Both of these raised very interesting questions, particularly for me in light of our professional meditations on humanities computing and on the nature of the data-types with which we are involved. As a good friend of mine keeps pointing out to me, multimedia is in some if not many fields already the norm. For that matter, the interface I am using as I type this note is a multimedia interface, and would even make sounds at me if I had my speakers turned on. What I seem to be wandering toward is the question of what is emerging from New Media Studies of a longer-term interest than the newness of it all.
Surfers define themselves by involvement with what is never the same.