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Part One
Understanding Multimedia
C H A P T E R 1
Definitions
C H A P T E R 2
Taxonomy of
Multimedia Objects
People retain only 20% of what they see and 30% of what they hear. But they
remember 50% of what they see and hear, and as much as 80% of what they see,
hear, and do simultaneously.
—Computer Technology Research Corporation
Multimedia is the buzzword of the decade. Like most buzzwords, it has been used in many contexts. You find it on the covers of books, magazines, CD-ROMs, video games, and movies. It is used in advertising shoes, hairstyles, drugs, cars, computers, soft drinks, beer, kitchen floors, vacations, airplanes, televisions, telephones, houses, museums, newspapers, arcades, theme parks, Olympic Games, and shopping malls. Sometimes the term is used to add hype to products that have nothing to do with multimedia. The many uses and abuses of the word multimedia have led to confusion over just what multimedia is. For this reason, a book on multimedia literacy must begin by defining it.
2 Part One:^ Understanding Multimedia
Definitions
After completing this chapter, you will be able to:
Define multimedia, describe why it is effective, and explain how it will be important to life in the twenty-first century
Demonstrate how multimedia is changing the world through telecommuting, home shopping, electronic publishing, and computer-based education
Show how fast multimedia is growing in business, industry, homes, online services, and education
Identify and define the components of a multimedia PC
Define the Internet and the World Wide Web and understand how they provide access to multimedia resources on a worldwide basis
(^) To define multimedia properly, one must go beyond stating what it is and put the term in context. In this chapter you will not only get a standard “textbook” definition of multimedia, but also learn why it is important, how fast it is growing, how it is changing the world, and who needs to know about it. The term multimedia PC will be defined, along with the nomenclature needed to understand the specifications of a multimedia computer. Then you will learn how the Internet and the World Wide Web are being used to distribute multimedia applications on a worldwide basis.
What Is Multimedia?
Multimedia is the use of a computer to present and combine text, graphics, audio, and video with links and tools that let the user navigate, interact, create, and communicate. As depicted in Figure 1-1, this definition contains four components essential to multimedia. First, there must be a computer to coordinate what you see and hear, and interact with you. Second, there must be links that connect the information. Third, there must be navigational tools that let you traverse the web of connected information. Finally, because multimedia is not a spectator sport, there must be ways for you to gather, process, and communicate your own information and ideas. If one of these components is missing, you do not have multimedia. For example, if you have no computer to provide interactivity, you have mixed media, not multimedia. If there are no links to provide a sense of structure and dimension, you have a bookshelf, not multimedia. If there are no navigational tools to let you decide the course of action, you have a movie, not multimedia. If you cannot create and contribute your own ideas, you have a television, not multimedia.
4 Part One:^ Understanding Multimedia
Multimedia is highly effective. As research and publishing company Computer Technology Research (CTR) Corporation reports, people retain only 20% of what they see and 30% of what they hear. But they remember 50% of what they see and hear, and as much as 80% of what they see, hear, and do simultaneously. That is why multimedia provides such a powerful tool for teaching and learning. Multimedia will help spread the Information Age to millions of people who have not yet used a computer. A Roper survey sponsored by IBM found that more than half of the respondents did not want a computer that required a manual to use it ( Washington Post 12/27/93, Business: 13). Multimedia provides the computer industry with the key to reaching this untouched market, which will cause computer use to skyrocket.
How Fast Is Multimedia Growing?
