categoryallspace2-Multimedia http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Multimedia A directory of resources about multimedia in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Multimedia http://tc.eserver.org/31495.html http://tc.eserver.org/31495.html Podcasting is more than a platform for reviews or polemic. It's also a powerful tool within the enterprise for training, for marketing, and for documentation. Imagine being able to carry product information or supplementary material with you and not have to worry about stacks of paper? You can do that with a podcast. http://tc.eserver.org/31313.html http://tc.eserver.org/31313.html In May, I had the pleasure of participating in the IABC Newfoundland & Labrador 20/20 Visionary Communications conference. Jo-Anne Polak of Hill & Knowlton, while presenting her thoughts about contemporary crisis communication, made a comment that I haven’t stopped thinking about since her presentation. Jo-Anne pointed out that after September 11th, journalists have had to become more competitive and aggressive because media sources have exploded in number, and technology has provided immediate electronic delivery. http://tc.eserver.org/31275.html http://tc.eserver.org/31275.html Hardware is easy to talk about, test, evaluate, review and sell. Software takes a little more study. Which is why we remain one of the very few imaging publications to review software in any depth. Most people find software is a solid that must be chewed to derive any nutritional benefits. And so they chew and chew and chew. But, no matter how much they chew, the stuff is still pretty hard to swallow. http://tc.eserver.org/31249.html http://tc.eserver.org/31249.html New media have drastically altered the way we communicate, particularly during a crisis. With the blogosphere, Web 2.0, Second Life and social media sites like Flickr, Twitter, Blogger, Facebook and MySpace, it seems that a new way to spread information crops up on a daily basis. Since crises can originate or be perpetuated online, communicators must incorporate social media into their existing media monitoring efforts. http://tc.eserver.org/31137.html http://tc.eserver.org/31137.html This is one in a series which will take you through the act of capturing, editing, and exporting a video using Apple iMovie. http://tc.eserver.org/31138.html http://tc.eserver.org/31138.html Once you have successfully captured your video clips, you will want to edit and arrange them to create you movie. It is very rare to flawlessly capture exactly what you need, with the exact in and out points that you want. You will need to trim unwanted frames and footage from your clips. http://tc.eserver.org/31139.html http://tc.eserver.org/31139.html You have this great project that you've just finished, and you need to bring it into another program, display it on your web site, or turn it in on CD or DVD. To do this, you will need to export your movie. iMovie has several 'built-in' configurations that take much of the guesswork out of compressing your video for optimal playback on one of those media types. I often find, however, that the standard choices are not quite what I want or need. This is when the Expert options come into play. http://tc.eserver.org/31049.html http://tc.eserver.org/31049.html This is a qualitative case study of two students' composing processes as they developed a documentary video about the Dominican Republic in an urban, public middle school classroom. While using a digital video editing program, the students moved across multiple media (the Web, digital video, books, and writing), drawing semiotic resources from each as they did so. Using sociosemiotic and dialogic-intertextual theoretical frameworks, the author examines how the interface of the video editing program influenced the students' composing by making new types of semiotic resources available and new means of combining these resources. As they moved across these media in a nonlinear fashion, the students created an interactive context for composing that transcended the individual possibilities of each respective medium. This suggests that multimedial composing environments offer a rich intertextual landscape and unique ways of making meanings. http://tc.eserver.org/31050.html http://tc.eserver.org/31050.html Frequently writing is now no longer the central mode of representation in learning materials--textbooks, Web-based resources, teacher-produced materials. Still (as well as moving) images are increasingly prominent as carriers of meaning. Uses and forms of writing have undergone profound changes over the last decades, which calls for a social, pedagogical, and semiotic explanation. Two trends mark that history. The digital media, rather than the (text) book, are more and more the site of appearance and distribution of learning resources, and writing is being displaced by image as the central mode for representation. This poses sharp questions about present and future roles and forms of writing. For text, design and principles of composition move into the foreground. Here we sketch a social semiotic account that aims to elucidate such principles and permits consideration of their epistemological as well as social/pedagogic significance. Linking representation with social factors, we put forward terms to explore two issues: the principles underlying the design of multimodal ensembles and the potential epistemological and pedagogic effects of multimodal designs. Our investigation is set within a research project with a corpus of learning resources for secondary school in Science, Mathematics, and English from the 1930s, the 1980s, and from the first decade of the 21st century, as well as digitally represented and online learning resources from the year 2000 onward. http://tc.eserver.org/31051.html http://tc.eserver.org/31051.html This article highlights the role that aesthetics play in television's current convergence with mobile telephones and portable media players like the iPod. I contend that contemporary television style does not just constitute a response to the demands of technological convergence -- it is rather an integral component of that which allows television to merge with new devices in the first place. When we engage with style as a precursor to these developments, important continuities emerge between the aesthetics of the small screen and those of the new smaller screens. These continuities underscore that convergence is at once a technical and aesthetic process that entails the hybridization of hardware and cultural forms. http://tc.eserver.org/31053.html http://tc.eserver.org/31053.html Current developments in high-definition technological systems for home viewing link definitively with early Home Cinema, as practised from the late 1890s, as an alternative to public spectatorship. The traditions of Home Cinema, in encompassing degrees of informality, interaction and control within domestic exhibition, served to lay foundations for a televisual experience which, today, having come full-circle, is defining itself once more as `Home Cinema'. http://tc.eserver.org/31029.html http://tc.eserver.org/31029.html Here is a breakdown of how we might handle the typical 'low budget' television demo or competition, such as a local cooking show, sporting event, or how-to-do-it. http://tc.eserver.org/31030.html http://tc.eserver.org/31030.html Stereo is rarely recorded as such in the field. Instead, we record monaural