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The viewdata revolution
Focus on Books
Y
92
Reviews o f current books discussing subjects on the horizons of business activities, particularly those on controversial issues being encountered by both practitioners and teachers, will be considered for publication. Manuscript guidelines are available upon request.
The Viewdata Revolution The reviewer, Milt Jenkins, is an assistant professor of operations and systems management at Indiana University's School of Business. S a m Fedida, one of the creators of Viewdata, and Rex Malik have provided, in 186 pages, enough information on Viewdata to satisfy even the most fascinated of readers. The theme of this b o o k is that Viewdata is to the information revolution what the steam engine was to the industrial revolution. The authors see Viewdata as "one of the cornerstones of the Information Society." And they may be right, at least for one segment of the world. Viewdata, or videotex, the generic name, is an interactive information system developed b y British Telecom, formerly the telecommunications arm of the British Post Office. The system uses large computers to store information which is transmitted over the telephone network to be displayed on a modified television set in any h o m e or office. Part of the modifications to the TV set include a calculator-like keypad that enables a user to communicate with the system. Viewdata has the ability to deliver any of the stored information to any user requesting it, for a
price--a price the authors feel the general public is likely to pay. In the introductory chapter the authors provide the reader with extensive operational definitions for the numerous technical terms and acronyms so c o m m o n in electronics and computer literature. This makes their explanations of Viewdata lucid even to the technically uninitiated. However, the reader must be cautious when industry standards are being discussed; British standards are not U.S. standards. For example, the 40 character per line screen capacity limitation, and the concomitant problems it has caused for Viewdata, are simply n o t problems in the U.S. The reader should also recognize that the state-ofthe-art in computer and telecommunications technology in Britain is not the same as in the U.S. The authors point out these differences in many, b u t not all, of their discussions. Perhaps the most important fact the reader must keep in mind while reading this b o o k is that the British business environment is not the U.S. business environment. To b e c o m e a viable system, Viewdata required the close cooperation of the British Post Office, which handles the mail and telephone services, and the computer and television industry. In the U.S. then, a viewdata-like system would require the close cooperation of AT&T with one or more of the Business Horizons / May-June 1982
"Viewdata has the ability to deliver any of the stored information to any user requesting it, for a price a price the authors feel the general public is likely to pay."
93 large computer manufacturers, say IBM, and one or more of the major television manufacturers, say R C A - a combination which is unlikely, if not illegal. And the close cooperation of all three (or more) of these organizations with the U.S. Postal Service is impossible. A system(s) which provides m a n y of the same services as Viewdata will evolve in the U.S., but it will not have the same history or organization. The largest part of this book is devoted to detailed descriptions of the following Viewdata services: information retrieval, an expanded and interactive extension of the "yellow pages"; electronic mail, which explores the structure of communications possible with Viewdata; electronic funds transfer, which deals largely with the potential, rather than the actual, features of Viewdata; education, where Viewdata extends the concepts of Computer Aided Instruction (CAI); computation, a computer/calculator utility concept; games, which explore the entertainment potentials of Viewdata; and private services, such as a personal diary and personal computing. In discussing each of these services, the authors combine reporting on what does exist with speculation on what services could and should exist in the future. The final chapters of this b o o k are focused explicitly on the
future. The topics include implementation strategies, potential problems, and pricing mechanisms. The authors present a year-by-year speculative scenario of Viewdata's development through 1986.
The concepts embodied in Britain's Viewdata are under development in many other countries, each with its own name. For example, in France there is ANTIOPE; in Germany, BILDSCHIRMTEXT; in Japan, CAPTAINS, and in Canada, TELDON. Viewdata, the concept
and the product, ought to be of interest to every business person. For the casually interested reader this book may be too much. A good article will suffice. Such an article was recently published in the May 1981 issue of Modern Office Procedures, "Accessing Information at H o m e , " by Victoria E. Jackson. For the reader who wants to know all the details and gain a sense of the social and historical significance of Viewdata, 7he Viewdata Revolution is must reading. V~ Halsted Press, 1979. ISBN: 0-4 70-268 79-4. $34.95.