As Figures 1-2 through 1-6 illustrate, multimedia is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world today. As the installed base of CD-ROM drives approaches the 200-million mark, DVD (digital video disc) drives have become one of the hottest consumer items. DVD drives can play CDs and also provide access to thousands of broadcast-quality movies with surround sound and up to 26 times more data storage. Figure 1-2 shows that online subscriptions to the Internet passed the 50-million mark in significantly less time than more traditional forms of mass media reached their audiences. By the end of the twentieth century, nearly two-thirds of U.S. households already had home computers. Although the growth occurs in all market segments, the analyst agency Dataquest reports that first-time buyers are now coming from households in the lower socioeconomic levels, which may indicate that the digital divide between the haves and the have-nots may gradually be narrowing ( San Jose Mercury News 2/8/99, Multilit Web site). By the time you read this, nearly half of American households will be connected to the Internet, as illustrated in Figure 1-3. Looking at worldwide growth, the online business research firm eMarketer forecasts that the total Internet population will increase to 350 million users by 2003. As Figure 1-4 illustrates, this is a 267% increase from the 95 million people using the Internet at the end of 1998. Fueling this growth are advances in technology (see Figure 1-6 on page 11) and price wars that have dramatically lowered the cost of multimedia computers. The growing number of consumers has created a larger market for multimedia titles, and new tools
Years to Reach 50 million Americans
38
13
10
5
Source: Morgan Stanley eStats, 1999
Internet
Cable TV
Television
Radio
Figure 1-2 How many years it took for different forms of mass media to reach the 50-million mark. Source: Morgan Stanley eStats 12/2/99, Multilit Web site.
Chapter 1: Definitions 5
are enabling more people to become developers. The second half of this book, for example, is a hands-on tutorial that will enable you to begin creating multimedia applications. Online multimedia services are booming. By the end of the twentieth century, Cisco Systems estimated that the online infrastructure was generating $115 billion in revenue annually and accounted for 372,462 high-tech jobs ( The Industry Standard 6/20/99, Multilit Web site). Because only 27.6% of computer owners currently belong to an Internet service, there is plenty of room for growth. And grow it will! AT&T Broadband & Internet Services already provides cable television entertainment and information
U.S. Net User Household Growth trends
Source: Morgan Stanley eStats, 1999
Year Millions of Households % of Total U.S. Households 1996 6.5 6.6% 1997 14.5 14.5% 1998 24.4 24.2% 1999 28.0 27.6% 2000 32.0 31.4% 2001 35.3 34.4% 2002 44.0 42.7%
Figure 1-3 The growth of American households with home computers connected to the Internet. Source: Morgan Stanley eStats 12/2/99, Multilit Web site.
Figure 1-4 Forecasted growth of the Internet population. Source: Reuters, CNET News.com 7/7/99, Multilit Web site.
Worldwide Internet Users, 1998 - 2003
95.
Source: Morgan Stanley eStats, 1999
1998
130.
1999
172.
2000
223.
2001
282.
2002
350.
2003
50
150
250
350 Million
Chapter 1: Definitions 7
telecommuting policies then in place ( USA Today 6/18/96: E7). The California earthquakes made many new converts to telecommuting, given the significant long-term damage to traffic routes around Los Angeles ( Investor’s Business Daily 1/27/94: 4). In addition to reducing traffic congestion, an Arthur D. Little study points out how telecommuting can cut gas consumption and air pollution. For example, a 10 to 20% reduction in the number of trips in the United States would save 3.5 billion gallons of gas per year ( Atlanta Constitution 12/2/93: A19). Telecommuting has also had an impact on the clothing industry, causing suit sales to plummet as more people work from home ( St. Petersburg Times 1/3/94: 19). Microsoft provides the world with excellent telecommuting software for free. Called NetMeeting, it enables real-time voice and data communications over the Internet. Two or more people can thereby share applications, transfer files, view and illustrate a shared whiteboard, and chat with each other. Chapter 42 contains a step-by-step tutorial on using NetMeeting to share a PowerPoint application with other users. To download the NetMeeting software, follow the Multilit Web site link to NetMeeting.
Home Shopping
Multimedia is changing how the world shops. Instead of wearing yourself out trekking from store to store, trying to find the size and style you like and then waiting in line to pay for it, teleshopping services let you shop from home. According to a CommerceNet/ Nielsen survey, by 1999 the number of online shoppers had increased to 55 million people. Of these, 28 million made purchases online, 9 million bought something online at least once a month, and a million made weekly purchases online ( CommerceNet 6/17/99, Multilit Web site). By 1999, electronic shopping sales had surged to more than $98 billion annually and are forecast to rise to $1.2 trillion by 2003 ( eMarketer, CNET News.com 7/7/99, Multilit Web site). Figure 1-5 shows how the percentage of online shoppers is expected to grow.
