Digital Media Lab

The phenomenal growth of the World Wide Web (web) is almost as amazing as its now nearly universal acceptance as a means for accessing and distributing information. Just three short years ago, few gave much credence to the emerging web; most regarded it as a clever but undoubtedly transient event, since many assumed that only universities and research organizations were capable of using the internet.

Within SCD, however, management took steps early on to ensure that our division would be capable of using this new communication paradigm and provided the vision, leadership, and resources that eventually led to both a divisional and an institutional presence on the web.

SCD's Digital Information Group (DIG) immediately began to design user documents, information packets, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and other web-based sources of information using the multimedia authoring tools that were available at that time. These tools were fairly simple, but their applications were limited because standards did not yet exist for audio, video, browser interfaces, or even the hypertext markup language (HTML) itself. As standards evolved (driven by people who wanted to do more with the browsers, servers, and HTML), the toolkit of web technologies available to us grew. This growth allowed us to design documents that more closely emulated hardcopy and included the full complement of multimedia tools to enhance the value of the information being presented on the computer screen.

As more and more tools were developed and accepted, it became clear that creating websites for a broad international audience required some close monitoring of how the information we prepared and disseminated would appear on various computer platforms (Unix workstations, macs, and PCs). DIG needed a place to test and evaluate our hypermedia products (websites), and DIG has an ongoing need to test and evaluate the most significant software products that are specifically geared toward website authoring. These products are emerging with increasing frequency.

Goals and purpose

Late in FY96, DIG created the Digital Media Laboratory by assembling a collection of surplus hardware and carefully choosing application software to meet the authoring and testing needs of our staff. The overarching goal of the laboratory is to provide DIG staff with a facility for creating innovative web-based information using the latest software available. Its purpose is to:

Evaluate promising web-authoring software packages (e.g. Freehand, MacroMedia Director, WebMaker, Photoshop) to determine their usefulness in producing websites
Provide a central location where DIG staff can produce documents using a mix of digital authoring tools (e.g. scanners and audio/video editing software)
Test screen/browser interfaces on the three most common computer platforms used today (Unix workstations, macs, and PCs)
Demonstrate promising new technologies that have not yet been accepted as standards, but which may have a dramatic impact on future web documents produced by our group (e.g. Java)

The Digital Media Laboratory also gives other SCD staff a single location where they can produce web documents without the need for duplication of hardware and software within the division.

FY97 accomplishments

DIG used the Digital Media Laboratory to keep up with the moving target known as the web. We use this lab as both a production and research facility. It helps enable SCD to maintain its leadership in creating innovative and informative websites for its computer users, and it provides a physical base for experimentation with new (and potentially important) technologies as they emerge.

The Digital Media Laboratory also helps us maintain our compatibility with older systems such as those located at universities with restricted budgets. By using surplus hardware and retaining the vintage software residing on it, we can view our modern-design documents on platforms similar to those of our technologically challenged users. This helps us ensure that our new designs and technologies do not leave a portion of our user base unsupported.

Finally, this lab provided the office space and equipment for DIG's student assistant, and this is where he developed and debugged the search engine now running on the NCAR and SCD websites.

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