Digital Media

The increasing power of computers, speed of networks, and the reducing cost of memory has enabled multimedia information to be handled as readily as numbers or text. One frame of an animation 1,000 by 700 pixels requires 700 kbyte of storage. For 30 frames per sec and 24-bit colour this would need 500 Mbyte. For a 5 minute animation this would require 150 Gbyte (not to mention backups, various revisions etc). Digital cinemas can receive films via the network and save the production costs of traditional film reproduction – typically $ 5millionfortheworld-widereleaseofamovie.

The Digital Media Alliance, Florida, defines digital media as "the creative convergence of digital arts, science, technology and business for human expression, communication, social interaction and education". Many traditional media companies now generate their content in digital form for distribution via CD, DVD, or the Internet. Marketing strategies for content increasingly utilize multiple media channels to hit different markets simultaneously. New media forms such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, and the distribution of user-generated content(e.g. YouTube) are all changing the nature of information and how it is stored, accessed, and distributed. Filtering, accreditation, and synthesis of content are created through new hierarchies of peers and information affinity groups on the Internet.

Source: Digital Convergence - Libraries of the Future