THE SIGCAT BLER
Bimonthly Listing of Events and Resources
Vol. 1, Issue 5
November/December 1994
The next SIGCAT regional meeting will take place on Wednesday, January 19,1995, at the NOAA Conference Center located near the Silver Spring metro stop. The theme of this meeting will be "CD-ROM Technology in Education and Training." A variety of speakers from both Government and industry will be on hand, as well as a full complement of table-top exhibitors. The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. with coffee and pastries and adjourn at approximately 3:00 p.m.
Many dramatic developments have taken place in the use of CD-ROM technology in education and training over the past year. Company after company is migrating its courseware from conventional media such as videotape and videodisc to multimedia CD-ROM. And, as the techniques of video compression (including the recent MPEG developments) continue to improve, these migrations are playing an increasing role in the strategic plans of a majority of computer-based training and educational organizations.
This SIGCAT meeting will profile some of these developers and their recent products in this dynamic arena.
Directions: The NOAA Conference Center is located in Building No. 4 at 1305 East West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland. Take the metro to the Silver Spring stop (the Red Line) or, if driving, take the Georgia Avenue South exit from the Beltway. Proceed to Colesville Road and turn right, go under the viaduct, and then turn left onto East West Highway. Public parking is available next door in Building No. 3.
Be among the first 200 to either renew or begin your subscription to SIGCAT DISCourse and receive seven free CD-ROMs (a subscription form can be found on page 2). This "CD-ROM Subscription Bonus Package" contains many interesting and useful titles, which are being made available by corporate sponsors of the SIGCAT Foundation. The seven CD-ROMtitles have a combined retail value of over $250, and you will pay only $50 ($40 subscription fee and $10 for shipping and handling). By subscribing to DISCourse, you are also eligible to receive special discounts on selected products and all training classes given at the SIGCAT Technical Education Center. Perhaps most importantly, by choosing to become a subscribing member of the SIGCAT Foundation, you will be helping us sustain SIGCAT activities and programs such as bi-monthly meetings and the annual conference.
The SIGCAT Foundation would also like to show its appreciation for those members who are already subscribing to DISCourse. Quanta Press has extended a special offer to DISCourse subscribers current as of December 31, 1994. Quanta will make available any of over 43 titles in their 1995 catalog (many of which list for $69.95) for only $10 each (plus shipping and handling) for as many titles as you'd like! This offer is good for a limited time only, through March 31, 1995.
The DISCourse CD-ROM Subscription Bonus Package consists of the following:
1. From DeLorme Mapping, (207) 865-4171, your choice of either the Global Explorer or Map'n'Go, their Title of the Year award winner. Map'n'Go, a highly acclaimed travel planner CD-ROM, lets you plan a trip anywhere in North America by automatically analyzing dozens of different variables and then mapping the optimum route for you. This disc also has a multimedia tutorial that makes the disc very easy to use. The Global Explorer is a very detailed world atlas containing over 20,000 fascinating geographical, historical, and cultural highlights from around the world. Over 100 colorful city maps are on this disc with the ability to easily zoom in to a very high level of detail.
2. From the Bureau of Electronic Publishing, (800) 828-4766, the fascinating Twain's World multimedia disc containing over 300 of Mark Twain's works, including his books, short stories, essays, and speeches, as well as many hard-to-find personal letters. The narrations, music, drawings, photographs, and video clips add a whole new dimension to the exploration of Twain's genius.
3. From Resource International Publishing, (800) 254-2442, the very useful CD-ROM of CD-ROMS disc containing an encyclopedia of titles and related information from the CD-ROM industry. This compendium covers 4,067 different discs in an easy-to-use multimedia database.
4. From Aris Entertainment, (310) 821-0234, the handy MPC Wizard test and tune-up disc, which allows you to easily benchmark any CD-ROM drive and quickly determine whether or not it meets the MPC-1 and MPC-2 specifications. The MPC Wizard also contains lots of royalty-free photographs as well as an eclectic collection of sound and video clips.
5. From Hopkins Technology, (612) 931-9376, the very interesting Agri/Stats I disc based on data from the U.S. Government's Agricultural Statistics Service. This disc provides a very comprehensive database containing over 700,000 records on U.S. crops and livestock, including millions of individual datapoints, some of which were actually recorded over 50 years ago.
6. From Wayzata Technology, (800) 735-7321, an extraordinary image library called the EPS Pro - Volume 1. This collection of over 800 encapsulated PostScript (resizable) high-quality images are all royalty-free. Also on the disc are over 100 decorative borders as well as a variety of 24-bit background patterns (marble, stone, mud, etc.).
7. From Four Palms, (800) 74-PALMS, a transportation catalog with several royalty-free digital video clips to use in your presentations. This five-CD set has a transportation theme and covers the following topics: Aviation, Bridges, Highways, Marine, and Rail. All video sequences were professionally shot and can be used in any Windows-based application.