sounds and wait until post-production is nearly complete to re-assign these sounds to the audience's left, right, and in-between. Until the film is edited, there is no way to know just where all of the audio elements need to end up. For instance, out on production, it might seem logical to record a car that passes from left to right in stereo, so that you can hear the 'pass by' in your phones whoosh from the left ear to the right ear. http://tc.eserver.org/31031.html http://tc.eserver.org/31031.html Hiding a microphone under clothing requires a great deal of attention to detail. Not only must the mic be hidden from view, but you must also contend with the problems of clothing noise. http://tc.eserver.org/31032.html http://tc.eserver.org/31032.html Bad audio will certainly sink an otherwise good project! That being said, let's look at how other Departments can help the Sound Department improve the quality of the recorded dialogue. http://tc.eserver.org/31033.html http://tc.eserver.org/31033.html The post-production process known as 'Foley' refers to the art of recording 'live' sync sound effects to picture. It is akin to looping the dialogue, but instead of recording the actors performing their lines while watching themselves on screen--skilled craftspeople known as 'Foley artists' will walk, run, and act out any sync sound effects to match what the actor is seen (or implied) doing in the picture. http://tc.eserver.org/31026.html http://tc.eserver.org/31026.html Digital video production in composition courses is both new and exciting. However, this newness comes with challenges and obstacles as well as more questions than answers. What exactly is so fun, attractive, liberating, and transgressive about digital video work? Is it the time invested in editing minutes or hours of footage into seconds of film clips? Is it the sheer thrill of having the power to overlay images, words, and sounds to produce an effect impossible in the real world and highly effective in the multimodal, rhetorical one? Is it that the composition teacher is finally asking for a product where grammar (understood as punctuation and sentence structure) is mostly invisible? Is it the crisis moments when the software, the hard drive, and/or the accompanying hardware crashes and we are still left with a classroom full of students to teach? Or, is it the mesmerizing effect of the screen that promises sustained attention to a composition assignment? The answer, we think, in all cases is 'yes'--yet sometimes that yes is a hesitant one. http://tc.eserver.org/30862.html http://tc.eserver.org/30862.html Designers of DVDs have failed to profit from the lessons of previous media: Computer software, Internet web pages, and even WAP phones. As a result, the DVD menu structure is getting more and more baroque, less and less usable, less pleasurable, less effective. It is time to take DVD design as seriously as we do web design. The field needs some discipline some attention to the User Experience, and some standardization of control and display formats. http://tc.eserver.org/30841.html http://tc.eserver.org/30841.html Teachers face two serious difficulties when assigning research papers. The first appears to be an issue of motivation but is really one of mental disposition. Many students are so deeply influenced by contemporary visual culture--especially by film--that they lack familiarity with close reasoning. They are accustomed to absorbing entertaining, but loosely connected, streams of images in an impressionistic way and are uneasy and anxious when given a major assignment in an exclusively written medium. Inexperienced in the systematic compilation and analysis of information, they often perform poorly. These students may appear to be unenthusiastic about their topics; in fact, they do badly because they are methodologically disoriented. They run aground while sailing in the unfamiliar seas of organized, sequential, linear logic. This problem often shows itself in the frequent, and frequently gratuitous, use of illustrations in research papers. Instructors often comment that 'students love pictures.' It would be more accurate to say that students understand pictures and are comfortable with them. The second difficulty is a by-product of the Web. Plagiarism has become so widespread that it poses a real threat to the academic enterprise. Yet its detection is both difficult and time-consuming, and an instructor must be on absolutely solid ground before bringing a student up on such serious charges. Furthermore, even if available, an expensive counter-plagiarism program such as Turnitin cannot always deliver conclusive evidence. Plagiarism must be addressed, but today, articles that existed previously only in print can be optically scanned, free essays are available online, and papers can be purchased and downloaded from numerous commercial outlets. We have addressed both of these problems by strategically using appropriate motion pictures as entrees into the subject matter and as points of comparison to help organize research papers. We first provide our students with a list of films that bear on relevant topics. http://tc.eserver.org/30848.html http://tc.eserver.org/30848.html A primary goal of most introductory business and technical communication courses is to introduce students to the idea that the professional communication most of them will engage in is different from the writing they do for academic purposes. This overall idea covers several principles concerning professional writing. First, in an academic essay, a student may tell all he or she knows about a topic to an expert reader (the instructor); in professional writing situations, however, writers are most likely sharing only a small part of the information they know with nonexpert readers. Second, when writing in professional situations, writers must actively envision audiences different from themselves, audiences that will have different concerns and purposes than the writers do. Finally, the audience, purpose, and medium of a professional communication situation drive the choices a writer will make. If students are to understand these principles, discussing them in class is insufficient; students must also practice them. Implementing active learning that applies these principles authentically can be challenging. The makeup of many business and technical communication courses means that not all students share expertise in a given field that they can draw on for common assignments. Hypothetical assignments may not give students a deep sense of context, and students may continue to perceive the instructor as the real audience for such assignments. http://tc.eserver.org/30778.html http://tc.eserver.org/30778.html Technical communicators must adapt to the changing dynamics presented by the addition of rich media in the technical documentation space. Discover some suggestions for how to do so. http://tc.eserver.org/30716.html http://tc.eserver.org/30716.html Bill Gates gave his last keynote at the 2008 CES show in Las Vegas and he started it out with a spoof of what his last day might be like and includes cameos from a number of Microsoft executives and some Hollywood stars, celebrities and politicians. This video is just an excerpt of the longer keynote. http://tc.eserver.org/30692.html http://tc.eserver.org/30692.html Given that many doctoral programs do not provide extensive training on how to present course information in the