CompuServe Messages

Kevin, What is the intended market of CD-I? What kinds of applications are being developed for it? What makes CD-I (or CDTV) different from a computer that will also appeal to the home user? Technical specs aren't what I'm looking for, those won't sell a machine to the non-computer literate user. A CDROMs greatest strength is the moderately large data storage capacity, data that by definition is static. What better use for it than to provide information. Sure, games can use the storage space, but what else other than subject specific data? Look, here we are in what is supposed to be the information age, and the average citizen doesn't have access to even the smallest part of the available public info. Sure, it's available, but where and at what cost, and how do I get it, and ….. (you get the idea) Here is a short list of the type of data that I would like to see on CDROM: NASA mission data. Library of Congress index. Scientific journal abstracts and references. Global population and product info. Historical info grouped by time period and/or event. Laypersons guides to assorted subject matter. (science, math, lit., ect…) Every one of these I would use on a regular basis, IF I had access to them. Many times I get interested in a subject, but have no easy way to learn more due to the time it takes to find the info in the first place. Theres nothing 'neater' than learning something new, especially when it's fun doing it. As an example, (I'm hung up on space), if all the NASA mission data were available for the Jupiter encounters, and children knew that many of the images had never even been seen, much less studied, how many would get caught up in searching the data looking for something new. And whats even better, learning something while doing it. In my mind, theres nothing dry about that application. Dean DKB Software