Figure 1-5 Projected growth in the percent of Americans shopping online. Source: eMarketer, CNET News.com 7/7/99, Multilit Web site.
Online Buyers As a % of Total Americans Aged 14+
213.
Source: eMarketer, 1999
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
50
150
250 Million
Total US Population (Aged 14+) Millions of Online Buyers
215.
(17.8%)
(21.4%)
(26.6%)
(30.0%)
(7.9%)
217.4 219.7^ 221.9^ 224.
(3.2%)
8 Part One:^ Understanding Multimedia
Business and Advertising
Multimedia is changing the face of business. Online shopping and banking are creating a cashless society by eliminating the need for printed money. American Express, for example, is enabling its cardholders to make deposits, invest in money market funds, purchase certificates of deposit, and pay bills through an online service called American Express Membership B@nking ( Wall Street Journal 7/23/99.) The Gartner Group predicts that bill-paying over the Internet will become business as usual by 2002, when all banks will offer online bill payment ( USA Today 8/4/99). The online brokerage market is poised to lead the growth of the financial services sector with assets projected to grow from $415 billion in 1998 to $3 trillion by 2003 (NUA Internet Surveys 9/6/99, Multilit Web site). Online brokerages provide a way for the average citizen to purchase stocks online, instead of having to buy them through a traditional stockbroker. Forrester research predicts that buying stocks online will be particularly popular in Europe, with online brokerage accounts predicted to rise from 1.3 million in 2000 to 14 million in 2004. Giga Information Group predicts that worldwide, corporations will save as much as $1.25 trillion by doing business over the Internet ( Washington Post 8/4/99). Advertising is paying for the costs of operating Web services, much like advertising covers the cost of television broadcasts so you can watch TV for free. For example, commercial ads pay for the popular search engine Yahoo at http://www.yahoo.com. In 1998, advertisers spent $1.9 billion advertising on the Internet, exceeding the estimated $1.6 billion spent on outdoor advertising that same year ( Internet Index 5/31/99, Multilit Web site).
Electronic Publishing
Multimedia is changing how we read newspapers by eliminating the need for the paper and offering all the features of multimedia, including full-text search, graphics, audio, and video. According to the Kelsey Group, more than 2700 newspapers are experimenting with electronic ventures, compared to only 42 in 1989; contributing to the need for these experiments is the fact that half of young people aged 18 to 24 do not read newspapers at all ( US News & World Report 5/16/94: 60). Table 1-1 lists a few of the newspapers you can read on the Web.
Table 1-1 A Few of the Newspapers on the World Wide Web
NewspaperNewspaperNewspaperNewspaperNewspaper Web AddressWeb AddressWeb AddressWeb AddressWeb Address Chicago Tribune http://www.chicago.tribune.com Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com New York Times http://www.nytimes.com San Jose [CA] Mercury News http://www.sjmercury.com USA Today http://www.usatoday.com Virginian-Pilot http://www.pilotonline.com Wall Street Journal http://interactive.wsj.com Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com 4,000 other links to newspapers, http://www.newslink.org magazines, broadcasters, and news services
10 Part One:^ Understanding Multimedia
What Is a Multimedia PC?
A multimedia PC is a computer that has a CD-ROM or DVD drive and supports 8-bit and 16-bit waveform audio recording and playback, MIDI sound synthesis, and MPEG movie watching, with a central processor fast enough and a RAM large enough to enable you to play and interact with these media in real time, and with a hard disk large enough to store multimedia works that the user can create. In order for you to understand this definition of a multimedia PC, a few terms need to be defined.
RAM and MB
RAM stands for random access memory; it is the main memory at the heart of a computer in which multimedia programs execute. RAM is measured in megabytes ( MB ). Mega means million, and byte is the unit of measure for computer memory. A byte can hold a single character, and a megabyte can hold a million characters. Although some programs can run in smaller amounts of RAM, anyone serious about multimedia should have a computer equipped with at least 48 MB of RAM.
Processor and MHz
The processor is the brain in your computer where calculations and decisions get made. Processor speed is measured in MHz , which stands for megahertz. Mega means million, and hertz is one cycle per second. Intel is the biggest manufacturer of the processors found in multimedia computers. Figure 1-6 shows how the relative power of the various Intel processors is a function of their model number and processor speed. The more powerful the processor, the faster the multimedia computer will respond. For the latest information on Intel processor speed comparisons, follow the Multilit Web site link to the Intel iCOMP index.
