From: robertj@tekgen.bv.tek.com (Robert Jaquiss)
Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom
Subject: SIGCAT MEETING NOTICE LATE BUT HAS USEFUL IMFORMATION
Date: 23 Jul 92 17:45:30 GMT
Organization: Tektronix, Inc.

Hello:

     I scanned this material in and proofed it, I hope.  

	Robert Jaquiss

Internet: robertj@tekgen.bv.tek.com
     Special Interest Group on CD-ROM Applications& Technology

                       July 16,1992, Meeting

     Hello once again from SIGCAT! It's taken us a little while to recover from
SIGCAT '92 (our first national conference held April 27-29), but, all in all,
things went well.  There were close to 600 attendees from all parts of the United
States as well as a few from foreign countries.  The goal of generating enough
revenue to cover SIGCAT's printing and mailing expenses for the next year was met,
and, judging by the feedback we received, most of the participants thought it was
worthwhile enough to do again.  So I guess we will.  We are particularly grateful
to the National Institute of Standards and Technology for hosting our little
affair; without their guidance and support, SIGCAT '92 probably wouldn't have
happened.

     Now it's time for a good old-fashioned SIGCAT meeting at the U.S. Geological
Survey (USGS).  Scheduled for Thursday, July 16, 1992, the meeting will take place
in the main auditorium, beginning at 9:00 a.m. and running to about 2:30 p.m.
Several breaks, including one for lunch, will give attendees and speakers a chance
to mingle; the earlier adjournment time should allow most people to beat the
afternoon traffic rush.  On the following day, Friday, July 16, we have scheduled
several SIGCAT Working Group meetings (more on that later) to allow you to catch
up on specific areas of interest in the world of CD-ROM.  For those attending
their first meeting, the USGS is located at 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive in Reston,
Va.  Parking is allowed along our periphery road, so get there early to shorten
your walk.

     It's now safe to say that every major agency in the Federal Government is
using CD-ROM.  The reasons for this phenomenon are threefold.  First, using CD-ROM
is simply saving money.  In comparison with traditional information dissemination
costs, the low cost of CD-ROM allows for dramatic savings in the printing,
storing, shipping, and updating of printed documents and forms.  Second,
tremendous increases in productivity accrue from accessing information on CD-ROM. 
Searches that used to take hours using microfiche or paper documents now are
accomplished in minutes.  Third--and perhaps most significant--public payback is
enormous.  CD-ROM is, for the first time in many cases, allowing agencies to open
their vast data vaults and provide information to the general public on these
affordable and convenient little discs.

     The July SIGCAT meeting will provide some examples of how the use of CD-ROM
is snowballing in the Federal sector.  We'll start off with what is probably the
most widely distributed CD-ROM in the Government.  Known as the Hazardous
Materials Control and management (HMC&M) CD-ROM, this disc is currently
distributed to over 7,000 users.  Copies are now sent to every ship in Navy, as
well as to 3,000 shore commands, 627 Marine Corps units, 900 Army installations,
655 Air Force sites, 875 other Government agencies, all Congressional libraries,
universities, six foreign governments, and several commercial businesses.  The
disc itself contains comprehensive information required for the safe and legal
procurement, distribution, storage, use, and disposal of hazardous materials.  The
initial thrust of the HMC&M CD-ROM effort was simply to support the sailors on a
ship.  However, the wealth of information contained on this disc (including the
complete Hazardous Materials Information System (HMIS) database of Material Safety
Data Sheets) quickly expanded the demand for the product throughout the Department
of Defense (DoD) and the rest of the Federal Government.

     The cost savings attributed to the HMC&M CD-ROM are impressive.  The DoD
alone is saving $45 installation per as it replaces a much less capable microfiche
system.  Because the DoD IMIS user base is presently at 13,000, the potential cost
savings are in the range of $585,000 per year.  The organization behind the HMC&D
CD-ROM is Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Lant, or
NCTAMS LANT (don't you love those Navy acronyms?)
in Norfolk, Va.  The disc was developed by using a Government-developed front end
(Clipper-compiled dbase) married to the Nimbus Romware client/server interface. 
This approach proved to be so powerful that NCTAMS LANT was asked by the U.S. Army
Environmental Hygiene Agency to develop a CD-ROM disc for them.  The resulting
product, known as the Medical Item Disposal Instruction (MIDI) CD-ROM, is expected
to save the Army at least $100,000 per year in mainframe and telephone costs
alone.  On hand to present an overview on the HMC&D project and all of its
impressive accomplishments will be Mary Lou Hoffert, branch head at NCTAMS LANT. 
If you ever wanted to hear a true CD-ROM success story, don't miss Mary Lou's
presentation.

