Interactive Television 1996

The University of Edinburgh

3-5 September 1996

The Organising Committee welcomes you to Edinburgh and to the University. We

hope you will join with us in making i-TV’96 a stimulating, profitable and enjoyable

event.

The ConferenceThe First Day: 3rd September 1996

Chair: Professor Laver, Vice -Principal, University of Edinburgh

9:05 Conference Introduction Gus Macdonald, Chairman, Scottish Television

9.20 Winky Dink To Stargazer: Five Decades Of Interactive Television John Carey, Director of Greystone Communications

10.00 The Business Case for Interactive TelevisionBen Andradi, Associate Partner, Andersen Consulting

10.40 Break

11.15 Redefining Television in the Age of Interactivity and Multimedia Moses Znaimer, City tv (Canada), with Josh Raphaelson, City

Interactive

12.00 Commerce, Communications, Change - How the Internet will affect them

Mark Kvamme, President and CEO, CKS Group

12.45-2:15 Lunch and Exhibition , UnivEd Conference Centre

14.15 Investment Perspectives in New Media for the Coming Decade David Potter, Group Chief Executive of Guinness Mahon Holdings

15.00 Managing Information in Convergence Rob Bruce, Marketing Manger, Oracle

15.40 Break

16.00 Broadcasting in the Age of Digital TechnologyLord Inglewood, Parliamentary Under-secretary,

Department of National Heritagevideolink courtesy of BT

16.30 The Myth of the Information AgeMr Michael Schrage

17.00 Panel Session

19.00 Conference Reception by Deputy Lord Provost, UnivEd

Venue A - David Hume TowerVenue B - Newhaven Theatre, UnivEdVenue C - Cramond Room, UnivEdVenue D - Senate Room, Old College

Second Day: 4th September 1996

8:45 PLENARY - VENUE A, David Hume TowerIntroduction, Bill Furness, National Manager Scotland, BT

9.00 Technology of the interactive age: trials at the cutting edge of Euro-

pean development Michele Morganti, Director of Central Research Laboratories, Italtel

9:30 Exhibition, coffee. Chaplaincy Centre10:30-17:30 Presentation Workshops

13:00-14:30 Lunch, UnivEdBreaks will be taken in the morning and afternoon

CHANNEL ONE - VENUE C, Cramond Room, UnivEdAdvanced Media Products: The Home, Users and Audiences

Chair Professor Roger Silverstone, University of Sussex

Prof. James Lull, University of San Jose, California, John Carey, Director of Greystone Communications

Sybille Meyer, BIS, Berlin Randy Carr, AC. Nielsen, CanadaSheila Byfield, Ogilvy and Mather

Prof. Ian Miles, PREST, University of Manchester

CHANNEL 2 - VENUE A, David Hume TowerSystems and Architectures in the Marketplace

Chair: Prof. Mervyn Jack, University of Edinburgh

David Wachob, MD, WorldGate CommunicationsMario Santinoli, Technical Director of El Periódico de Catalunya

Tim Caspell, European Project Manager, Acorn Risc TechnologiesManfred Weiss, Project Manager, Alcatel Stuttgart Trial

Tom Vedel, MD, ITE , DenmarkSteve Glagow, Silicon Graphics, Inc

Donald Emslie, Scottish TV

CHANNEL 3- VENUE B, Newhaven Theatre, UnivEd

Creating and Implementing New Media VocabulariesChair: Mr Colin Cameron, Head of Television, BBC Scotland

Robin Mudge, BBC Multimedia CentreGreg Roach, Hyperbole Studios, USA

Rosa Frietag, i-TV developerChris Crawford, Video Game Guru

Adam Wishart, BBCDavid Tafler, Muhlenburg College,

Roderic Leigh, MD, Valkeiser New Media Publishing Josh Raphaelson, City Interactive, Canada

Jon Drori, BBC Education

CHANNEL 4 - VENUE D, Senate Room, Old College Interactive Television: Investment, Regulation and Education

Chair: Prof. Luc Soete

Robert Downes, Director, Scottish Enterprise Michel Coomans, EC DG III

Jörgen Kleist, Project Manager, Stockholm ChallengeLars Rådh, Vice-Major of Stockholm,

Luc Soete, MERIT and Chairman of the EC High Level Expert Group on the Information Society

David Rushton, Director of Institute of Local TVJeannette Steamers, University of Luton

Prof. Paul Walton, Thames Valley UniversityDr Richard Collins, Institute for Public Policy Research, LSE

18:00 PLENARY - VENUE A, David Hume Tower Television Enters the Digital Age

Chair: Ben Andradiincluding John Killian, CEO Nynex; Ross Fitzgerald, VP TeleWest; Bob

Foster, BT Products; Dr Richard Collin, LSE

20:00 Conference Banquet, The Playfair Library, Old Collegesupported by Voice and Oracle

Third Day: 5th September 1996

PLENARY - VENUE A, David Hume Tower8:45 Introduction Ross Fitzgerald, VP Multimedia, Telewest

9:00 Dr Bob Glass, Technical Director, Advanced Products, Sun Mi-

crosystems :“Our Imagination Circuit: The Future is Joy of Use”

9:30 Exhibition and Coffee10:30-5:30 Presentation Workshops

13:00-14:30 Lunch and Exhibition

CHANNEL 5 - VENUE B, Newhaven Theatre, UnivEd User Centredness: Designing with Users in Mind

Chair: Dr Bob Glass, Sun

Mark Heyer, Heyertech, California Franz Koller, Frauenhofer Institute, StuttgartKaren Bedard, Hyundai America, California

Colin Phillips, Advanced Technology Division, SonyBrian Green, BT,

Andrew Wolffsohn, Nick Lodge, ITC Paul Rankin, Senior Principal Scientist, Philips Research Labs

CHANNEL 6- VENUE C, Cramond Room, UnivEdCooperation, Climates and Cultures

Chair Prof Martin Fransman, University of Edinburgh

Alec Livingstone, BT Interactive services Simon Brookes, Online Media, Acorn

Dr Gerhard Fuchs, CTA, Stuttgat Dr Simon Collinson, University of Edinburgh

Stephen Chen, Multimedia Centre, City University Business School, Paul McCarthey, Digital Media Research and Design, Australia

Geoff Vincent, Founder Director of Mediation, De Brouwer, MD, Riverland, Belgium

CHANNEL 7 - VENUE A, David Hume TowerMaking the Everyday Interactive: Changing Users and Uses

Chair: Phil Dwyer, editor, New Media Age

Jens Jensen, Dept. of Communications, Aalborg University Budd Margolis, MIT Consulting

Prof. Denis McQuail, University of Amsterdam David Ball, Bank of Scotland

Simon Cornwell, MD Two Way TV John Ibbotson, IBM

Leda Guidi, IPERBOLE, BolognaFelix van Rijn, Hogeschool van Amsterdam

Demonstration of the HERMES telemedecine project

CHANNEL 8 - VENUE D, Senate Room, Old College Investment in Technology and the market :

Making Change Pay Chair: Mr Michael Schrage

Isabel Tibbitts, BT Corporate Strategy Chuck Gafert, Discovery Channel Interactive

Bill Smith International Marketing Manager, NTN Communications Inc. Jonathon Hart, CEO, CIMS

Lawrence Lawson , Marketing Director, Teletext LtdEdward Boyd, Young and Rubicam, CanadaJeremy Swinfen-Green, Carat New Media

Ajaz Ahmed, Akqa

17:30 PLENARY - VENUE A, David Hume TowerConclusions

Chair: Ross Fitzgerald, Telewest

18:00 CLOSE

The Exhibition

The Chaplaincy Centre

Presented with the assistance of TeleWest

The Exhibition will be open to the delegates, press and public at the following times

T u e s d a y 1 p m - 6 p mW e d n e s d a y 9 : 3 0 - 6 p mT h u r s d a y 9 : 3 0 - 4 p m

The Conference is accompanied by a select exhibition of in-teractive television and new domestic and personal media

Exhibitors

Silicon GraphicsWileys Publishing

Concurrent Computer CorporationCity tvVoice

The ScotsmanTwo Way TV

Acorn Risc TechnologiesOnline Media

DolphinWorldgate Communications

Organising Committee

i-TV’96 was organised by members of TechMaPP - the Technology Management and Policy Programme in collaboration with UnivEd.

Derek Nicoll - Principal Conference Organiser

James Stewart - Conference Secretary

Alfonso Molina - Organising Chairman

Peter Niven - UnivEd Technologies - Conference Manager

Advisors to i-TV’96

The Organising Committee would like to thank the following people for their support and advice:

Ian Leslie, Director Interactive Services, TeleWestRobert Beattie, IBM

Rosa FreitagBen Andradi

Monique van Dusseldorp, European Institute for the MediaJohn Carey

Gerhad FuchsJonathon Hart, CIMS (Voice)

John Matthews, OvumBudd Margolis

Simon CollinsonProf Mervyn Jack

Many thanks also to Jane Ford, Ken Tomery, David Prentice, Sara Kuss-maul and the all those who helped in the iTV Hothouse

Supporting Institutions

iTV’96 has been made possible with the support of

TeleWest Communications LtdOracle CorpSilicon Graphics IncVoice EngineeringBTThe ScotsmanThe City of EdinburghLothian and Edinburgh Enterprise LtdWest Lothian Council

Scottish EnterpriseScotland EuropaScottish Financial EnterpriseDTI Information Society InitiativeEdinburgh Telematics PartnershipEuropean Commission DG III (Industry)Interactive Media Association of Scotland

The Speakers

DAY 1 PLENARY

CHAIR: PROFESSOR LAVER, VICE-PRINCIPAL, UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

Professor John Laver is Vice-Principal (Research) of the University of Edin-burgh. Professor Laver holds a Personal Chair in Phonetics and a part-time appointment in the University of California, and at Macquarie University Sydney. He was the founding Director of the Centre for Speech Technol-ogy Research (CSTR) at The University of Edinburgh. Professor Laver has published widely in phonetics, speech science and speech technology. He has been a senior member of many associations in the field of phonetics and acoustics. Professor Laver has acted as the Chairman of the Inter-national Organising Committees of five major international conferences and symposia in speech science and technology. He has also frequently acted as a consultant on strategic aspects of speech technology for the European Commission and for many national and international information technology companies. He is currently the Chairman of the Engineering Sciences Panel of the European Commission’s programme for Training and Mobility of Researchers.

9:00 GUS MACDONALD, CHAIRMAN OF SCOTTISH TVConference Introduction

Angus (Gus) Macdonald became Chairman of Scottish Television in May 1996, 40 years after he started his working life as an apprentice fitter in the Clyde Shipyards. His journey from shipyard to the boardroom of Scottish Television has enhanced British journalism and television. In the 1960’s he worked for the Scotsman and edited the Financial Scotsman. He became editor and executive producer of Granada Television’s World In Action, winning a BAFTA award for Best Factual Series in 1973. Mr Macdonald covered party conferences for ITV and became viewers’ ombudsman on

Right to Reply. As MD of Scottish Television, Gus led the team which won the Channel 3 franchise - his strategy was the envy of many ITV companies. His planning has doubled STV’s output regionally to 1000 local hours. In 1993 he became first Chairman of the ITV Broadcast Board with a budget of £360m. He founded the Edinburgh International Television Festival in 1975 and chaired the Edinburgh Film Festival 1993-96. Scottish Television’s network programme production subsidiary is a major supplier of drama and children’s programmes and produces TV films for the US company Halmark. Gus is also Governor of the National Film and Television School, and visiting Professor at Stirling University, Film and Media Studies and Vice President of the Royal Television Society.

9.15 JOHN CAREY, DIRECTOR OF GREYSTONE COMMUNICA-TIONSWinky Dink To Stargazer: Five Decades Of Interactive Television

John Carey is a director of Greystone Communications, a telecommuni-cations research and planning firm. He is also consultant to the Freedom Forum Media Studies Centre at Columbia University and an Affiliated Research Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information. John is the world’s leading researcher of interactive television systems. He has over thirty years experience of researching interactive television systems and trials (he has recently had a paper re-published from 1985 which offered a 10 year retrospective of an i-TV trial in Reading, Pennsylvania). He has recently worked for AT&T and carried out an Ethnographic study of i-TV use in Chicago.

AbstractTreatments of interactive television (ITV) in the popular press could easily lead readers to think that it is an entirely new phenomenon or, indeed, that it has yet to arrive on the scene. However, ITV has been tested in the marketplace under various guises in each decade since the 1950s. Our lack of historical perspective is unfortunate because there are many clues in the history of interactive television trials and services about what con-sumers want from ITV along with many lessons about how to overcome technological and marketplace obstacles. This presentation offers a review of ITV projects and services beginning in 1953. It provides an annotated

history, drawing lessons about content, pricing, consumer appeal and user interfaces. No claim is made that the review is comprehensive. There are admitted gaps, particularly in covering European experiences with ITV. The presentation discusses an early ITV program, Winky Dink and You, during the 1950s; the introduction of videotelephones in the 1960s; two-way TV projects for health care and social services in the 1970s, along with the Qube interactive cable service in Columbus, Ohio; interactive game and text channels in the 1980s along with low-end educational applications of interactive television; and, the many trials and ITV services during the 1990s that have been provided via cable, telephone networks and hybrid transmission systems. Slides of many ITV services along with a videotape of the Qube system are used to illustrate the presentation.

10.00 BEN ANDRADI, ASSOCIATE PARTNER, ANDERSEN CONSULTINGThe Business Case for Interactive Television

Ben Andradi is an Associate Partner with Anderson Consulting and has done extensive work within the telecommunications industry on increasing penetration, usage and reducing churn. Involved with this was the develop-ment of a new delivery channel concept using multimedia technologies for business and residential markets. Andersen Consulting has been directly involved in many of the world’s iTV trials as well as advising on the devel-opment of digital broadcasting and Internet services to business.

This presentation will first discuss the different types of interactive tech-nologies - cable based, satellite based, Internet based etc. It will then look at the key components of the business case:• How to estimate the key revenue drivers• How to estimate the key cost and investment areas (e.g. network costs, set top boxes etc.)• Key investment dependencies that have material impact on the busi-ness case• Impact of terminal value

Ben will conclude that intermediate technologies from broadcasting and computer networks are likely to be very successful in the short to medium term and will have considerably more business impact than more techni-

cally advanced integrated systems.

11.15 MOSES ZNAIMER and Josh Raphaelson, CITY TV (CANADA)Redefining Television in the Age of Interactivity and Multime-dia

Moses Znaimer is Co-Founder, President and Executive Producer of Toron-to’s radical and popular independent television station Citytv/MuchMusic/Bravo! , including Citytv, MuchMusic, and MusiquePlus, Canada’s Satellite & CableTV Music stations in English and French and Bravo! Canada’s arts and culture channel. “The problem is not too much television, the problem is too much of the same television.” Moses is known to the Canadian arts and business communities for having brought an original drive in television and allied communications arts into a comfortable alignment with the practi-cal demands of commerce. He is known to the international broadcasting community for his innovation, the participatory and interactive Streetfront Studio-Less Television Operating System. Components of ZnaimerVision have achieved widespread recognition on their own: Videography has transformed the economics and aesthetics of television news gathering; “Speakers Corner” has been heralded as the first effective electronic parallel to the “letter to the editor”. The Building that shoots itself re-invents the television channel as perpetual performance and demystifies the television process in a way that’s important for the democratisation of the medium. Born in Kulab, Tajikistan, he arrived in Montreal as a post war DP. His formal education was completed at McGill (Honours B.A.) and Harvard (M.A.) Universities.

Moses will speak by video, with an introduction by Josh Raphaelson, Manager of City Interactive

City TV are integrating new technologies into the highly successful Citytv formatwhich is based on ‘fun’. The station has launched City Interactive, which is profitable channel in itself, but integrates with the programming on the other channels, extending the involvement of the audience and the community with the continuing unfolding of the Citytv experience. Localisation is key to Citytv’s success, and the stations in Tronto and

elsewhere in the world use new and old technology to considerable effect in building and maintaining strong audiences.

