MULTIMEDIA IN THE YEAR 2000: HOW WILL IT AFFECT OUR LIVES Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 23, 1996 MULTIMEDIA IN THE YEAR 2000: HOW WILL IT AFFECT OUR LIVES Dr. Narender Ramarapu. Dr. Tommy Cites, and Dr. John Overby University of Tennessee Martin ABSTRACT The current computer buzzword is multimedia.. This technology includes the combination of interactive video and audio on compact disc that utilize optical storage technology. This includes sound, still image, motion video, and animation, or any combination of these. These have created an inexpensive way to distribute large volumes of data-like encyclopedias, volumes of reference manuals, etc. This paper will discuss the technology chances related to multimedia and explains how it may affect at, life In the coming decade. DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY Multimedia or digital Interactive technology is the next big technology and may be the greatest leap Forward in communications since the invention of the transistor. The communications industry has embarked on its most ambitious development period in recent history is offers media companies, computer makers and telephone companies incredible. Television looks very different on this information highway. It’s a grand vision and one that lands itself to grandiloquence. Quoting Gerald M. Levin, Chairman of Time Warner Inc. "When I turn on my television, I'll be able to switch to anything, anywhere" (Landler, 1993). For the future a totally new product will be created. The ultimate multimedia "all-in-one-box" system will be able to offer new opportunities and have a significant Impact on our daily lives. The following section makes a deeper examination of some of the service areas that can be affected with this newer technology: education. publishing and entertainment. EDUCATION The technology will change the view of the learning process and the education process. In the place of "master teachers" will be "coaches" or super mentors" who will sit beside students as co-learners. The processes of career advising and teaching will more closely mentoring In corporations, but with many more students being involved on a regular basis with the Instructor. The classroom of the future will have a handful of networked PCS and a teacher's multimedia computer linked into the school network, said Nelson Hailer, publisher of the "Heller Report on Education Technology and Telecommunications Markets" in Highland Park. Illinois (Lindquist, 1992). Such a setup would allow the teacher to use the system both for lecture support and for self-paced learning sessions. One major change may be the abolition of classroom in both high school and university level training. As national electronic communications networks improve and telephone companies are given more freedom to provide services, students of any age may soon be able to simply dial a phone number and receive multimedia lessons on nearly any subject Learning experiences can as easily go into the home, the school or the workplace just by connection to a modem. This can enhance the concept of lifelong education currently discussed at many universities (Lindquist, 1992). PUBLISHING Hardware has improved in just a few years, however, and some publishers are testing the waters. The technologies may still behind the demands of the market, but for the magazine Industry, the buzzwords include multimedia, CD- ROM, the digital superhighway, and new media. Most major magazine companies have appointed technical specialists to decide how they should approach this market and to define just what It is. At Time Inc., relates Dick Helnemann, VP Advertising, every magazine is trying out some new project, like Time's planned on-line edition (Huhn, 1993). Rival Newsweek already has an interactive CD-ROM version up and running. Magazines as diverse as The New Republic and National Geographic are putting their issues and their editors on-line. A small Seattle company, Mammoth Micro Productions, has been tolling at the daunting task of defining what an electronic publishing house should look like and has developed an impressive list of clients (Churbuck, 1993). For one client, Mammoth has produced information displays for kiosks of the sort that show up in a shopping mall or at a trade show. Interactivity is of a low order, linked to guiding users through a menu of options with a touchscreen. The ultimate payoff may not be so much in editorial content as advertising. On the first Newsweek CD. Sony, IBM, and Software Toolworks advertised. On the second, AT&T and Lincoln-Mercury are running 60-second video clips that aren’t interactive and use up about 10 megabytes each 600 megabyte CD. Mammoth, however, is working on