7. Technology - The Pillars of Wisdom? page 3

Authoring tools

What has not been touched upon so far is the form of the authoring tool, the device which provides the means to create a Living Book. Rather than looking at the authoring tool as a particular piece of `hardware', software, or even as a specific consumer-durable, the authoring function would actually be supported by a variety of different tools. To record a spoken message, an author might use a machine similar to (or perhaps a direct evolution of) a telephone, for example. The only major difference is that such a device would be fitted with a standard socket for accepting blank Keys - and the fidelity of the (digital) recording microphone within the handset would offer a much wider frequency response than that achieved by today's telephones.

Having recorded a message through the handset the author would be given the opportunity to replay, delete or save it on the remote database. On saving a record, the database engine would return a copy of the record number (rather than a copy of the sound recording itself) which would be stored on the blank Key inserted into the handset. Other authoring tools - which would be found not just in the home but in public places and buildings - would be available for capturing images. Perhaps a mixture of high-street recording kiosks - the Living Garden equivalent of `Photo-Me' booths - in addition to cheap home cameras through which captured images might be fed into the database simply by connecting them into the handset, described above.

Although one of the principles of the Garden is to provide an environment which anyone can use, there would also be various social means of engineering a message. The Living Garden equivalent of the Indian village letter writer, or indeed the Western photographer or portrait painter - individuals who would create a Living Book on your behalf.

Computer-based terminals and sophisticated (or indeed simple) software would provide another authoring route but, as described above, these channels would certainly not be the exclusive means of creating a message. To rely on a single `multimedia' authoring device would implicitly limit the Garden only to those with access to, or an understanding of, this tool.

Not only this, but any single, universal, multimedia tool will necessarily be much more complex to use than a variety of specialised authoring devices, each designed for a particular medium. In attempting to provide too wide range of functionality within any single object, its complexity rapidly multiples - how many people make use of the range of `star' keypad functions offered even on a simple mono-medium `authoring' device like the telephone, for example? The final problem in attempting to specify a single tool or entity which is all things to all men is that - much like a penknife - there is the tendency for no one single function to be particularly well implemented. Sure enough, there is a utilitarian value in having access to something like a Swiss Army Knife, but - apart from providing the means to remove stones from horses' hooves - it is hardly the tool of choice for a specific task like cutting and sawing or undoing screws. In attempting to support so many functions in one object, which must still remain lightweight and portable, the usefulness of any one tool is compromised. We eat a meal using cutlery - rather than the blades offered by a Swiss Army knife - because knife and folk each performs its specific function very well; each tool is optimised through design for the particular role it serves.

The problem with most man-machine communication at the moment is that individuals are expected to be able to command events using computers which provide the same level of control as that afforded by using a Swiss Army knife to eat a plate of peas.