     Our next presentation continues to underscore the cost savings attributable
to the use of CD-ROM technology, this time in the State DeparunenL Over the past
18 months, the Department has been developing and beta testing across 22 bureaus
or posts around the world a CD-ROM containing all the unclassified volumes of the
Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM), 135 post reports (complete with pictures and maps),
and the Department's worldwide telephone directory.  Known as INFOEXPRESS, this
disc incorporates Dataware retrieval software that allows users to quickly
retrieve, view, save, export, or print information that previously was available
only in paper form.  Quarterly updates eliminate tedious manual updating of the
FAM and ensure that timely post reports are always on hand.  Because it currently
costs the Department about $4,000 to produce and ship a complete set of the
printed FAM to a post, the potential savings from the CD-ROM-based FAM are
substantial.  Phil Tinney, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Services,
will tell us the INFOEXPRESS story and relate the feedback resulting from beta
testing this product in the 22 overseas bureaus.  Phil will also describe the next
effort of his organization, called INFOFORMS" (due out later this year), which
will capture most of the forms used worldwide by the Department.  Not only will
this next disc allow for laser-perfect "demand printing" of forms but it will also
significantly streamline the capture and management of information placed on these
forms.

     While the Navy and State Department have been employing CD-ROM to enhance
their worldwide information dissemination programs, the private sector confinues
to create new and innovative information products.  One such product is the
Military PersonnellBase LOCATOR, which provides detailed information through four
major databases, all accessed with Dataware retrieval software.  First, there is
the entire DoD phone book and Federal staff directory (over 101,000 entries),
which is indexed at least six different ways.  Want to quickly find out how many
generals there are at the Pentagon? You'll have the answer in seconds.  The next
database provides a complete listing of all U.S. military bases around the world. 
Need a graphic area map and driving instructions to Redstone Arsenal? This
database will give it to you.  The third database contains over 55,000 terms,
acronyms, form and document numbers, weapons, and jargon used in the military. 
What does "NAVSPACECOM" stand for? You'll have the full description almost as soon
as your finger leaves the Enter key.  This military dictionary also serves as a
continuously available cross reference when accessing the fourth database on the
disc--the DoD Contracts Locator.  This database has over 52,000 entries consisting
of detailed procurement information for the most recent 3 months of military
contracting throughout the world.  Want to know how many contracts (and their
dollar value) were awarded in the first quarter of FY '91 for the B-2 Stealth
bomber?  This disc will quickly provide the answer.  Describing and demonstrating
this disc will be Bruce Brownson, vice president of Locator CDROM Publishing
Company.  Bruce will also discuss a soon- to-be-released disc called the DoD
Contract Procurement LOCATOR, which will provide comprehensive information on DoD
contracts, subcontracting resources, SIC codes, acronyms, and even disbarred
contractors!

     Another new CD-ROM that should be of interest to the Government, particularly
in the areas of training and education, comes to us from one of the most prolific
publishers in the CD-ROM industry, Quanta Press.  Mark Foster, president and
founder of Quanta Press (remember the "cows" disc?), will explore the use of video
gaming technologies in enhancing CD-ROM-based information delivery.  His talk will
focus on edutainment--the delivery of an educational event in an entertaining way.

     Quanta recently developed, with the technical and financial assistance of
Compton's New Media (a Britannica company), the game Coalition Command: The
Liberation of kuwait as a front end for the Quanta database, USA Wars: Desert
Storm.  The game was first shown at the recent Consumer Electronic Show in
Chicago.

     The game, wherein the player (student) replaces an injured General
Schwartzkopf, works as a quasi-simulation of the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations. 
Decisions ranging from air- tasking orders to the amount and types of media or
press control must be made under simulated battle conditions.  Greater points and
more favorable outcomes are derived from the use of the underlying Smartrieve
TM-driven database for intelligence gathering when one "doesn't know what to do!

     Mark will use the game to show the audience what can be done with simulation,
animation, sound, and high-resolution images to stimulate creative thought and
enhance a basic dataset.  He will discuss future edutainment projects under
development at Quanta and will raise the curtain on the future of CD-ROM and
associated technologies used in broad-based multimedia game-driven information
delivery.  If you know Mark, you know that his presentation will be lively and
informative and will include a couple of surprises.