classroom, the current paper looks to educational psychology theory and research for guidance. Richard Mayer and others' copious empirical work on effective and ineffective instructional design, along with relevant research findings in cognitive science, are summarized and adapted to the management education context. The goal of this article is to enhance instructors' ability to effectively relay course material and to offer specific advice for how instructors can implement prior research findings. http://tc.eserver.org/30701.html http://tc.eserver.org/30701.html Recently, scholars of new media have been exploring the relationships between genre theory and new media. While these scholars have provided a great deal of insight into the nature of e-genres and how they function in professional contexts, few address the relationship between genre and new-media theories from a designer's perspective. This article presents the results of an ethnographic-style case study exploring the practice of a professional new-media designer. These results (a) confirm the role of dynamic rhetorical situations and hybridity during the new-media design process; (b) suggest that current genre and new-media theories underestimate the complexity of the relationships between mode, medium, genre, and rhetorical exigencies; and (c) indicate that a previously unrecognized form of hybridity exists in contemporary e-genres. http://tc.eserver.org/30663.html http://tc.eserver.org/30663.html With the advent of widely available broadband, media, movies, images, and sound drive the Web 2.0 revolution. Learn to combine media with technologies such as PHP and Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax) to create a compelling experience for your customers. http://tc.eserver.org/30636.html http://tc.eserver.org/30636.html Ajax and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) have revolutionized the way users interact with Web sites. However, documenting the design of any page that uses Ajax is a challenge, because the page--and, more importantly, components on the page--can have different states, depending on how users interact with the page's components. http://tc.eserver.org/30603.html http://tc.eserver.org/30603.html Use of online video has grown faster than the use of accessibility in online video. Though bandwidth costs for video files can still be high compared to ordinary text-and-graphics Web pages, it is nonetheless easy to digitize video and post it online. It's easier to broadcast your video to the world via the Internet than it is to get the same video on television. Online multimedia are a useful and valid new medium of communication - for most people. http://tc.eserver.org/30606.html http://tc.eserver.org/30606.html DVDs can carry up to eight audio tracks. It is theoretically possible to provide main audio and dubbing in three languages and audio description in all four languages. In practice, all anybody's asking for is an audio description track in the main language of the audio. http://tc.eserver.org/30588.html http://tc.eserver.org/30588.html A video camera is an excellent tool for preparing technical illustrations and procedures. A video tape of a procedure provides chronological information. It provides visual images that can be used as the basis for technical illustrations. Visual images and details are recorded permenantly so that they are not forgotten. The research information can be passed on to another author. A case study illustrates how a video tape can be used to document a procedure and produce electronic illustrations. http://tc.eserver.org/30601.html http://tc.eserver.org/30601.html The techniques of film language areas important to video and multimedia presentations as the techniques of written language are to technical documentation. Film language consists of such components as shot content, frame composition, camera movement, color (or shade), lighting, and film transitions. Film transitions are the way in which shots and sequences are connected and carry specific semantic weight for the viewer. However for many technical video-makers, the meanings of film transitions are overlooked in favor of flashy presentations or are abused to cover a problem. In developing videos for training or informational purposes, we should respect and understand the significance of film transitions and other aspects of film language. http://tc.eserver.org/30569.html http://tc.eserver.org/30569.html In this all-day seminar we'll expand the knowledge we garnered in the basic seminar on script design for the information film and video or on our experience. We'll explore advanced concepts in the grammar of film and video and learn new filmic design techniques. Throughout the seminar we'll view and critique a number of films and videos to see how other producers have applied such filmic techniques to solving specific communication problems. http://tc.eserver.org/30576.html http://tc.eserver.org/30576.html For technical communicators, storyboarding is a path to collaboration with team members and users. Collaboration and storyboarding help technical communicators get new ideas, find new structures, and discover new modes of expression. In this workshop, you will learn about storyboards and how to develop them. You will also participate in exercises on conducting and collaborating on a storyboard review and on writing a storyboard specification. You will discover how collaboration helps create the context, organization, and design of a document through the use of storyboards. http://tc.eserver.org/30539.html http://tc.eserver.org/30539.html Multimedia and hypertext are two of the hottest topics in technical communications today. Multimedia, in one form or another, has been around for decades—so has hypertext. Both have been of enormous interest to the technical communicator specifically, and the computer user in general. Lately, we have seen advancements in computer technology that can allow a computer user to produce presentations of considerable quality. Just as the advent of the Macintosh ushered in the era of desktop publishing, the rapidly falling prices of digital video cards and image editing software are about to pave the way for another revolution in desktop computing. http://tc.eserver.org/30548.html http://tc.eserver.org/30548.html With the growth of multimedia, design techniques to manage the contents and data structures for the media are becoming required We call this courseware in distinction from hardware or software, and we produce a production model by developing a uique technique not in imitation of the conventional ones using the following three points, layout, framework and linkage management. http://tc.eserver.org/30464.html http://tc.eserver.org/30464.html In this audio-visual age, technical writers need an easy way to deliver Flash-based, dynamic screen demos for their help content. http://tc.eserver.org/30419.html http://tc.eserver.org/30419.html There are three parts to the process for creating a multimedia CD-ROM, and each part contains a number of steps. The first part, PLANNING, defines the goal, audience, budget, equipment, team members, theme, reviewers, schedule, and outline. The second part, PRODUCTION, develops, com- bines, and tests the multimedia elements: the script, story board, and audio and visual elements. The final part, PACKAGING, creates the printed infor- mation, the label, and the text and control files that go onto and ship with the