more sophisticated software to Interrogate the ad viewer and give him choices. Lopez explains, "Multimedia advertising is not a way to expose people to a message, but a way to lead people through a sales presentation tailored to them" (Churbuck, 1993). ENTERTAINMENT Cable companies plan on being dominant players in the industry. With 60 percent of U.S. households wired for cable 175 Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 23, 1996 And 90 percent nearby access, there is little resistance to developing the first superhighway. Time Warner, Inc. announced a two-way multimedia fiberoptic/coaxial cable experiment for 4000 homes in Orlando, Florida scheduled to begin in the near term. The full-service" network will be Time Warner’s first complete of its digital compression capabilities, including video telephone, data transmission, interactive TV, and video-on demand. According to Gerald Levin, It will render irrelevant, the notion of sequential channels on a TV set" (Katz, 1993). CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS In the United States, major computer, cable television, telephone, entertainment, and publishing companies are joining forces to bring affordable, interactive multimedia services to homes and businesses. Consumers will manage their affairs and entertain themselves - reading newspapers, shopping, trading stocks, paying taxes, calling up movies, visiting the library, banking, and even voting - all from a telecenter at home. This new personal computing system will become an information appliance where we can walk up and get information out of It as casually as getting into our car, starting It and putting It In dive. It will be familiar at home and at work (Herther, 1990). The timing and office of the onslaught will depend on the speed with which the information superhighway - the Infobahn as It’s being called currently - gets bulk, and how It is designed. A decade or more may p before the needed networks or wireless links are in place. Despite the high-tech name, the Infobahn is simply a network, like AT&T’s long- distance phone system. This one is defined by fiber-optic cables and highcapacity switches and computers that carry video, audio, and data signals into and out of our homes. Two-way video is the technology that gets merchants cranked up. Interactivity could Intensify TV's appeal. Computers are better than TV because you can control what you see (Sherman. 1994). Not everyone shares this technological enthusiasm. Some executives are very skeptical and are approaching multimedia applications very cautiously. "No more than 20% of households will be outfitted or fully interactive service by the year 2000 predicts H. Wayne Hulzenga, chairman of blockbuster Entertainment Corp., the home- video chain. ‘It gives the appearance of moving quickly, but it will be a long time before the average family has it," he says (Landler. 1993). Others have a completely different vision. Listed below are John Naisbitt's visions for our future: Free at Last: The telephone will be fully freed from cords, and personal communication will follow us from home to work -and around the world. With a single personal telephone number, callers will be able to find us wherever we are. Telecommunicating: More and more of us will gladly leave the car in the garage. We will work through home-based or neighborhood telecenters that link us to offices away. Our children will go to school via video, raising their hands to question a teacher who may be a thousand miles away. Beat the Clock As companies expand globally, the sun will never set on the workday. Twenty-four hours a day, production will continue without losing a beat. The World's Fuel of the Future. The world’s economies, driven by information technology, will move in unison - buying. selling, and bartering instantaneously - with the electronic equivalent of universal currency. Shopper’s Dream Come True: Catalog shopping will be morewidely available from stores such as LL. Bean and J.C. Penny. Banking, brokerage, and insurance services will be available with come consultants assisting customer in making financial decisions. Video Diplomacy The business of government will be con- ducted by telecommunications. World leaders can meet via television. Getting to Know You: The 21st century telecommunications system will have human-like skills. Networks will be intelligent communications highways that are personalized, proactive, and intuitive. These technologies allow us to better manage time and space to the ultimate benefit of all consumers and providers. The oras is on is to embrace the charge and Improve the quality of our lives! (Rabkin, 1993) REFERENCES Berry. Jonathan and Kathy Rebello "What is An Ad in