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[description], Story, any other text you want to use. Idea of Reference by: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.
There is no source of reference remotely as authoritative as the Encyclopaedia Britannica. There is no brand as venerable and as veteran as this mammoth labour of knowledge and ideas established in 1768. There is no better value for money. And, after a few sputters and bugs, it now comes in all shapes and sizes, including two CD-ROM versions (standard and deluxe) and an appealing and reader-friendly web site. So, why does it always appear to be on the brink of extinction? The Britannica provides for an interesting study of the changing fortunes (and formats) of vendors of reference. As late as a decade ago, it was still selling in a leather-imitation bound set of 32 volumes. As print encyclopaedias went, it was a daring innovator and a pioneer of hyperlinked-like textual design. It sported a subject index, a lexical part and an alphabetically arranged series of in-depth essays authored by the best in every field of human erudition. When the CD-ROM erupted on the scene, the Britannica mismanaged the transition. As late as 1997, it was still selling a sordid text-only compact disc which included a part of the encyclopaedia. Only in 1998, did the Britannica switch to multimedia and added tables and graphs to the CD. Video and sound were to make their appearance even later. This error in trend analysis left the field wide open to the likes of Encarta and Grolier. The Britannica failed to grasp the irreversible shift from cumbersome print volumes to slender and freely searchable CD-ROMs. Reference was going digital and the Britannica's sales plummeted. The Britannica was also late to cash on the web revolution - but, when it did, it became a world leader overnight. Its unbeatable brand was a decisive factor. A failed experiment with an annoying subscription model gave way to unrestricted access to the full contents of the Encyclopaedia and much more besides: specially commissioned articles, fora, an annotated internet guide, news in context, downloads and shopping. The site enjoys healthy traffic and the Britannica's CD-ROM interacts synergistically with its contents (through hyperlinks). Yet, recently, the Britannica had to fire hundreds of workers (in its web division) and return to a pay-for-content model. What went wrong again? Internet advertising did. The Britannica's revenue model was based on monetizing eyeballs, to use a faddish refrain. When the perpetuum mobile of "advertisers pay for content and users get it free" crumbled - the Britannica found itself in familiar dire straits. Is there a lesson to be learned from this arduous and convoluted tale? Are works of reference not self-supporting regardless of the revenue model (subscription, ad-based, print, CD-ROM)? This might well be the case. Classic works of reference - from Diderot to the Encarta - offered a series of advantages to their users:
Moreover, authoring an encyclopaedia was such a daunting and expensive task that only states, academic institutions, or well-funded businesses were able to produce them. At any given period there was a dearth of reliable encyclopaedias, which exercised a monopoly on the dissemination of knowledge. Competitors were few and far between. The price of these tomes was, therefore, always exorbitant but people paid it to secure education for their children and a fount of knowledge at home. Hence the long gone phenomenon of "door to door encyclopaedia salesmen" and instalment plans. Yet, all these advantages were eroded to fine dust by the Internet. The web offers a plethora of highly authoritative information authored and released by the leading names in every field of human knowledge and endeavour. The Internet, is, in effect, an encyclopaedia - far more detailed, far more authoritative, and far more comprehensive that any encyclopaedia can ever hope to be. The web is also fully accessible and fully searchable. What it lacks in organization it compensates in breadth and depth and recently emergent subject portals (directories such as Yahoo! or The Open Directory) have become the indices of the Internet. The aforementioned anti-competition barriers to entry are gone: web publishing is cheap and immediate. Technologies such as web communities, chat, and e-mail enable massive collaborative efforts. And, most important, the bulk of the Internet is free. Users pay only the communication costs. The long-heralded transition from free content to fee-based information may revive the fortunes of online reference vendors. But as long as the Internet - with its 2,000,000,000 (!) visible pages (and 5 times as many pages in its databases) - is free, encyclopaedias have little by way of a competitive advantage.
streaming media producer
Netscape Corporation has created the best known secure server technologies. It uses a security protocol called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) that provides data encryption, server authentication, message integrity and optional client authentication for a TCP/IP connection. When a client seeking to purchase streaming media producer connects with a secure server, they exchange a *handshake* which initiates a secure session. With this protocol, the same server system can run both secure and unsecured web servers simultaneously. This means an streaming media producer organization or company can provide some information to all users using no security, and other information that is secured. For example, a business that sells streaming media producer online can have its storefront (merchandise catalog) unsecured, but ordering and payment forms can be secure. Why are these developments important? As the Internet becomes a way to buy and sell streaming media producer products and services, financial transactions become essential. Right now, most streaming media producer transactions involve the exchange of credit card information, either directly over the network, or by phone, to complete a transaction initiated online. Eventually, you will be able to use cash as well as credit, directly over the network. There are two basic kinds of digital cash, anonymous cash and identified cash. Anonymous cash is just like paying for streaming media producer with paper cash but it also carries no information about the person making the transaction, and leaves no transaction trail. You create it by using numbered bank accounts and blind signatures. Identified cash, on the other hand, contains information revealing the identity of the person who withdrew it from the bank. Like credit card transactions, identified cash can be tracked as it moves through the system and involves fully identified accounts and non-blind signatures. Whether you use digital cash when purchasing streaming media producer is entirely up to you. We suggest you employ the purchasing avenues available from the streaming media producer supplier we recommend. Real Time Media On The Net Index
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