Hard Drive
A hard drive is a magnetic storage device on which computer programs and data are stored. Like RAM, hard drives are measured in megabytes, also called megs, or in gigabytes, also called gigs. A gigabyte is a thousand megabytes. The larger the hard drive, the more programs and data the computer can store. A multimedia PC should have at least 640 megabytes. The hard drive will hold, for example, the multimedia applications that you will create in the tutorial part of this book. If you plan to record digital video onto your hard drive, it needs to be as large as you can afford to make it.
CD-ROM
CD-ROM stands for compact disc—read-only memory. A CD-ROM can store about 680 MB (megabytes) of data. That is enough to hold the text of 200 Bibles. Because compact discs are inexpensive to produce yet provide so much storage, CD-ROM became the medium of choice for publishing multimedia applications in the twentieth century. The speed of a CD-ROM drive is measured in how many thousands of characters (bytes) it can read per second. In computer spec sheets, the character K, which stands for kilo (the Greek word for thousand), is used to represent 1000 characters, or 1 kilobyte (KB). The first CD-ROM drives could transfer data at a rate of 150 KB per second. Double- speed CD-ROM drives can transfer data at twice that speed, or 300 KB per second.
Chapter 1: Definitions 11
Figure 1-6 Intel’s iCOMP index for i386 through Pentium III Processors.
Intel386 SX-16MHz
Intel386 SX-20MHz
Intel386 SX-25MHz
Intel386 SL-25MHz
Intel386 DX-25MHz
Intel486 SX-16MHz
Intel386 DX-33MHz
Intel486 SX-20MHz
Intel486 SX-25MHz
Intel486 DX-25MHz
Intel486 SX-33MHz
Intel486 DX-33MHz
Intel486 SX2-50MHz
Intel486 DX2-50MHz
Intel486 DX50MHz
Intel486 DX2-66MHz
Intel486 DX4-75MHz
Intel486 DX4-100MHz
Pentium - 60MHz
Pentium - 66MHz
Pentium - 75MHz
Pentium - 90MHz
Pentium - 100MHz
Pentium III - 800 MHz Pentium III - 750 MHz Pentium III - 700 MHz Pentium III - 650 MHz Pentium III - 600 E MHz Pentium III - 600 MHz Pentium III - 550 MHz Pentium III - 500 MHz Pentium III - 450 MHz Pentium II - 450 MHz Pentium II - 400 MHz Celeron - 400 MHz Pentium II - 350 MHz
Pentium - 120MHz
Pentium - 133MHz
Pentium - 150MHz
Pentium - 166MHz
Pentium - 200MHz
Pentium - 150MHz (MMX)
Pentium - 166MHz (MMX)
Pentium - 200MHz (MMX)
Pentium Pro - 180 MHz
Pentium - 233MHz (MMX)
Celeron - 266MHz
Pentium Pro - 200 MHz
Celeron - 300MHz
Pentium II - 233 MHz
Celeron - 300A MHz
Pentium II - 266 MHz
Celeron - 333MHz
Pentium II - 300 MHz
Celeron - 366 MHz
Pentium II - 333 MHz 366
22
32
39
41
49
63
68
78
100
122
136
166
180
231
249
297
319
435
510
567
610
735
815
100
111
114
127
142
144
160
182
197
203
213
220
226
267
296
303
318
332
344
386
394
440
1500
1650
1780
1930
2110
2270
2420
2540
2690
483
1110 1000
1308 1176
67
90 81
This graph is meant only as a general indication of increasing processor performance over time. Each iCOMP Index is derived from different sets of benchmarks, with different weightings indexed to different base processors. For this reason, the rating numbers of different iCOMP Indexes cannot be directly compared. Where the same processor has been ranked in more than one iCOMP Index, both values are shown, color coded as follows:
iCOMP Index 3. iCOMP Index 2. iCOMP Index 1.
1240 1130 1011 1000 940 890
Chapter 1: Definitions 13
What Is the Internet?
