Interactive Media
In contrast to the non-interactive media described above, interactive media
allow the viewer to become an active participant in the presentation, whether by
directly interacting with the presenter, by making asynchronous comments, or (in
some cases) directly modifying the content of the presentation.
Audio/video Conferencing
Netmeeting
Netmeeting is Microsoft's technology for interactive audio/video conferencing
over the Internet. It is free, and the quality is reasonably good. The major
drawback of this software is that it is not available for the Mac.
CU-SeeMe
This is a commercial product that has been around for a while. The author has
no personal experience with this software. Comments are invited.
Text Based Interactive Systems
Text is one of the oldest Internet technologies. The big advantage is in
space and bandwidth. Text chat will work fine over a low-speed Internet
connection, and archiving text sessions requires very little disk space.
Text Chat
IRC, Internet Relay Chat Internet Relay
Chat allows users to chat live over the Internet in real time. The client (user)
software is available for free or at low cost, and the server software is also
often free.
Instant Messenger software, such as AOL
Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo!
Messenger, and Microsoft's MSN Messenger
are very popular with students. Some online degree programs, such as the CTER
program at the University of Illinois, make extensive use of instant
messaging for student contact. All Instant Messenger programs allow sending
quasi-interactive text messages. Some have added features, such as audio or
video conferencing.
Web-based Bulletin Boards
Web-based bulletin board software allows users to interact asynchonously
(unlike text chat, which normally requires all the participants to be online at
the same time).
WebBoard
IkonBoard
WebBoard and IkonBoard are commercial products that allow a good deal of
control over text-based asynchronous conferencing (i.e., it is easy to set up
private message areas that only certain users can access).
SlashCode
SlashCode is a free web-based bulletin board that is very customizable and
capable of handling an extremely large volume of users. The best-known SlashCode
site is slashdot.org, which serves in
excess of 1 million page views per day.
The Wiki project is an attempt to create a collaborative environment for
generating and organizing knowledge. Anyone can edit a Wiki page (abuses are
minimized by maintaining archives of previous versions). The idea is that
eventually the community will reach consensus, and that the page will stabilize.
This is a very interesting experimental technology. It is much too early to
decide whether it will be successful.
The Interactive Paper Project, and its successor, the Interactive Multimedia
Project (described below) are research projects being conducted by Jim Levin and
Jim Buell at the University of Illinois. An Interactive Paper is similar to a
traditional web page but with the important difference that readers can make
comments as they read. These comments can be viewed by the author and by other
readers.
The Interactive Multimedia Project is an advanced version of the Interactive
Paper Project. The IMP allows the presenter to embed streaming media clips in
the presentation along with the text. As with the Interactve Paper Project,
viewers can make comments or ask questions of the author or other viewers.