CD-ROM. http://tc.eserver.org/30404.html http://tc.eserver.org/30404.html You can use the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Video Workshop to start learning about any application you're interested in, whether you own it or not. The Video Workshop shares expertise from across Adobe and the Adobe community--you'll learn tasks, tips, and tricks from leading designers, developers, and Adobe experts. There are introductory videos for new users, and more experienced users can find videos on new features and key techniques. http://tc.eserver.org/30409.html http://tc.eserver.org/30409.html Moving from High Definition (HD) to FLV means a loss of quality. It is similar to moving a Photoshop high-resolution TIFF image to the JPG format--the loss in quality can't be avoided. http://tc.eserver.org/30397.html http://tc.eserver.org/30397.html Multimedia can sometimes convey meaning in ways that text and graphics alone cannot. This paper offers two principles for understanding how multimedia can clarify abstract concepts. The first principle is that multimedia is excellent for conveying any kind of change, such as change in quantity, size, shape, or relationship. The second principle is that multimedia can help present complex concepts by providing information in both the visual and auditory modes simultaneously. These principles can guide technical communicators in evaluating whether multimedia is a cost-effective way to present their information. http://tc.eserver.org/30270.html http://tc.eserver.org/30270.html Are you considering publishing your documentation on CD-ROM? Sign up for a consultation with experts from leading CD-ROM firms. NOTE: This 'workshop' takes place in individual 15-minute one-on-one sessions. Please try to arrive early and sign up for your time slot; then you're on your own (visit the exhibits? call your office?) until your session time. This way, all participants receive the complete attention of a CD-ROM consultant. We'll work with drop-ins if any time slots remain unassigned. http://tc.eserver.org/30243.html http://tc.eserver.org/30243.html Interactive media for distance training require special presentational strategies. Compressed video, an interactive medium using fiber optics, has unique characteristics which users must know. The video creates a lack of direct eye contact and a sense of separation. The compression creates flattened images and extremes of colors. Effective presenters in this medium must plan concise, horizontal graphics. They must schedule short, varied activities with limited use of uninterrupted lecture. And they must plan frequent interactive activities--such as questions, group work, and demonstrations--for an effective session. http://tc.eserver.org/30088.html http://tc.eserver.org/30088.html Digital video (DV) is relatively easy and inexpensive to produce and has an expanding role in technical communication. It is a powerful media for communication and can be included in favorite online formats such as WinHelp, HTML help, Acrobat (PDF), and web pages, as well as training presentations produced with tools such as Asymmetrix Toolbook and Macromedia Authorware. Delivery of DV spans a range of electronic media including CD, DVD, and the Internet. New technology offers the potential to synchronize the presentation of video, audio, and other multimedia forms. This paper introduces DV concepts. It gives practical tips for investing in DV equipment and producing video and audio. http://tc.eserver.org/30064.html http://tc.eserver.org/30064.html Podcasts aren't very good at delivering step-by-step technical information. Concepts are where podcasts excel. http://tc.eserver.org/30069.html http://tc.eserver.org/30069.html Podcasting involves three activities: capturing content, producing it, and distributing it. Tim Poe and Ben Rogers from the Office of Information Technology at Duke University's Multimedia group talk about the technology initiatives undertaken, and make their audience aware of the plethora of tools available to perform these activities easily. http://tc.eserver.org/30070.html http://tc.eserver.org/30070.html There are a number of approaches to getting meaningful data from podcast usage, each with their own advantages and drawbacks. http://tc.eserver.org/30067.html http://tc.eserver.org/30067.html 'Writing for the ear' is an effective way of making content engaging and interesting. Examples of this are audio-based sentence structure, writing around audio clips, making informed word choices and creating a narrative arc for your podcast. Listeners, who are often occupied with other things while listening, need audio and content that transports them to another state of mind. With this in mind, Bond explains techniques and provides examples of how podcasters can anticipate what their audience expects to hear, and how they meet listener expectations while still providing something new. http://tc.eserver.org/30071.html http://tc.eserver.org/30071.html The literature on managing virtual teams and projects across cultures and locations is primarily theoretical and not integrated with information about collaborative tools such as wikis, blogs, and project dashboards. The authors advocate choosing the best situational tool, based on team and team members' needs. http://tc.eserver.org/30049.html http://tc.eserver.org/30049.html Animated characters have been a popular research theme, but the respective desktop applications have not been well-received by end-users. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of an animated character for presenting information and navigating music videos within an interactive television (ITV) application. Information was displayed over music video clips with two alternative user interfaces: 1) semi-transparent information overlays, 2) an animated character. For this purpose, the differences between ITV and desktop computing motivated the adaptation of the traditional usability evaluation techniques. The evaluation revealed that users reported higher affective quality with the animated character user interface. Although the success of animated characters in desktop productivity applications has been limited, there is growing evidence that animated characters might be viable in a domestic environment for leisure activities, such as interactive TV. http://tc.eserver.org/30033.html http://tc.eserver.org/30033.html Watching DVDs can be a frustrating experience, because DVD menus often miss out on usability and are complex and difficult to navigate through. Similar to the early years of web development, there is a lack of design standards. In this paper, we show the development of user interface guidelines for DVD menus. These guidelines can be used to design and evaluate DVD menus. We built a prototype according to the guidelines, conducted usability tests with the prototype and evaluated other movie DVDs using the guidelines to show the applicability, utility and usability of the guidelines. http://tc.eserver.org/30036.html http://tc.eserver.org/30036.html DVD menus often suffer from serious usability problems, which has a negative impact on the user experience. The reason for this is that there is a lack of design standards. In this paper we describe the development of user interface guidelines for DVD menus and present the final guidelines. In order to obtain usable and applicable guidelines we went through three phases, which included among other usability-engineering methods