Internet Usage :: Essays Papers

Internet UsageAre Mainstream scientific Researchers Using the Internet to its full Multimedia Potential?As a research presentation medium, the Internet has been designed to offer vastly much to publishers than easy text access. Its astoundingly simple to incorporate photographs, diagrams, illustrations, sounds, animations, movies and all kinds of non-text content into a web lay using todays mathematical functionr-friendly web increment software. This subject, Networks and Multimedia in recognition and Technology, has been designed to open its students eyes to the exciting multimedia possibilities available that piece of tail communicate research findings much than accessibly, effectively and concisely than plain text. A look through some of the research presented by many of these students, order linked to the NAMIST CONFERENCE PAGE, makes it clear that well-designed web commits can make blush the closely potentially boring topics (statistics? stillterflies?) attractive an d interesting through the use of intuitive structures and appropriate multimedia.However, a browse through the web site of Australias principal government-funded Scientific organisation, the CSIRO AUSTRALIA page, reveals myriads of research papers published almost unaccompanied in text-only format. The http//www.nobel.se/announcement-98/physics98.html official 1998 Nobel Prize award announcement for the field of physics includes some diagrams, but nothing one would not find in a 1970s textbook. Many of the links from american erudition organisation www.Sigmaxi.orgs science resource page, http//www.sigmaxi.org/scienceresources/scienceresources.htm, have a small amount of graphical content, but only one site I found, http//volcano.und.nodak.edu/ - a site utilize to volcano research - made consistent use of movie files, sounds and animation, and this site was filed under fun for kids on sigmaxis resource list.I believe on that point are many reasons for the scientific communitys a pparent dislike for multimedia. Not a small factor could be the possible perception that research that is presented in a flashy, colourful way is lacking in substance, that researchers who spend giving amounts of time on presentation are compromising the research itself. The tralatitious presentation of research has been through publication in scientific journals, not renowned for their attention to visual appeal, and the use of extensive visual or multimedia assistance to focus the readers attention could be viewed as condescending.Furthermore, do use of the available technology, whilst relatively easy using todays advanced, user-friendly development software, is nonetheless far more time-consuming than the use of simple text. In the context of a scientific report, visual cues are far more labour intensive to include than equivalent textual explanations in most cases. Furthermore many researchers are unfamiliar with the techniques required to produce them, and more willing to at tempt written explanations than commission graphic artworks.