Text and Related Technologies in Multimedia Organisations

1. Multimedia in Organisations BUSS 213 Lecture 3 Media 1: Text and Related Technologies

2. Notices (1)General • Make sure you have a copy of the BUSS213 Subject Outline and Please check the class role on the Departmental Notice Board or on my door for your allocated tutorial slot • BUSS213 is supported by a website, where you can find out the latest Notices and get Lecture Notes, Tutorial Sheets, Assignments etc www.uow.edu.au/~rclarke/buss213/buss213.htm • this week tutorial sheet is available on this site for use in the laboratory (open up WORD or simply print it out)

3. Notices (2)Tutorial Allocation • some of you are not turning up to your tutorials a tutorial- students not attending their tutorials will loose their positions as we have a waiting list • you might want a different tutorial to the one that you in, however due to large numbers of students we still cannot consider movements between tutorials at this time • there is no guarantee that we can accommodate you in a tutorial- as you are aware this class has double the number of students

4. Notices (3)Discussion concerning Assignment 1 • You are required to inform me by email of the topic you have selected! • Errata: the last sheet of the assignment- contains a mark sheet for an assignment in another subject- remove this my apologies. I will replace this with an appropriate one latter today • the BUSS213 website contains a file called Writing in Commerce- describes the structure of a case study report- what you should use in formulating your answer • for those who have chosen a website I will place a file on the website this afternoon which explain different types of navigation and searching

5. Agenda (1) • digital media are converging including ‘text’ • consider text and text related technologies are crucially important media- although they are poorly understood and often underestimated • we shall at several major areas of interest for organisations that involve texts and hypertexts: • Documents, Elements and Markup • Converting Text to Data- SGML (and XML) • Repurposing (Converting Text to Hypertext)

6. Agenda 2 • in order to create an OA systems and Intranets we must be able to analyse the types of documents that are used in an office • we will discuss the media, elements, markup, documents, document types, stylesheets and database publishing that can constitute modern OA and WWW

7. Agenda 3Related Readings • Vaughan (1998) Chapter 9: Text, 181-240

8. Media Convergence & Diversification

9. Media Convergence • convergence is a term used to describe the coming together of all communication and computing devices- as described by Nicholas Negroponte (MIT Media Labs) • separate media (eg/ television) are being merged into digital form over time (computer provides the means for this functionality)

10. Media Convergence • recall that most OA development occurred in the mid-1970 to late 1980s • OA contributed to digital convergence by: • using client/server architectures • setting the stage for developments in CSCW and Groupware (described in Lecture 3) • promoting the use of Compound Document Architectures (CDAs), SGML etc

11. Media Convergencec. 1994 Multimedia Drives Playstations HDTV teleputer PDAs & Dynabooks Internet Media: television & film music, print Multimedia Enhanced Music CDs Electronic Books Interactive Movies Video Servers Interactive Advertisements Home shopping Consumer Electronics and Computing Telecomms: information structure switching, routing

12. Media Convergencec. 2005 Interactive Advertisements Interactive Multimedia Videogames Enhanced Music Interactive Movies Enhanced Books Electronic Publishing HDTV Remote Shopping Videophones Groupware Teleconferencing Surrogate (Virtual) Travel Consumer Infotainment Edutainment Virtual Reality Hypermedia

13. Media Diversification Changing nature of the ‘document’ • having documents in digital form is one thing, but this is useless if the information is locked inside them and inaccessible- need to transform documents into information • this has led to fundamental changes in what constitutes a document, and its organisation to facilitate information retrieval

14. Media DiversificationHypertext • Major advances have been made in media types and modes of access used in documents- of primary concern is that of text and its transformation into Hypertext • Hypertext- • generally consist of one or more text oriented media at the nodes • uni- or bi-directional links between nodes • asynchronous accessing of nodes

15. Media Diversification Hypertext Components of various media types Anchor Link Source: Hardman, Bulterman & van Rossum (1994)

16. Documents, Elements, Markup

17. Documents & ElementsDefinitions • Document is an organized collection of information (which may contain one or more elements) for human consumption, regardless of media. • Element is a basic, tagged component of a document (term developed in SGML and commonly used elsewhere) • in order to be able to create an office automation system or document management system, you need to know the structure and function of documents and how they relate to business processes

18. Documents & ElementsDefinitions • document decomposition involves breaking down or disassembling a document into its constituent elements before putting it into a repository system • granularity is a term which refers to smallest unit of information in a document a system that can be managed • content is what is inside a document, abstracted from its format or appearance

19. MarkupDefinition • Codes inserted into a document to indicate its formatting or structure • Mark up systems may require authors to: • insert markup codes by hand • let the author press a function key and the system automatically inserted it, or • they may hide the codes from the viewer but instead showed their effect- WYSIWYG.