12.00 MARK KVAMME, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CKS GROUP, CALIFORNIACommerce, Communications, Change - How the Internet Will Affect Them

Under Mark Kvamme’s leadership, CKS Partners has grown into the largest integrated marketing services firm in Silicon Valley with award-winning crea-tive talent and capitalised billings in excess of $130 million. Kvamme began his career as a programmer at Apple Computer, while still a University of California-Berkeley student studying economics and French literature. He was a founding member of Apple France, progressing to international product manager in the United States, where he successfully launched the Apple IIe and IIc in six European countries and Australia. After departing Apple, Kvamme founded and served as president and CEO of International Solutions, a global distributor of hardware and software products. He later served as director of international marketing for Wyse Technology, a terminal and PC clone manufacturer.

Interactive media, currently based on the Internet delivery system, are a significant developing in the advertsing and selling of products and services. 25% of all advertsing spending will be on interactive promotion that deliv-ers personal information on product needs to the customer and enables the development of relationship marketing. Interactive technologies are not just an add-on, but have become an integral and necessary part of the marketing systems that CKS develop. These integrate all aspects of company’s relationship with the customer, from research and advertsing

to aftersales support.

14.15 DAVID POTTER, GUINNESS MAHON HOLDINGSInvestment Perspectives in New Media for the Coming Decade

David Potter is Group Chief Executive of Guinness Mahon Holdings and Chairman and Chief Executive of Guinness Mahon & Co. Ltd. Guin-ness Mahon specialise in media finance, providing services and finance for the film and television industry. David graduated from University College Oxford and started his career in the City. From 1981 he was MD of Samuel Montagu and during that period was Chief Executive of Midland Montagu Corporate Banking. His career has spanned money market and foreign exchange trading, corporate finance and banking, interaction capital markets and investment management. Other interests include Governor of the United Medical and Dental Schools and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. David aims to make Guinness Mahon the leading bank in the field of new media.

15.00 ROB BRUCE, MARKETING MANAGER, ORACLE Managing Information in Convergence

Oracle are a leading developer and supplier of database and datamanage-ment software, possible the most crucial part of the technology of the ‘information age’. Oracle have most recently been associated with the vision of the Networked Computer (NC) which would make interactive networked services accessible to the general population at home.

16.00 LORD INGLEWOOD, PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL HERITAGE Broadcasting in the Age of Digital Technology

Live Video Link to The Dept of National Heritage

16.30 MR. MICHAEL SCHRAGEThe Myth of the Information Age

Michael Schrage both writes and consults on the ways technology reshapes how people interact. He explores new media design issues as a research associate at the MIT Sloan School’s Center for Coordination Science and the MIT Media Lab. Schrage’s ongoing research focuses on the design of prototypes, collaborative tools and environments to support innovation. He works closely with several professional service firms in these areas. In addition, he writes the weekly ‘’Innovation’’ column for the Los Angeles Times; the ‘’Counter-Information’’ column for ComputerWorld; and a column on the future of commercial media for AdWeek. He has also writ-ten for the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review and Wired magazine (WIRED 2.02: Is Advertising Finally Dead? AdViruses, digimercials, and memgraphics: The future of advertising is the future of media). He is the author of No More Teams (1995), and Shared Minds(1990) which look at collaboration and collaborative media. He has recently contributed to Terry Winograd’s book Bringing Design to Software entitled ‘Cultures of Prototyping’. Michael brings strong an controversial ideas to business and academic research and is an eloquentproponent of the importance of relationships in understanding technology use.

In ‘Schrage’s Law’ relationships are the key to understanding and develop-ing new media technologies. People do not want information, they want communication, with friends, colleagues, government, retailers etc. 19

Second Day: 4th September 1996

PLENARY

BILL FURNESS, NATIONAL MANAGER SCOTLAND, BTBill, who is based in Edinburgh, originally trained as an occupational psy-chologist. He has spent much of his senior management career in Scotland, as General Manager in Aberdeen and the East of Scotland district. He has also served as Head of Executive Development and Resourcing for the BT group. More recently Bill has been based in Brussels in a senior position with the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) -set up by 14 of Europe’s largest companies including BT, and known for organising the prestigious European Quality Award. He has also been responsible for BT’s corporate management development policies.

Interactive Technology at the Cutting Edge of European Development

MICHELE MORGANTI

Michele Morganti is Director of Central Research Laboratories at Italtel, Italy’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer and one of the leading iTV technology companies in Europe. His responsibilities include all advanced and collaborative research projects (particularly within the frame-work of European Union RTD Programmes RACE/ACTS, Telematics and ESPRIT) and standardisation activities in the field of Broad-Band Networks and Interactive Multi-Media Services. This includes leadership of the ACTS-AMUSE Project that by the end of the year will have activated IMM field trials in seven different European Countries, and of the ACTS-EURORIM “Chain” Project aimed at supporting ACTS concertation (common guide-lines, analysis and comparison of field trial data, contributions to standards, etc.) in the IMM domain. Michele Morganti is currently a member of the Steering Committee of the European Information Technology Industrial Round Table and of the ACTS Concertation Steering Committee. He is also Co-chair of the Program Committee of ECMAST’97 (2nd European Conference on Multimedia Applications, Services and Techniques). Michele Morganti graduated from the Politecnico di Milano. He is an active member of the IEEE Computers and Communications Societies and of IFIP WG 10.4 He has authored and co-authored over 30 papers on various aspects of advanced telecommunications services and networks.

CHANNEL ONE Advanced Media Products: The Home, Users and

Audiences

CHAIR: PROFESSOR ROGER SILVERSTONE, UNIVERSITY OF SUS-SEX

Roger Silverstone is regarded as one of the leading authorities on technol-ogy and media in the home. He is Professor of Media Studies and director of the Graduate Research Centre in Culture and Communications at the University of Sussex. Educated at Oxford and the LSE he was until 1991 Reader in Sociology and Director of the Centre for Research into Innovation, Culture and Technology at Brunel University. His research on information and communications technologies in everyday life has been funded by the ESRC and by the EU. His recent books include Television and everyday life (1994), Consuming Technologies: Media and Information in Domestic Spaces (1992, edited with Eric Hirsch), Communication by Design: The Politics of Information and Communication Technologies (ed-ited with Robin Mansell). His book, Visions of Suburbia, will be published in November 1996. Roger is co-ordinator of EMTEL, The European Media, Technology and Everyday Life Network.

PROF. JAMES LULL, SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIADomestication of New Communication Technologies from a Cultural Perspective

Prof. James Lull is a communications researcher, writer, and broad-caster and is currently Professor of Radio-Television-Film at the San Jose State University, California. He is editor of Popular music and Communication (Sage) and is widely renowned in the field of television ethnography. He has conducted research in many cultures and climates and brings a unique insight into the role of media in families and soci-ety. His books include World Families Watch TV (editor, 1988), Media, Communication, Culture: A Global Approach (1995), Inside Family Viewing: Ethnographic Research on Television’s Audiences (1990), and China Turned on: Television, Reform and Resistance (1991). James will speak about the significance of media in the home and in dif-

ferent cultural contexts. He will illustrate his talk with examples drawn from Brazil, where the soap opera is a particularly powerful and impor-tant media form, and the development of audience interaction around soaps and dramaticised news events.

PROF. IAN MILES, PREST, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTERCyberspace and Product Space: Interactive Learning about Interactive Media

Prof. Ian Miles is Professor of Technological Innovation and Social Change and Executive Director of PREST, The Institute for Policy Research in Engineering, Science and Technology at Manchester University. Ian gradu-ated in psychology and after 18 years at the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University he joined PREST in 1990. His research interests are broad, as are the range of methodologies he applies. Much of his work on technological innovation has concerned new information technologies, and he has been particularly interested in service industries as users and sources of innovation. Other interests include the evaluation of social science and environmental research programmes, social indicators and forecasting methods (he is Consulting Editor to Futures). Ian has had many sponsors for his work, including the UK & foreign government depart-ments, international organisations (e.g. the EC, World Bank) and private companies (e.g. BT, Royal Mail). As well as producing numerous reports, he has written around one hundred journal articles and book chapters, and authored and co-authored twelve books, and co-edited three.

AbstractNew products require a period of interactive learning, with learning both on the part of suppliers and users as to quite how what is on offer and what is desired are to be reconciled. This paper will take the examples of interactive media such as videotex, audiotext and CD-based multimedia to consider how this process unfolds when the products are themselves interactive ones. It will put this in the context of emerging themes of evolutionary economics — the phenomenon can best be examined as a matter of coevolution — and seek to suggest implications for iTV.Essentially, the paper will argue for a variety of designs to be experimented with, and for suppliers and users to recognise that we are here seeing only an early stepping stone towards a virtual world.

Ian MilesIan Miles@man.ac.ukhttp://www.man.ac.uk/Economics/PREST

JOHN CAREY, DIRECTOR OF GREYSTONE COMMUNICATIONSAn Ethnographic Study of Interactive Television

John Carey is a director of Greystone Communications, a telecommuni-cations research and planning firm. He is also consultant to the Freedom Forum Media Studies Centre at Columbia University and an Affiliated Research Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information. John is the world’s leading researcher of interactive television systems. He has over thirty years experience of researching interactive television systems and trials (he has recently had a paper re-published from 1985 which of-fered a 10 year retrospective of i-TV use in Reading, Pennsylvania). He has recently worked for AT&T and carried out an ethnographic study of i-TV use in Chicago. John will share with us his view of the industry over the years and present the first public airing of the findings of the AT&T’s Chicago trial research.

AbstractThis paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of interactive television (ITV) in Chicago. ITV users were observed in the natural settings where they watched regular TV and used ITV. An audio recording was made of user comments and still photographs were taken of each user as well as the setting where ITV was used. In addition, selected characteristics of the setting such as TV screen size, age of the TV and seating distance from the TV were noted.The ITV services included games, news, weather, sports, shopping, music and entertainment reviews, children’s content and consumer information. Much of the content changed daily. It also contained communication features such as opinion polling and messaging. Findings from the ethnographic study included general patterns of using TV in households and how this affects the use of ITV as well as usage of the ITV service itself. This presentation discusses: how viewers with deep-seated habits of watching regular television adjust to ITV; individual and group use of ITV; how current patterns of using remote control devices by males and females affect the use of ITV input devices; differences in session length and patterns of browsing ITV vs. regular TV; problems en-countered in trying to figure out how to interact with television; the use

of communication services within ITV and issues associated with typing messages for an ITV service; the appeal of different types of content and the integration of gaming with information services; and, the emergence of a new metaphor for the ITV experience.RANDY CARR, ACNIELSEN, CANADAPredicting the Response of Consumers to Interactive Television

The ACNielsen company created the media audience measurement indus-try, and has set the gold standard for over fifty years. Arthur C. Nielsen Sr. first started to measure the size of television audiences in the United States in the 1940s. Since then, the company has expanded its media measurement activities around the globe, and has been at the forefront of audience measurement of all new successful media. For those new media that have been introduced over the years, and have successfully drawn advertisers, the ACNielsen audience measurement information has been a critical factor in refining the media, and allowing advertisers to identify their business opportunities. Randy Carr has been with ACNielsen Canada for eighteen years, and has held various management positions within the company. Currently he is the Vice President in charge of Interactive Services, where he has been focusing on the development of audience measurement of the World Wide Web and other New Media for the use of North American advertisers.

AbstractA critical debate about interactive television concerns the engineering of the product. Which technologies will emerge as the standard?

Although the engineering is a key factor to the success of the interactive television industry, no less critical is the level of consumer interest in the final product. Is there sufficient interest? And is there sufficient interest to sustain a profitable revenue model?Looking at today’s interactive television consumer, what are their expec-tations? What are their interests? What are their hot buttons? What are their attitudes towards the anticipated applications of interactive televi-sion? What is going on in their lives that would influence their reaction to interactive television? What can we learn about today’s consumer? Similarly, what can we learn about today’s advertiser? It is anticipated that advertisers will be a key revenue source of any successful interactive television business model. What are their expectations? What are their

interests? As goes the consumer, so follows the advertiser.

Let’s look at today’s consumer. We’re all aware of the general demographic trends — aging baby boomers, generation X-ers, technological materialism (TVs, VCRs, microwave ovens, portable phones, PCs), etc.One thing that is impacting the lives of consumers is the World Wide Web. More people are using the Web. And users are using the Web more and more. Everybody is being influenced by it, either directly or indirectly — directly through their own use of the Web, or indirectly through the extensive media coverage of the Internet. Because there is some overlap in functionality between interactive television and the Web, the consumer attitudes being shaped today by the Web will have an influence on consumer perceptions about interactive television today and tomorrow.So, by reviewing consumers’ experience with the Web, we can better predict consumers’ response to interactive television.

The Internet is becoming “mainstream,” increasing the likelihood that Web-created consumer attitudes will be widely held.Interactive television will be influenced by Web-driven consumer at-titudes, The Web is becoming an attractive channel for advertisersThe Web is

- attracting affluent consumers- raising the “consumer expectations” bar regarding interactive television- creating competition for some of the interactive television applications- consuming consumer leisure time- attracting advertising dollars

Consumers’ experience with the World Wide Web is shaping their at-titude towards interactive television. So look to the Web for learnings.Randy CarrACNeilsen

Canadarcarr@istar.ca

SYBILLE MEYER, BIS, BERLIN Acceptance of ICTs in the Home - An Indicator of Future Adoption of iTV?

Sybille Meyer is director of the BIS (Berlin Institute of Social Research), Germany. Since 1985 Sybille Meyer has been concentrating her research on the coherence of social change and the development of everyday life. Her expertise covers the long term development of changing technology, usage patterns and acceptance in difference types of households. She is an expert in the current developments in Germany and participates in several national and international research networks. The BIS is a private organisation which is funded exclusively through research funds. One of the main research areas of BIS is Technology in the Household and Family. Recent research projects include Long term change of technology use in families and households, Acceptance of technology in private households: changes and con-tinuities; and European comparisons of technology use in private households.

AbstractThe first part of her contribution will concentrate on theoretical considera-tions regarding the term ‘acceptance’. Different approaches in studying this topic will be explained and the empirical validity of the existing data will be discussed. Following this our concept of acceptance will be presented, as a concept defined not only as an attitude towards technology, but as an indicator made up of several variables (e.g. attitudinal and behavioural).The second part shall deal with empirical results concerning the acceptance of ICT in the home and will focus on the longitudial study we have done in Germany. The data do not support claims that Germans are increasingly averse to technology, but that there is greater acceptance of ICT in the home. One of the most striking results of this study is the unproportional rise in technological acceptance among women.Last but not least we will discuss the meaning of our results for the as-sessment of the adoption of iTV. In our opinion the acceptance of iTV will depend on the employment of this technology by the users. According to this approach, criteria of technology acceptance should be discussed. Our data show that at the top of their agenda women stress the reduc-tion of physical burden, the increase of flexibility, and the minimalisation of time spent performing housework. These enduring female hopes for

new technologies will be discussed, in the context of what iTV could mean for the near future.

Sybille Meyerituf0233@mailszrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de

SHEILA BYFIELD, OGILVY & MATHERResearching the Future of Communications in the UK

Sheila Byfield is Media Development Director of the Ogilvy media company where she has responsibility for ongoing and bespoke research across Europe. Ogilvy and Mather have been exploring consumer reactions to new media and emerging technologies for two years. The latest study in the series is futura.com being conducted in partnership with the University of Leeds and the ITC. Conducted from a continuous panel of over 9000 people over three years, futura.com is studying the changes in society and the impact of media, communications and technologies on personal and social behaviour. Sheila previously worked in commercial television busi-ness development and research.

AbstractTo say that the world we live in has changed is a gross understatement. A new set of social conditions has emerged since the sixties, which in some respects was a catalyst, and these have profoundly altered the way in which most people live and see their lives.The individualistic society which began to take hold in the sixties has evolved into a world of rapidly increasing consumer choice resulting in the breakdown of some old values. Whereas once people were happy to live with the consequences of limited choice, now they expect a lifestyle packed full of the tools which enable freedom, flexibility and convenience. Everything nowadays, including government and even an institution as old as the royal family, has to justify itself and be accountable in order to gain public acceptance. People do not just passively accept what they are given without comment or action.The central questions that need to be asked concern the ways in which people construct social relationships in an informationalised society - a society where communication and technology are increasingly becoming the basis of social interaction and personal behaviour. There is a distinct likelihood that new forms of social division will begin to emerge: the in-

formation rich and the information poor. For some - possible older and poorer - those enabling concepts and gateways which allow one into the information world are alien and poorly understood barriers. For others - especially the young - electronic technology and its associated jargon and processes are becoming part of their everyday understanding of how the world operates.

