E-culture versus O-culture
E-monitoring vs old-monitoring
I’d like to present my former job, which offers a good illustration of the change from old culture to e-culture. So-called monitoring companies, among which Presse+ in France, BurellesLuce in the US or Accesso in Spain, are dedicated to filter, select and analyse information for mainly large corporate groups, enabling them to optimise their communication and business development decisions. When I first joined the company in 1994, people used to read the newspapers, select relevant articles, cut them with a cutter (how many nicks have I had myself some drowsy mornings at 4:00 am…) into columns and stick them with glue on A4 pages. Then they would make photocopies and classify the articles by relevance, before the press review was delivered by messenger to the company’s headquarters.
Time has gone. Within a few years cutters and glue sticks have vanished, replaced by huge scanners and advanced software applications. The articles are being selected either by humans or even through OCR tools using association of keywords and subjects. The newspapers are digitized or sometimes directly received as a feed from the editors. Once identified as part of a client’s selection, articles are “clipped” on A4 pages with a dedicated software application, automatically classified and then put at disposal on the client’s Extranet. The fleet of scooters has joined the cutter and glue sticks in the attic of old-culture tools aimed at producing press reviews.
3D versus timeworn desktops
One interesting thing is the creation of 3D graphic desktops by software publishers. Sun Microsystems developed its “Looking Glass” project, which aim is to bring 3-D windowing capabilities to the desktop. These 3D interfaces will enable users to manipulate around objects from their computer screen, windows displaying applications are viewed in a 3D environment and manipulated as 3D objects. In a way the 3D desktop brings us beyond the boundaries of old environments.
No time, no geographical borders
Internet Time is an “e-way” to tell time, which fits into to e-culture rather than o-culture. The concept was invented and marketed by the Swiss watch company Swatch. is based on two key points of the Internet : the lack of time zones and of geographical borders. Instead of dividing the day into 24 hours and 60 minutes per hour, the Internet Time system, called Biel Mean Time, divides the day into 1000 ".beats". Each .beat is 1 minute and 26.4 seconds. The time can be seen on the World Clock. It is the same everywhere, so everyone in the world has the same reference : no more need for time zone conversions.
I’d like to present my former job, which offers a good illustration of the change from old culture to e-culture. So-called monitoring companies, among which Presse+ in France, BurellesLuce in the US or Accesso in Spain, are dedicated to filter, select and analyse information for mainly large corporate groups, enabling them to optimise their communication and business development decisions. When I first joined the company in 1994, people used to read the newspapers, select relevant articles, cut them with a cutter (how many nicks have I had myself some drowsy mornings at 4:00 am…) into columns and stick them with glue on A4 pages. Then they would make photocopies and classify the articles by relevance, before the press review was delivered by messenger to the company’s headquarters.
Time has gone. Within a few years cutters and glue sticks have vanished, replaced by huge scanners and advanced software applications. The articles are being selected either by humans or even through OCR tools using association of keywords and subjects. The newspapers are digitized or sometimes directly received as a feed from the editors. Once identified as part of a client’s selection, articles are “clipped” on A4 pages with a dedicated software application, automatically classified and then put at disposal on the client’s Extranet. The fleet of scooters has joined the cutter and glue sticks in the attic of old-culture tools aimed at producing press reviews.
3D versus timeworn desktops
One interesting thing is the creation of 3D graphic desktops by software publishers. Sun Microsystems developed its “Looking Glass” project, which aim is to bring 3-D windowing capabilities to the desktop. These 3D interfaces will enable users to manipulate around objects from their computer screen, windows displaying applications are viewed in a 3D environment and manipulated as 3D objects. In a way the 3D desktop brings us beyond the boundaries of old environments.
No time, no geographical borders
Internet Time is an “e-way” to tell time, which fits into to e-culture rather than o-culture. The concept was invented and marketed by the Swiss watch company Swatch. is based on two key points of the Internet : the lack of time zones and of geographical borders. Instead of dividing the day into 24 hours and 60 minutes per hour, the Internet Time system, called Biel Mean Time, divides the day into 1000 ".beats". Each .beat is 1 minute and 26.4 seconds. The time can be seen on the World Clock. It is the same everywhere, so everyone in the world has the same reference : no more need for time zone conversions.
posted by cecilion @ 4:14 AM
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