Advanced Multimedia Publishing: Where does Europe Stand in the Wired World?

Abstract

The World-Wide Web is a good example of what we now can call “the wired world”. In theory, any person at home or in the office can connect to millions of information sources, with nothing but a PC and modem. But in practice, there are wide variations in the accessibility, usability, navigability and attractiveness of digital information sources. There are several factors. The supply market is fragmented, for example there are 50,000 science publishers offering 100,000 journals. The infrastructure deployment is uneven, in some instances on a scale of one to ten across different countries. There is a rising number of digital content media: videotex, Interactive TV, Web, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM etc. Linguistic and cultural diversity also play a role. The European Union has fifteen member states, eleven official languages, and many traditions and cultures. The vast proportion of digital content is in English, for example on the Web. although over 50% of European Internet users are non-English speaking.