Undoubtedly there is a need for us - both from the academic and com-mercial standpoints - to understand what is happening and where things are going. This paper sets out the rationale and approach which has been adopted in a major longitudinal study of the United Kingdom in a time of change. futura.com, conducted by the University of Leeds together with the Independent Television Commission and Ogilvy and Mather, will address these fundamental issues and the impact which their answers have. It will build a highly detailed picture over time of the public’s opinions, values and behaviour and the ways they interrelate with the changing physical world; an analysis of Britain at the end of the 20th century.

CHANNEL 2 Systems and Architectures in the marketplace

CHAIR: PROF. MERVYN JACK, UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

Prof. Mervyn Jack is Director of the Centre for Communication Interface Research (CCIR), and Professor of Electronic Systems at the University of Edinburgh. CCIR is a major research unit developing commercial applica-tions of telephone-based voice systems, Internet and Interactive television for the mass market. CCIR specialises in dialogue engineering and usability engineering, and projects are supported by major companies from across the banking, media and technology sectors. His research interests span all of the domains of speech technology including speech recognition, speech synthesis, speaker verification and dialogue engineering. He is author of over 140 papers and three textbooks. Professor Jack is a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (London) and a Fellow of the Institute of Acoustics.

DAVID WACHOB, MD, WORLDGATE COMMUNICATIONSInternet Access Without a PC: TV Online

Dave Wachob is Vice-President and General Manager of WorldGate Communications. WorldGate, based in Philadelphia, was established by Hal Krisbergh, former President of the Communications Division of General Instrument. WorldGate provides broad consumer access to the Internet, without a PC, high speed modem or channel capacity through the CATV platform with existing set-top converter boxes. Dave was President of Network Resources, a telecommunications consulting company, From 1984-1991, Dave was involved with the CATV industry as Director of Advanced Technologies for the Jerrold Division of General Instrument. Prior to that, Dave worked in the Communications Division of Motorola from 1977-1984, designing and manufacturing pagers and two-way radio equipment. Dave has a BSEE, a master’s degree in electrical engineering and an MBA in international business. Dave currently holds 10 patents and has published numerous papers.

AbstractThe paper will detail a revolutionary new interactive TV service, TV-Online

“TVOL” recently introduced by WorldGate Communications in the U.S., and demonstrated publicly at the NCTA (National Cable TV Association) Show in LA. TVOL uses the existing set-top terminal in the home to provide affordable, universal Internet access to a TV through the CATV network, without the need for a PC, modem or additional Internet ap-pliance. At speeds 3 times faster than telephone modems, TVOL also provides E-mail, Chat, Newsgroups and a variety of information offerings. WorldGate’s efforts are directed by Hal Krisbergh, former President of Gerneral Instrument’s Communications Division.Many “divergent” approaches have been tried and developed over the years, in an effort to bring about multimedia “convergence” for interactive TV. The efforts have met with varying degrees of success in the marketplace, for numerous reasons, including lack of content, poorly performing tech-nology, inadequate human interface or improper pricing considerations. All the efforts none the less have contributed to the interactive learning experience. Is from this learning that the TVOL system was developed.In creating TVOL, criteria were established for each key parameter, to optimize the products’ chance for success, and create a revolutionary approach to the interactive TV experience. As content availability was established as a critical success factor, it was decided early on that the system would provide direct connection to the Internet, to make use of all the material accessible through the “web”. Use of the Internet was also established for another reason. Nothing in modern times has evolved so quickly, explosively and universally as the Internet, that it is clear that its use and availability is more than just a reference medium for academia. It will be the way we access information, communicate with each other and provide entertainment worldwide.Economic considerations were another key success parameter, not only in terms of a monthly service charge, but also the hardware costs in the home and the infrastructure to provide the service. Additionally, opera-tional costs needed to be minimized if TVOL was to achieve widespread availability. Accordingly, the existing CATV platform, not only the distribu-tion system, but also the existing subscriber converter base were chosen to leverage existing infrastructure to minimize all costs.Ease of use for the subscriber and general availability were also very im-portant in developing the system. Many previous attempts at interactivity required a degree of technical sophistication available to only a few. The goal of TVOL was to provide an easy to understand user interface, in an environment familiar to many. As such, a TV platform selected for the user platform, rather than a PC or stand alone based system, with a TV specific

human interface developed.The paper will elaborate all the above considerations in detail, as well as provide a complete technical overview of the system’s design and imple-mentation. Consumer research results will be shared, as well as TVOL’s general acceptance into the business and political community. Samples screens for the user interface will be described and presented, including a demonstration if appropriate. Social elements of the service will also be detailed, to provide a complete understanding of what impact the serv-ice might have on society. Commercial ramifications for the advertising community will also be addressed, through a unique approach to linking TV commercial advertisements to Internet content. Finally, international deployment and availability outside the U.S. will be discussed, and a time-table presented.

Dave Wachob WorldGate Communications

MARIO SANTINOLI, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR OF EL PERIODICO DE CATALUNYATIM CASPELL, EUROPEAN PROJECT MANAGER, ACORN RISC TECHNOLOGIESNewsPad

Mario Santinoli is Technical Director of new technologies in the Prensa Diaria division of Grupo Zeta, with responsibility for El Periódico de Cat-alunya, La Voz de Asturias, Sport, el Periódico de Aragon, and el Periodico de Extremadura y Mediterrneo. He is currently the director of ‘NewsPAD’ an EC supported project aimed at creating a portable electronic news-paper. Mario has been technical director of Mundo Diario, Tele Express and Avui, associate professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona and is a member of the Software and Multimedia Advisory Group of the EC. He has co-authored several books on information technology for the press and communications industries. Mario Holds a Doctorate from the Politecnico de Milano.

Tim Caspell is Technical Project Manager of the OMI-NewsPAD project, a consortium which includes technology providers and a major news publishing organisation developing a ground-breaking portable multimedia newspaper. Tim Caspell is an experienced project manager with more than

15 years involvement in the management of computer systems design, development and manufacture and is now European Projects Manager of Acorn Risc Technologies, a division of the Acorn Computer Group plc. During this time he has been responsible for the overall project management of a number of successful project and product developments including the Acorn R260 Unix Workstation, the flagship A540 ARM-based personal computer system and the A4 notebook portable computer, and A4-sized machine with 12+ MIP performance. During the last three years his responsibilities have also included the control and management of all aspects of Acorn Computers’ involvement in collaborative developments within various European consortia.

AbstractNewsPad aims to provide a news dissemination system in multi-media form for the consumer market. Broadcasted information will include news, entertainment, education and advertising. Un-like other media, NewsPad will allow users to choose the news and services offered, and navigate through them at their will. More importantly, it will allow the reader to interact with the provid-ers of information thus establishing a new kind of relationship between the editors and their audience. In the long term, the information will be distributed via high bandwidth digital broad-casting, and delivered through a low cost, small size, low weight portable “multimedia set” or receiver. The receiver will be able to communicate with the information supplier through narrowband digital channels for control and specific services.

The NewsPAD project has the following ingredients:

• To define and describe the components of the multimedia news dissemination system in all their aspects (technical, market, user...). To this end, the project pays attention to the broad range of key factors and actors potentially involved in the future business of the multimedia newspaper, and is concerned with its production, dissemination and delivery (reading), as well as with advertising, telepurchasing, charg-ing, copyright and many other business-wide technical and commercial issues.

• Design and development of a notepad-like electronic device for the delivery of the multimedia news. This small, fully port-

able machine will be robust whilst remaining light in weight, and its computer architecture both hardware and software, will be optimized for accessing, loading and ‘reading’ multi-media capsules of electronic newspapers.

• Provision of a multiuser authoring environment whereby the creative personnel of the newspaper organization can rapidly compile and edit the electronic newspaper in a coordinated suite of work activities.

• Development of pilot experiments aiming to validate the system and refine strategy. Multimedia newspaper proto-types will be developed for this purpose. During pilots, real multimedia news information will be produced and delivered to a controlled audience. At this stage, the project will use suitable methods to explore and stimulate users’ perceptions and attitudes towards the new medium.

• Identification and implementation of the required technology and infrastructure for the broadcasting of the multimedia newspaper during the pilots. The project has performed a survey on available technologies for broadcasting of digital information.

• Dissemination of the required know-how and creation of the business constituency required for NewsPad to continue its development work and attempt future business in selling multimedia news information to emerging mass markets.

NewsPAD partners are deeply aware that newspapers are products ‘consumed’ by a public with a rich diversity of cultural and social demands. Therefore, technical factors alone will not determine the success of the digital newspaper. Many products designed by technologists do not realize their full potential be-cause of cultural mismatch and lack of ‘ownership’ by the ultimate users. These users may fail to see the excitement of technology developers for certain new technologies, or the technology-developers may fail to recognize or elicit users’ preferences in order to inform their development processes. This is why NewsPad places strong emphasis on the sociotechnical aspects of the overall design.For these purposes, NewsPAD uses an innovative approach in technology application projects. Its overall strategy is geared to stimulating a process of alignment among all the actors involved:

the business organizations able to exploit the technology such as publishing companies, advertising companies, service provid-ers and technology providers, and of course, the user audience. Specific tasks monitor the perceptions and attitudes of these or-ganizations and individuals towards the multimedia newspaper.NewsPad has been partly supported by the European Commission within the ESPRIT Programme, as an application project of the Open Micro-processor systems Initiative (OMI). The action is setting the foundations for a strong European participation in the multimedia news broadcasting business.

Mario Santinoli, El PeriodicoTim Caspell, Acorn

STEVE GLAGOW, SILICON GRAPHICS, INCThe Evolution of Interactive Multimedia Services

Steve Glagow is the Telecommunications Industry Manager - EU, for Silicon Graphics. Steve has been involved with several VOD trials currently con-ducted on SGI systems. Steve has been active in Interactive Multi-media for several years. Steve is formally from Sequent Computer Systems where he was responsible for the Telecom Industry segment and was actively involved in all of the VOD trials where Sequent was involved. In addition, Steve was a director at BIS Strategic Decision (GIGA) where he wrote several reports on IMM.

AbstractSilicon Graphics’ business is Networked Visual Computing, and Interactive Multimedia Services is core to what we do.In our talk at iTV 96, we will discuss our experience with Interactive TV trials around the world, including the Time Warner “Full Service Network” in Orlando Florida and the NTT trail in Japan.We will look at how the architecture effects what can be achieved, and how the rapid development in the games console market is changing expectations of what can be delivered by consumer devices.Finally, we will discuss how the rapid expansion of World Wide Web tech-nologies on the Internet and Intranets is allowing the rapid deployment and uptake of Interactive Multimedia Services in a business environment.

Steve Glagow,Telecommunications Industry Manager - EUsteveg@reading.sgi.com

MANFRED WEISS, PROJECT MANAGER, ALCATEL STUTTGART TRIALInteractive Video Services Stuttgart: Developing and managing an Interactive Television Trial

Manfred will talk about the development of an advanced interactive television trial in Baden-Wüttemberg, which will provide up to 2500 subscribers with a wide range of Multimedia services, in order to gain representative statistical data about service usage and network traffic load as well as about user acceptance under varying conditions.

Manfred WeissZFZ/SHolderäckerstr 3570499 Stuttgart

TOM VEDEL, MD, ITE, DENMARKCreation of Interactive Entertainment from Idea to Broadcast

Tom Vedel is Managing Director of Interactive Televi-sion Entertainment in Denmark. In the last 8 years ITE has supplied interactive broadcast games to tel-evision networks through out the world. The most successful product is Hugo™, which is enjoyed in over 15 countries. ITE are the world leader in production and marketing of interactive television entertainment, and have the entire production process in-house. ITE has a number of products based around its telephone based interactive technology and recently launch IM4U, a technology that seamlessly links broadcast TV with the PC and Internet.

Tom VedelInteractive Television Entertainment A/S

Jagtvej 157DK-2200 Copenhagen N-DenmarkPh. (+45) 35828299 Fax. (+45) 35828290

DONALD EMSLIE, SCOTTISH TV

Donald Emslie is commercial director or Scottish Television. Donald is re-sponsible for developing Scottish TV’s Interactive television services which will be launched in the Autumn this year. Scottish TV recently acquired Caledonian, the publishers, and developers of the City Online interactive information system.

Donald EmslieScottish Television+44 141 300 3000

CHANNEL 3 Creating and Implementing New Media

Vocabularies

CHAIR: MR. COLIN CAMERON, HEAD OF TELEVISION, BBC SCOTLAND

Colin Cameron has worked for BBC Television over 20 years in Scotland, London and Manchester and was educated in Dundee, Manchester, Glas-gow, Nairobi and London. He worked as producer/director on Everyman and Heart of the Matter and developed a strong journalistic base around Brass Tacks, On the Line and Black and White. As Head of Documentary Features in London, he initiated Have I got News for You, and powerful documentary series’ such as Inside Story, Taking Liberties, Fine Cut, Pan-dora’s Box and The Second Russian Revolution. In 1991 he returned to Scotland as Head of Television where he is responsible for over 100 hours a year of network Drama, Entertainment, Music and Arts and Children’s and for commissioning and scheduling some 750 hours of programming for Scottish audience. Recent network successes include Hamish Macbeth, Cardiac Arrest, The Gamekeeper, Fully Booked, Edinburgh Nights, Don’t Give Up your Day Job and the Oscar-winning Tartan Shorts series.

ROBIN MUDGE, BBC MULTIMEDIA CENTREScience Zone - Interactive

Robin Mudge is the Training Manager in the new BBC Multimedia Centre which is specialising in preparing television producers for work in the ‘new media’. He spent 5 years teaching in a variety of London schools and designed computer aided learning for children. He joined the BBC in 1980 and worked as a producer on the Computer literacy project. This project invented the BBC Microcomputer and introduced personal computing to the UK. Robin then joined the School Television department where he originated and produced a number of award winning programmes.

AbstractScience Zone - Interactive is an Interactive Television programme which has been made as part of the European RACE/MARS project (Research

into Advanced Communications across Europe - Multimedia Access and Retrieval Service).Science Zone - Interactive is a unique prototype product, containing almost 3 hours of full motion digital video. In the production of Science Zone - Interactive, the BBC has developed a number of new production techniques, many of which have investigated the following.

* The use of the computer as a tool in this new medium.* The role of narrative in the interactive environment.* The power of the individual to control their own viewing experience.

The BBC aims to push the standard of interactive products beyond those offered by the CD-ROM and other laser disc oriented delivery platforms into the new world of interactive television. Science Zone - Interactive uses an Intelligent Management System that builds a profile of the user as they are watching the programme. The IMS then uses this profile to ‘recut’ the main narrative of the programme, without the user being aware. In this way, each person gets a ‘bespoke’ version of the story.This presentation explains the background to the interactive programme by detailing the television series upon which the programme is based, and explains the basis on which the design decisions which have been made so far.The main part of the paper is the draft interactive storyboard for Science Zone - Interactive the distance learning application, which explains:

* the philosophy of the user interface, which is based on the world of computer games more than the world of computer applications, as this is appropriate to our target user group

*the main navigation interface which is used throughout the application*the details of the modules which make up the application, with descrip-tions of the interactive links between them

Robin MudgeBBC Multimedia Centrerobin mudge@bbc.co.uk

GREG ROACH, HYPERBOLE STUDIOS, USAStructure and Syntax in New Media Narrative

Greg Roach (MFA) is the founder, artistic director and CEO of HyperBole Studios in Seattle, USA. He is the writer and director of feature-length Vir-tualCinema movies on CD-ROM, The Vortex: Quantum Gate II, Quantum Gate and the forthcoming 10 State Spree. Roach developed the Virtual Cinema interactive film standard and an interactive film technique called Multimedia Perspective-switching. Patents are pending on both inventions. Roach came to multimedia from theatre and film where he worked as a writer, actor and director. As a film maker, he wrote, directed and de-signed the world’s first narrative interactive film - The Wrong Side of Town - the Best of Show winner at the first QuickTime Film Festival. Roach is the author of the world’s first original interactive multimedia novel - The Madness of Roland. He is the editor of the critically acclaimed HyperBole, the art of digital storytelling, a disc-based interactive storytelling magazine. An acclaimed actor, director, and author, his radio play - Horse Arms - won the Midwest Radio Theatre National Script Competition. In addition, Greg is on the faculty at San Francisco State University where he conducts interactive film seminars throughout the year. Roach is widely recognised as a leader in advancing multimedia as an art form. Amongst wide critical acclaim he has been called “The Stephen Spielberg of multimedia”, “The father of interactive movies” and as a “pioneer in the development of interactive cinema...”