an expert walkthrough, a ua prototype, and validating and improving the guidelines. http://tc.eserver.org/30035.html http://tc.eserver.org/30035.html DVD menus often miss out on usability and are complex and difficult to navigate through. One of the main problems is the lack of design standards. By conducting an expert walkthrough we identified typical usability issues of DVD menus and verified them with usability testing and a user survey. Our research goal is to develop a set of specific solutions for designing usable DVD menus to improve the overall user experience. As a first step towards this goal we present an initial set of usability issues that are specifically relevant for DVD menu design. http://tc.eserver.org/29912.html http://tc.eserver.org/29912.html The medium is an integral part of the message when writing for interactive delivery systems. Interactive media requires attention to details on several dimensions for communication of the content. Writers must focus not only on words and meaning, but also on how the content is presented. We can look to other disciplines for models of how they document the translation of ideas into reality. The detailed design document or storyboard is the essential tool for describing multimedia content in all four dimensions. http://tc.eserver.org/29832.html http://tc.eserver.org/29832.html The progression of computer-generated images in motion pictures gives a sense of where we are headed. http://tc.eserver.org/29802.html http://tc.eserver.org/29802.html This article explores the staging of memory and death and the connotative differences within still photographs and film. It examines the tenses that can be inferred in reading photographs and film through examples drawn from representations of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-13 and Captain Scott's journey to the South Pole taken by Herbert Ponting, and in the 1948 film _Scott of the Antarctic_. http://tc.eserver.org/29765.html http://tc.eserver.org/29765.html This article discusses the use of activity theory, visual literacy, and sound theory in the design of digital media. It defines each of these in the context of literacy and how literacy is viewed and changing in today's culture. It then goes on to describe two phases of a case study underway that shows the lifecycle of content development for literacy purposes. It begins with phase one which is development and testing of the content information model and continues with an overview of phase two, currently underway, which is a description of the testing and evaluation of the mediating artifacts that were created in phase one. It ends with a brief explanation of how this research can help technical communications in expanding multidisciplinary efforts and instructional support within the field of education. http://tc.eserver.org/29776.html http://tc.eserver.org/29776.html This paper discusses tips and techniques that you may want to use in your multimedia tasks. Initially, it discusses the technical aspects of the skill and then discusses key areas of the process. Last, it concludes with a brief discussion of resources. http://tc.eserver.org/29732.html http://tc.eserver.org/29732.html Initially, this article provides an overview of digital storytelling that describes its uses, technology, a methodology for creating a digital story, tips for creating a digital story, assessment strategies for digital stories, and links to current examples of digital stories. Next, this article recounts the third author's first experience with digital story-telling, in the context of helping children with hearing loss adopt a more positive frame of reference toward their disability. It describes the storyboarding process, explains how writing is still a primary concern, and gives some valuable advice concerning the pros and cons of dabbling in high- technology. Last it discusses accessibility and usability requirements for digital stories. http://tc.eserver.org/29734.html http://tc.eserver.org/29734.html Use interactive multimedia with text-based online documentation to achieve the minimalist model pioneered by instructional design guru John Carroll. Non-linear modules of 'real' tasks help users get started fast, and quickly learn from any errors. http://tc.eserver.org/29864.html http://tc.eserver.org/29864.html This article, as well as the conference presentation, recounts the trials, tribulations, and ultimate triumph of a dedicated research team in the Orlando Chapter and at the University of Central Florida who parlayed an $8K STC Special Opportunities grant into 55 minutes of fully narrated, animated multimedia in support of the chapter’s and the Society’s outreach initiative to secondary education. The grant was performed by current and former technical communication students at UCF, under the oversight of Dr. Dan Jones and Dan Voss. Four research assistants contributed to the project: Cindy Hauptner, Bob Stultz, Suzanne Shomate, and John Donovan. Cindy and Bob created the immortal Shanna the Hip and Dan the Nerd. http://tc.eserver.org/30283.html http://tc.eserver.org/30283.html This workshop delves into the unconventional idea that multimedia doesn't have to cost a fortune to create or implement. Using a process-oriented focus, workshop leaders will address authoring tools and equipment choices, information organization and presentation, and screen design to illustrate the power of making cost-effective decisions throughout the multimedia development process. Our goal is to teach you how to make choices, ask the right questions, and be aware of the options that affect the bottom line cost of producing multimedia applications. http://tc.eserver.org/29679.html http://tc.eserver.org/29679.html This article helps technical communicators become better informed producers of interactive, cinema-like new media objects (help systems, public information and ordering kiosks, promotional technical presentations on the web, and so on) by providing a summary of how cinema works, and then by proposing a few ways that some basic cinema editing and display techniques can be integrated into on-screen technical communications practice. The author makes the claim that if we are to begin thinking and working like film makers, the fundamental poetics and information designs we use in our new media design and development work must also change. http://tc.eserver.org/29248.html http://tc.eserver.org/29248.html This paper presents a summary of the results of several relatively large studies which attempted statistical analysis of audit trails created by learners accessing information in typical hypermedia or hypertext learning environments, and interpreted them in relation to learner characteristics and study tasks. Significant differences in the information access strategy, amount of information accessed, student estimates of achievement and knowledge outcome were observed between learners in these studies. This paper concluded that some learners may be systematically disadvantaged where support for (or the delivery of) the curriculum depends on hypermedia, such as via a networked learning environment delivered passively over the WWW. It is suggested that the audit tools available from the WWW provide an opportunity to develop multi-discipline evaluation mechanisms which may enable researchers to provide learners with standard 'learning profiles' with which to reflect on their own learning effectiveness when using hypermedia