So there you have it. A bonus package of seven CD-ROMproducts (with a combined suggested retail price of over $250) will be sent to you as soon as you renew or start your subscription to the SIGCAT DISCourse. And don't forget to take advantage of Quanta Press's generous offer if you are already a subscriber.
SIGIMAGE is a special interest group of SIGCAT established to provide a forum for users, vendors, consultants, and others who are interested in the document imaging applications, especially when they call for the use of CD-ROMstorage media. "Documents" in the newly accepted definition will mean traditional as well as the new multimedia versions.
The content will remain fairly flexible and will reflect topics selected by the majority of the attending members.
To join SIGIMAGE, please call Reed MacMillan at (703) 435-4661. Next Story
The SIGCAT Foundation will attend the 14th annual Multimedia and CBT Conference in Paris, France. SIGCAT will present information on public and private sector initiatives to create CD-ROM-based training as well as have a booth on the main conference floor. The conference will feature sessions on the following topic areas: CBT; language teaching with multimedia; distance learning; and interactive television. The conference is sponsored by the Journal du Multimedia, and will have simultaneous translations into English, German, Italian, Spanish, and French.
We are pleased to offer corporate sponsors who produce CD-ROM-based training the opportunity to place demonstration products and promotional literature in our booth. If your company or agency would benefit from exposure to the European market or if you would be willing to discuss technical development of your products, please contact Reed MacMillan at (703) 435-4661 at your earliest convenience.
SIGCAT is in the process of establishing a CD-ROM Information Resources Center (CIRC), which we believe will fill an important need in the CD-ROM community. The CIRC will provide a centralized location from which information on all aspects of CD-ROM technology will be available on a continuing basis. Authoring software, hardware products, published CD-ROMs, and printed reference materials are among the resources that will be available at the CIRC. Full working versions of authoring software products will be provided for testing and evaluation. A large selection of CD-ROM discs published by the Federal Government also will be housed at the CIRC. We will have a selection of CD-ROM hardware, including jukeboxes and CD-Recordable devices, that members can evaluate. A library of printed documents, including leading trade publications and reference articles, also is being developed. All of these resources are being provided by SIGCAT's corporate sponsors.
Membership in the CIRC is structured at several levels. An individual membership is available for $75, group memberships for $500, and consulting memberships for $1200. Each level of membership provides a specified number of hours using the authoring packages and unlimited time using the other resources. Individual memberships are appropriate for those who may wish to test a few authoring packages or gain some preliminary experience. Group memberships are intended for offices where several people may wish to use the center. The consulting membership is appropriate for individuals who are in the business of providing CD-ROM services to third parties and for whom it is important to monitor the leading products in the CD-ROM industry.
If you are interested in joining the CIRC or becoming a corporate sponsor, please call the SIGCAT office, (703) 435-5200, and speak with John Welch.
This 2-day workshop will acquaint users, planners, and managers of image-based document management systems with a practical understanding of the complexities of current systems.
The workshop will begin with the basics of document imaging and an overview of scanning, storing, and indexing documents for retrieval. On the second day, attendees will have the opportunity to try imaging themselves.
More complex issues such as scanning, compression, image enhancement, appropriate storage media, longevity, life-cycle maintenance, monitors, and printers will be addressed. Practical operational issues such as format, indexing, and storage media will also be addressed.
The instructors are Bill Hooton of Q, Inc., and Basil Manns of the Library of Congress. The cost for 2 days including lunch is $400 ($25 discount to subscribing members of SIGCAT DISCourse). To speak to someone about our classes, please phone (703) 435-4661 or fax (703) 435-5553.
Don't miss the Software Showcase follow-up seminars!
The SIGCAT Foundation is pleased to announce a series of 4-hour follow-up seminars to the October 18-19 meeting. Students will have the opportunity to build their own application with the assistance of an experienced representative from a software company and take home a prototype of the application.
The cost for each seminar is $35. We expect to hold them during the week of January 23-27. Please check off those seminars that you wish to attend and return to us by fax. We will contact you with more precise times and dates by January 6th.
__ Textware __ Odyssey Development __ Information Mgmt. Research, Inc. __ Folio Corporation __ dataDisc __ CD-RPM __ Nimbus Information Systems __ IBM Corporation __ Online Computer Systems __ Executive Technologies __ MicroRetrieval Corporation __ Ntergaid __ Dataware Technologies __ Jouve Software __ Knowledge Access International __ Enigma Information Retrieval Systems __ Interleaf Name ___________________ Organization ___________________ Address ___________________ City ___________________ State ___________________ Zip Code ___________________ Phone ___________________ Fax ___________________ Please fax this form to The SIGCAT Foundation at (703) 435-5553. Thank you.