Subject: Re: Emailing the news From: sjones@pop.adn.com (Stan Jones) Date: Wed, 12 Apr 1995 19:03:28 -1000

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>Caution, however: The GIF files you would send with HTML files are binary

I believe it. We haven't succeeded in moving an image file by email yet.
We're wondering if it would be possible to send the email edition with
links back to *images* on our web server, which readers could then retrieve
if they considered it worth the trouble. Anybody know if this is possible?


>1. What happens two minutes after something is mailed (presumably on
>deadline) if an editor finds a mistake? If everything's on the server, the
>editor can fix it and most of the people will see the corrected
>information.

The editor could send a message to the whole subscriber list saying there
was an error in story such and such, etc. At least he'd know he got
everyone that way, which wouldn't be true with the server approach.
Regardless, this doesn't seem like a big enough issue to settle the
question of which approach a publisher should take. It should be whichever
approach customers like (maybe both, they're not mutually exclusive) and
pays enough for the publisher to stay in business.


>2. Typically you need to mail out a 'directory tree' of documents which are
>linked together. How do you do that through email? I'm not certain.
>
We think it would be possible to send several HTML documents as email
attachments, then use hypertext links to navigate among them. If not, it
could  be possible to send one *huge* attachment and use in-document
hypertext links to navigate through it. If done properly, this approach
might almost conceal from the reader the fact that his "multi-section"
email newspaper is really one big humongous section with clever
architecture.

In case it hasn't been clear from previous posts, our goal here is to find
some way to move graphical documents to subscribers in a way that exploits
the most basic and universal capabilities of the Internet infrastructure
(i.e., email) and can exist independently of the server approach.

I think there is some doubt that server architectures can provide a
satisfactory reading experience at the bandwidths typically available to
individual users at present. That will presumably improve, but I think it
is worth at least exploring whether it is not already possible to provide a
satisfactory graphical reading experience by emailing documents to the
reader's hard drive

Stan Jones
Editor, Electronic Publications
Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News



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