AbstractMuch has been written in the past few years about the narrative potential of digital, interactive works; many feel that story-based interactive enter-tainment represents a significant new mass media category.Yet with all the talk, few examples of either successful theory or product are currently available. I would like to propose and examine a simple, straightforward way to analyze interactive narrative properties. The first step is to separate narrative structure from syntax. After that, classifica-tion and analysis becomes an easier proposition.

Structure:Basic Navigation

StructuredThe Madness of Roland

Just a Few FriendsUnstructured

Eastgate Systems titlesPerspective Switching

The Wrong Side of TownNarrative Steerage

The X-Files InteractiveSyntax:

Visual Syntax: The world of ITV is, by definition, the world of visual communication. How do we define the syntax of interac-tive visual expression?Language of Interaction: What is the grammar that we are giving to the user? How rich is the verb set with which the user can make choices?Perspective What is the relationship between viewer and mate-rial?

Immersive: is their experience inside the environment? i.e. Participatory?OR External: is the experience outside and above? i.e. Edito-rial?

Role: What role are we asking the user to assume in relation to the material? Editor, Actor or Writer?

Towards a New Synthesis: Emotional, aesthetic & character steerage with a limited form of narrative control. Almost all existing interactive properties, much less any interactive narra-tives, have concentrated on the gross externalities of the fictional experi-ence: you live or die, win or lose. Subtlety and interior exploration are at best rare qualities. Is there a narrative, structural approach which solves the conundrum of user impact and combinatorial explosion? One which presents a unified dramatic statement while still allowing for deep (or at least perceived as such) interaction?This Presentation will be accompanied by video and CD Rom demonstra-tionsGreg RoachArtistic Director and CEOHyperbole StudiosSeattlegregor@hyperbole.com

ROSA FRIETAG, I-TV DEVELOPERInteracting with Human Characters: an Engaging and Rewarding Interactive Storytelling Experience

Rosa Freitag moved to London from Brazil in 1990 after graduating in radio and TV production. She has worked as a journalist in the music business and in 1994 she joined the MA Interactive Multimedia course at the Royal Col-lege of Art. She developed interactive soap prototypes at Philips Research Labs, then wrote, designed and produced Mixed Emotions, an interactive movie which allows players to interact with human characters and advise on their moral dilemmas. The project won the MILIA New Talent Pavilion Competition. She is now working on new ideas, wishing to help establish interactive movies as an entertainment genre for audiences who enjoy storytelling experiences which have been ignored by the games industry.

AbstractCinema and television are traditional electronic storytelling media, draw-ing much of their emotional power from characters and story. Therefore storytelling in interactive electronic media should introduce “interactive characters” and “interactive stories” to offer users engaging and reward-ing experiences.Created as representation of a human being, an interactive character has her own mood, personality and deep character. If we use interactivity to allow a two-way conversation between the viewer and the characters, real life relationships can be simulated. In different opportunities for interaction, viewers have the chance to explore the character’s personality and give input which could influence her behaviour in the story.There are certain aspects of the character’s personality which cannot be changed with the viewer’s input. However, as in real life, her mood could be influenced: opinions given by the user towards further actions in the story are very welcome. The more input the user gives, the greater will be the rewards on the development of the story and on the establishment of a “friendship” with the character.

Mixed Emotions was produced as a major project for the MA Interactive Multimedia at the Royal College of Art between April and August 1995.I conceived the interactive narrative structure and then wrote the script based on a short story I had written in November 1994. Shooting, digitis-ing and the development of the playback engine happened between June

and August, all at home on a Mac Centris 660AV with a JPEG compres-sion card.The goal of the project is to introduce interactivity for an audience of cinema and television. The interactive experience is more engaging than watching a traditional linear film or television programme. It adds value to interactivity, giving true payoffs for the viewer’s interaction.The target audience are people who like watching films or soaps but don’t like role playing games; and games fans who have been waiting for the so called “interactive movies”. The genre chosen (soap-like moral dilemmas) appeals for adolescents and adults - women too, who have always been neglected by games designers.The major innovative concepts are in the interactive narrative structure, which allow both a linear and an interactive experience through a two-way simulated conversation with the characters, and in the interface which does not spoil the “filmic” experience, graphically incorporated to the film without cluttering the screen or distracting the viewer.Prior art in the “interactive movies” domain consists of role playing games with chunks of linear narrative between puzzles, or interaction with char-acters but no story payoff to the user.The computer keeps track of every user input, selecting the appropriate scenes to provide a reward for the interaction.

Rosa Freitagrosa@freitag.demon.co.uk

CHRIS CRAWFORD, VIDEO GAME GURUInteractive Storytelling Technology

Chris Crawford is one of the most controversial and outspoken members of the video game industry. Chris first made his name as a programmer of 14 games titles from the early 1980s. He is the author of four books on game development and the editor of Interactive Entertainment Design, a journal for game developers. He founded the Computer Game Develop-ers’ Conference, the world’s leading event dedicated to games program-ming. Chris believes in gameplay above graphics, and is outspoken in his criticism of the games industry for cutting itself off from the market for video and computer entertainment, by neglecting content for the latest high-tech advances. Chris currently runs his own company in California,

developing tools to give creative people access to the technology to cre-ate interactive entertainment

AbstractIn the last few years, interest in interactive storytelling has risen dra-matically. As we might expect, early efforts in this direction have been seriously flawed. Nonetheless, lessons have emerged from our mistakes and we are now in a position to make genuine headway. This paper will outline one approach to interactive storytelling. I do not represent this approach as the best one, but rather as an approach that actually works - a rare enough distinction.

The core problem of interactive storytelling might crudely be expressed as the integration of interactivity and storytelling. Initial examination leads us to suspect that interactivity and storytelling are mutually antagonistic. After all, a story needs a tightly defined storyline, while interactivity demands freedom of choice. If we use a geometric metaphor, a story is a linear structure where interactivity implies an ever-expanding tree of choices. Can these apparently contradictory requirements be reconciled? I believe that they can; a single traversal through that expanding tree con-stitutes a linear sequence - a story. However, the notion of the expanding tree confronts us with a new problem: how do we create a sufficiently large tree?All attempts at building such trees have failed, because the number of op-tions in the tree increase in geometric proportion to its depth; my own calculations have demonstrated that, to create a minimal tree with the depth of, say, a half-hour television story, we would require the efforts of one billion designers working 24 hours a day, each producing one leaf in the tree every second, for a period of some 15 trillion years.The solution to this problem is to replace the tree with a closed network; indeed, in a very broad sense, we can say that this is the solution that storytellers have been using since the dawn of time. Starting with a finite vocabulary of words, storytellers assemble those words into a myriad of unique stories. Thus, a hideously large tree is replaced with a network of words that link together according to rules of grammar and meaning. We would prefer to use the same approach that conventional storytellers use, but this is not possible with current technology, because no computer is smart enough to understand the rules of grammar and meaning. My solution to this problem is to define a special-purpose network with a manageable set of “words” and a simple “grammar”. I think that I can

get away with this because the mechanics of storytelling are simpler than the general problems that general-purpose languages must handle. The “words” of this special-purpose network I call “storyatoms”. A storyatom is a single atom of dramatic action, an indivisible fragment of storytelling. For example, one of the most common atoms in storytelling is “He kissed her”. Another common atom is “He punched him”. And so forth.

Chris CrawfordMilpitas, CA,chriscr@aol.com

ADAM WISHART, BBCInteractive Television

Adam Wishart is a television journalist and currently makes films for the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World Programme. He has contributed to the The Guardian and The New Scientist and at the BBC on Newsnight, Horizon, and Watchdog. Adam is working on the lessons television can learn from the Internet. He has written fiction for the magazine Pulp Faction.

AbstractInteractive TV is for the joystick jockeys of our time. Interactive seems to mean a couple of options, a range of camera positions and some per-sonalised adverts. It may only deliver the satisfaction of channel surfing. Welcome to clickable hell.But i-TV could be compelling. It could revolutionise the way we see the world, in the same way that technology has always changed our view of the global village.In television every generation has had a revelation of technologies bringing us new points of view. This has been a journey from the stilted photography of early documentaries, to the portable camera’s inside-view of presidential election. More recently is continued through to the real-time wars via satellites arriving at the confessionals of ‘Video Diaries’. Each new form has brought us closer to the event or closer to someone’s thoughts.Television has been enlivened and energised by points of view being har-vested from beyond the media. But the internet is the place where the content and the genres have been created by the participants. There are whole areas of the net created and managed by the users themselves, the soap operas have their plots determined by the viewers and the journal-

ism is debated in real time.For i-TV to be more than a clickable hell, it has to harness this energy. Barrymore’s ‘My Kind of People’ with 17 million participants would be a different kind of programme. Politicians could quake at the belligerent electorate asking them questions from the comfort of their living rooms. The training ground, the Internet and public access TV are already estab-lished. Can i-TV incorporate the voices?

Adam Wishartadamw@liketv.com

RODERIC LEIGH, MD, VALKEISER NEW MEDIA PUBLISHING

Roderic Leigh is MD of Valkeiser New Media Publishing, part of the Valkeiser Group based in the Netherlands. Valkeiser New Media combines digital video encoding and multimedia software facilities with electronic publishing and production to create and publish interactive and linear titles. It develops games and on-line entertainment and localises titles for the Benelux market. One of the i-TV formats is 20 SECONDS, broadcast daily in the Netherlands, for which Roderic is the executive producer. The system allows an unlimited number of viewers to participate using a telephone and the television. Roderic trained as a journalist and worked as an actor, writer and producer in theatre, TV and film. He was Editor in chief for Media Partners International before moving to Valkeiser. He works on the changing relationships between communicators and their audiences and the challenges this offers to media companies.

PROF DAVID TAFLER, Muhlenberg College. Interactive Media and Virtual Culture: Altering Systems of Engagement and Reason in Cybernarrative Experience

David Tafler is Head of the Communication Department at Muhlenberg College. Pennsylvania. His Ph.D. work focused on the relations between viewer-participant and open-ended interactive installations. He has written extensively on interactive media and new technologies - articles include “I Remember Television...” in From Receiver to Remote Control “”The Circu-lar Text” in Journal of Film and Video; “Autonomy/Community: Marginality and the New Interactive Cinema” in Cineatograph and “Beyond Narrative:

Notes Toward a Theory of Interactive Cinema” in Millennium Film Journal. More recently he has co-edited (with Peter d’Agostino) a series of essays on the state of media and mass communication (Transmissions, Sage) in which his article “Boundaries and Frontiers: Interactivity and Participant Experience Building New Models and Formats” carries forward his work on the relation between viewer-participants and interactive media. David will be sharing new work drawn from his recent study trip to Australia in a paper entitled ‘Interactive Media and Virtual Culture: altering systems of engagement and reason in cybernarrative experience.’

JOSH RAPHAELSON, CITY INTERACTIVE, CANADA

Josh Raphaelson is General Manager of City Interactive NewMedia, part of the CitytvMuchMusicBravo! Group, Toronto. Josh and his team have designed one of Canada’s most popular web sites, developed groovy content for Imagination!, eWorld, and America On-line; and established CityROM to distribute the prestigious Voyager collection as well as develop original products. The group is also involved in a number of interactive TV projects. Josh has had a long carrer in Television related industries, including provision of European audience rating results for interpretation by the major Hollywood studios.

CHANNEL 4 Interactive Television: investment, regulation and

education

CHAIR: PROF. LUC SOETE

Prof. Luc Soete is Director of MERIT (Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology) and Chairman of the EC High Level Expert Group on the Social and Societal Aspects of the Information Society. Luc is professor of international economics at the Economics faculty of the University of Limburg. Research interests include trade theory, technology policy, the economics of technological change, technol-ogy and employment. The High Level Expert Group recently submitted a controversial interim report, called Building the European Information Society for Us All, containing the first reflections and proposals of the group of experts to the EC.

JORGEN KLEIST, PROJECT MANAGER, STOCKHOLM CHALLENGEThe Bangemann Challenge

Jorgen Kleist is the project manager for the Bangemann Challenge, a project initiated by the City of Stockholm aiming at promoting the information society on a European level. Within the Bangemann Challenge, Stockholm is co-operating with 24 other major European cities, among them the City of Edinburgh. Jorgen graduated from the University of Gothenburg with a degree in Public Administration. Since 1989 he has been working for the central administration in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, mainly with issues related to reform of the local government.Mr Kleist will outline the details of the Bangemann Challenge, and progress so far.

Jorgen Kleistbangemann@challenge.stockholm.sewww.stockholm.se

LARS RÅDH, VICE-MAYOR OF STOCKHOLMStockholm and the IT-revolution

As you may very well know, the city of Stockholm is the capital of Sweden. It is also probably the most advanced information technology capital in Europe. A nation of just 8.8 million inhabitants located in the heart of north Europe, Sweden has been obliged to position itself in the forefront of new technological developments and has been open to ready acceptance of new technologies. The greater Stockholm area provides a business platform of 2.5 million people, with universities of world standing and more than 505 of Sweden’s research and development capacities. It has also taken a leading role in the development of the Baltic region, a region with great market and business potential.Europe’s ability to incorporate and utilise the opportunities offered by new information technologies is significant to the development of our future prosperity. It is within the IT industry that a large number of job opportunities must be created to compensate for the disappearance of workplaces. It is against this background that the city of Stockholm has developed itself as a leader in the use of advanced telecommunication. With more main lines and cellular phones per capita than anywhere else in Europe, there is an ever increasing user driven demand for more advanced forms of telecom services. Ten percent of the working population earn their incomes from the telecommunications industry.The advanced usage of information technology is present everywhere in Stockholm from the public sector to the private sector, in education, entertainment and information. This is why we see the development of fiber-optics and other high capacity telecom infrastructure as a basic service that the city must make readily available and accessible to all. As a consequence we have a telecom infrastructure business company that caters for the development of tele-highways and other related infrastruc-tures. Naturally, the city sees the environmental and business benefits in such developments.Demand for democratic involvement is pushing the city of Stockholm to present information electronically to the public. Through interactive information kiosks, citizen offices and the Internet, Stockholm is build-ing an infrastructure to ensure easy public access to official records and information services.Businesses in Stockholm are increasingly using IT as a strategic tool. In-teractive events are on the increase and virtual companies build on the

information infrastructure to create lean but efficient organisations and at the same time offering new, geographically independent jobs. Today, the operators of the switchboard of Taxi Stockholm live and work on a rural island in the Archipelago. Telia Media offers interactive TV services via cable and is doing research in video on demand services on cable.But Stockholm also wants to share its experience of IT usage with other regions of the world. This is why Stockholm initiated the Bangemann Challenge - a Europewide competition in the usage of IT.The region of Stockholm has more modems per capita than any other European nation and also an advanced IT infrastructure. Almost one hundred percent of all exchanges are digitised. Fibre to the curb will be available at the end of 1996 to every city block, all suburban centres and most industrial complexes.

Lars Rådh, Vice Mayor, City of Stockholm

ROBERT DOWNES, DIRECTOR, SCOTTISH ENTERPRISEScottish Enterprise for Multimedia

Robert Downes is Director of Industry, Scottish Enterprise. Scottish Enterprise is a public body established to generate jobs and prosperity for the people of Scotland. SE is responsible for formulating a national strategy and delivering projects and programmes both Scotland-wide and internationally. These programmes focus on industries and issues, such as multimedia, which have been identified as priority areas for the Scottish economy. Bob has been director of Conran-Roche, a London based con-sultancy and a director of the Scottish Development Agency. He lectures part time in Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities and is director of a UK wide training company.

In his presentation, Mr. Downes will describe how Scottish Enterprise has been an enthusiastic partner in developing one of Scotland’s most successful industries: software.Scotland’s software industry is a thriving, energetic community, a network of resources and companies of all sizes. Individually, each is a centre of excellence. Collectively, they represent a major force for technological advance and economic success.

