Lines: 44

Very good information, Jacques and I thank you for adding to and
clarifying.  With VRML coming online, and all of the other multi-modal
options, we are entering truly interesting times.  Consider that the FAST
card for video editing and the Adobe Premier software are now sold for less
than a thousand dollars.  The entry level pentium sells for under $2000.
With a $500 camera (well, a bit more for quality) and an equivalent VCR,
one can get into the movie game at least at the conceptual level although
the gear is more suitable for kiosk productions and CD-ROM (where 15 fps is
acceptable).  So while I am not enthused about these products for
industrial applications, their ability to bring the same skills of
production to the home owner are exciting.  One word of caution.  This
quantum shift in technology in which the production power moved down
happened in the music field about 20 years ago with the introduction of
cheap 4-track machines.  For awhile, this was used mainly by those who
already had skills acquired in the larger studios to demo.  Then, in the
early eighties, 8 and 16 track machines became available.  The level of
skill in musicianship dropped as did the quality of the music in some
areas.  The overall effect was, coupled with the low price of CD production
but the high price of CD at market that sustained low production runs was a
commensurate increase in niche markets, for example, the blues labels.  Low
cost hypermedia such as HTML put the pornographers in high gear just as it
made MITs research generally available.

There is no complete upside or downside to these trends, I suspect.  But
there can be gross misapplication which will result in some fairly shoddy
work.  Serious recording artists still use state of the art gear and the
major labels still dominate the markets by dominating the distribution.
What we will see is network privatization, increased quality as a result of
that in the access time and services, and a healthy amount of
"experimentation" in the the cheaper venues which the major interests will
harvest.

SGML practitioners and vendors must find their place in that and it can
only happen as SGML becomes part of integrated application suites scaled
appropriately in cost and functionality for the jobs at hand.  That is
progress.  Expect to see some of the major SGML players absorbed by even
bigger corporations whose publishing interests cross the media boundaries
(print, electronic, CD-ROM online).  Those who may suffer from all of this
will be the independent SGML consultants just entering the field without
established credentials.

Damm.  That means ME!!!  |-( Time to find honest work... |-)

Len


From owner-online-news@marketplace.com Thu Apr 13 18:37:25 1995
Received: from marketplace.com by cnj.digex.net with SMTP id AA07532
  (5.67b8/IDA-1.5 for ); Thu, 13 Apr 1995 18:37:22 -0400
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by marketplace.com (8.6.10/8.6.10) id LAA06984 for online-news-outgoing; Thu, 13 Apr 1995 11:45:30 -0600
Received: from access4.digex.net (qlZQ8myurZuj2@access4.digex.net [164.109.10.7]) by marketplace.com (8.6.10/8.6.10) with SMTP id LAA06977 for ; Thu, 13 Apr 1995 11:45:22 -0600
Received: by access4.digex.net id AA25514
  (5.67b8/IDA-1.5 for online-news@marketplace.com); Thu, 13 Apr 1995 13:46:59 -0400