educational materials. http://tc.eserver.org/29219.html http://tc.eserver.org/29219.html Technical communication practices have been changed dramatically by the increasingly ubiquitous nature of digital technologies. Yet, while those who work in the profession have been living through this dramatic change, our academic discipline has been moving at a slower pace, at times appearing quite unsure about how to proceed. This article focuses on the following three areas of opportunity for change in our discipline in relation to digital technologies: access and expectations, scholarship and community building, and accountability and partnering. http://tc.eserver.org/29196.html http://tc.eserver.org/29196.html NBMA is an open community of new media professionals. Since 1992, it's been a meeting ground to explore the present and future of new media; a place to exchange ideas, learn about new techniques and technologies, be inspired, and find business support in a friendly and productive atmosphere. http://tc.eserver.org/28855.html http://tc.eserver.org/28855.html Gerald McCobb continues his introduction to the forthcoming W3C Multimodal Architecture with a survey of the many XML languages that you can use to author multimodal applications. He then shows how several specifications -- SCXML, XHTML, REX, and XML Events -- could work together in a complete multimodal application. http://tc.eserver.org/28786.html http://tc.eserver.org/28786.html Miller, a technical editor at Microsoft interested in multimedia documentation, talks about why multimedia documentation is a growing trend and how writers can get started. He discusses Microsoft's Channel 9 and the human element with instructional screen demos. http://tc.eserver.org/28708.html http://tc.eserver.org/28708.html 'How can you best embed Flash content?' It should be a simple question, but is likely to evoke a lot of different opinions and arguments, as each of the many available embedding techniques have their own pros and cons. In this article, I will look into the complexities and subtleties of embedding Flash content and examine the most popular embedding methods to see how good they really are. http://tc.eserver.org/28706.html http://tc.eserver.org/28706.html There's a belief within the web standards community that Flash is part of a different world. While all approaches have limitations and drawbacks, Flash has been scorned to the point that many refuse to acknowledge its benefits. Ultimately, this has led to the creation of a virtual separation among web designers; those who use Flash use it exclusively (leading to a saturation of full-screen, 'Skip Intro'-rich Flash sites on the web) and those who don't ever give it a second thought. Although the brilliant option of the hybrid (part Flash, part HTML) site had always existed, it's never really made it far past the typical Flash intro on a corporate homepage. Throughout the history of Flash on the web, the technology has always been intended to be embedded within HTML. Yet it has often seemed a foreign concept to use the two technologies to complement one another. http://tc.eserver.org/28538.html http://tc.eserver.org/28538.html Interested in multimedia? Digital Cinema? Digital Storytelling? Do you want to make these things? How about story structure and digital technology? No matter, there's something here for you. http://tc.eserver.org/28484.html http://tc.eserver.org/28484.html Rich Internet Applications is the new buzz-phrase for Web 2.0, and a key component of the substance behind Web 2.0 is Adobe Flash. Learn how to integrate Flash movies into your application and generate Flash movies dynamically using the Ming library. http://tc.eserver.org/28340.html http://tc.eserver.org/28340.html Graphics are used on many, if not most, Web pages. When used appropriately, graphics can facilitate learning. An important image to show on most pages of a site is the organization's logo. When used appropriately, images, animation, video, and audio can add tremendous value to a Web site. When animation is used appropriately, it is a good idea to introduce the animation before it begins. http://tc.eserver.org/28067.html http://tc.eserver.org/28067.html Whenever people talk about "jazzing up" some of the Microsoft Office tools, PowerPoint always rises to the top of the list (but you can use this technique for any Office applications). We've all seen the presentations with that pat clip-art, the checkered fades, and those bullets that slide. Why not add some interactivity and exciting animation? Thanks to Microsoft's ActiveX technology we can. http://tc.eserver.org/28066.html http://tc.eserver.org/28066.html Embedding is based on the Shockwave Flash Microsoft ActiveX component, an ActiveX component created by Macromedia that allows its content to run in Microsoft Internet Explorer. http://tc.eserver.org/28007.html http://tc.eserver.org/28007.html The AHDS made audio recordings of recent seminars with the aim of transcribing the recordings, and presented them to seminar chairs to facilitate their task of completing reports on each event. This case study looks at some of the issues that occurred as the AHDS recorded and transcribed the material from these seminars. While its findings are based on roundtable seminars, some of them may also be of use to those doing other types of audio recording - interviews, field notes etc. http://tc.eserver.org/27931.html http://tc.eserver.org/27931.html Break the chains of EMBED and live free. Elizabeth Casto explains how to embed movies without using invalid markup. http://tc.eserver.org/27686.html http://tc.eserver.org/27686.html Shadow Fighter is a PowerPoint Movie. An animated show or movie done in PowerPoint mimicking the style of Arcade Fighting games. Shadow Fighter Series will show you how PowerPoint can do extreme complex animations similar to Macromedia Flash! http://tc.eserver.org/27645.html http://tc.eserver.org/27645.html The availability of powerful yet easy-to-use multimedia tools enables technical writers to consider a powerful new form of embedded user assistance: show-me help. This paper provides an overview of who is currently using show-me help--some current research, some history, and some definitions. It offers some guidance in choosing tools, designing show-me help, and deciding when to include then, concentrating on consideration of your users, potential topics, subsequent releases, and translation. It also suggests how show-me helps can be reused as part of product education and single-sourced into user assistance from the Web. http://tc.eserver.org/27648.html http://tc.eserver.org/27648.html Tools like Captivate, Camtasia, and TurboDemo make it possible for teachers and communicators to create effective software simulations--without programming. Even simple presentation tools, such as PowerPoint can create truly interactive simulations. http://tc.eserver.org/27424.html http://tc.eserver.org/27424.html A guide to using MiniDV digital camcorders to record student presentations, then to review them on a computer and copy them to DVD for later review. http://tc.eserver.org/27111.html http://tc.eserver.org/27111.html e-Video is divided into four major sections: Opportunity, Production, Compression, and Delivery. Although these can (and must) get a bit technical to be useful, I found Alesso's style understandable. http://tc.eserver.org/26991.html http://tc.eserver.org/26991.html Information about how to use the Canon Elura 