Scottish Enterprise have played - and continue to play - a part in this success. Through a host if initiatives, programmes and our network of Scottish Centres, they are helping this invaluable industry go from strength to strength.Scottish Enterprise works continuously to develop indigenous companies to attract inward investors; to create the excellent infrastructure software companies need, and to keep the software community connected and informed, though publications, mentoring, forums and seminars.Scottish Enterprise also strive to help internationalise the industry, con-necting companies from around the world with their natural software partners in Scotland. And, in the wider business community, helping com-panies of all sizes, in all areas of enterprise to connect with the potential offered by IT.

Robert DownesScottish Enterprise

MICHEL COOMANS, EC DG IIIInformation Society: European Policy Efforts, or, Catalysing Opportunities in the Information Society

Michel Coomans is a member of the European Commission Industrial Pol-icy Directorate, DG III, where he is responsible for sectoral links between Industry and Research. Michel has devoted his career to the computer industry moving from system designer to company director in Europe, the US and Canada. He has organised academic research, market analysis, educational aspects of business in regional development, banking, digital publishing and public administration. Michel founded a company specialis-ing in systems integration of office automation and image applications. He joined the EC in 1989 to work in the ESPRIT R&D programme in which he created a fertile environment for Multimedia and microprocessor systems by establishing the much closer user-supplier relationship required to speed access to suitable techniques and reduce time-to-market factors.

Michel CoomansEC DG III (Industry)Brussels

LUC SOETE, MERIT AND CHAIRMAN OF THE EC HIGH LEVEL EXPERT GROUP ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

Building the European Information Society For Us All

DAVID RUSHTON, DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTE OF LOCAL TV

Dave Rushton is a television producer, academic and vocal proponent of local television. He is director of the Institute of Local Television, and teaches in The Department of Communication and Information Studies of Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh. He has published widely on issues of local television and acts as an advisor on issues of broadcasting legislation in the UK. Dave is currently working on the development of local text television service in the Edinburgh area.

PROF. PAUL WALTON, THAMES VALLEY UNIVERSITY

Prof. Paul Walton has taught at the Universities of Glasgow, London, New York and Sydney, has published 11 books, and founded the Glasgow Media group. His best known books include The New Criminology, Bad News and More Bad News, and Language-Image-Media. He was specialist advisor to the Australian Senate Enquiry into community standards for the future of electronic and digital technologies. He has published in both law and media journals on the topic of controlling the information superhighway. He regularly produces TV programmes and ran the 2nd largest film, TV and design studio in Sydney for 5 years. His research includes funding from the Gulbenkian, Nuffield, Rockefeller foundations to research new tech-nologies. His current research includes a world reader entitled Visuality, a forthcoming volume for Macmillan, co-written with Prof. Jock Young, that looks at present and futuristic debates, entitled Cultural Dopes and Moral Panics. Paul has a current video available on the impact of CCTV entitled Really caught in the Act. He is Foundation Professor of Communications at Thames Valley University.

JEANETTE STEEMERS, UNIVERSITY OF LUTONBroadcasting is Dead, Long Live Digital Choice

Dr. Jeanette Steemers is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media Arts at the University of Luton, UK and is currently engaged in researching cable policy in the UK and acts as an industry consultant.

AbstractBroadcast television has not escaped the excitement surrounding multi-media, interactivity, convergence and the information superhighway, and the last two years have seen heightened interest, discussion and activity relating to digital television and the policy framework for its introduction (DNH, 1995; Goodwin, 1995; Hoffman-Riem, 1996; Recke, 1996). Much of this debate, particularly in the UK, is singularly unexciting for multimedia enthusiasts, revolving primarily around very traditional television content such as feature films, sport and entertainment, although the methods of payment (pay-television, pay-per-view) and scheduling / distribution (the-matic channels, near-video on demand, video on demand) are noticeably different from what most, although not all, European viewers have become accustomed to - namely advertising or licence fee funded, universally avail-able, generalist channels.It could be argued that discussion about the future of broadcast television is peripheral given the multitude of different services digital technology promises to deliver, and the prospect of all our individual communication needs being delivered into one multipurpose box from which we select a la carte and on demand (see TBI, May/June, 1996: 36-41). Yet this image of an interactive culture remains relatively far off for most European homes based on a number of commercial, technical, and political hurdles that still have to be overcome (Scharpe et al, 1995; Recke, 1996: 8). This is an important point to make because it underlines the continued importance of ‘plain old’ television as possibly the first thing most people will see of the digital ‘superhighway’ - through satellite, cable, terrestrial or telecom-munications delivery systems.The significance of television at this stage is further underlined by the activities of the major media conglomerates. The eagerness of the Kirch Group, News Corporation, Bertelsmann et al. both to form alliances in order to control emerging digital markets and to acquire programming rights demonstrates that standard television fare (particularly feature films and sport) still has a crucial role to play in attracting subscribers and underpinning the economic viability of digital ventures aimed at the consumer market. On the basis of these entertainment applications other potentially lucrative applications (e.g. retail and banking services) may be driven into the home.

What is different and arguably interactive are the increased opportuni-ties digital TV provides for charging consumers directly for what and how much they consume through subscription on a per package, product or programme basis. Another trend is the continued compartmentalisation of content away from the notion of balanced nationally targeted generic channels towards thematic services, although evidence suggests that ge-neric services will continue to attract the bulk of viewing for some time to come (BBC, 1996: 20; Achille and Miege, 1994: 43). This shift in the way that television is used and marketed, also points to a shift in the balance of power within the media. Rather than the central scheduler or national broadcaster, it will be those companies who are active on the global stage, who control rights and the organisation of access through encryption, subscriber management and electronic programme guides who will set the terms and reap the lucrative revenue sources of the future.This scenario for a digital future goes to the heart of the matter because it raises questions about who will eventually control audiovisual media, what effect these developments will have on quality and diversity, and how traditional broadcasting organisations such as the BBC can change to survive in a converging media environment. Bearing these questions in mind, the purpose of my talk is to focus on the side effects and the consequences of the introduction of digital television, and to identify what implications these developments might have for audiovisual diversity. Using examples from Germany and the UK, it is argued that strategies developed by public services broadcasters and policy-makers may not be sufficient to counter longer term threats to the overall plurality and diversity of the audiovisual sector stemming from the lack of a clear role for the public sector, the risks arising from industry convergence and concentration and the tension between culturally-led media policy and economically-led telecommunications policy.

The outline of this presentation is as follows. Part One looks at the prob-lems of applying culture-led broadcasting policy goals to an audiovisual sector which is becoming increasingly intertwined with other forms of communication content and other industry sectors. Part Two focuses on current trends associated with the introduction of digital television and the extent to which these developments affect the diversity and plurality of the audiovisual sector. Part Three examines the role of public service broadcasting and its plans for involvement in digital television. Part Four briefly looks at the problems encountered by regulators at both a national and European level in developing a regulatory framework which takes ac-

count of both economic and cultural goals and the place of broadcasting within a much broader communications content.

J SteamersUniversity of Luton

PROF. RICHARD COLLINS, INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RE-SEARCHNew Media New Policies

Richard Collins is Research Director of the Media and Communication Programme at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). He, and Cristina Murroni, are the authors of “New Media. New Policies” (Polity Press 1996) which sets out a new vision of media and communication policy and regulation for the UK in the 21st Century.

Summary: The UK has more than a dozen regulatory agencies for media and communications. The proliferation of institutions leads to wasteful turf wars and contradictory regulatory decisions. Moreover, convergence and globalisation increasingly mean that the public interest goes by default because the old regulatory order is inadequate for the demands of the new media. What should U.K. regulation look like?

Richard CollinsLondon School of Economics

PLENARY

Television enters the Digital AgeCHAIR: BEN ANDRADI

IncludingJohn Killian, CEO Nynex; Ross Fitzgerald, VP TeleWest; Bob Foster, BT Products; Michael Starck, BBC; Gus Macdonald,

CEO Scottish Television (invited)

Third Day: 5th September 1996PLENARY

ROSS FITZGERALD, VP MULTIMEDIA, TELEWEST

Ross Fitzgerald is Vice President of Multimedi , Telewest Ltd. He is respon-sible for the roll out of Telewest’s multimedia products (such as Internet, PPV, digital TV etc.). His major objective is to establish the UK’s leading narrowband and broadband Internet access provider on behalf of Telewest and potentially other UK cable operators. Prior to joining TeleWest in 1993, Ross worked with McKinsey & Co for 5 years as a management consultant specialising in the cable and satellite industry. During that time he advised clients in the UK, Europe, the US, Asia and Australia. Previously he had 5 years experience in investment banking, venture capital and financial management. He has an MBA from Harvard and a degree in Economics from Monash University, Australia.

DR BOB GLASS, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, ADVANCED PRODUCTS, SUN MICROSYSTEMS : Our Imagination Circuit: The Future is Joy of Use

Dr. Bob Glass joined SunSoft in late 1991 as the Director of Human Fac-tors Engineering. His organisation specialises in all aspects of human fac-tors including: human interface issues for software and hardware; usability engineering; advanced development; collaborative computing; information technologies including: publications, editorial and illustration services, de-sign, and on-line information. The goal of that organisation was to improve product development by applying systems analysis and human-centred design to the development of Sun’s products. Bob is currently Director of Strategic Technology for SunSoft. He is also the Executive Producer of STARFIRE - Sun’s corporate vision video. Bob has been actively involved in the human factors of both hardware and software for 27 years. Before joining Sun, Bob was manager of the Macintosh Human Interface Group at Apple Computer. He and his organisation were responsible for the development of the human interface and guidelines for Apple’s System 7. He was also involved in a number of human factors and design issues for the PowerBook series of computers. Prior to Apple, Glass was manager of human interface at Xerox where he worked on the Viewpoint (STAR) and Open Look interfaces. He also worked as the senior technology staff

engineer of advanced technology on Lockheed’s Space Station Program- where he was mission specialist for Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA—space walks). He was also vice president for State of the Art Systems ( a secure telecommunications company) and Chief of Illumination Engineering at the National Bureau of Standards where he developed the colour radar systems used in aircraft today. Dr. Glass is active in the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society since 1969 and was an elected member of the Executive Council. Bob is a well known SCUBA instructor, orchid enthusiast and parrot lover! Bob earned his doctorate at the University of Maryland in Sensory Processes Psychology, with a specialisation in human colour vision in 1974.

Summary“Dr. Bob” Glass will present some thoughts on the design of iTV technol-ogy. How can we apply human factor principles to the creation of desir-able technology and product? What role does Usability Engineering play in the creation of “must have” technology and products? Have you ever considered the use of MAGIC in your design?

CHANNEL 5 User Centredness: Designing with Users in Mind

CHAIR: DR. BOB GLASS, SUNSOFT

MARK HEYER, HEYERTECH, CALIFORNIAInfonomics - A User-Centered Design Science for the World Wide Web

How do humans actually acquire, use and value information? How will the human information dynamics of society and organizations be affected by the internet? How can we reliably design successful information products and services? Who will make money on the web and how? These are ques-tions. The answers will shape our future.

HeyerTech, Inc.726 Marion Ave.Palo Alto, CA 94303www.heyertech.com“There is no substitute for bandwidth”

FRANZ KOLLER, FRAUENHOFER INSTITUTE, STUTTGARTA User Interface for Interactive Pay TV : PREMIERE Goes On-lineMichael Burmester, Franz Koller (Fraunhofer Institute IAO) & Thilo König

Metaphors for Interactive TV - A Case Study with End UsersMichael Burmester & Franz Koller (Fraunhofer Insitute IAO)

Franz Koller is project leader at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (FhG-IAO) Interactive Software Technology Department, responsible for Human-Computer Interaction related to Multimedia, head of the “interactive products” group. With Michael Burmester he is project leader in several international and national research projects in the area of design, development and evaluation of multimedia development tools and multimedia user interfaces for business and consumer applications. Their work on user centred design of iTV led to the development of the “PREMIERE Electronic Program Guide“ a user interface for interactive pay

TV, in a project led by Thilo König, head of “Interactive Services” depart-ment at Premiere Medien GmbH, Hamburg. The Institute FhG-IAO is an institute of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany’s largest organisation for applied research and development. FhG-IAO specialises in the fields of Industrial Engineering, Information and Communication Systems, Soft-ware Technology, Human-Computer Interaction and Human Factors and Resources. It closely co-operates with the Institute for Human Factors and Technology Management (IAT) of the University of Stuttgart. The Interactive Software Technology Department at FhG-IAO has a long-stand-ing expertise concerning the analysis, design, implementation evaluation of advanced software technologies and applications. Project activities comprise investigations and studies, product and application development and consultancy. A particular emphasis is put on tools and techniques for human-computer interaction and user-centred design methods.

A User Interface for Interactive Pay TV : PREMIERE Goes On-lineMichael Burmester, Franz Koller (Fraunhofer Institute IAO) & Thilo König

Since its invention in the thirties TV has become an essential part of our social lives. Like no other technical advancement of the present century, it has led to substantial changes in almost any area of public and private life. During the last decade, this ”antique“ invention has experienced an enormous growth in quantity and quality.Today’s goal consists in activating the TV consumers, especially with view to their becoming multimedia clients. All approaches into this direction must anticipate future technological developments on the TV sector. The same holds valid for the development of future user interfaces. In order to gain broad acceptance, simple and suitable user interfaces are required which take account of software ergonomic, sociological and didactical criteria.Within the framework of digital TV, an on-screen navigation concept was to be developed for the German Pay TV channel Premiere. In cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), an Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) was constructed that helps the user find his way through the great variety of programmes offered. For design and realisa-tion of the EPG a user-oriented and iterative design method was applied. The advantage of this approach consists in the possibility to continuously improve the system regarding its functionality, aesthetics and information

and dialogue structure during various development cycles.The first prototype was developed by an interdisciplinary expert team, under the prerequisite that the user constituted always the centre of at-tention. This implied that the EPG had to appear interesting and attractive to various types of users, that it should allow to build mental models very quickly, and in general motivate users by offering an efficient, error tolerant, self-descriptive and attractive system.During the first iteration cycle, a first set of user trials was conducted. The development team needed input on whether and to which degree the participants made use of short cuts within the main menu. Surprisingly, it turned out that none of the test persons used short cuts. Consequently, all short cuts were removed. The users were only provided with the possibility to navigate through the main menu. Therefore, the navigation structure between the different information areas was not as efficient as with short cuts, but extremely simple.The user tests conducted during the second iteration cycle took up the issues examined during the first set of user trials. Further investigation focused on the efficiency and effectiveness of the system in general and on its appeal to the users. Whereas visual attractiveness and the system’s being easy-to-use were favourably evaluated, the navigation and informa-tion presentation had to undergo minor improvements before the system met with full approval.

The project demonstrated that iterative design combined with user participation in the design process is a key factor for gaining broad user acceptance. It also constitutes a major step towards standardisation and the development of ergonomically well-founded user concepts and user elements for ITV.

Metaphors for Interactive TV - A Case Study with End UsersMichael Burmester & Franz Koller (Fraunhofer Institute IAO)

As Interactive TV (ITV) is an emerging technology, it still lacks of experi-ence, which makes design decisions especially difficult in the user interface area.

That is why the MUSIST project has been called into life, aiming at achiev-ing a high user acceptance for multimedia services by studying, developing and testing an intelligent and comfortable user interface for interactive

multimedia (TV) services for residential customers. This user interface must be easy to use, support navigation and information retrieval for the variety of multimedia services offered, and support the envisaged multi-media terminals (TVs and PCs) for the domestic user.

Within the framework of this project, a study has been carried out at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering intending to investigate user interface metaphors for ITV services. For this purpose, a survey was started at the end of 1995 / beginning of 1996 which provided a summary of the actual trends in user interface design in the area of interactive TV.Then, in order to gather information about what prospective ITV users expect from user interfaces, navigation mechanisms and information pres-entation, the different user interface concepts and metaphors which had been found out through the survey were investigated.In this respect, an empirical evaluation was made with 19 test persons aged from 18 to 63 on the basis of the co-discovery method (Kemp and van Gelderen, 1993): this evaluation method generates a lot of qualitative and subjective data as it tests simultaneously two subjects knowing each other very well, which creates a more familiar situation and promotes spontaneous commentaries.