The Internet is a worldwide connection of more than 72 million computers that use the Internet Protocol (IP) to communicate. The Internet Protocol was invented for the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The goal was to create a network that would continue to function if a bomb destroyed one or more of the network’s nodes; information would get rerouted automatically so it could still reach its address. As a result of this bomb-proof design, any user on the Internet can communicate with any other user, regardless of their location. Figure 1-7 illustrates the web that is formed by the interconnections of computers on the Internet in the United States. More than 190 countries and territories around the world are similarly connected to the Internet, forming a worldwide tele- communications network. Every computer on the Internet has a unique IP address. An IP address consists of four numbers separated by periods. The numbers range from 0 to 255, so that the smallest possible address is 0.0.0.0 and the largest is 255.255.255.255. The number of IP addresses this scheme allows is 256^4 , which is 4,294,967,296. This provides room for adding more computers as the network grows. IP addresses can be hard to remember. For example, the Web server at the Library of Congress has the IP address 140.147.248.7. The White House is at 198.137.241.30. The Smithsonian is 160.111.7.240. If you had to remember numbers like these, the Internet would not be very user-friendly. To make IP addresses easier for human beings to remember, a domain name system (DNS) was invented to permit the use of alphabetic characters instead of numbers. For example, instead of having to remember that the Library of Congress is at 140.147.248.
Figure 1-7 This image is a visualization study of inbound traffic measured in billions of bytes on the NSFNET T1 backbone for September 1991. The traffic volume range is depicted from purple (0 bytes) to white (100 billion bytes). The NSFNET is one of the most important parts of the Internet in the United States. Source: Rendered by Donna Cox and Robert Patterson, National Center for Supercomputing Applications/University of Illinois. The data was collected by Merit Network, Inc.
14 Part One:^ Understanding Multimedia
you can use its domain name www.loc.gov. The White House is www.whitehouse.gov, and the Smithsonian is www.si.edu. Domain names have the format: hostname.subdomain.top-level-domain In the United States, top-level domains normally consist of one of the following: .edu educational .com commercial .gov government .mil military .net network support centers .org other organizations In the rest of the world, top-level domains are usually country codes, such as fr for France. The subdomain refers to the network to which a computer is connected, and the host name refers to the computer itself. For example, in the domain name www.louvre.fr, which is the World Wide Web server at the famous Louvre museum in Paris, the top- level domain fr indicates that the server is located in France, the subdomain louvre tells you that the server is on the Louvre’s network, and the host name www identifies this computer as the Louvre’s World Wide Web server. The International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC) has proposed adding seven new top-level domain names. The new names are .firm, .store, .web, .arts, .rec, .info, and .nom. For more information about the new names and the status of this proposal, follow the Multilit Web site links to the Generic Top Level Domain Memorandum of Understanding.
What Is the World Wide Web?
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a networked hypertext system that allows documents to be shared over the Internet. Developed at the European Particle Physics Center (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, the Web’s original purpose was to let researchers all over the world collaborate on the same documents without traveling. Hypertext is a word coined by Ted Nelson (1965). It refers to text that has been linked. When you view a hypertext and click a word that has been linked, your computer launches the object of that link. The links give the text an added dimension, which is why it is called hyper. When the Web started, it was purely text-based. In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA) released Mosaic, a graphical user interface that made the Web extremely easy to use. In addition to text, Mosaic allowed Web pages to contain pictures, with links to audio and video as well. This led to the Web becoming the most popular service on the Internet. In 1994, Netscape Communications Corporation was started by some of Mosaic’s developers, and over the next few years, a program called Netscape Navigator became a very popular Web browser. Microsoft also created a Web browser called the Microsoft Internet Explorer, which rivals Netscape Navigator. The popularity of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator diminished the need for continued work on Mosaic, and in 1997, the NCSA quietly discontinued work on it, opting instead to work on other advanced Internet technologies. In the July 1996 issue of Technology Review is a fascinating interview with Tim Berners- Lee, the person credited with inventing the World Wide Web. You can find the interview online by following the Multilit Web site links to “The Web Maestro: An Interview with Tim Berners-Lee.”