The Interactive Future”, Business Week, May 2, 1994, P 103;’ Churbuck, David C., “The Digital Press”, Forbes. September 27, 1993, p. 136-137; Cummings, Joanne, “Analysts Contemplate Office of Future”, Network World, January II, 1993, p. 95; Huhn, Mary, "In a Tightspot", Broadcasting & Cable, September 13, 1993, p. 54-55; Katz, Matthew, “Multimedia - The Future of Information Delivery to Homes and Business”, CD- ROM Professional, November 1993, p. 14-21; Landler, Mark and Ronald Grover, "Media Mania” Business Week, July 12, 1993, p. 110-119; Lindquist Christopher, “Setting Stage for Future Work Force”, Computer World, Vol: 26 Iss: 28, Jul 13, 1992, p. 24; Rabkin. Barry, “Some Trends That Are Just Visible Beyond the Horizon", National Underwriter - Life & Health/ Financial Services, November 8, 1993, p. 5, 17 176 Table of Contents Volume 23, 1996 Modeling Advertising Effectiveness Simulation as an Aid to Learning: How Does Participation Influence the Process? Administering Business Simulations in Transitioning Economies: The Introduction of Simulation Gaming to Estonia Business Simulation Games: Current Usage Levels. A Ten Year Update The Relationship Between Interpersonal and Task Cohesiveness and Performance in a Business Simulation Game The Design of an ITS-Based Simulation: A New Epistemology for Learning Correlates of Learning in Simulations How Do We Know where we're going if we don't know where we have been: A Review of Business Simulation Research Making Cash Flow Come Alive and Sensible in the Classroom Enhancing Simulation Learning through Objectives and Decision Support Systems An Analysis of Deliberate and Emergent Strategies Relative to Porter's Generic Differentiator and Cost Leader: A Bias and Variance Modeling Approach Introducing Ethical Dilemmas into Computer-Based Simulation Exercises to Teach Business Ethics CEO Strategic Locus of Control Effects on Game Performance and Playing Behavior The Relational Database As a Link between Operations and Cost Accounting Goal Setting over Time in Simulations Computerized Business Simulations: A Workshop Exploring the Tutor's Role, Task & Needs Strategic Analysis of the Product Portfolio with the COMPLETE PPA Package: A Strategic Market Planning Tool Draft Standards and Registration Procedure for Assessment Instruments Perspectives on a New Generation of Business Games An Economic Multiple Regression Case In Experiential Learning Changing Institutional Norms and Behavior, Not Culture: Experiential Learning Comes to Myanmar Strategic Management and the Case Method: Survey and Evaluation Individual Differences in Internet Attitude and Use Long Live the Plan - or Should It? Examining the Impact of Detailed Strategic Plans on Organizational Performance Do Your Students Really Read the Manual? A Computerized Contextual Tool As A Surrogate for the Traditional Student Manual Pilot Analyses of Self-Peer Evaluations in an Experiential-Exercise Human Resources Management Course Leader Behavior Feedback: A Learning Exercise Dilemma-Dilemma: An Exercise for Teaching Significance Of Communication Computer Mediated Conferencing: Technology and Classroom Learning Multimedia in the Workplace: Who is really using it and where is it Headed? Using Experiential Exercises for Collecting Research Data: Integrating Teaching and Research Interactive Distance Learning as a Tool in a College's Theory and Practice The President's Decision: An Experiential Exercise in Decision Making Integrating Computer Literacy Skills in the Undergraduate Curriculum: The Advanced Accounting Experiment Imperatives for the Transfer of Experience-Based Training Deciding How to Decide The Internet as a Pedagogical Tool Internet Scavenger Hunt Two Management Exercises Based on Committee Work Multimedia in the Year 2000: How Will It Affect Our Lives? Bootstrap Benefit Segmentation: Finally A Way to Teach Benefit Segmentation without Primary Data or Those Fancy Statistical Methods Multimedia and Learning: Is There A Connection? A Changing Business Policy Collaborative Learning Through Real-Life Assignments in Accounting Classes The Necessity Of Incorporating Local Cultural Aspects Into International Business Experiential Exercises Utilizing Cultural and International Landmark Constructs to Assess Business Student's International Awareness Legal Issues related to the Use of Application Blanks: An Experiential Exercise The Family in the Classroom: An Experiential Exercise for Teaching Issues Related To Expatriate Assignments Using Internet Resources to Enhance Teaching of Information Systems Courses: A Demonstration Proposal Chalkboards to Chipboards for Teachers and Consultants How Do We Measure The Learning In Experiential Learning and How Do We Best Simulate It?