     Leading off the afternoon presentations will be Art Slater, head of the
Interactive Courseware Branch and Nelson Stiltner, an education specialist from
the Naval Education and Training Program Management Support Activity (NETPMSA) in
Pensacola, Fl.  They have been in the forefront of revolutionizing the Navy's
training and publishing activities through the use of CD-ROM technology.  NETPMSA
published its first Interactive Courseware (ICW) library containing some 76 titles
in December of 1991.  The second ICW publication is slated for August of this year
and will include over 300 titles! Art and Nelson will describe their experiences
with prototyping educational and training manuals on CD-ROM and how they plan to
incorporate additional material from sources such as videotape and microfiche. 
NETPMSA is certainly "pushing the envelope" in CD-ROM-based interactive training. 
The current Interactive Courseware efforts, which employ text, EGA graphics, and
animation, are now progressing into the next phase, which will be called
Interactive Multimedia and will include VGA and 3-D graphics, audio, and software-
playback video sequences.  In addition, NETTIMSA is installing a CD-Recordable
capability to further enhance their prototyping efforts.  If you're thinking of
using CD-ROM for interactive training, you shouldn't miss this overview on the
Navy's state-of-the-art developments in this area.

     The ability of CD-ROM to make many of the Government's critical databases
electronically accessible to the general public at a reasonable cost is arguably
the most significant characteristic of this technology.  Agencies whose missions
include public outreach through information dissemination are one by one realizing
the power of CD-ROM to help fulfill these missions.  One of the first
organizations to use CD-ROM in this capacity was,the Office of Business Analysis
(OBA), Economics and Statistic's Administration, Department of Commerce. 
Following up its earlier success with the National Trade Data Bank (NTDB) disc,
OBA released a prototype of it new National Economic, Social, and Environmental
Data Bank (NESEDB) in April of this year.  T7he new disc is a comprehensive source
of electronic information focusing on the economy, society, and environment of the
United States.  Combining data from 15 different Federal agencies, NESE-DB
contains 37 informational programs covering 30 different topics, including
economic, educational, demographic, health, criminal justice, environmental, and
Federal budgetary issues.  The complete text of many of the Federal Government's
most popular publications such as The Economic Report of the President, To.fics
in the Community, Health Statistics U.S., Digest of Educational Statistics, and
the U.S. Industrial Outlook are also on the disc.  Presenting
the NESE-DB (or The Federal Connection , as it is becoming known) will be Laura
Merchant, a project leader for NESE-DB.  Laura will discuss and demonstrate the
new and improved version of the Browse softwareaced originally on the NTDB
product.  If you're looking for a wealth of text, time series, graphic, and
tabular information about the United States, be sure to catch Laura's
presentation.

     Our final presentation of the day should excite anyone who has ever had to
search through the bound volumes of the United States Code looking for some
obscure reference or citation.  Such a task can be daunting owing to the sheer
volume of information and the limitations of conventional indexing.

     The United States Code is the official compilation of all Federal laws of a
general and permanent nature, divided into 50 subject matter areas or "titles."
The bound version consists of some 25,000 pages in 23 volumes, occupying over 5
feet of shelf space.  The index to all of this takes an additional nine volumes,
pushing the total shelf space to about 7 feet and the cost to approximately $800!
But CDROM is about to come to the rescue.  The Office of the Law Revision Counsel
of the U.S. House of Representatives, with technical assistance from the House
Information Systems (the computer support arm of the U.S. House of
Representatives) and together with Government Printing Office (GPO), is about to
publish the United States Code CDROM.

     Included on a single disc will be all 50 titles of the United States Code,
including the complete index and the table of popular names.  The product will use
both the ISearch and Windows Personal Librarian search engines from Personal
Library Software, Inc., and will be able to run on DOS machines with or without
Microsoft Windows.  Copies of the United States Code CD-ROM should be available
for sale to the general public this summer through the Office of the
Superintendent of Documents and the GPO bookstores at a very reasonable price.

     Describing this momentous project will be Elliot Chabot, Legal Support
Project Leader for the House Information Systems.  Elliot will demonstrate the new
disc and provide an overview on the future direction for his project.  If there
was ever a "must-have" CD-ROM--one that would make every agency and bureau in the
Federal Government acquire a CD-ROM drive--this is it!


