From hungary-online-owner Mon Apr 24 01:23:05 1995 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) (fnord) by nando.yak.net (8.6.5/8.6.5) id BAA12247 for hungary-online-announce-out31415; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 01:23:05 -0700 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) (fnord) by nando.yak.net (8.6.5/8.6.5) id BAA12235; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 01:22:53 -0700 Received: from carlson@odin.net () via =-=-=-=-=-= for hungary-online-announce@hungary.yak.net (12233) Received: from odin.net (root@omega.odin.net [193.130.116.3]) (fnord) by nando (8.6.5/8.6.5) with ESMTP id BAA12176 for ; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 01:20:33 -0700 Received: from [193.130.116.13] by odin.net with SMTP (8.6.10/1.2-btv) id JAA04866; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 09:35:28 GMT Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 10:15:00 +0100 To: hungary-online-announce@hungary.yak.net From: carlson@odin.net (Steven Carlson) Subject: (HOL-A) publishers seek contact with readers Sender: owner-Hungary-Online-announce@hungary.yak.net Precedence: bulk Reply-To: Hungary-Online@hungary.yak.net I usually like to get my column out to the Internet readers a little earlier than it reaches the print audience. This week I'm late, and the only excuse I have is that I've been pretty busy. I'm behind on my email. This last week I attended the fourth annual Networkshop, which is a forum for the Hungarian academic Internet community. I had considered writing up a column based on this experience, but I think the topic has only limited appeal to my _Budapest_Business_Journal_ readers. As you might expect, the main focus of the conference was the looming commercialization of the Hungarian Internet. It's the same debate that's been going on the States for years. I attended a seminar that was supposed to be about developing WWW and other resources and the attendees simply abandoned the topic to discuss commercialization. In summary: it's going to happen, but the academic community would like to believe it can be prevented - or delayed. One big issue is that the entire academic infrastructure was imported tax free, duty free, for educational use only. What happens if some of those bits passing across the academic servers are commercial? A more pertinent question is: will the academics agree to peer? - will they agree to create links to local commercial nets so those bits don't have to travel out to England or the US and back to Hungary? In his opening speech, IIF chief Laszlo Csaba said 'yes', peering must take place. Of course, some of us on HOL know that peering has been a problem even within the academic community. A debate has been raging on the Narancs-L list, and I admit I've not been watching it as closely as I'd like. Tibor, Tamas? Would anyone like to sum this up? =steve= -- publishers seek contact with readers hungary-online By Steven Carlson When I hear the term "information superhighway" I think of MTV. And I mean Music Television, not the Magyar variety. MTV comes to mind because it's presently the cutting edge of digital video production. Of course I don't REALLY think MTV is the infobahn. I'm just looking for a way to imagine something that doesn't exist yet. Those who pioneer a new medium begin by adapting elements of older media. If you've ever watched a little 1950's television you know what I mean. The early TV broadcasters took their cue from radio, theater and vaudeville. Those were the days of live television - Milton Berle and the Howdy Doody show. Who could have predicted that forty years later the medium of television would evolve in the direction of MTV? What you see on the Internet these days will be outdated in far less time. In this case, I'm thinking about the World Wide Web, a Net medium which combines text and graphics. These familiar elements have inspired print publishers to reproduce their publications on the Internet - usually in faithful copies of the print product. But how many people are going to use the Internet to read the same magazine they can already get on paper? Most of what traditional publishers have put on the Web so far lacks a unique concept. One exception is HotWired. The sister publication to the trendy _Wired_ magazine, HotWired is a conscious attempt at something different. Check it out at . When you go to HotWired for the first time you have to fill out a questionaire and become a member. Furthermore they can keep statistics about how often you read the magazine, and even where you linger. This is the kind of reader information an editor or writer longs for. The astute Internet user might have serious misgivings that this info might be misused, that he might start recieving targeted junk email. The publishers, however, state up front that reader info remains private. That's an important precondition to doing business on the Net. HotWired is indeed a business, and a good one at that. The publication is expected to bring in $2 million in advertising revenues this year. Ad rates just jumped 50% to $30,000 for a eight-week display ad consisting of a hot-linked banner across the top of the page. When the reader double-clicks the strip he bounces to the advertiser's own area, which can be one page or a set of pages. Advertisers get detailed information about the readers that visit their pages, a feature print publishers can only dream about. Print editors and writers can only envy the degree of reader feedback at HotWired. A better word is participation. Readers have ample opportunity to comment on articles, and even engage the writers in dialogue. This blurs the tranditional line between writer, reader and editor. It also keeps the reader coming back. The result is that writers, editors and advertisers get to know exactly what the reader wants. And if that isn't clear enough the reader can also jump in and state the situation himself. This kind of interactivity is in fashion all across the media spectrum. As it happens, the Internet is particularly good at closing the gap between information producers and consumers. But as we'll see next week, publishers and information providers are turning to any available means to get contact with you. If you've ever felt the media is taking over your life - have no fear. In reality we - the information consumers - are talking over the media. [blurb] Steven Carlson is a technology writer and Internet trainer, as well as an interactive publisher. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright (c) 1995. Permission granted to redistribute this article in electronic form for non-profit purposes only. My byline and this message must remain intact. Contact me for reprint rights. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- Steven Carlson moderator/publisher - hungary-online Critical Mass Media Inc internet trainer, consultant [+361] 133-4647 in Budapest, Hungary carlson@odin.net ############# # This message to Hungary-Online-announce@hungary.yak.net # was from carlson@odin.net (Steven Carlson) # # To unsubscribe, # send "unsubscribe" to # For a full subscription (rather than this announcement-only subscription) # mail "subscribe" to # Send mail to for more information, # or to if you need human assistance. #############