Home software goes Internet

In late 1996, CD-Roms started connecting up to the Internet. As this article shows, it is a trend you can expect every publisher to follow

When you're exploring a CD-Rom it's easy be overwhelmed with information and still want more. Maybe you want more detail or something up-to-date, or even need to ask a question. Now, using some straightforward tricks built into computer software, you can click your way directly from your CD-Rom, find yourself on the Internet, and start to do those things.

Dorling Kindersley's 'Virtual Reality Dinosaur Hunter' is part of this 'next generation' CD-Rom titles. Not only can fans of scary mouths with pointy teeth look up facts on the disc, they can also find out more from the Internet. When they connect up they'll find themselves in an exclusive area with extra information about dinosaurs and a different, magazine-style angle on the subject. In particular they'll find stories about new excavations, dinosaur gossip, and a place ask dinosaur experts questions - pointed ones I suppose.

It needs a modem and a computer set-up to connect to any Internet service - a not unreasonable feature to expect on a library or home machine but only still establishing itself in schools. It also needs a copy of the CD-Rom which holds the password to the 'Dino Online' internet area.

This approach to software, what they're calling 'hybrid CD-Rom', extends the idea of a solid body of knowledge. It's a clear signal that CD-Rom has finally outgrown its shiny self, but it's not the first and only.

Encyclopaedias have always needed constant revision, so when Microsoft's Encarta '96 CD-Rom encyclopaedia arrived a year back it allowed you to pick-up a monthly update over the Internet. The new Encarta '97, due in October, will also do this while its sibling, Encarta '97 World Atlas, a humanities title, will feature 7000 links to places on the Internet so that you can indeed go world exploring. The idea is so obviously useful it is catching as Hutchinson's Multimedia Encyclopaedia for '97 will have hundreds of Internet links.

It's two years since Dorling Kindersley brought out it's first CD-Rom titles. These have moved on such that 'Dinosaur Hunter', instead of looking like a book on-screen allows you to wander dungeon-like corridors examining bones, excavations and often 'walking round' things in what's called a 'virtual museum' and which children relate to well.

They've also upgraded their original benchmark titles like The Ultimate Human Body and The Way Things Work adding new sections as well as that on-line feature. So in version two of TWTW, author and David McCauley (quite a star in the States) gives you a kick-start by taking you on a tour of his disc and a charming fellow he turns out to be. You'll be tempted to click your way on-line and explore Mammoth.Net - named after the creature who stars in his cartoons explaining how things work. On the 'Net you can find details of new machines, send the author what they call 'M-mail', and respond to some 'unanswered questions' which is a fine idea. There are also things like McCauley's original sketches, a bank of his letters and replies, and a shop where you can pick up computer things like aeroplane sounds, screen-savers and picture postcards that, on today's colour printers, come out in souvenir-shop quality. There's a mammoth classroom too - but in September it was closed.

While the Body title is largely about anatomy and function, a click takes you to Body Online, which deals more with issues such as keeping healthy and new discoveries. Again it's like a 'magazine' and currently has articles about stopping smoking, dealing with bee stings, resuscitation and sleeping. And unlike a paper magazine, in time these stories will move to the back pages to make way for new stories. You can also send in tricky questions, or if you fill in the health questionnaire on screen it sends back a fitness score, so no upside-down answers to read here!

Overall it's the usual, extraordinarily attractive stuff that is the DK hallmark except that Mic Cady, who manages this on-line publishing says, it's harder to maintain that DK look on the Internet. "You've got people using different software on different machines, and they have different settings for fonts and colours and so on". He adds that it's a matter of achieving a design compromise, though visitors to the site should find the unmistakable corporate identity fairly intact.

But all this costs the publishers money. For example, Mic Cady's team has writers, editors, designers, programmers and technical support who don't come for free. So not surprisingly this Internet add-on is marked up as a free trial subscription or 'one year's worth of updates'. Anglia Multimedia, producers of the award winning 'Nelson, and his Navy', seem to be offering an open-ender and their spot on the net not only has extra material, but also handy teacher support.

Currently businesses are establishing themselves on the Internet at the rate of 150 each day. What this means is that if you need to find out about a piece of software and what it covers, you can often get to this information very efficiently. Some computer pundits are saying that we've got so used to getting information on the Internet for free that the future Internet will pay its way using advertising.

To see why a ordinary phone call can't deliver the same information as an Internet connection, take a visit to the Living Books site. Here the publishers of the definitive young kids story books, but late starters on the Internet, show their current catalogue, invite feedback and offer ideas to teachers and parents. And as a taster of some clever 'streaming' technology to allow for the slow speed of the Internet, you can explore a page of their 'Arthur's Birthday' title, and even interact with it as it transfers. Added to this, there are free demos to load and play at leisure as well as a feast of really sweet animation for kids. Mind you, if you just wanted to know the price, maybe a phone call is quicker than the unavoidable distraction.

Over the coming months, there'll be more to look out for - Microsoft Publisher 97, a so-easy desktop publishing tool will have a hand-holding 'wizard' to help people put pages on the Internet. If that's not easy enough, novices can use 'Creative Writer 2', the kids' word processor to do the same. Microsoft's Office 97, the promised all embracing office package will be so tied up with the Internet, you might even need to keep an eye on it.

With Xmas coming, Microsoft's home title, 'Picture It', a computer 'family photo album' lets you to send your snaps to friends using electronic mail, and reference titles like 'Cinemania 97' or 'Music Central 97' which quickly slip out of date, will also have that 'Internet Update' flash across the package.

If anyone feels that things are moving too fast, that's perfectly understandable, but this is the start of something good. In fact, teachers were asking for these kinds of features ten or more years ago, but the technology made some promises, mumbled something and then disappeared off. Now it's back, smiling, and looking more helpful. Hey-ho, I think we're moving.

Contacts:

Living Books: www.livingbooks.com

Microsoft: www.microsoft.com

Dorling Kindersley: www.dk.com

Anglia Multimedia: www.anglia.co.uk

Hutchinson's: www.attica.co.uk