Y
92
Reviews o f current books discussing subjects on the horizons of business activities, particularly those on controversial issues being encountered by both practitioners and teachers, will be considered for publication. Manuscript guidelines are available upon request.
The Viewdata Revolution The reviewer, Milt Jenkins, is an assistant professor of operations and systems management at Indiana University's School of Business. S a m Fedida, one of the creators of Viewdata, and Rex Malik have provided, in 186 pages, enough information on Viewdata to satisfy even the most fascinated of readers. The theme of this b o o k is that Viewdata is to the information revolution what the steam engine was to the industrial revolution. The authors see Viewdata as "one of the cornerstones of the Information Society." And they may be right, at least for one segment of the world. Viewdata, or videotex, the generic name, is an interactive information system developed b y British Telecom, formerly the telecommunications arm of the British Post Office. The system uses large computers to store information which is transmitted over the telephone network to be displayed on a modified television set in any h o m e or office. Part of the modifications to the TV set include a calculator-like keypad that enables a user to communicate with the system. Viewdata has the ability to deliver any of the stored information to any user requesting it, for a
price--a price the authors feel the general public is likely to pay. In the introductory chapter the authors provide the reader with extensive operational definitions for the numerous technical terms and acronyms so c o m m o n in electronics and computer literature. This makes their explanations of Viewdata lucid even to the technically uninitiated. However, the reader must be cautious when industry standards are being discussed; British standards are not U.S. standards. For example, the 40 character per line screen capacity limitation, and the concomitant problems it has caused for Viewdata, are simply n o t problems in the U.S. The reader should also recognize that the state-ofthe-art in computer and telecommunications technology in Britain is not the same as in the U.S. The authors point out these differences in many, b u t not all, of their discussions. Perhaps the most important fact the reader must keep in mind while reading this b o o k is that the British business environment is not the U.S. business environment. To b e c o m e a viable system, Viewdata required the close cooperation of the British Post Office, which handles the mail and telephone services, and the computer and television industry. In the U.S. then, a viewdata-like system would require the close cooperation of AT&T with one or more of the Business Horizons / May-June 1982
"Viewdata has the ability to deliver any of the stored information to any user requesting it, for a price a price the authors feel the general public is likely to pay."
93 large computer manufacturers, say IBM, and one or more of the major television manufacturers, say R C A - a combination which is unlikely, if not illegal. And the close cooperation of all three (or more) of these organizations with the U.S. Postal Service is impossible. A system(s) which provides m a n y of the same services as Viewdata will evolve in the U.S., but it will not have the same history or organization. The largest part of this book is devoted to detailed descriptions of the following Viewdata services: information retrieval, an expanded and interactive extension of the "yellow pages"; electronic mail, which explores the structure of communications possible with Viewdata; electronic funds transfer, which deals largely with the potential, rather than the actual, features of Viewdata; education, where Viewdata extends the concepts of Computer Aided Instruction (CAI); computation, a computer/calculator utility concept; games, which explore the entertainment potentials of Viewdata; and private services, such as a personal diary and personal computing. In discussing each of these services, the authors combine reporting on what does exist with speculation on what services could and should exist in the future. The final chapters of this b o o k are focused explicitly on the
future. The topics include implementation strategies, potential problems, and pricing mechanisms. The authors present a year-by-year speculative scenario of Viewdata's development through 1986.
The concepts embodied in Britain's Viewdata are under development in many other countries, each with its own name. For example, in France there is ANTIOPE; in Germany, BILDSCHIRMTEXT; in Japan, CAPTAINS, and in Canada, TELDON. Viewdata, the concept
and the product, ought to be of interest to every business person. For the casually interested reader this book may be too much. A good article will suffice. Such an article was recently published in the May 1981 issue of Modern Office Procedures, "Accessing Information at H o m e , " by Victoria E. Jackson. For the reader who wants to know all the details and gain a sense of the social and historical significance of Viewdata, 7he Viewdata Revolution is must reading. V~ Halsted Press, 1979. ISBN: 0-4 70-268 79-4. $34.95.