Nine user interface concepts were presented to the test persons via computer. These alternatives are: - The Apple Company Store, a CD-ROM produced by Apple using Quick-Time VR and the shop metaphor, - PREMIERE electronic programme guide - Tree, using a tree metaphor for the selection of services and information areas, - Book, using a book metaphor for the selection of services and information areas, - Menu Metaphor, showing a menu list of rubrics represented by different icons and labels, - Comic City, using the comic strip of a city as a metaphor, - People, a metaphor which shows different virtual guides sup-porting users, - Stuttgart City Map, where the individual menu entries are depicted as local buildings, - VR-City, showing a three-dimensional, artistic and abstract representation of a city.

The test sessions were held by two evaluators who discussed the prefer-ences of the users. Furthermore, the design alternatives were rated by each user separately on a 15 step Likert scale.

Thanks to these user tests, main requirements could be derived which may be decisive factors for the design of ITV user interfaces. Among the remarks and observations made, an emerging assessment was that the access metaphor of a user interface should be realistic and simple, but also semantically close to ITV. On the level of buying a product, the user interface should provide extended information aids (3D representations, magnifier, videos, textual information) on products the user is interested in.

Franz KollerFranz.Koller@iao.fhg.de

KAREN BEDARD, INTERACTION DESIGNER, HYUNDAI ELECTRONICS AMERICAA Look at the Social Aspects of Televisions versus Computers

There has been much debate about the state of televisions versus comput-ers. Many claims have been made that one will replace the other, with the odds in favour of the computer. The author emphasizes that television exists in a different social setting than do computers. Both social settings are relevant and important. To say that computers will replace television, or the functions of television, is akin to saying that since microwaves and refrigerators have computers built-in, that we could be controlling those

devices using Windows 95 from our laptops. Not a pretty site! (pun in-tended)

This paper uses humorous and serious examples to illuminate the similari-ties and differences in the use of computers and televisions. The author urges the electronic community to consider the social aspects of each medium, especially with regards to the family, or family unit. Computers are empowering the individual and uniting the masses, but television is often the uniting medium for the modern family unit. If the design of interactive television products is approached with a social mind-set, a different set of products may be produced. The author would like to see products aimed at turning families of couch potatoes into intimate, healthy, communicating, interacting social groups. With this in mind, special attention should be paid to the interactions of co-located individuals.

COLIN PHILLIPS, ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY DIV., SONY

Colin Philips studied Electronic Engineering before joining the IBA. as a researcher in image processing and broadcast technology. He was part of the design team for the world’s first broadcast standard real time MPEG encoder, worked on HDTV to PAL conversion and transmission of MPEG signals, and studied the theory of image compression. In 1992 he worked in Tokyo for one year at NHK on the world’s first HDTV broadcast sys-tem. He joined Sony in 1994 and heads the software team for set top box development. He is currently working on one of the largest iTV trials in Europe, as well as the development of digital terrestrial TV for the UK.

BRIAN GREEN, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, BT MULTIME-DIA SERVICESDVB Specifications for Broadcast Related Interactive Services

Brian Green is a senior manager in BT responsible for the development of multimedia services with particular emphasis on those related to digital broadcasting. He is Project Co-ordinator for the UK Digital TV Group, an industry forum for the introduction of Digital Terrestrial Television, and has supported the DVB work on interactive services. Brian has formerly led the international expansion of BT’s services to broadcasters, winning licences to operate overseas and developing market entry strategies. He was also

heavily involved in BT’s early work on video on demand and sourced all the programming for its first trial. DVB is a voluntary grouping of over 200 organisations from both the private sector and the public sector in 25 countries to agree systems for digital television broadcasting and to foster market-led systems, which meet the real needs, and economic cir-cumstances, of the consumer and the broadcast industry. DVB has defined specifications for satellite, cable and terrestrial digital broadcasting. The DVB interactive services group looks at the requirements for interactive services associated with broadcasting.

Brian GreenBusiness Development ManagerBT Multimedia Services

A A V WOLFFSOHN & N K LODGE, INDEPENDENT TELEVISION COMMISSIONWill Granny Find Her Favourite Programmes?

Andrew Wolffsohn After graduating from Birmingham University, Andrew spent 8 years working for Philips Consumer Electronics at their laboratories in Redhill, developing CDi and teletext set top boxes. In 1995 hejoined the Independ-ent Television Commission and currently manages a number of projects associated with multimedia and interactive television centred around the Cambridge trial. Andrew is chairman of the European Broadcasting Union’s groups on Electronic Programme Guides and V-chip signalling.Nicolas LodgeDr Nick Lodge has been in television research and development since 1982 when he joined the labs of the former IBA in Winchester. In his early years he worked on the development of D-MAC, picture scrambling and fundamental image processing techniques and later led projects in digital television, HDTV, and psychovisual phenomena, contributing to many European collaborations and standardisation activities.In 1991 Nick joined the Independent Television Commission, becoming head of its Standards & Technology department in 1992. In this role he has responsibility for long-term R&D and standardisation carried out on behalf of the UK commercial television sector. He has been chairman of many broadcast technology initiatives and is currently involved with the AUDETEL, MOSAIC, MIRAGE and TAPESTRIES consortia.

AbstractThe commercial importance of ensuring that elderly people are able to benefit from the services offered through interactive television is con-siderable. Not only are the elderly the largest watchers of television, but many are also wealthy and may increasingly be willing to subscribe to on-demand audio-visual entertainment services. There are likely to be significant benefits too for those elderly people who have restricted mobility, since interactive television will deliver such services as home shopping and banking.Elderly people are, however, expected to encounter a number of difficulties in using iTV and gaining access to its services, these may be due to physical, sensory or cognitive limitations. It is the discussion of these difficulties and their alleviation which is the objective of this paper. It reports initial results in a study, with the University of Manchester, aimed at a better understanding of the problems which will be faced by elderly users of navigation systems, transactional services and information listings.

Dr Nicolas LodgeHead of Standards & TechnologyIndependent Television Commissionemail: lodge@itc.co.uk

PAUL RANKIN, SENIOR PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST, PHILIPS RESEARCH LABSConsumers: Couch-Potatoes or Creative Artists?

Paul Rankin is a Senior Principal Research Scientist in the Interactive Sys-tems Group at the Philips Research Laboratories, Redhill, UK. Originally a physicist he has spent 26 years in industry, researching a number of fields: from magnetic field analysis and the mechanical properties of ce-ramics, through integrated circuit design statistics and process modelling, to advanced CAD systems with embedded knowledge-based techniques steered under novel user interfaces. For the last 6 years his interests have centred around engaging consumer interaction in new forms of multimedia: PhotoCD magazines, encouraging consumer creativity, interactive movies, multi-user games and facilitating networked societies.

AbstractFor over a generation, consumers were saturated by non-interactive

media. The enormous video games market and popularity of karaoke demonstrated their appetite for control, personalisation and involvement. Multimedia systems aim to satisfy this appetite for interaction, combining digital movies, games, databases and networks into new genres for enter-tainment, information, education and social experiences.After scene-setting, the talk will describe a project to pioneer new multi-media products where the consumer is involved in creative activities. The focus is ‘VideoMix’, a prototype multimedia title for teenagers to make their own pop video, in a form which helps to introduce a conservative music industry to interactivity. This type of research requires a fundamental shift from traditional system research, so that artists and technologists are closely married in multi-disciplinary development teams. The talk’s emphasis will be on the user involvement in our design process.The VideoMix concept enables teenagers to mix a number of pre-recorded video streams, activate and manipulate graphic animations which are automatically driven by the music and store or replay their composition. Deeper facilities allow precise control over timing, and further person-alisation through the positioning and colouring of animations and how different musical properties drive visual characteristics. Other product packaging such as interviews with the artists about their mixes, musicol-ogy or games might be added. Software tools for handling digital video and animations synchronised to music were developed. However, the main challenge was to find guidelines for a user interface to bring ‘computer-aided design’ to a non-captive audience. The art is to draw consumers progressively from experiential pleasure into a reflective activity and build in some professional skills. Fun in the process and their feeling of ownership are what count, rather than the quality of their composition. Wider implications for computer-based training emerge. The design process needs to steep itself in the culture of the target au-dience, taking input from users without delegating design responsibility. Early testing of new concepts with end users is essential, but difficult on unfinished prototypes. Methods will be described for the early evaluation of products where pleasure analysis is more relevant than task analysis.

Interactive Systems Group,Philips Research Laboratories,Redhill UKrankin@prl.research.philips.com

CHANNEL 6Cooperation, Climates and Cultures

CHAIR: PROF. MARTIN FRANSMAN, UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

Prof. Martin Fransman is a leading analyst of the telecommunications in-dustry and the Japanese computer and communications industries. Martin is Professor of Economics at the University of Edinburgh. He has written widely on companies, industry, science and technology in Japan and on the economics of developing countries. His major books include: Japan’s Computer and Communications Industry: The Evolution of Industrial Giants and Global Competitiveness (1995), Visions of the Firm and Japan (forthcoming), The Market and Beyond, Cooperation and Competition in Information Technology in the Japanese System(1990) and Technology and Economic Development (1986). Martin holds degre es in economics from the University of the Witwatersrand, S.A. and the University of Sus-sex. He has acted as consultant to the World Bank, ILO, UNIDO, UNU, OECD, British Dept. Trade and Industry. He is NTT’s Visiting Professor at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) at the University of Tokyo.

ALEC LIVINGSTONE, BT INTERACTIVE SERVICESBT Interactive TV

Alec Livingstone has been with BT since 1972. After a number of years in the Research Laboratories, followed by a brief secondment to NTT in Tokyo, he moved into group headquarters in 1984. Since that time he has had a number of jobs relating to the strategic use of technology, principally in the area of architecture and portfolio planning. He is currently responsi-ble for building the innovative products and services being delivered by BT labs to the company’s Product Managers. In particular he was responsible for the video-on-demand Technology Trial launched in March 1994, and the BT Interactive Service launched in October 1995. The BT trial will be the world’s only successfully completed trial of full-service i-TV.

Alec will present certain details of the BT Interactive Television trial,

focusing on issues of the relationships between the contributors to the service.

SIMON BROOKS, ONLINE MEDIAThe Cambridge interactive TV Trial: A Partnership of Technology and Services

Simon Brooks is Marketing & Planning Manager for Online Media. Online Media was formed in 1994 and since then has been at the forefront of the interactive multimedia revolution. It has developed technologies for narrowband and broadband interactivity, and has played a central role in the Cambridge iTV Trial. Om’s set-top boxes and consultancy services are deployed all over the world, and the core STB technology now forms the basis for Oracle’s Network Computer, for whom Acorn, Online Media’s parent company, developed the reference design. Having worked in the travel industry for 5 years and completed a corporate strategy consulting assignment with Cable and Wireless in late 1991, Simon joined Reed Else-vier, to head up the marketing operation of the scientific magazines division, where he helped to develop one of the first electronic on-line subscription magazines delivered over the Internet, which was launched in the USA in early 1995. His broad experience of different commercial environments and market sectors gives him an invaluable insight into how interactive multimedia plays an important role in business strategy. Simon Brooks holds a degree in languages and an MBA in International Business.

AbstractSimon Brooks will be talking about how the technology consortium which developed the infrastructure for the Cambridge iTV Trial has worked to-gether with some of the country’s largest companies to develop, deliver, test and evaluate a range of interactive TV services, some of which will be demonstrated during the session.The Cambridge iTV Trial remains one of the most technically advanced in the world and is serving 100 homes around Cambridge along with 9 schools and 6 businesses with on-demand interactive multimedia services.Online Media’s talk will cover the framework of systems and procedures which makes this possible, the experiences and lessons of operating the Trial, and offers an insight into how the next phase of the Trial will un-fold.

DR GERHARD FUCHS, CENTRE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT, STUTTGART, GERMANYInnovation Networks in the Development of Interactive Televi-sion - The Case of the IVSS trial in Baden - Württemberg

Gerhard Fuchs is a leading researcher on one of Europe’s largest field tri-als of interactive television services taking place in Stuttgart (Germany) involving 4,000 participants. He works in the Centre for Technology As-sessment CTA, a public foundation in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, which investigates and analyses the effects and consequences of technical developments. In particular new information and communication tech-nologies such as iTV are being examined in the department Technology, Organization, Work.

AbstractDevelopments related to the catchwords of multimedia, information highway, interactive television, internet etc. have inspired a lot of eco-nomic as well as political activities in the recent past. New industrial conglomerates are foreseen, joint ventures are being made, new firms are being established. Multimedia is not yet (and maybe never will be) a clearly discernible domain of commercial actions. Nevertheless there are a multitude of activities that aim at creating regional Multimedia-Clusters and innovation networks.

Interactive Television (ITV) is one of the most intensively debated con-sumer applications in the overall field of Information and Communication Technologies. New technological systems have to be developed, new types of content have to be prepared - both necessitate high investments with unclear and / or dubious profit expectations. To make the situation even more unpredictable and troublesome: whether there is a real user demand for interactive television can hardly be said at the moment. As experience in other consumer technology has amply demonstrated: if ITV wants to become successful it needs to take account of user-perspectives and user-interests in a systematic manner.

This poses specific challenges to the actors in this field:

1. In the development of technical systems in the area of ITV and multi-media in general a number of competing companies as well as companies representing different parts of the value chain are participating. In addition

a variety of political and para-public actors might play a significant role. For the realisation of successful innovations in a regional environment, cooperation between these actors is obligatory.

2. For the developments in the area of multimedia a number of political and judicial regulations are of supreme importance. Business and political strategies have to incorporate them into their calculations (e.g. copyright, broadcasting and tv regulations). Processes of standardisation which are beyond the influence of the majority of the relevant actors, do have a decisive influence on further technological developments.

3. The role of the producer-user relationship is of crucial importance. Very early cooperation relationships between producers and users have to be initiated (via specific consultancy agencies, service companies, pilot users, interest groups etc.). The success of multimedia applications in the commercial and the private sector will depend on user acceptance.Therefore we see in Interactive Television a linkage problem of a two-fold nature:• Linkages have to be established between cooperations of a different nature, kind, providence etc.• Linkages between the producers, content and service providers and the users have to be formed.

4. Given this difficult situation in which new products are needed, new technologies are being developed, consumer demand is uncertain and high investments are needed, it is a widespread incident to have pilot projects or trials. We are aware of the fact that trials and pilot projects do have their shortcomings - like they cannot say very much actually about the ensuing consumption patterns and the future demand for the system. I will look upon these trials primarily as a way to experiment with cooperation and confidence building.

This paper will examine an attempt to create a regional innovation network that aims to take these complications into consideration. The difficulties in establishing and administering a regionally based innovation network will be analysed.In the Interactive Video Services Stuttgart trial in the state of Baden-Würt-temberg, technology providers (Alcatel, Boch Telekom, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Sybase), network operators (Deutsche Telekom, regional cable com-panies) and the regional government have been cooperating to establish

a very demanding ITV-trial involving up to 2500 households. Alongside with the development of the technological structure of the trial, talks with potential content providers have begun. The recruitment of households participating in the trial is under way.

DR SIMON COLLINSON, UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGHCooperation in Chaotic Climates: Inter-firm Alliances for Integrating Knowledge and Vision in Networked Multimedia Markets

Simon Collinson is Assistant Director of the Institute for Japanese and European Technology Studies (JETS) at Edinburgh University. He conducts research on the management of technology and innovation in large Japa-nese and European firms; organisation of R&D, technology transfer and product development; Japanese management systems; national science and technology infrastructure; economic organisation, developments in consumer electronics, computing technologies and multimedia (Sony and Philips). Simon holds an MA from the University of Florida, and a D.Phil. from the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex.

AbstractThis paper examines the problems facing companies from various

industry sectors that are currently under threat from, or trying to grasp the future opportunities arising from, the rapid evolution of networked multimedia technologies and markets, including interactive TV. The analysis focuses on the potential benefits of inter-firm (and intra-firm) alliances, not only as arrangements for realising the convergence of hardware and software technologies, or establishing standards platforms and joint-mar-keting operations, but also as a means by which firms can escape from their blinkered views of which technologies and markets will evolve to dominate in the future.

• How can a telecoms company fully understand what interactive media services consumers will want even if they can use their local-loop infrastructure to provide the channel into the home?

• How can the ‘Television’ division of a consumer electronics firm predict the implications of video-on-demand for its new product development strategy?