                      Working Group Meetings

     In conjunction with the July SIGCAT meeting, the following Working Group
meetings will take place:

                  CDOWG - Thursday, July 16,1992

     CDOWG is a network for people familiar with the use of in-house CD-ROM
production workstations.  CDOWG encourages the sharing of solutions, techniques,
and tips that are vital to the efficient operation of these systems.  The CDOWG
meeting will be held after the general SIGCAT meeting at the USGS in Room IB-215
from 3:00 p.m. until approximately 4:40 p.m. The theme for the meeting will be
"Performance Issues--The Use of DOS Extensions for CDROM." For further information
on this meeting or the CDOWG Working Group, please contact Reenie Prettyman on
301-496-1936 (voice) or 301-480-6183 (fax).


                   CD-RIM - Friday, July 17,1992

     The purpose of the CD-RIM Working Group is to examine CD-ROM media in terms
of reliability and integrity to insure sufficient physical and data integrity of
the discs for long media life and flawless performance.  The CD-RIM meeting will
be held on Friday, July 17, at the USGS in Room IB-215 from 9:30 until 11:30 a.m.
The meeting will include (1) a detailed review of the proposed IHC standard for
controlling the quality of CD-ROM discs, (2) a review of the ANSI IT9-5\AES
meeting on June 4 and 5, 1992 in Montreal, Canada, and (3) a presentation by the
guest speaker, Gerhard Papst of Koch International Digitaldisc, Elbigenalp,
Austria.

     Please note that this session will be a working meeting.  It is requested
that technical representatives from CD-ROM disc manufacturers, drive
manufacturers, and disc-tester manufacturers attend and participate.  Government
and industry representatives are also invited to attend, as this meeting is an
open forum and not subject to non disclosure agreements.  For further information
on this meeting or the CD-RIM Working Group, please contact Ron Kushnier on
215-441-1624 (voice) or 215-441-7271 (fax).

     That's about it for the July meeting.  With the variety of late-breaking
Government applications as well as the presentations on some exciting products in
the area of multimedia applications, there should be something for just about
everyone in the July SIGCAT meeting.  In addition, we now have a new twin-flavor
frozen yogurt machine in our cafeteria to double your lunchtime pleasure.

     For directions, please call the SIGCAT Info Line at 703-648-4452.  For any
other questions, I can be reached at 703-648-7126.



                                    EJ. (Jerry) McFaul
               Computer Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey



                  SIGCAT - July 16,1992 - AGENDA
                USGS Main Auditorium - Reston, Va.

9:00 a.m.- 9:15 a.m.
Introductory Remarks

9:15 a.m.- 9:45 a.m.
Mary Lou Hoffert, Branch Head
Department of the Navy - NCTAMS LANT - 804-444-3978

9:45 a.m.- 10:15 a.m.
Philip Tinney, Deputy Assistant Secretaryfor Information
Services
Department of State - 202-647-4398

10: 15 a.m. - 10: 45 a.m.
Break No. 1

10:45 a.m.- 11:15 a.m.
Bruce Brownson, Vice President
Locator CD-ROM Publishing Company - 703-739-0900

11: 15 a.m.- 11:45 a.m.
Mark Foster, President
Quanta Press, Incorporated - 612-379-3956

11:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Lunch

1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Arthur Slater, Head, Interactive Courseware Branch Nelson Stiltner, Education
Specialist
Department of the Navy - NETPMSA - 904-452-1309

1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Laura Merchant, Project Leader
Office of Business Analysis, Economics and Statistics Administration,
Department of Commerce - 202-377-4990

2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Elliot Chabot, Project Leader House Information Systems,
U.S. House of Representatives - 202-226-6456

2:30 p.m.
Adjournment



Calendar of CD-ROM Upcoming Events

     COMPUTER MINI EXPO - DOL
                           July 7, 1992
Department of Labor's Great Hall
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
More information: 703-866-5350


     COMPUTER MINI EXPO - USGS
July 30, 1992
U.S. Geological Survey's Main Auditorium
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA
More information: 703-866-5350


FOSE CD-ROM AND MULTIMEDIA
CONFERENCE & EXPOSITION
August 5 and 6, 1992
Washington Convention Center
Washington, DC
More infon-nation: 800-638-8510

               CD-ROM EXPO
September 29 - October 2, 1992
World Trade Center
Boston, MA
More Information: 800-945-3313

               ONLINE/CD-ROM'92
October 26-28, 1992
The Palmer House Hilton Chicago, IL
More infon-nation: 800-248-8466
Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom