40.3 CD-ROM versus WWW

One of the first design decisions that needs to be made when developing a new hypermedia product is the target platform. The capability to include large multimedia files and the low unit costs of mass production of the disks have made CD-ROM the prominent candidate as a delivery form for multimedia electronic proceedings. On the other hand, the Internet is a better platform for distributing information more widely, but it makes it harder to include large audio or video files or to synchronize the presentation of multiple objects. The choice between CD-ROM and WWW does not have to be exclusive, as is demonstrated by the CHI'95 Conference Proceedings and Companion CD-ROM described in chapter IV.1.2. Table IV.1 compares dis/advantages of CD-ROM and WWW for the publication of multimedia conference proceedings.

Table IV.1. Comparison of features required for multimedia talks on CD-ROM and WWW.

HTML browsers are available for almost any hard and software platform, while CD-ROM authoring tools are still mostly platform specific. On the other hand, creators of hypermedia versions of presentations must be able to include large audio and video files in multiple, synchronized, multimedia data formats. While CD-ROMs offer fast data access to large multimedia files, the advantage of Internet proceedings is their capability to include live world wide links. Since researchers are interested in swift dissemination of their findings, shorter turnaround times a supported by the Internet for the creation of an electronic publication is highly desirable. Furthermore, extending, adapting, and improving Internet publications can be an ongoing process. CD-ROM publishers, on the other hand, burn one final 600 megabyte volume for mass production and distribution. Increasing network data transfer rates, advances in data compression, and emerging support for multimedia on web pages improve prospects for hypermedia proceedings on the WWW. As can be concluded from this discussion, there are both advantages and disadvantages for using either CD-ROM or Internet as distribution medium. Therefore, we assume that both CD-ROM and WWW will coexist peacefully for quite some as platforms of choice depending on production time, budget, application area , contents and audience.