• How can broadcasters, media companies and advertising agencies assess

the potential for their products on the Internet?

The current business climate is chaotic. The convergence of technologies which have been developed and marketed within hitherto separate industries, from consumer electronics, computing, broadcast media, publishing and telecoms, has resulted in a great deal of un-certainty as to the specific nature, size and potential significance of a number of emerging markets. Various contradictory visions abound, confirming the huge complexity facing decision-makers responsible for picking future winners and setting strategic direction for companies. In the absence of clear signals from uncertain consumers there is also a tendency to resort to ‘technological determinism’ (i.e. just because a product or service is technically possible then it is destined to be a commercial success).

Cooperation between firms in such a climate is essential, hence the current restructuring of key sectors of industry. Internally companies are also having to restructure to realise new combinations of technolo-gies and meet changing markets. New forms of hardware, software, distribution channels (into the office and the home) and interactive multimedia content, are all combining across a range of competing and compatible standards platforms, to produce a wide range of new prod-uct and service opportunities in the information and communications industry.

But convergence is also highlighting significant differences in organisational culture, across different companies and industry sectors, and across different divisions inside individual companies. This adds to the difficulties of integrating different areas of specialist knowledge and expertise to create a combined technology, product or service and much of the work on alliances has focused on the problems of technol-ogy transfer and joint-development that require companies or divisions to overcome such ‘culture clashes’.

This paper is more concerned with the potential benefits of al-liances before the target product or service has been identified. Using examples from studies of the past evolution of technologies and the present management of innovation, including the story of Philips’s devel-opment of CD-I, the aim here is to show how inter-firm and intra-firm alliances can play a part in correcting vision, overcoming inertia and ‘belief lock-in’, helping broaden the blinkered view of specialist divi-sions or entire companies that on their own may miss large parts of the converging picture.

Dr Simon CollinsonJapanese-European Technology StudiesUniversity of Edinburgh25 Buccleuch Place Edinburgh EH8 9LNE-Mail: scc@castle.ed.ac.uk http://www.ed.ac.uk/~scc/jets_hom.htm

STEPHEN CHEN, MULTIMEDIA CENTRE, CITY UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL, LONDONLearning From Each Other: The IBM-ITN Desktop Television Project

Stephen Chen is currently conducting Post-doctoral Research Fellow at City University Business School where he is conducting research on the Management of Intellectual Property and knowledge transfer in the multimedia industries. He holds a Ph.D. From Imperial College, London on the Development of Core Capabilities in the Multimedia Industry, and an MBA from Cranfield School of Management. He has also completed post-graduate studies at Oxford University and INSEAD. Previously he has taught at Henley Management College and the Open University and he has held various management and consultancy posts in industry.

AbstractThe development of interactive television requires the integration of a wide range of knowledge and skills from different industries, particularly the integration of skills in hardware, software and content. Joint ventures between hardware, software and content providers has been one com-monly used means of acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills.However, such joint ventures also create problems for managers. Some are common to other projects in a newly developing industry, such as coping with frequent changes in technology and developing consumer awareness. Others are peculiar to joint ventures between firms, such as overcoming differences in organisational cultures and managerial styles and learning from the joint venture partner.This paper examines the joint venture between IBM and ITN to develop Desktop Television on an IBM PC and discusses the insights that can be learned about the process of managing inter-industry joint ventures in developing the information superhighway. A framework is presented to

assist managers in identifying possible problems, managing the different types of problems, maximising learning and ensuring the success of such joint ventures.

PAUL MCCARTHY, DIGITAL MEDIA RESEARCH AND DESIGN, AUS-TRALIAIs the Global Content Rush Over?

Paul McCarthy is director of one of Australia’s leading media consultancy firms, Digital Media Research and Design, which advise companies such as IBM Australia, ISSC Australia, Telstra and Film Australia on corporate digital media strategy. Paul has over 10 years experience in IT, graphics and multimedia. He has lectured on multimedia (UWS Nepean) and published numerous books and papers on new media. McCarthy holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, a Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts (University of Sydney) and a Masters in Digital Media .

AbstractThere has been a change in how entertainment ‘content’ is being managed stemming from evolving perceptions of what it actually is. What was once thought of as a commodity that emanates from ‘content factories’ such as the Hollywood majors and can be stored and accounted for in back catalogues of intellectual property is now seen as a more slippery thing with a half-life that is very much the product of individuals.

Paul McCarthyDirectorDigital Media: Research and Design Pty LtdEmail: info@dmrd.com.au

GEOFF VINCENT, FOUNDER DIRECTOR OF MEDIATION TECHNOL-OGYThe Future for Interactive Television w. Franni Vincent

Geoff Vincent is a founding Partner of Mediation Technology, which provides advice and practical assistance in the application of new digital media, from the Internet to interactive television. Previously at Online Media, he was responsible for establishing and developing the Cambridge Trial, one of the

world’s most technologically advanced trials of digital interactive television; and for creating the Service Nursery, an environment for the development and testing of interactive services. Prior to Online Media he spent nine years with PA Consulting Group, working for clients world-wide includ-ing Apple, the BBC, British Rail, the British and German governments, the European Commission, IBM, Philips, Shell and Telecom Australia. During this period he led the team which developed the world’s first digital portable phone. In the mid 80s he led the Personal Computer Development Group at Acorn Computer, with responsibility for the company’s mainstream product range, including the BBC Microcomputer. He has written two books, as well as numerous articles and papers.

AbstractThe idea of ‘interactive television’ was launched in a blaze of glory. It sparked thousands of column inches of media comment, led to the invest-ment of millions of dollars in trials and tests, and caught public attention worldwide.Such activity is remarkable in a field where there is, still, no clear and agreed view on what ‘interactive television’ really means - and no consensus on when this new medium will become a reality for ordinary users. Perhaps the only comparable area where there is a similar explosion of activity and a similar problem of definition, is the Internet. The two may be more similar than they appear.The media spotlight - exciting and glamorous, but tending to produce false colours and artificial highlights - has now moved on to other things, including the wonders of the World Wide Web. Without this intense focus, and the commercial pressure to deliver results, now, it is possible to take a more considered look at interactive television, and perhaps to take a more realistic business view.This paper takes a clear look at what we have learnt from two years of intensive experiment and speculation, and projects these lessons into the future. It considers the uses of interactive television, and how it is likely to evolve. It also examines what can be learnt from elsewhere, and in particu-lar from the Internet, which is not television, but it is certainly interactive. Can we gain any insights from the recent spectacular growth of the Net, created not by planned commercial investment, but by spontaneous and individual experimentation? Where is interactive television going?

Geoff VincentEmail info@mediation.co.uk

CHANNEL 7Making the Everyday Interactive: Changing Users

and Uses

CHAIR: PHIL DWYER, EDITOR, NEW MEDIA AGE

Phil Dwyer is Editor of New Media Age, a leading newsletter of the interactive industry. Phil has spent most of his working life in publishing. During his time in publishing he has edited and published a diverse range of publications, spanning electronics, the food industry, landscape garden-ing, and the chemical industry. He joined Centaur in 1994 to launch new newsletters for the company - New Media Age was the first, and has since sucked him into the vortex which is the Internet. Whether he will ever emerge is anyone’s guess. New Media Age is a weekly newsletter which concentrates on the subject of how new media such as the Internet, promises to alter the media landscape. Phil has degrees in Digital Systems and Electronics.

JENS JENSEN, DEPT. OF COMMUNICATIONS, AALBORG UNIVER-SITYMapping Interactive Television: A New Media Typology for Information Traffic Patterns on the Superhighway to the HomeJens Jensen is Associate Professor at the University of Aalborg in Denmark. He has written several papers on interactive television and computer and television culture including The Computer as Medium (with Andersen and Bugh, Cambridge University Press). He is currently pursuing research under Aesthetics of Television research Programme, sponsored by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities.

AbstractToday, interactive television (ITV) is not only pure science fiction or a distant dream (or nightmare) of the future, it is rapidly becoming a realistic form of media. ‘Interactive television’ is — in a very literal sense — coming soon to a screen near you.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss this emerging new media form. Firstly, interactive television will be described as a form of program and as a TV system. Secondly, a new categorization or typology of networked media will be presented. And thirdly, interactive television and interactive television services will be conceptualized and discussed in the context of this new typology of media and services. The paper will thus report my current research into the interactive modes of new media technologies and information services with special reference to interactive television and other consumer multimedia in the home. This work is being conducted as a sub-project of “the Aesthetics of Television”, a research program, sponsored by The Danish Research Council for the Humanities, 1993-1998.

Jens JensenDepartment of CommunicationAalborg Universityjensf@hum.auc.dk

BUDD MARGOLIS, MIT CONSULTINGInteractive Retail and the Interactive Consumer

Budd Margolis is without doubt one of the world’s leading experts in the business of global electronic and digital retailing. His career spans through international documentary and sports television production, consumer product development and marketing and the introduction of home shop-ping in the UK. Now president of MIT Consulting, Budd specialises in advising organisations across the world on the development of electronic and digital retail strategies and applications.

AbstractRapid change is painful and every aspect of our society faces a new real-ity or threat. Is it any wonder that sceptics abound? Interactive TV has suffered from this negative attitude as well. FT August 12, 1996 cites a study by the retail consultancy Verdict that Efforts to develop electronic shopping are ‘Floundering’ for want of ‘much-needed impetus’. What are the real issues involved? The first is to acknowledge that much has been developed from a technological side and few have bothered to ask the consumer for their thoughts. Sure, trials are nice but that’s not what is meant by asking the consumer. Its not like people suddenly started

to write to their representatives begging for interactive television. It will take a long time to figure out what works and what does not. This trial and error period is also known as innovation and the media should be mature enough to understand the need for mistakes in order to evolve towards a system which serves the intended purpose.Margolis seeks to describe the different issues and areas to be considered in the area of Interactive Retail and the Interactive Consumer. Issues discussed range from the papers various topics: HOME SHOPPING BACKGROUND. THE UPTAKE ISSUE, WHAT DO THEY WANT?, THE CONSUMER WANTS VALUE BUT WHAT IS VALUABLE?, INTERAC-TIVE RETAIL , THE INTERACTIVE CONSUMERS, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CONSUMER?, HOW DOES INTERACTIVITY CHANGE THINGS?, PRODUCTS and a CONCLUSION.Again quoting from the Verdict article ‘Warning over on-line shopping’ in the FT, The consultancy predicts that the UK electronic shopping market will rise from £42m to £55m this year but remain a fraction of the overall £6bn home shopping market and retail sales of £160bn. It is common in the British character to be overly pessimistic in regards to anything new with the possible exception of tax cuts! But, Verdict criticises to an audience of retailers who hope that this whole thing fails fast. Imagine an observer from the automotive industry, after viewing the Wright Brothers make several failed attempts, describes the possibility of heavier than air vehicles as an impossibility as he rejoices in every crash. Of course there is less risk in being conservative, but what this really represents is a lack of vision. By the standards this group uses, every major appliance from the telephone, television, fax machine to VCR would have been deemed a failure.The interactive world of services including everything from news, educa-tion, entertainment, games, retail, banking etc, will work. But like a child taking those first few steps, there must be encouragement, motivation and support. The media has fostered much of the negative backlash to the development of interactive TV. Certainly the technology had to be developed and it was harder than imagined. It always is. Its as if the press had criticised a baby for not making it to the 100m finals at Atlanta.The potential will be fabulous but only if we keep focused on some basics of human nature and retail. Fortunately, this new channel of distribution will not create a different consumer. Humans do not evolve so quickly and many lessons from the past will serve us well in the future.Some say that content (the product) is king. I still think the customer isking. We serve them. They provide loyalty to our products and services. If we stay focused on their concerns, listen to them and respect them we

will have a long and prosperous relationship.

Budd MargolisMIT Consulting, London, England.eMail: 100600.710@compuserve.comBUDDWEB URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/budd_margolis

PROF. DENIS MCQUAIL, UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAMInteractivity and the Future of Plain Old Television (POTV)

Prof. Denis McQuail is Professor of Mass Communications at the Uni-versity of Amsterdam and Director of the Netherlands Press Foundation. He is author of the highly acclaimed and seminal Mass Communication Theory (1987) whose second edition was expanded to pay more atten-tion to new electronic media and the implications of changes in commu-nications technologies for theory. Other published works include Media Performance: Mass Communication and the Public Interest (1992). He is the editor of The European Journal of Communication, has co-edited New Media Politics (Sage, 1986) and more recently Media Use as Social Action: A European Approach to Audience Studies (1996) which places emphasis on a more audience-centred approach to studies of the mass communication process.

AbstractIn its first age, television set out on a clear trajectory, largely guided by three main factors: the technology of broadcast distribution; the institutions of family and leisure; the emerging global media industry. Fundamental changes affecting all three have meant that no fully mature and stable model of the television institution has arrived. Even so, a basic and “traditional” form of the medium which can be called “Plain Old Television” is widely recog-nisable. Diversification of supply, market forces and new interactive and multimedia technologies have indicated alternative paths of development. However, not all has changed and media are extremely adaptive to their environment. Hybridisation of television forms and parallel development of new media are more to be expected than the death of POTV.

Denis McQuailUniversiteit van Amsterdam

Oude Hoogstraat 241012 CE Amsterdam

DAVID C BALL, BANK OF SCOTLANDOnline Banking with the Bank of Scotland

During his career, David Ball has been responsible for many functions within the Bank of Scotland, one of the leading innovating banks in the use of IT. He was responsible for the design & implementation of the Bank’s internal accounting systems and the development of management informa-tion systems, and most recently with on-line banking services. The Bank of Scotland was the first bank to introduce Home Banking in 1985 with the HOBS system. He is currently leading a multi million pound project designed to introduce the latest functions and technology to HOBSR to ensure that the Bank of Scotland remains the market leader in Home & Office Banking.

SummaryMy presentation is called “Bank of Scotland: A Case Study of On-line Bank-ing” and covers our past experience, current technology and the future.It covers the history & reasons, of why we got into Electronic Banking in 1983 to 1985 and follows the development of HOBS (Home and Office Banking System) through its infancy to the modern day version of HOBS for Windows. It also looks at the technology changes from very early “thin clients” to the power PCs/”thick clients” of today then back again toward the future of “thin clients” employing the latest technologies associated with Web and Java like technologies. I mention a little about security and how this has changed over the years covering a little on encryption and authentication together with some views on what todays provider of on-line banking must provide to an expectant market.I will finish with some personal views on the future of on-line banking and who the providers may be.

David C BallChief Manager & Project DirectorBank of ScotlandDavid_Ball@bankofscotland.co.uk

SIMON CORNWELL, MD, TWO WAY TV

Simon Cornwell is MD of Two Way TV Ltd. which is launching Two Way TV, a system which allows viewers to participate in broadcast TV shows using existing transmission infrastructure. The system has several hundred customers in Birmingham paying for a trial service. A commercial launch is planned this year, with national roll out in 1997. Prior to setting up Two Way TV, Simon worked on interactive television for the Granada Group and was formally consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in the US.

JOHN IBBOTSON, IBMThe Role of Libraries in the Information Society

John Ibbotson is a consultant at IBM with the Applied Science and technol-ogy services group based at Hursley in Hampshire. His current profes-sional interests include the development and management of large scale multimedia databases and the associated problems of information retrieval using both textual and content-based mechanisms. He has lectured and published on these topics. John is the IBM representative on the ELISE project, funded by the European Community, where he has been involved in prototype development of high quality image databases. A second phase of this project to develop Internet based systems is expected to start shortly. He has also been involved in applications using video streaming server technology and high bandwidth networks. One of the principal products is the IBM Digital Library technology which allows businesses, institutions and their clients to maximise the value of their digital information assets while protecting intellectual property. Elements of IBM’s Digital Library technology have been proven within Europe and the USA on several projects, notably the Vatican Library.

AbstractThe traditional role of libraries as managers of knowledge has developed over many centuries. From the Ancient Greeks through to the modern day, they have acted as custodians of an ever growing corpus of knowledge and have established techniques for cataloguing the writings of thinkers in ways that make it accessible to students in all forms of education. This role will not change with the advent of information technology and advanced networking infrastructures. Only the methods used to capture, catalogue and disseminate knowledge will radically alter the ways in which libraries

carry out their tasks.This paper will discuss the role of the library and how it integrates with forms of education. These include the formal academic education used by schools and universities. Increasingly, the formal process is augmented by other forms notably continuing professional education and informal, personal education that is carried out for hobbies and self interest.Once information has been made available as digital material, other types of cataloguing become available. This ‘information enrichment’ involves techniques that are not practical in a traditional library environment. The paper will discuss the increasing use of these techniques and how adoption of content-based techniques may aid the searching of large information sources in todays network-centric world.

