Netscape - Network tool or is it More Than Just That?

Name: David Dodds

Institution: Dept Business Systems, University of Wollongong

E-mail Address: d.dodds@uow.edu.au

Title of Presentation: Netscape - Network tool or is it more than just that ?

Format: Paper Presentation

Suggested Audience: People interested in electronic documentation or CD-ROM production

Presentation Outcome:

1. Gain an insight to CD-ROM production

2. See how Netscape can be used for more than just browsing the net

Presentation Content:

Keywords: CD-ROM, Netscape, WWW, Multimedia, Electronic Documentation During November 1995, The Department of Business Systems at the University of Wollongong hosted the OZCHI’95 conference. The conference on Human-Computer Interaction was a dynamic conference represented by 14 countries. In line with the change and advancement of technology it was decided to produce a CD-ROM of the proceedings of the conference.

It was not just to be a replica or replacement of printed proceedings. In fact, printed proceedings were still produced. The CD-ROM ‘Companion’ Proceedings was designed to capture the essence of the conference by including items that were obtained or events that happened during the conference such as photos, business cards, full papers, video, and tutorial/workshop output; all things that could not be included in the print form.

Rather than contracting out the CD-ROM production work, the department turned the whole experience into a learning process by putting the CD-ROM together themselves. Netscape was chosen as the interface due to its ability to handle graphics, text, video and sound. As Netscape is primarily geared to act as a network application several problems arose in its implementation as a standalone tool on a CD-ROM.

These problems, along with other implementation issues will form the basis of this paper. Other points of discussion will include:

• creation of a hybrid CD (i.e. a CD that will run on both Macintosh & PC)
• naming conventions
• memory constraints
• Frames as used by Netscape
• Monitor and resolution differences

The main issue then, is not the Proceedings itself, but that Netscape can be used for more than just net browsing and can thus be used outside the network. Quite complex user interfaces can be developed. These complex and feature rich examples would be too slow on a net connection, but on a CD-ROM, the results can be outstanding. Therefore the main focus of the paper will be to discuss how Netscape can be used to present high quality interfaces to information whether it be a Conference Proceedings or a prospectus for a University. The applications are obviously wide reaching.