DigiNews aims to define, architect and demonstrate a global
publisher-to-reader solution for the digital newspaper, while maximising
the chances of success of its later introduction into the marketplace.
Going digital
Our world is experiencing a technological revolution: the transition
from 'analogue' to 'digital'. All aspects of our daily lives are
becoming progressively digital: telephony, audio, video and photography.
In a few years from now, the digital newspaper will become a reality.
The basic vision is as follows: an electronic newspaper will be prepared
with sophisticated electronic publishing tools in a time critical
environment. It will be distributed to the subscriber via a broadcasting
medium (such as the DAB or DVB data channel), over the internet or via
future 3G mobile networks. Its usage will be designed to be very simple
and it will be capable of being read on thin low-power lightweight
wireless electronic terminals.
Project goals
Some may already suggest digital newspapers already exist in the form
of pdf or html files distributed across the internet. These forms are
very embryonic and it is proposed, in the context of the DigiNews
project, to go further than these current internet-based offerings. The
project aims to develop a solution that's acceptable to everybody, fully
exploits the potential of an electronic format and could lead to a
complete replacement of the classical newspaper within a 10-20 year
timescale.
The right user terminal
Getting the digital newspaper terminal accepted by everybody is
probably the main challenge of this project for two reasons:
- first, the electronic newspaper terminal will be small in
comparison to the traditional newspaper. The challenge is to make
this new format acceptable to the reader by providing them with a
user experience that is as similar as possible to the one provided
by a traditional newspaper. This can only be done through a careful
investigation of the reading process and by its translation in the
context of the user terminal in the form of an appropriate user
interface mimicking as much as possible the usage modes of
traditional newspapers.
- second, computer-educated people are able to use a computer or a
PDA while many more people are reluctant to get involved with
technology. Making the digital newspaper accessible by everybody is
a significant challenge. Having a dedicated user terminal (based on
a flexible paper-like display) partly simplifies the problem.
Nevertheless ease-of-use, auto-configuration, personalisation and
user interface will play an important role in the definition of a
solution.
Towards a complete digital newspaper infrastructure
The activities to be completed are defined according to an
"analyse/specify/architect and demonstrate" process. In the
first work package the project will establish the system requirements
starting from three different points-of-view:
- The user point-of-view - using scenarios that help to
understand the perspective of the reader, the publishers and the
advertiser will be instrumental in increasing the understanding the
requirements of the various users of the newspaper system.
- The business point-of-view - the solution provided should
be flexible and should enable the implementation of most identified
business models. New business opportunities will be required.
- The technology point-of-view - pragmatism is the keyword
here. In order to limit the initial investment, the digital
newspaper system should be built on the current distribution
infrastructure for digital information (such as DAB, DVB…), on
current trends in data representation (such as XML, MPEG7…). The
analysis of the state-of-the-art of all technologies related to the
future digital newspaper infrastructure, from publisher-to-reader,
is hence fundamental.
This multidimensional approach should favour the wide acceptance of
the proposed digital newspaper system by its various stakeholders.
In following work packages DigiNews will analyse the requirements of
the various subsystems (contents representation, security,
personalisation, billing…) and translate them into an architecture for
a basic digital newspaper to act as a replacement of the current
newspaper. The project will also analyse the requirements for some
extended services of the digital newspaper (such as user profiling,
location-based services…); these services should improve the user
experience. In these work packages DigiNews will validate critical
concepts and specify the demonstrators.
Finally, in the last work package DigiNews will implement some
demonstrators to be used as vehicle for proof-of-concept as well as for
evaluation.
Expected results
- A report on the various potential business models enabled by the
digital newspaper.
- A proposal for the successful introduction of the digital
newspaper into the marketplace.
- The definition and specification of a basic electronic newspaper
to act as a replacement of current newspaper (keep it simple!).
- The demonstration of a complete end-to-end basic solution.
- A report on possible augmented uses of the digital newspaper.
- The definition and demonstration of some possible augmented uses.
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