20. MarkupProcedural • 2 types: Procedural and Declarative • Procedural markup inserts codes that have immediate effect. • eg./ "<B>" might turn on bolding until a "</B>" is encountered.

21. MarkupDeclarative • paragraphs and other elements are tagged with an identifier (e.g. a name) and applies formats defined for elements with that identifier • eg./ the start of a paragraph might have a "para" and format it according to the rules established by the author (via a style sheet perhaps) for elements named "para."

22. Types of Markup • the following slides show an extract from a Vincent motorcycle repair manual to illustrate the types of markup which can be used on a document • but just in case you don’t know what a Vincent motorbike looks like, here is a picture of a 1994 rebuild of the 1959 classic...

23. 1994 Vincent Motorcycle

24. Types of MarkupProcedural Markup • the following two slides shows an extract from a Vincent motorcycle repair manual showing the procedural markup • this kind of markup tells a workprocessor or other related system how to render (or display) the page

25. Procedural Markup Centre; 10pt Times-Roman Down 10pt; centre; 12pt. Helvetica Bold Down 15pt.; first line indent 0.3 inch; 12-pt. Times Roman Down 22pt.; centre; 10-pt. Helvetica Medium Down 5pt.; centre; 12-pt Helvetica Bold Down 10pt.; 12-pt Times Roman run-in bold (Source: Nicholson Brothers Motorcycles Ltd. 1994)

26. Procedural Markup (continued) Down 22pt.; centre; 10-pt. Helvetica Medium Down 5pt; centre; 12pt. Helvetica Bold Down 15pt.; 12-pt. Times Roman Down 10-pt.; indent 0.32 inch first line indent 0.325 inch right align 0.2 inch; tab left alighed 0.325 inch 12-pt. Times Roman (Source: Nicholson Brothers Motorcycles Ltd. 1994)

27. Types of MarkupDescriptive Markup • the following two slides shows an extract from a Vincent motorcycle repair manual showing the descriptive markup • the descriptive markup used in this example identifies the structure of the document • this type of markup could be used to describe the data or information structure of the document

28. Descriptive Markup chapnum (Chapter number) title titlepara sectnum(Section Number) title labitem (Label list item) (Source: Nicholson Brothers Motorcycles Ltd. 1994)

29. Descriptive Markup (continued) sectnum (Section number) title sectnum (Section number) listitem (List item) (Source: Nicholson Brothers Motorcycles Ltd. 1994)

30. Stylesheets and Markup • for any real document based system, we need to: • design the content of the document- descriptive markup- independent of its look • design the look of the document- procedural markup- independent of its content • we need to relate them together because content must be displayed- this is done by using stylesheets

31. Stylesheet Focus: Assist users/readers in interpreting the meanings of a document by means of a consistent visual look Function: providing a consistent look and feel- procedural issue- to meaningful elements of a document- descriptive issue. Descriptive Markup Prescriptive Markup Focus: Information System Function: How to display or render the elements of a document Focus: Human Users Function: What is the meaning of an element in a document, what purpose does it serve for the organisation Stylesheets and Markup

32. Stylesheets and MarkupHyper Text Markup Language • In principle, HTML as a standard attempts to provide structural meaning to page content- the purpose of tags • what is enclosed between <P>…</P> is interpreted as a paragraph • unfortunately, structural markup is only a limited form of descriptive markup unfortunately, most web page authors concentrate only on the look of the page (by heavily using the procedural markup oriented tags) • the introduction of the HTML 4.0 specification attempted to distance the content of web pages from formatting issues

