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NEWS FEATURES
A report from the Cutter Consortium, an IT advisory firm, says that the U.S. Patent Office should carefully re-examine its rules and regulations regarding software patents. Cutter believes the U.S. software patent scheme is “badly broken” and that, in light of the European Union’s ruling not to grant patents on software, it is time for the U.S. to give serious thought to revamping its patent system.
At the local level, a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina can either stress libraries and schools or destroy them. While communities always seem to come together at trying times like these and find a way to go on, digital content now provides many organizations with a way to prepare for and contend with devastating events like these.
Twenty-first century business is transacted online—even the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has trouble getting people to read paper versions of corporate proxy statements in the econtent age. In a move to regain investors’ attention, a recently proposed SEC rule change would allow them to read and post proxy communications via the Web.
The question facing digital entertainment companies seems to have changed from Can we implement effective DRM? to Should we even try? The shift seemed inevitable to some as one digital or audio DRM scheme after the next was swiftly circumvented. However, while some software distributors began to view pass-along as an inevitable fact of the digital distribution universe—developing DRM models to enable and monetize file sharing—the entertainment industry has been slow to follow.
FEATURED STORIES
Consider for a moment how many visual cues you rely on when accessing a Web site. Without even thinking, your eyes quickly scan navigation menus, examine main headings, spy the search box, and skim over other links. Now imagine, if you can, what it would be like if you couldn’t use a mouse and needed to use only your keyboard to move around a Web site. It would be, as one Web accessibility expert put it, like looking at a Web site through a soda straw.
Think you are giving customers what they want? Not if they have to navigate through multiple menus and sift through search results to find it. And what if the customer isn’t entirely sure what she needs in the first place? If companies want to connect users with content, then they need to remove the pain from the discovery process and provide users with what they want—perhaps even before they know they need it.
Ask fans of the dearly departed free file-swapping software Grokster—if digital content sounds too good to be true, or too cheap to be legal, it probably is. While building a free digital library might not seem like an audacious move at first glance, when three major Internet companies each aspire to create the biggest, most widely accessible library ever, copyright watchers the world over take notice.
COLUMNS
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FACES OF ECONTENT
“Many customers are under deadline and they need to have access to the information as quickly as possible.”
PRODUCT REVIEWS
Namo Web Editor 2006 has an impressive list of features at an attractive price, but in a market dominated by Microsoft and Macromedia, it takes a lot to turn heads, and this effort ultimately falls short. Namo needs to work harder at integration and ease of use to make the program more attractive to either entry level or advanced users.
CASE STUDIES
The Red Cross' Manatee County Chapter worked with E Solutions to build a site that supports its humanitarian efforts--from providing essential information to volunteer recruiting and training.
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