Part One

Part One

Understanding Multimedia

CHAPTER 1

Definitions

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.

CHAPTER 2

Taxonomy of

Multimedia Objects

¡ªComputer 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

1

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.

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Chapter 1: Definitions

Linked information

Text

Creation/communication

Graphics

Multimedia computer

Audio

Video

Back

Quit

Home

Menu

Next

Navigation buttons

Figure 1-1 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.

Why Is Multimedia Important?

Multimedia is fast emerging as a basic skill that will be as important to life in the

twenty-first century as reading is now. In fact, multimedia is changing the nature of

reading itself. Instead of limiting you to the linear presentation of text as printed in

books, multimedia makes reading dynamic by giving words an important new

dimension. In addition to conveying meaning, words in multimedia serve as triggers

that readers can use to expand the text in order to learn more about a topic. This is

accomplished not only by providing more text but by bringing it to life with sound,

pictures, music, and video.

The more you learn about multimedia, the more books pale by comparison. For example,

suppose you read a lengthy document and want to refer back to the page on which a

certain idea was mentioned. You check the index, but the topic you want is not listed.

Try as you might while paging through the book, you just cannot find what you read

earlier. A multimedia document solves this problem by letting you search the full text

for key words to find any topic or combination of topics. In fact, a multimedia document

can refer not only to information within itself, but also to all the other documents to

which it has been linked, and to all the documents to which they have been linked.

Multimedia uses links to let you navigate the universe of connected information at the

speed of light. Comparing this global network of multimedia to our highway system that

lets motorists travel almost anywhere, the U.S. government has named the network the

Information Superhighway.

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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

Radio

38

Television

13

10

Cable TV

Internet

5

Source: Morgan Stanley eStats, 1999

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.

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Chapter 1: Definitions

U.S. Net User Household Growth trends

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%

Source: Morgan Stanley eStats, 1999

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.

Worldwide Internet Users, 1998 - 2003

350.0

350 Million

282.0

223.0

250

172.0

130.6

150

95.43

50

1998

1999

Source: Morgan Stanley eStats, 1999

Figure 1-4

2000

2001

2002

2003

Forecasted growth of the Internet population.

Source: Reuters, CNET 7/7/99, Multilit Web site.

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

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