A Virtual Presentation:
The SIGCAT Web Pages

Thank you for letting me make this virtual presentation.

My name is John Graves. I'm a Multimedia Developer from San Diego, California and the SIGCAT Webmaster.

[a joke]

SIGCAT had to take the unusual step of turning down a sponsor recently. It was a purveyor of on-line pornography and X-Rated CDs called The Seedy ROMp. They really should have presented here today, since they offer the ultimate in on-line, off-line integration. Some very ... eh ... exciting technology.

The fact is CD-ROM keeps getting sexier every day and SIGCAT is doing its best to keep up. Let me take you on a quick tour of the SIGCAT Web pages.

SIGCAT can now be found at www.sigcat.org. This is our own new domain which came on-line just over a month ago.

The site has grown to include a comprehensive collection of information, readily accessed via these two lines of links at the top of each page.

We have basic information about SIGCAT.

Here's the What's New page ...

a listing of the SIGCAT Officers ...

and listings of the SIGCAT Sponsors, both by their product or service and by state.

You can navigate through the state listing using this clickable map. As you can see, SIGCAT sponsors cluster around the Washington DC area, but have also spread to the West coast and beyond.

We have SIGCAT publications on-line, including a subscription form. So anyone can come in, print this out and mail it in with their check to begin receiving the SIGCAT DISCourse.

We have a bibliography of CD-ROMsDisc Compendium.

We have information and updates on upcoming meetings. Here's the announcement for today's meeting.

You can even see a photograph of the conference facility here. This was taken back at the July meeting. Perhaps you recognize yourself sitting in the audience here.

There are also extensive notes from previous meetings and conferences.

Information about SIGCAT classes is available ...

and we have a listing of the resources available at the SIGCAT CIRC.

There is a page for each of the special interest groups ...

and a roster of members, with individual member web pages. These Web pages provide a very low cost means for promoting a business or networking with other members. And you can sign up to have your own SIGCAT member web page using this convenient, on-line form.

If you not have internet access, but would still like to have more information about the member web pages, please pick up one of the SIGCAT Web Page fliers that should be available here today.

We currently link to a small collection of vendors:

Folio
Kodak
Meridian Data
The CD-ROM User's Group
DOCEO Publishing
Common Ground Software
Creative Digital Research
and my own business at www.LearnCD.com.

Given this perspective, let me point out several examples where the technology of integration appears to be moving forward.

This screen shot is from the 2MARKET CD-ROM produced by a company called Medior that was acquired by America On-line back in May [1995]. The young lady here introduces the shopper to the CD in an short video. Products from over a dozen companies are offered, including such items as a Leather CD Holder from the Museum of Modern Art.

If you click on the picture of the CD Holder, you can find out the price and elect to order the item. Once you are done shopping, your selected items are displayed on an order list -- which can then be transmitted by phone, fax or modem.

So this example illustrates collecting data via a CD-ROM for transmission on-line.

This next example, dbWeb, shows just the reverse. This software provides a connection between the World Wide Web and a database, potentially residing on CD-ROM.

Filling out an on-line query form, such as this ...

returns a table of results, such as this, working entirely over the World Wide Web.

Apparently, SQL Server or any ODBC database is supported by dbWeb.

New programming tools to help create such network-oriented applications are currently under development by numerous companies, most notably Sun Microsystems, with their Java language. The concept behind Java is astonishingly simple. Instead of limiting on-line interactions to exchanges of data, Java was designed to also permit the exchange of program code, so the computer can be given new capabilities as needed, on the fly. This permits the new Java-enabled browsers, such as Netscape 2.0 or Sun's own HotJava, to gain the ability to access a local or remote CD-ROM for applications that require it.

My product uses an off-line browser [I-View] to present training materials via CD-ROM. I leverage the simplicity and familiarity of the Web interface to create effective, low cost training. I have prepared copies of the CD I released in September, titled, "Creating the Virtual Book: Multimedia CD-ROM Meets the Internet," which I invite you to take home today.

The CD provides an introduction to computers, an introduction to Windows 3.1, touches on text, graphics and sound editors, explains Web page basics and how to create a CD-ROM and points out how to take advantage of simple linkages between a CD-ROM and the Internet. You will find about three hours of instruction altogether. A Windows PC with 8MB of RAM is the recommended hardware. I hope you will find it useful. If you do, there is an invoice for $20 enclosed in each packet. If you don't, I would appreciate any suggestions you might have to improve the product, but you are welcome to keep the disc in any case.

My business is dedicated to distributing knowledge on multimedia CD-ROM. I believe the technology makes it possible for people to learn much more, more cost effectively than ever before. This very presentation is an example of the potential. Instead of spending many hours and hundreds of dollars flying here from San Diego, I merely walked to the post office and dropped a CD-R in the mail.

Please help me compensate for the lack of direct, personal interaction by contacting me via e-mail with any questions you may have. My e-mail address is jgraves@learncd.com. The entire text of this presentation, your questions and my responses will be posted at the SIGCAT Web site.

[Thank You]

e-mail

John Graves