Compatability Proposal

Proposed Mission Statement

As the number of electronic information products proliferate, so do the number of protocols - or "access languages" - used to get to the information. This growing Tower of Babel is confusing even to the most ardent professional user of these information resources, deadly to the non-professional market, and generally inhibiting to the potential of electronic information products.

IT IS PROPOSED:

* To describe an ideal protocol or technique for easy access to, exchange, and manipulation of electronic information, allowing the user to focus on the application - rather than the tool - which is being used. Such application areas might include Navigation, Transaction, Librarying and Parameter Passing.

* To obtain consensus among member firms producing access software and information products regarding the integration of a common protocol for information exchange into their products.

* To define access methods for mixed media/format information. This access method will consider the full range of electronic media (CD-ROM, CD-I, videotape, audiotex, optical videodisc, ASCII text, graphics display, Musical Interface Description Instruction, etc).

The goal of this effort is to design an application-oriented interface which provides users, designers, and operators of interactive services with a "common ground" for the storage, retrieval, manipulation and exchange of electronic information.

The resulting COMPATABILITY FORMAT will attempt to build on the existing infrastructure while allowing vendors to pursue development on the basis of established technique.

 

Submitted by:

Richard A. Bowers, Director of Development, AITRC and John C. Vaughan, President, The Communication Studio, Inc.