From: olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Need Example of Multi-media Software
Date: 18 Nov 92 03:46:23 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA

In <1992Nov17.220419.9704@ringer.cs.utsa.edu> senseman@lonestar.utsa.edu (David M. Senseman) writes:
| I looked at SpaceTour when we got IRIX 4.0.5F and I looked again when
| it was suggested as a good example of interactive multi-media. OK,
| it is interactive and it is multi-media, but in my professional opinion
| (I have taught college-level biology to about 9,500 students to date)
| SpaceTour is NOT a _good_ example of an interactive tutorial. 

It was never intended to be a tutorial.  I doubt (I hope!) nobody
ever suggested that it was such a thing.  I can say this with great
authority ;), since I worked with the person who did pretty much the
whole tour; I helped package it up and clean up some of the scripts.
She was definitely not trying to create a tutorial.

| Like the HotMix demo, SpaceTour is too "cutesie". Basically the fancy
| artwork detracts, rather than adds to the information content of the 
| tutorial. Often the background pictures even make the small text hard to read.
| There are a lot of pedagogical problems but I won't waste anymore bandwidth
| here (besides I get paid big bucks for similar reviews for text book
| publishers, so why give it away free?).

The 'information content' was supposed to be that showcase is quite
flexible, and can do a lot of things; also that we had a lot of
multimedia stuff available for free.  Also that the system could be
'fun' to use.

| It seems to me that it would be in SGI's corporate interest to develop 
| either in-house or out-house ;-) a ShowCase-based interactive tutorial
| that really could be used in a college-level course. Such a tutorial
| could be used by sales droids to illustrate the multi-media capabilities 
| of the Indigo and as-yet-unnounced products. It could also be used as
| a "style-guide" for faculty interested in developing their own ShowCase
| based offerings. 

Again, it was never intended as a tutorial.  Hence the name 'tour'!
Whether it is worth doing a tutorial such as you propose, I'll bow
out on, since I always seem to disagree with others about the usefulness
of such tutorials...

| Finally, there is some urgency here. I suspect that SGI's window of
| opportunity in this field will begin to close in 2-3 years, if not 
| sooner, as Apple brings on-line products with the PowerPC chip-set
| and Microsoft/Intel move beyond 486's and the EISA bus. While I
| trust SGI will maintain its technological edge, Apple and Microsoft
| need only offer _adequate_ performance to maintain their momemtum
| and ever-growing software base. 

If current Indigo level stuff is all SGI is counting on having 2-3
years from now, we would be sadly lacking in our planning and
imagination.  Whether the things we are working on are good enough to
make people want to use (and buy!) our systems, only time will tell.
Obviously I hope so.  I *personally* think we would be crazy to try
to compete at the low end of the market, based on experience with
companies in the past that have tried to do so (and are mostly out
of business).  There isn't enough margin for a *systems* company to
fund interesting new products (h/w or s/w) when you try to compete
at the low end.
--
Let no one tell me that silence gives consent,  |   Dave Olson
because whoever is silent dissents.             |   Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    Maria Isabel Barreno                        |   olson@sgi.com