50 camcorders for technical communication multimedia. http://tc.eserver.org/26992.html http://tc.eserver.org/26992.html Introduces how to use a CD/DVD duplication tower to make a few copies of your CD, CD-ROM, DVD-video and DVD-ROM multimedia. http://tc.eserver.org/26993.html http://tc.eserver.org/26993.html Introduces producing video special effects, using ChromaKey technologies and Apple's Final Cut Pro. http://tc.eserver.org/26994.html http://tc.eserver.org/26994.html An introduction to using Final Cut Professional 4.0 for multimedia video production. http://tc.eserver.org/26980.html http://tc.eserver.org/26980.html Introduces developing multimedia using the 'prosumer' Canon GL2 digital camcorder. http://tc.eserver.org/26975.html http://tc.eserver.org/26975.html Introduces how to perform multimedia audio mixing and editing using a Behringer multitrack mixer. http://tc.eserver.org/26979.html http://tc.eserver.org/26979.html Introduces how to use iMovie 5's 'Magic iMovie' feature to capture video from camcorder and record to DVD. http://tc.eserver.org/26978.html http://tc.eserver.org/26978.html Introduces lighting digital video, particularly when using the OmniPro Lighting Kit. http://tc.eserver.org/26977.html http://tc.eserver.org/26977.html Discusses how to use Sennheiser EW112P(A) Wireless Lavalier Microphones to ensure high-quality audio in video multimedia projects. http://tc.eserver.org/26976.html http://tc.eserver.org/26976.html Introduces the high-definition Sony HDV-HC1 digital camcorder for technical/professional communication practice. http://tc.eserver.org/26938.html http://tc.eserver.org/26938.html I thoroughly enjoyed reading Podcasting Solutions: A Complete Guide to Podcasting by Michael W. Goeghegan and Dan Klass. I was able to digest the material quickly. The frustrating thing for me was that the title just didn't seem to fit the approachable and practical content that made the book such a treasure. For example, the subtitle 'A Complete Guide' is a bit overstated, because it is not a compendium but a getting starting guide. Especially as time goes by and the field progresses, and more techniques and tools are developed, this book will become more out of date. http://tc.eserver.org/26932.html http://tc.eserver.org/26932.html The Studio for New Media is an interdisciplinary research institute organized to support, further, and coordinate work with digital media. http://tc.eserver.org/26890.html http://tc.eserver.org/26890.html There are many ways to link to non-XML content within XML, including binary content. Sometimes you need to roll all such external content directly into the XML. Data scheme URIs are one way to specify a full resource within a URI, which you can then use in XML constructs. In this tip, Uche Ogbuji shows how to use this to bundle related media into a single file. http://tc.eserver.org/26669.html http://tc.eserver.org/26669.html This research shows some potentiality of Digital TV, and chiefly DTT, for promoting e-inclusion activities and granting accessible entertainment and t-government services. http://tc.eserver.org/26625.html http://tc.eserver.org/26625.html Eyetracking data show that users are easily distracted when watching video on websites, especially when the video shows a talking head and is optimized for broadcast rather than online viewing. http://tc.eserver.org/26620.html http://tc.eserver.org/26620.html The central thesis of the report is that in the emerging digitally networked society, the creative arts and cultural institutions are mutating by forming a constellation of productive relationships with the science and technology research system, industry, humanistic and social science scholarship, and with emerging new structures of civil society. This apparently rising density of communication suggests the need to rethink some aspects of the relationship between cultural support policy, innovation and research policy, and the still nascent but interconnected set of concerns about the requirements for widespread creative participation in a 'techno-sphere' increasingly shaped by fast-changing digital media technologies. http://tc.eserver.org/26574.html http://tc.eserver.org/26574.html Learning no longer has to depend solely on text resources when learners have access to multimedia resources and developing technologies. The lecture is now encapsulated and available for replay and, like a novel, provides the user with direction not just destination. This paper highlights how technology adds value to the academic learning experience/environment for business communication with a focus upon televised courses, streaming videos, instant messaging and Web-based resources. Implications for the learning experience are: (1) oral and written language use become more dynamic; (2) learner outcomes are audience- and message-centered; and, (3) content instruction is analytical. http://tc.eserver.org/26535.html http://tc.eserver.org/26535.html Two collaborative presentations about the status and factors that influence technology adoption within research in technical communication programs. http://tc.eserver.org/26364.html http://tc.eserver.org/26364.html This article discusses the various types of captions, when to use captions, as well as the various types of audio descriptions. http://tc.eserver.org/26378.html http://tc.eserver.org/26378.html Design can be more than meets the eyes. Denise Gonzales Crisp opens her ears to unfamiliar territory. http://tc.eserver.org/26380.html http://tc.eserver.org/26380.html When you think about sound in regard to the internet, what comes to mind? Dutch design firm LUST explores the sound of the internet with this original project. http://tc.eserver.org/26270.html http://tc.eserver.org/26270.html I think podcasting is powerful because it gives us the opportunity to reach people in ways we cannot with blogs and websites. Don't get me wrong, blogs and sites have their place. But let's face it, people have information overload! It's often a choice between reading your blog and the 15 other things they need to read. But with podcasts, people tell me that they listen via their iPods while in the gym. They burn them to CD and listen in their car during their commute. They listen on their computer with a headset or speakers. http://tc.eserver.org/26205.html http://tc.eserver.org/26205.html This presentation focuses on creating video demonstrations of software for online tutorials, using AVI files, and Inserting these files into Windows Help or HTML. http://tc.eserver.org/26009.html http://tc.eserver.org/26009.html Because of the size of the pictures not being close to a T.V. 4:3 aspect ratio the pictures have black side bars when viewing them. I was wondering if anyone knows a way to resize the background wider to match the 4:3 ratio? http://tc.eserver.org/25979.html http://tc.eserver.org/25979.html What is the proper foundation for an enterprise-scale Digital Asset Management (DAM) system? How much of that system should be part of an organizations shared infrastructure and how much should be tailor-made to a specific application? There is no single answer to these questions, but changes in the technology industry are forcing everyonevendors and customers aliketo change their assumptions about how DAM systems will be built. This paper explains how the content-management infrastructure is changing, why that matters to DAM, and what benefits can be derived from leveraging a content infrastructure for DAM. Examples from an enterprise implementation at the University of Michigan illustrate the types of architectural issues and requirements that affect platform choices when selecting a digital asset management system. http://tc.eserver.org/25969.html http://tc.eserver.org/25969.html This article discusses the various types of captions, when to use captions, as well as the various types of audio descriptions. http://tc.eserver.org/25980.html http://tc.eserver.org/25980.html The maturation of digital asset management technology and products has enabled on-demand DAM services to emerge as an attractive alternative to on-premises installation. Organizations facing a variety of problems and constraints, such as speed to market and scalability, are finding software services models to be the most cost effective approach to digital asset management. This paper identifies the four key factors in making the decision between a services model and on-premises installation. It also argues that the decision should be analyzed in terms of discounted cash flows and presents examples of such calculations. http://tc.eserver.org/25975.html http://tc.eserver.org/25975.html Understanding how rich media assets are used by the enterprise, of course, remains the central prerequisite for the enterprise’s ability to capitalize on the deployment of a rich media content management platform. The keys to a successful platform for rich media management include an approach to development based on service-oriented architectures (SOA) and a rich underlying content repository that exposes both the content and its metadata. http://tc.eserver.org/25962.html http://tc.eserver.org/25962.html Want to integrate video in your Flash movie? You have two choices. You can embed the video in your Flash document, or keep progressively download it into a SWF file using from a FLV (Flash Video) file. In this tutorial you’ll learn to use the Media Playback Component to display a FLV file in a Flash movie. http://tc.eserver.org/25910.html http://tc.eserver.org/25910.html TV and video are full of text screens used to fill space where there's no footage. It's something we're all stuck with, and we have an obligation to keep them well designed. http://tc.eserver.org/25951.html http://tc.eserver.org/25951.html Some web designers will try to convince you that your website has to have the latest multimedia technology to be successful. Is it true? http://tc.eserver.org/25911.html http://tc.eserver.org/25911.html The effect where titles spread out and then blur away to nothing has become a popular way to make 'plain old text' look more interesting. It's really not that complex: What we do is 'expand' the text by animating the tracking (the space between the letters). http://tc.eserver.org/25908.html http://tc.eserver.org/25908.html CGM DVE Vol. 3+ contains a tool which changes interlaced video into progressive video, making your footage look more like 35mm film. http://tc.eserver.org/25912.html http://tc.eserver.org/25912.html Creating an interesting title sequence can involve many different techniques. But here's one simple trick that can be used for almost any type of project--Offset. Used in conjunction with the Displacement Map fi lter, it can also add much reality to a shot. http://tc.eserver.org/25909.html http://tc.eserver.org/25909.html You'll probably recognize this color effect used by a certain department store that plays on the colors in its logo. The effect essentially reduces the image to three colors--a white background, red image content, and a darker red for some depth; but you can choose any color combination or mix any number of colors for a solarized or false color effect. http://tc.eserver.org/25914.html http://tc.eserver.org/25914.html The Wiggler is great when you need random keyframes applied to a layer's property. Scale, opacity, movement, even a plug-in's values can be 'wigglered.'This feature will save you from having to create dozens if not hundreds of keyframes if you're trying, for instance, to make a layer move randomly or flicker. http://tc.eserver.org/25913.html http://tc.eserver.org/25913.html Creating visual depth in a project can really catapult an animation from boring to captivating. After Effects does 3D very well, but there's more to it than simply moving layers or objects around in 3D space. http://tc.eserver.org/25843.html http://tc.eserver.org/25843.html A blog about issues in content development for multimedia by a Ph.D. candidate researching these issues. http://tc.eserver.org/25735.html http://tc.eserver.org/25735.html To help technical communicators become better informed producers of interactive new media productions, this article examines how motion can be used properly to create effective interactive information systems for the computer screen. This article provides a brief analysis of how cinema works and then demonstrates how a number of cinema techniques influence new media production. The article then concludes by offering suggestions for how to effectively apply a few basic cinema techniques directly to technical communication practice. http://tc.eserver.org/25550.html http://tc.eserver.org/25550.html If Flash is indeed a cancer on the Web, how come so many artists (and viewers) adore it? The much-maligned multimedia plug-in bites back, with help from Flash artist Peter Balogh. http://tc.eserver.org/25425.html http://tc.eserver.org/25425.html Have a character you want to animate? Let Jose show you how to use your Illustrator art to create SWF animations. http://tc.eserver.org/25359.html http://tc.eserver.org/25359.html Many Websites that use Flash could be optimized to load much more quickly than they currently do. By breaking up one large .swf into multiple smaller .swf files, you can decrease the time it takes your site to load, while at the same time making the site easier to manage. This article will look at how to break your Website into multiple .swf files, and discuss why it's a good idea. http://tc.eserver.org/25358.html http://tc.eserver.org/25358.html In this article we will look at the strengths and weaknesses of one of the most controversial products in the web development world, Macromedia Flash. We will take a close look at what Flash can do and what Flash can't or shouldn't do. And while in the process we will be comparing Flash to its counterparts HTML and CSS. http://tc.eserver.org/25305.html http://tc.eserver.org/25305.html Refocusing courses around the structure of narrative and how they use theatrical forms of interaction in the presentation of complex online help and instructional systems http://tc.eserver.org/25202.html http://tc.eserver.org/25202.html This guide provides an introduction to Flash Video, including information on how to create and publish Flash Video. http://tc.eserver.org/25207.html http://tc.eserver.org/25207.html As the web transitions from a relatively static, information-oriented environment to a highly interactive, task-oriented environment, web developers must provide on-demand user assistance to ensure the usability of their applications. http://tc.eserver.org/25208.html http://tc.eserver.org/25208.html The real magic of FlashHelp, however, lies in its Flash-based presentation layer, or 'skin.' You can completely customize FlashHelp skins to match the look and feel of any application, no matter how unique. http://tc.eserver.org/25109.html http://tc.eserver.org/25109.html A multimedia exploration of new media technologies.