|
May 2001, Vol. 12, No. 5
Our world is getting smaller -- not just the Real World, but also the world of publishing technology. Ideas from lands beyond the United States are becoming more and more important, while innovations stateside are scattered all around the continent.
In the latter part of March and the early parts of April, publishing technologists gathered in a variety of places to chat about the state of the industry -- and in this issue we take you inside those meetings:
In Boston, the annual Seybold rite of spring was held, with much interest in the doings of two little companies, Adobe Systems Inc. and Quark Inc. San Jose-based Adobe -- purveyor of such fine publishing technologies as Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, GoLive and PostScript -- talked a lot about its latest endeavor, the page-layout application InDesign (as well as its companion programs, InCopy -- a word processor -- and InScope -- a database management framework). Quark, the Denver company that has heretofore been a one-hit wonder with the market-dominant page-layout program XPress, not only talked extensively about its next version of XPress, but also its database management systems, Quark DMS. Correspondent Steven E. Brier, who is acting deputy editor of Interactive Week and a former executive at Belo Interactive of Dallas, brings us not only these highlights from Boston, but a few others as well.
In Singapore, IFRA -- the international newspaper production association -- sponsored a first-ever conference to discuss publishing technologies in Asia. Thoughts on that side of the globe seem to be similar to those here: where are those content management systems? Contributor Linda Crider -- who is a consultant and vice president and director of product development with Kohorst Design Works Inc. of Dallas -- brings us the Asian scoop. Crider, a 16-year veteran of the Dayton Daily News, has been a tenured journalism professor at Miami University in Ohio as well as director of product development at Belo Interactive.
In Hershey, Pa., the talk turned technical after everyone gorged on chocolate. At America East, sessions addressed the issues of convergence (a presentation by Media General about its Tampa newspaper-TV-Web combo), as well as wireless publishing. Correspondent Jay Small -- a speaker at the meeting -- took out his notebook to give you his impressions of what happened. It probably should be noted here that Small, the former new-media editor of the Indianapolis Star, is leaving his job as manager of server solutions at Thomson Multimedia Inc. to become eastern regional director of news and operations for Belo Interactive of Dallas (note the word "Belo" in Brier’s and Crider’s bios; note that Correspondent Chris Feola is a vice president of Belo Interactive; note that Cole Groupies have many ties to Belo Interactive).
And in Norman, Okla., Contributor Amy Bowers takes us inside the Platypus Workshop. A platypus, in this instance anyway, is a hybrid still photojournalist/digital news video producer, and the workshop has been in existence since 1999 training a handful of "newspukes" (her word, not mine) in the fine art of television storytelling. Bowers is a contributor to the web site, the Digital Journalist (http://www.digitaljournalist.org/) and to the best of our knowledge has never worked for Belo Interactive. This year, the Platypuses (Platypi?) learned that smaller is better. Why platypus? It is alleged that when Dirck Halstead, the Time and UPI photographer who turned himself into a maker of digital video, was talking about this concept on the National Press Photographers Association’s e-mail list, the moderator asked if Halstaedt had ever heard of the hybrid egg-laying mammal, the duckbilled platypus. A moniker (and mascot -- see above) was born.
We wrap up the issue with two shots across the bow of publishing technology; two former UPIers, who had a lot to do with where publishing is today, have passed on.
I'm famous for my lack of traveling enthusiasm, but to continue to learn about the latest publishing techniques, you must get out of the office and talk to peers and colleagues. Because of this, you frequently need to be, as the songwriter and tax-miscreant Willie Nelson once sang, "on the road again."
-- David M. Cole, dmc@colepapers.net
Platypus logo courtesy of Dirck Halstead.
From THE COLE PAPERS, May 2001, Copyright © 2001, All Rights Reserved.
|