33. Stylesheets and MarkupHTML 4.0 Specification (2) • this standard encouraged reduction in the use of formatting (procedural) markup like <FONT>…</FONT> and <H1>...</H1>, <H2>...</H2> etc. tags • formatting was assigned to a separate standardization effort related to content style- Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) • provided the means to pass the decision as to how a paragraph looks to a style definition

34. Problems with HTML • HTML is incapable of adding semantics to a document, to do this we need to be able to create a language that enables us to create our own tags for marking up text with meanings that can then be retrieved using a computer

35. SGML Standard

36. In 1969 Dr. Charles F. Goldfarb developed a system called Generalized Markup Language (GML) and subsequently a system called Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) to enable users to create their own tags and apply them to documents- add structure to documents! SGML Standard

37. SGML Standard • In fact HTML is written using SGML- SGML is the ‘Parent’ of XML which is fueling major changes in the WWW and e-Commerce. XML is a redesigned and in some cases ‘stripped down’ or simplified version of SGML • internationally recognised standard (ISO 8879) for describing and enforcing structure and properties onto data in computer base information systems, including semi-structured data • completely descriptive markup system for document content • open environment for the interchange of a portable generic format between platforms

38. SGML StandardFeatures (1) • major features: • syntax for text processing stylesheets • extensible document description language • meta-language for defining document types • text media support: • text is coded according to its meaning- can be used in way not originally envisioned • tagging language • database language for text

39. SGML StandardFeatures (2) • media processing applications: • foundation for multimedia and hypertext- HyTime (an ISO standard) is an SGML application that knows about multimedia, time-based events, synchronisation • general computational features: • handles logical structures (conditional documents) • notation for structures (eg. hierarchies): sequences, repetitions and selections

40. SGML StandardFeatures (3) • other aspects: • general file linking and addressing scheme • open document representation language for any system architecture • supports open inter-communication regardless of hardware platforms and software applications

41. SGML StandardInstances & Document Type Definition • An SGML document is text only, but has the following structure: • an document instance containing the data • a document type definition(DTD) defining what data elements can be in the document, and how these data elements relate to each other

42. SGML Standard Document Instances • document instances contain data and markup (called tags): • both data and tags are in ASCII format- read by any application • tags are distinguishable from data: tags always have pairs of <> brackets • some system specific data can be inserted into the instance using special tags- removes the need for control codes etc

43. SGML StandardDocument Type Definition (1) • can be stored at the beginning of the document or externally in a separate file (generally the latter) • consist of all the formal definition of the elements, structures, and rules for marking up a given type of SGML document

44. SGML Standard Document Type Definitions (2) • comprise rules and relationships that define how the different elements within a document relate to each other: • specify the order in which headings occur • which elements are allowed under each heading • the order and frequency with which elements should appear

45. SGML Standard Document Type Definitions (3) • specifies the permitted document elements • eg. ‘Chapter’, ‘Heading’, ‘Definition-entry’, ‘Defined-work’, ‘Definition’ and ‘See-also’ • each element typically has a content model stating its required or permitted contents. • eg. the content model for ‘Definition-entry’ would state that it must have only one ‘Defined-word’ and ‘Definition’ • ‘Defined-word’ and ‘Definition’ must also be described by content models

46. Document Type DefinitionExtract of an SGML Memo DTD <! -- DTD for simple office memoranda ---> <! -- <! ELEMENT MEMO -- ((TO & FROM), BODY, CLOSE?) > <! ELEMENT TO -0 (#PCDATA) > <! ELEMENT FROM -0 (#PCDATA) > <! ELEMENT BODY -0 (P) * > : : <! ATTLIST MEMO STATUS (CONFID | PUBLIC) PUBLIC > : :

47. SGML ExampleInformational Content Markup • the following two slides shows an extract from a Vincent motorcycle repair manual • show the informational content markup using SGML • note that SGML tags are usually shown in the form <…> followed by </..>

48. Information Markup (Source: Nicholson Brothers Motorcycles Ltd. 1994)

49. Information Markup (continued) (Source: Nicholson Brothers Motorcycles Ltd. 1994)

50. SGML Benefits • DTD structure forces the user to focus on document content not format • SGML helps the authors by: • suggesting the correct structure of different document types • enforces the correct structure: if an author attempted to put in non-standard material, the application would refuse to accept it