Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!mintaka!olivea!uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a544
From: Rick_McCormack@mindlink.bc.ca (Rick McCormack)
Newsgroups: comp.multimedia
Subject: Re: Personalised News Systems
Message-ID: <6356@mindlink.bc.ca>
Date: 18 Jun 91 13:05:36 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 46

I believe that the system was out of Chicago, but could not find my reference
to the original article.  I think I deleted it for two reasons:

(a) here on MindLink BBS in Vancouver, BC, Canada, we have access to the UPI
and Newsbytes postings, and may select among approximately 115 newsgroups.
Thus I have a set of groups that I read everyday, mostly skimming the headers
and reading/copying those I feel of most interest. Very handy, and much
appreciated by many of the MindLink users.

(b) The electronic newspaper has two major drawbacks to gaining popularity.
Suprisingly, the market for an ad-free paper is small; many rely on local ads
in their paper to key them into their community. Also, reader surveys show that
many skim a newspaper, and read things they never would have thought would be
of interest to them.  Trying to keep this "spontaneous selection" process
intact in a "dedicated" newspaper is impossible.

The best compromise seems to be (at present) to create an "electronic clipping
service" to search out references to items/companies/topics that you want, and
to have the option of adding to and modifying these lists frequently, while
still reading a "general newspaper."

I would be very interested in a system that would pick these items off my
computer screen, and, using a dedicated servo-controlled audio cassette
recorder hooked to my Mac, with something simple like MacinTalk, transfer the
written article to audio, for use in my car or portable player. Thus, I would
run my scanner program while getting breakfast, grab the cassette, and listen
to it on the way to where-ever.

(Hey, I am the guy who can't figure out why no-one markets an audio cassete
recorder with a built-in recording timer a la VCRs -- I miss a lot of radio
shows I want to listen to because they are half-over when i remember them.  :-)
)

If I can find that original reference to Knight-Ridders service (Holy cow!
Right out of the subconscious -- I think it WAS Knight-Ridder!) I will post it
here.

Luck
--
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| IMAGISTICS Business Theatre Technology | Rick McCormack |
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