"New Tools for Online Carpenters"

"Online" - The Big Idea - November/December 1995
by Bayard Saunders

The Internet World Wide Web and commercial online services today resemble the world before Christopher Columbus - flat, and not too exciting. But 1996 will bring so many new tools to the online carpenter's bag of tricks, that if we are not preparing now to answer the call for creative, we are already behind in the game.

One of the new tools emerging is VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language), the likely successor to today's HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), with which web "pages" will be constructed. Except they will no longer be pages, but rooms, or perhaps spaces, in three dimensions through which the user will navigate and interact with objects. At the same time, Java, Sun Microsystem's hybrid of the C and C++ programming language, will allow for web sites to transfer small programs, known as applets, along with pictures and text, to create animations or run spreadsheets or update financial portfolios or play commercials online. Using these new tools effectively is currently beyond the reach of non-programmers, so many companies are encouraging courtships between creative and information systems departments. More than a marriage of convenience, it may be a necessity for survival.

With the development of "RealAudio" systems technology, by Progressive Networks of Seattle (http://www.RealAudio.com), which allows users to listen to music or voice recordings without waiting for a file to download first, the concept of "streaming" or delivering near-FM quality audio broadcast in close-to-real time was born and heralds promise for video in the near future. RealAudio's president Rob Glaser announced recently that URL addresses will soon be integrated to automatically switch web pages for the viewer, like a slide show. ESPNET SportsZone transmitted a Seattle Mariners game live online this fall using these new tools. Other players in this field are Xing's StreamWorks (http://www.xing.com) and Kauai Media (http://www.hyperstand.com). In the future, it would be safe to include plans for audio tracks in all your online creative work.

Taking the concept of "streaming" where a file is compressed, downloaded and decompressed in a steady stream so the user can hear the first part while the remainder of the file is downloading, Parallax, Inc. has used MPEG2 compression techniques to create a software video viewer and screen saver called "The TOOB." This will soon allow videos to be transmitted online as audio is today. Microsoft Network is planning to integrate this technology on their service soon, as will Prodigy, America Online and CompuServe. Making this on-demand video work proves that online technology will most likely evolve into what the popular media has described as interactive television. Internet Video Services (http://www.netvideo.com) provides a new service as a warehouse and distribution point for this new video tool. The creative challenge will be to produce engaging "infotainment" spots in a direct communications medium rather than commercials better suited to mass communications.

The secret discovery of the commercial online services is that the explosive growth in their membership activity has been generated less by the quality of their content, than by their programming to bring members together communicating with each other online. To this end, a revamping of chat rooms and forum is planned by all the major services, and the abundance of new web-page-based chat programs (in addition to the Internet Relay Chat servers) on the Internet. WebChat (http:// www.irsociety.com/webchat.html) was an early attempt at porting these functions for easy access on the web, but a better example of current developments is GlobalStage (http://www.prospero.com). Being creative in a real-time interactive environment may be the greatest challenge for creatives in this coming decade, and lessons learned in broadcasting may not be applicable here.

The most talked-about creative twist on this technology is WorldsChat (http://www.worlds.net), a 3-D graphic environment which the user enters (it looks like the inside of a giant space station), becomes a 3-D avatar or representation (my favorite is the blowfish, but you could be just a face or a chess piece), and not only moves around with the other people-as-avatars online, but chats with them as well. Their new venture, AlphaWorld, will be a full city, complete with buildings and billboards for which you may be called upon to design advertising, as it will be advertiser-supported.

With all this chatting going on, the keyboard has become the biggest obstacle (or greatest safeguard, depending on your point-of-view), and with the combination of data compression techniques and the equipping of newer personal computer systems with microphones and speakers, the logical solution arrived this year... NetPhone (http://www.vocaltec.com) is the next best thing to being there, and is better than paying for long-distance telephone calls. The system works over the Internet, a local-call connection for most users, and transmits voice real-time, just like the telephone. The quality of the sound is marginal, but for the price of a local phone call, I have spoken for hours at a time with people in Europe, Japan and South Africa. The same company is planning on releasing a video-teleconference program (maybe NetVideoPhone?) soon, and priced under $250, it brings the original VideoPhone shown at the 1964 World's Fair to life. Are the phone companies worried? You bet! Will you have to design on-hold advertising and backdrops for customer service representatives when this technology is incorporated into companies' communications plans? You bet!

The next great challenge for creative will be the design of messages which are more than market-segmented, and more than brand-specific. They will have to be consumer-specific, tailored to answer direct questions and respond to an individual's unique profile and needs. Driving this ever forward is the release of "free" email systems to the general public by Freemark (http://www.freemark.com) and Juno (http://www.juno.com) Communications. Free software will be distributed on-request and in magazines and through the mail and in stores, and will allow anyone with a computer and modem to dial a local or long-distance telephone number, establish an email account with a personal email address, and send and receive messages of any length to anyone on the Internet or commercial online services. The only caveat is that every screen the user sees will contain some sort of advertising, and hopefully a creative message geared to that individual. You will know who that individual is because they will complete an information and interest form when they sign-on, and periodically to continue the service. From this database you may be asked to write a matrix of email messages which would be variable according to the individual's responses to the questions on the forms.

Other tools include the astounding development of HDVD (High Definition Volumetric Display) which projects holographic images in mid-air, and the potential for making those available online with affordable players. Also, the long-awaited voice-recognition software and hardware which will allow more intuitive and natural interaction. And the cable-modem or ISDN or digital home satellite connections to the online world, "repurposing" the television set. All of these new tools require adaptation in the creative approach to communications, and will require a new breed of creative carpenter to use them effectively.

Bayard Saunders is Vice President, Strategic Director of Interactive Technology at Ross Roy Communications, and President of the Michigan Internet Association. Visit him online at bayard@oeonline.com

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