably standing for Dynamic Book).

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• The DynaBook wasnt really a product, it was more
  of a vision, a vision which today seems quite
  realizable.
• The Dynabook was originally conceived as sort of
  a calculator with a keyboard.

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• . It later morphed into a sleeker device that
  replaced the keyboard interface with a stylus and
  support for handwriting recognition. The newer
  version was illustrated as a device similar to a
  small leather-bound folding notebook, lightweight
  and durable, easy to carry, even to slip into a
  jacket pocket.

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• The device presumably carried enough local memory
  to hold the digital contents of at least one and
  perhaps many books, with an easy means to
  transfer old books out and new material in.

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• The unit was portable, thus enabling the DynaBook
  to be used easily in cozy settings such as the
  park, the library, or a coffee shop, and served
  as well as a calendar and organizer.

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• It seems like an appealing idea, so why didnt it
  get anywhere? In large part, because the
  DynaBook did not exist. Many of the individual
  technologies required to create a DynaScript
  device were not far enough along to make and
  market functional models.

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• The concept has persevered, though, and will
  likely take form in various manifestations
  amongst the new generations of personal digital
  assistants and tablet computers.

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• The reality of purely digital books still seems
  just as much around the corner today as it did
  decades ago. The bigger hurdle today does not
  appear to be the physical device, which is now
  getting very close to reality, but the problems
  associated with protecting the work from
  widespread digital reproduction.

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on demand printing

• Rather than print thousands of copies of books
  that people may or may not buy, and that could
  sit on shelves and in warehouses for years,
  wouldnt it be nice if books could be printed as
  needed, perhaps in small batches, such that all
  the problems associated with printing and
  managing large quantities of books were avoided
  entirely?

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• This is the premise behind on-demand printing.
  If a customer places an order today, the book can
  be printed tonight and delivered tomorrow. In
  this model, every participant is happy, and the
  inventory problems avoided.

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• An additional advantage of this approach is that
  it would make small batch production more
  economically viable, reducing the quantity
  required for a publisher to break even on the
  print and production costs. Thus, books that
  were probably never going to make it onto a
  best-seller list could still be printed and made
  available for their select audience.

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• One problem is that most of the books produced
  this way look more or less the same, not far
  removed from a job at the university copy center,
  and it leaves book lovers unhappy with the
  on-demand version.

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• It is likely that the uniformity problem can be
  improved, such that the coming generations of
  equipment can produce a product closer, perhaps
  identical, to the original product from the
  publisher, but for the moment on-demand
  printing remains something of a specialty itself,
  consigned primarily to corporate and university
  print shops.