NEW(S) MEDIA An alphabet soup of new technologies is simmering

About the time you read this, your obedient scribbler and the editor of this august journal will be in Seattle at the Interactive Newspapers conference, pontificating on the most important new media technologies for the next three to five years. As this would seem to be a topic of interest to readers of NewsInc, here, in no particular order, are some technologies to keep an eye on:

* DSL: In late January the Washington Post, the New York Times and others reported an agreement was reached among the regional Bell telephone companies, GTE, Microsoft, Intel and a slew of others to roll out a lightweight Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology that would not require a digital "splitter" on each subscriber's line, as do current DSL technologies.

This new technology will offer an "always on" 24-hour-a-day connection at 600,000 to 1.5 million bits per second without interfering with voice service -- over modems envisioned to cost $100 to $200. The implication: Low-cost modems that are always on, connecting at 12 to 20 times the speed of current models, will change the way we deliver news.

* XML: Extended Markup Language (XML), like Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), is a subset of the Standardized General Markup Language (SGML). HTML, though, has a fixed Document Type Definition. This is the basis of browser creep -- the tendency of every new browser to have a set of features that doesn't work in any other browser, to the joy of webmasters everywhere. The fact that HTML is fixed also creates enormous work for webmasters, since anything outside of the ordinary must be done through scripts or applets.

XML does much to solve both of these problems. Rather than a Document Type Definition, it is a true subset of SGML that maintains most of the parent's functionality with much less overhead. XML allows you to declare new tags on the fly, then use them immediately. End the browser wars now!

* Voice synthesis: Let's face it: Current computer interfaces stink. Voice synthesis -- software that turns text into speech in real time -- has come a long way in the last year. It is now possible to turn plain text into clear, easy to understand speech with lightweight applets that can even be set to have different "voices." News delivery implications? Now your text can be "read" to users while they drive, shower, even work on their computers.

* Voice recognition: Let's face it: Current computer interfaces haven't improved since the last bulleted item. And as bad as current output is -- hey, let's run a story as a single centered column of type down the middle of 36 screens! -- the input interface is even worse.

The problem up until now is that voice recognition systems have fallen far short of the cool stuff on Star Trek. Rather than simply saying, "Computer, run a Level One Diagnostic on the deflector dish," you had to Talk. Like. This. For. The. Computer. To. Understand. Anything. IBM and Dragon have introduced continuous speech recognition systems in the last year, however, that are at least as accurate as a fast professional typist.

Solid voice recognition will speed widespread public acceptance of computing. There's a good chance that the public will be more open to finding something by saying, "Get me that NewsInc. article Feola wrote about avatars last year," rather than typing "(((Chris OR Christopher) AND Feola) AND avatars) AND NewsInc."

* Wireless: Everyone and their brother is launching a fleet of satellites over the next three years. And current technologies are improving -- the 3Com PalmPilot personal digital assistant is supposed to get a pager add-on this year that will allow you to receive e-mail without plugging in.

But current Internet wireless access -- pioneered by Metricom Inc. of Los Gatos, Calif. -- leaves a lot to be desired. The areas covered by the spread-spectrum system predominantly serve only metropolitan Washington, Seattle and San Francisco. Much of the technology depends upon line-of-sight between the transmitter and the receiver; in many neighborhoods in hilly San Francisco, connections are impossible.

Metricom has recently had a heavy investment from a technology heavyweight, though: Paul Allen, the other co-founder of Microsoft, who bought controlling interest in Metricom last fall.

Bottom line: Soon we'll have the ability to deliver news to people no matter where they are.

* Interactivity: In the end, what will distinguish new media from old is the ability to interact, both actively and passively. Passive interactivity involves learning programs that watch what you do and tailor themselves as they learn your preferences. Active interactivity ranges from choosing your next link to full video game-style activities.

So far, interactivity has been much ado about nothing beyond clicking on links.

-- Christopher J. Feola