John IbbotsonConsultantIBMHursley, UKjohn_ibbotson@vnet.ibm.com

LEDA GUIDI, PROJECT MANAGER, IPERBOLE, BOLOGNAIPERBOLE (Internet per Bologna e l’Emilia Romagna)

Leda Guidi is the project manager of Iperbole, the City of Bologna’s civic digital network designed to develop two-way communication, electronic participation in decision-making process, administrative transparency and innovation, exchange of resources, transfer of knowledge and know-how. At the end of March 1995 there were 3200 individual users; 250 collective subjects - private and public, schools and non-profit bodies.

AbstractIperbole is a civic network employing Internet infrastructures to develop two-way communication, electronic participation in decision-making proc-ess, administrative transparency and innovation, exchange of resources, transfer of knowledge and know-how. The Municipality of Bologna consid-ers information as the essential condition to ensure citizens participation in social, economic and political life. The main points are to guarantee and support an open “new citizenship” a public door to global connectivity, and to state a leading role for local P.A. in the creation of information

society and critical mass. The problem is then to start a strong dissemination phase, obtaining a more generalised and democratic diffusion, both to improve communications for civic activities, and to promote a general improvement of the social and economic tissue from a technical standpoint.We have started a quite demanding campaign inside the municipality among the officers and the employees (more than 300 have already been trained) in order to promote the internal use of the “civic network” and in general of communication technologies, and to give them the neces-sary new skills.To face the problem of citizens’ widespread illiteracy the main idea is to make available as many as possible attended public access points to the Net.A deep feasibility study and a survey of users needs and requirements were made before the service start up . Since January 1995 (service start up) we have been collecting suggestions from the users (on-line/paper questionnaires and interviews), FAQ (frequent asked questions) analysis - and according to their requirements - following an evolutionary approach, we are trying to improve the level of services supplied and the range of our activities. Methodology is based on iterative steps and evolutionary prototyping tested on existing service by the means of: requirements collection, feed-back analysis, specification; system design, implementation, system testing and maintenance. Iperbole/Internet service Marketing Plan (first phase already done, the second is starting) - key factors: general information continuous action, strong education support, system safety and data protection tools, improvement of quality and quality of available applications, easy access to the service (friendly interface and public site provided), etc. Some data about the service: 12000 phone calls, 3000 demo, 2500 technical assistance (at desk, via telephone/fax/e-mail), 7000 technical information kit, 9000 dépliants, 6000 e-mail received and 5000 sent, about 800 questionnaires filled by users and processed, more than 350 consultancies given on the experience to other P.A., agencies and research centres. A lot of articles (on newspapers and magazines) and programmes on different media. A large number of presence in national and international meetings.

Leda Guidi, project managerMunicipality of Bologna, Services of Communication and Relationships with CitizensPiazza Galileo, 4- 40100 Bologna

+39 51 203210 / 260972com@comune.bologna.ithttp://www.comune.bologna.it

FELIX VAN RIJN, HOGESCHOOL VAN AMSTERDAMInteractive Television: The Superdriveway for Home Learning

Feliz van Rijn is based in the Faculteit Onderwijs en Opvoeding, at Hoge-school van Amsterdam. He conducts research in learning and domestic technology and is currently a member of the EC supported ‘Domitel’ project into the use of iTV for home learning. Other projects at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam include pilots with videoconferencing for education, development of interactive learning environments and use of Cable TV for education.

AbstractOne of the most challenging areas for the application of interactive tel-evision, i-TV, is interactive learning services for home learners. i-TV is a major driveway to the Information Superhighway and thus the potential Superdriveway for home learning. Home learning could even be the killer application for the breakthrough of interactive services to the home.The home is an emerging marketplace for learning and i-TV is the most suited medium to serve this market, because of its high quality video, its wide coverage and the low threshold for large groups. Earlier experiments show that i-TV supported home learning is a promising option, but that a systematic approach is needed to bring it further.The DOMITEL project aims to develop systematically i-TV supported home learning and to demonstrate viable applications for different groups of learners in different local/regional i-TV settings in a number of Euro-pean countries. The synthesis of the various experiences and expertise of the partners should lead to common pathways that will help to pave the Superdriveway for home learning.

Felix van RijnHogeschool van AmsterdamFaculteit Onderwijs en OpvoedingPostbus 2009 - 1000 CA Amsterdam, The NetherlandsF.H.M.van.Rijn@foo.hva.nl

CHANNEL 8Investment, in Technology and the Market : Making

Change Pay

CHAIR: MR. MICHAEL SCHRAGE

ISABEL TIBBITS, BT CORPORATE STRATEGYThe Influence of Cost in the Development of iTV

Isabel Tibbitts is Strategy Manager at BT Corporate Strategy and Strategic Relations. Isabel has specialised in telecommunications and multimedia for over ten years. She has worked in paging and cellular telephony and market-ing and product development of videoconferencing, satellite communica-tions, smart and chargecards. Isabel has been in BT’s spearhead operations for the establishment of the information superhighway since the initial developments in on-line services such as Prestel and Minitel. Isabel was a founder member of BT’s ICE programme (Information Communications and Entertainment). She has also undertaken an internal audit for BT of its own ‘information content’ resources. Isabel has significant experience of other relevant industries. Prior to joining BT Isabel worked in the re-tail and distribution industries including Procter and Gamble and United Breweries. With two young children, Isabel is committed to developing greater awareness of computing and information technologies in schools, and is involved in BT’s schools support programme giving careers advice. Isabel has also specialised in key areas of the multimedia scene where local government and private enterprise are liaising to develop multimedia such as in healthcare (Reuters) and intelligent transport systems.

This paper covers two main themes: • cost - as a driver and a barrier • evolution before revolution

Service provision costs are a catalyst to disintermediation (removal of intermediary functions) initially with interim technologies and then via true multimedia. This presentation looks at how established infrastructures will influence this.Mass-markets do not readily recognise the benefits of interactive services.

Thus barriers of technical change can only be overcome through gradual, social familiarisation.

Isabel Tibbits1 Vincent Terrace, London N1 8HJ

CHUCK GAFVERT, DISCOVERY CHANNEL INTERACTIVEThe Business Case for Interactive Services Over Cable

Chuck Gafvert is Project Director of Discovery Broadband Interactive TV, Discovery Communications, Inc. As director of Discovery broadband interactive TV trials (BBI TV), Chuck is responsible for working closely with project team members and other DCI business units to adopt and develop interactive television applications and to facilitate DCIs partici-pation in BBI TV trials. Prior to this position, he was senior manager for Discovery’s Electronic Commerce Systems. In that role, he was instru-mental in establishing DCI as an industry leader in all aspects of electronic commerce by improving cable buying administration services, eliminating barriers to buying cable and increasing flexibility, reliability and security for electronic trading

AbstractSince April of 1995, Discovery Channel has advanced with research and development in the area of Interactive Television. During that time, three iterations of prototypes have been developed and tested in ten focus groups which have spanned four different markets. We are learning valu-able lessons regarding the popularity of various types of programming, what pricing models are acceptable, the anticipated refresh rates, the ex-pected depth and breadth of the service, and the usability of navigational interfaces. Focus group participants have expressed a voracious appetite for interactive content in areas such as technology, nature, history, travel, cultures, cooking, how-to military, and aviation.

Reasons why DCI is involved with ITV include the following:- To explore the potential revenues of this new medium and develop an applicable business plan.

- Gain experience in repurposing and developing programming specifically for this new medium- Accumulate proprietary trial market data from network operators - Stay competitive with other content providers who are planning or launching similar programming services - Utilize marketing and cross promotion to create awareness and drive audience flow across a variety of media outlets including the various Discovery Networks, Online, and Interactive TV- Open new distribution channels for our Multimedia, Home Video, Books, and Catalog products- Assemble information on consumer product merchandising in an interac-tive environment- Learn what models of interactive advertising are appropriate for this medium - Investigate additional new media platforms to support corporate programming initiatives

In exploring ITV, cable network operators are actively preparing for new revenue opportunities as well as arming themselves against competitive challenges from Direct Broadcast Satellite, Digital Video Disk, and the Telcos. Cable and Telco operators believe that advanced video, audio, and data services will be absolutely necessary to maintain or attract a base of subscribers. US cable operators, feeling industry pressure from these multiple sources are furiously investing in upgrades to their plants, installed set-top boxes, and back end systems.Traditional delivery of cable services have carved a huge revenue path in subscriber and advertising revenue. Internet data services have for the time being eclipsed ITV in representing the next wave of interactivity to consumers. However, some valuable lessons can be learned from the revenue models emerging from this new medium. Internet users unani-mously have rejected the subscriber model to pay for site access and, the success of traditional advertising techniques has yet to be demonstrated. But, research shows that consumers will pay more for technologies which enable them to control television viewing to better fit schedules or prefer-ences. Despite the fact that PC owners report that PC and online service usage have reduced the amount of TV watching time, these people are spending more on Pay Per View TV.Although technology costs and other delays have shifted focus away from ITV and to the Internet, the popularity of computer delivered services will actually help pave the cable technology path for on-demand video. As MSOs push to deliver Internet access via cable systems, they are upgrad-

ing their cable plants in order to provide the high speed cable modem connections. Also, the two-way communication technology needed for cable modems is similar to what is needed in set-tops capable of on-de-mand services. Thus, mass production of cable modems will speed the development and reduce the price of set-tops.The importance of TV entertainment as a key ingredient in any interactive service cannot be over emphasized. Successful efforts will combine proven Hollywood entertainment with the advertising agency expertise needed to produce a compelling and entertaining service. These new services will only be successful if they can garner subscriptions from consumers seeking TV entertainment customized for their interests and lifestyles. The enormous amounts of current consumer expenditures for TV en-tertainment and the associated advertising revenue justify any investment in technology needed to provide advanced video services.

Chuck GafvertProject Director Discovery Broadband InteractiveUSAcgafvert @ discovery.com

BILL SMITH, INTERNATIONAL MARKETING MANAGER, NTN COM-MUNICATIONS INC.

Bill Smith is General Manager of international licensing at NTN Communi-cations Ltd. NTN produces and broadcasts two-way interactive games and shows through the only interactive television network in North America. It broadcasts 7 days a week, 24 hours a day to restaurants, bars and hotels in the US, Canada, South Africa and Australia, with 15 million participants per month. NTN is popular on interactive cable and on-line services, has pioneered interactive education and commercial communications and has made profits for 11 years. Bill has been involved in the communications industry for 30 years starting in AT&T, and as head of a leading telecom-munications consulting and engineering firm. He has also held executive positions in marketing with Harris and other US corporations.

Summary

Based in Carlsbad, California, NTN Communications, Inc. (AMEX: NTN) is an international producer, programmer and broadcaster of interactive television games and shows. Established in 1983, NTN devoted two years to product and software development and, by 1986, the company intro-duced its innovative entertainment programming to the hospitality/service industry over its own two-way interactive entertainment network.Today, NTN owns and operates an interactive television network that broadcasts seven days a week, 24 hours a day, with a digital signal that reaches all of North America.NTN is currently the only company broadcasting interactive programming into homes via cable, telephone, fiber, wireless, VBI, FM sideband and DBS delivery platforms.NTN has firmly established itself worldwide as the recognized leader of interactive television, programming and broadcasting. NTN’s corporate philosophy supports the fact that there are many delivery systems of inter-active television and that it will take on many different forms. Therefore, the company will continue to develop and produce programming that will be adaptable to all mediums. Whether it is a separate “box” for the home, cable distribution, or online service, NTN is committed to providing inno-vative, enjoyable and entertaining programming for interactive technology as it rapidly changes and matures into the 21st century.

William SmithNTN Communications Inc.The Campus5966 La Place CourtCalrsbad, California 92008-8830(619) 438-7400

JONATHAN HART, CEO, CIMSDeveloping City Online: The Glasgow Experience

Jonathan Hart is Managing Director of Caledonian Information and Media Services Ltd (CIMS) Jonathan started his career in the Messenger Group and Today Newspapers and was heavily involved in the planning of pagina-

tion at News International before he launched his own company Practical Publishing Solutions, PPS. The company consulted on pagination projects throughout UK and Europe. He then moved to Caledonian Newspapers as Information Technology Controller 1993, eventually joining the Board as IT Director, where he planned the introduction of new technology into all areas of production. Jonathan masterminded the companies move into multimedia. CIMS are major suppliers of on-line publishing services, and have recently launched City Online in Glasgow, delivering interactive information to the local community in hotels, kiosks, via CATV and on the Internet.

LAWRENCE LAWSON, SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR, TELETEXT LTDInvestment in Technology and the Market: Making Change Pay

Lawrence Lawson is the Sales and Marketing Director for Teletext Ltd. He has wide experience of the teletext medium, as sales manager for ORACLE Teletext before joining Teletext on iTV and Channel 4. He is responsible for initiation and implementation of the company’s sales and marketing strategies. Teletext is now a leading direct response advertis-ing medium, which provides for 17.2million viewers. It has become the biggest holiday advertising medium in the UK, with an estimated share of 15% of the market.

AbstractAlthough there is much speculation and hope surrounding interactivity as a growth market for the future it is all something of a leap of faith. Can a business be built on it, how big is the market going to grow and at what speed, and what are the key factors that will make and interactive business a success?Teletext is a digital information service which is used interactively - with the reverse path either through the TV remote control or by wire. And it’s been around for about 20 years. And it is very successful indeed. This is the case history I am qualified to expound on - and I think it does give some insights into how the future may develop.

Lawrence LawsonSales and Marketing Director

Teletext Limited.

EDWARD BOYD, YOUNG AND RUBICAM, CANADA

Edward W. Boyd is Director of New Media Technologies at Young and Ru-bicam Canada. Young and Rubicam is the largest privately owned agency in the world and includes among its clients, Ford Motor Company, the world-wide Colgate Palmolive business, and ATT . The agency is very active in the area of New Media and has assumed a leadership role in both Web site design and on-line media planning. Edward’s role is to incorporate New Media strategies into traditional media plans and help clients effectively use these media to enhance communications, advertising and distribution. Prior to joining Young & Rubicam Mr. Boyd was Director of Interactive Services for the AC Nielsen Company of Canada

JEREMY SWINFEN-GREEN, CARAT NEW MEDIAInteractive Television and Marketing

Jeremy Swinfen-Green is the Director of New Media and Communication at the Carat Group. Carat is the largest media buying specialist in Europe and bought approximately $7 billion of media space (including TV spots) for clients last year. As the company buys over 10% of the total available TV advertising space in Europe, as well as being involved in TV sponsor-ship and programming deals, the future of television is obviously of great importance. Jeremy’s responsibilities at Carat include helping the various Carat companies around Europe advise their clients about the way media is changing and what new opportunities are available. Prior to joining Carat at the start of 1996, Jeremy managed UK advertising agency BMP DDB’s involvement in the BT and Cambridge interactive TV trials.

Jeremy’s talk looks at the demands advertisers will place on interactive television, based on an analysis of marketing and advertising and of different commercial models for i-TV. He will argue that the Internet is the wrong environment to learn about future interactive advertising and marketing.

Discussion on the advertising industry and the development of interactive television with speakers from Channel 8 and members of the audience

Closing Reception

See you in 1998!

The Material Contained in this booklet remains copyright of the University of Edinburgh

iTV’96 was a non-profit event organised by TechMapp at the University of Edinburgh to promote the discussion of changing media and communications for the mass market , and encourage comunication between industries, profes-

sions and government and academia.

The oraganisers hope to repeat the highly successful event mid-1998.

Details of the confernece proceedings, the forthcoming book, other events, publications and the next conference

can be obtained from the Conference Secretary.

James StewartResearch Centre for Social Sciences

Old Surgeons’ HallHigh School Yards

Edinburgh EH1 1LZ

tel: +44 131 650 6392fax: +44 131 650 6399

e-mail: iTV96@ed.ac.uk

i-TV’96 and beyond