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From: esg@sodium.ATT.COM (Edward Gokhman)
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: Multimedia, Hypermedia, Hypertext?
Message-ID: <3004@sodium.ATT.COM>
Date: 8 Feb 91 20:33:32 GMT
References: <1991Feb04.124036.340@abblund.se>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Lincroft, NJ
Lines: 62

From article <1991Feb04.124036.340@abblund.se>, by nick@abblund.se:
> Our group is looking into multimedia, but we have found no good
> definition of what multimedia really is. Also the terms "hypermedia"
> and "hypertext" perhaps need defining properly.
> 
> Our current working definitions are:
> 
> MULTIMEDIA: Mixed media. In some way "integrated". Not necessarily 
> interactive. Media include text, graphics, animation, photographs, 
> video, and sound.

Multimedia standartization is discussed in relations to APIs, compression
algorithms, and file interchange formats for still pictures (e.g. JPEG),
full-motion video (e.g. DVI, MPEG), audio (nothing? Microsoft's WAVE ?),
animation (nothing? MicroMind?), and compound documents (MO:DCA, CDA,
both supersets of ODA, and HyTime). The latter topic is commonly
referred to as HYPERMEDIA. Individual medias, therefore, together
constitute a multimedia - "many medias". "Mixed medias" constitute
a hypermedia. For example, one of the concerns of hypermedia is
time synchronization. Hypermedia, therefore, is one of the
most important (and interesting ?) multimedia discussions, we do,
however, have things to discuss in multimedia besides hypermedia.

> 
> HYPERMEDIA: Same as multimedia but interactive. Interaction is via 
> associative links.
> 
Almost, but a bit too narrow. It is a general subject of relations
between multimedia objects.

> HYPERTEXT: Same as hypermedia, but text only.
> 
Agree.

> There are a couple of questions about these definitions:
> 
> 1. Should other media be included? If so what? 
> 
Absolutely, as long as it may contribute to a _practical_
discussion of the subject.

> 2. Many people say "multimedia" when they mean "hypermedia". Should
> we distinguish between these terms. Is non-interactive multimedia
> even interesting?

Multimedia as a subject is a superset of hypermedia as a subject.
Hypermedia, however, is the main motivator of the present interest
in multimedia. For example, a (silent) TV window on your SPARC
is a multimedia but not a hypermedia issue. Adding an audio
comment to a text is a hypermedia (and multimedia) issue.

> 
> 3. Are subjects like Virtual Reality (or Cyberspace) part of multimedia?


They may be.

> 
> Does anyone know of better definitions, or would anyone like to try
> to define them? 
> 
Nope.