Imaging World, December 16th, 1996 Electronic delivery trend: Hybrid, connected & Web CDs By Judith Lamont A new type of CD-ROM is designed for use with the World Wide Web. The disc offers versatility by combining two popular technologies--CD-ROMs and the Web--and marrying the strengths of both. This hybrid product uses a CD-ROM's capacity to rapidly deliver large image data files and digital video clips from the user's CD-ROM drive. At the same time, it also takes advantage of the Web's capacity to keep information current. The advantages of the new technology are obvious: A disc designed to present product information could be sent to a prospective customer, who could explore the product line quickly and easily from the disc. Time-sensitive data, such as pricing information, could then be accessed over the Web. The customer would simply log on for current prices. In addition, searches of an on-line database that are launched from a CD-ROM could provide a summary of hits derived from both sources. In some cases a search is first conducted of the CD-ROM and then updated with any new information from the Web; in others, the searches are conducted in parallel and the latest combination of data is presented. Either way, users benefit from the quick local search combined with the more current Web data. Leading companies in that type of application are Verity (Mountain View, CA) and Personal Library Software (Rockville, MD). When the provider must deliver information in both a CD-ROM and a Web version but does not want to develop material twice, an "author-once" strategy is used. In its simplest form, the strategy might just mean exporting information developed in a CD-ROM into the hypertext markup language (HTML) code read by Web browsers. For example, NTERGAID's (Cambridge, MA) HyperWriter has been able to export to HTML for several years, and other authoring products can now do the same. Usually a bit of tweaking is required to achieve the intended appearance and behavior (hyperlinks can be a problem), but at least the basic conversion can be automated. Another author-once strategy is to retain information developed for a CD-ROM in its proprietary format, and then place it on the Web using a related software product for delivery. Folio's (Provo, UT) siteDirector, for example, converts Infobase files to HTML on the fly. Dataware's (Cambridge, MA) CD-Net does the same for its databases. That approach is ideal for organizations committed to a particular authoring product. Folio, for example, is widely used for legal and other reference material. Organizations already using the product may find it cost- and time-effective to deliver information on the Web by means of their proprietary Web software. Enigma's (Wellesley, MA) Insight now has a Web server called "NetSight" that functions in a similar way. The advantage of that form of delivery is that the powerful search engines associated with CD-authoring products can be used; the primary disadvantage is the proprietary nature of the product set, which does not allow use of other Web servers to deliver the information. At the other end of the spectrum of author-once approaches is the use of HTML for delivery on both a CD-ROM and the Web. The only viewer that is needed for the CD-ROM is a standard Web browser. Although accessible to any Web user, a pure HTML product can be slower, less flexible and less powerful than other alternatives. Marketers are recording their company's entire Web site, complete with hyperlinks, onto a CD-ROM. Users can then browse the material at their convenience, without having to be on-line. Often the disc does include a dial-up capability to the Web site in order to obtain updated information. Software tools are also available to download the home page of a Web site. That is not a casual activity, however, because of the volume of information that may be contained on the site. Downloading should only be done in cooperation with the site's developer. The variety of content types that can be published on both Web and CD-ROM is large and growing. At one extreme is the highly structured text associated with standard generalized markup language (SGML). If you have been using SGML for publishing, Electronic Book Technologies' (Providence, RI) DynaWeb can serve your documents on the Web. Highly graphic, interactive multimedia training is also an on-line reality. For instance, AimTech's (Nashua, NH) IconAuthor is Web-enabled. Its object-oriented approach allows components to be stored wherever the developer chooses. Typically, video clips and images would be stored locally on the CD, and text that might be updated or revised could be accessed through the Web. Other multimedia products such as Macromedia's (San Francisco) Director and Asymmetrix' (Bellevue, WA) Toolbook II also have become Web-friendly. Opportunities for hybrid CDs The relatively new team effort between CD-ROMs and the Web is reshaping many industries, including publishing. Textbooks may include a CD-ROM that allows Web access. Educational publications that previously were updated only every few years can now be enhanced on a monthly basis. Web access also offers the possibility of a far more interactive relationship between authors and their readers, allowing for easy feedback and suggestions for future editions. The combination of CD and Web offers the best of both technologies, but it can also combine some of the drawbacks of each. A CD-ROM that is dependent on the Web for an information element such as pricing is at the mercy of the user's Internet service provider. If the information that was put on the CD-ROM portion of the CD/Web duo needs to be changed, a new version of the disc may need to be produced. But overall, the combination is stronger than either of the two ingredients alone. And now for the terminology. The problem with "hybrid CDs" is that the term also is used to mean multiplatform discs that run on PCs and Macs or Unix machines. Author-once is good for describing the process of publishing the same material on a CD and the Web in parallel, but does not necessarily involve the concept of connectivity. Intel has proposed "connected CDs" as a way to describe discs that are designed to hook up to the Web. John Barker, editor of Inside Multimedia, has proposed "Web CD." But some discs used on-line are not connected to the Web but directly to a bulletin board or other type of service. InfoTech, a Woodstock, VT-based firm that monitors digital information products, predicts that the number of titles in the category will more than quadruple over the next year. The CD-ROM/Web combination promises to extend the revolution begun by each technology into new areas for both. * Judith Lamont is director of research at the Special Interest Group for CD Technologies and Applications (SIGCAT) Foundation, 703-435-5200 or 74602.3417@compuserve.com.
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