History of Printing

1.     China: The Technological Roots

• Paper - rag paper and silk paper by 105AD
• Paper's migration to Europe - passed onto through Middle East by 9^th century AD and to Europe via Crusades by 13^th Century.

• Large ideographic alphabet

2.     Gutenberg and the Historical Moment in Western Europe

• Scribal hand-copying on Velum through 15^th Century
• Rise of paper use - lowering of cost
  • Increased use of paper for business practices and government documentation
• Church indulgences written on paper
• Growth of scholarship at universities required textbooks
• Movable metal type invented (1452)
  • Gutenberg Bibles printed - 300 two-volume sets
• The Protestant Reformation - large-scale publishing of Martin Luther’s Theses (~300K copies)
• William Caxton set up 1^st printing press in England and published popular works such as Canterbury Tales

3.     Print and Modern Thought

• scientific thinking - broad dissemination of scientific insights and discoveries by print
• rise of  scientific community -
  • easy exchange of ideas gave rise to a scientific community that functioned without geographical constraints
• systematization of methodologies and development of rational thought.
• expand the collective body of knowledge
• indexes and cross-referencing emerged to  manage volumes of information and make creative associations between ideas.
• the rise of an intellectual class
  • Move toward standardization of language
• Move toward editing and peer review
• transformations: oral, written and print cultures
  • Writing facilitates interpretation and reflection since memorization is no longer required for the communication and processing of ideas
• Recorded history could persist and be added to through the centuries.
• Written manuscripts sparked a variation on the oral tradition of communal storytelling -- became common for one person to read out loud to the group.
• privacy

  • Less expensive and more portable books lent themselves to solitary and silent reading

4.     Advances in Print Technology

• Linotype machine (1884) - movable type created by machine – poured lead into molds.

• Teletypewriter (1913) - could be attached directly to a Linotype machines to control composition by means of a perforated tape

• Tape was punched on a separate keyboard unit

• Tape-reader translated the punched code into electrical signals that could be sent by wire to tape-punching units in many cities simultaneously

• Xerography (1938) – uses photoconductivity http://www.physics.udel.edu/wwwusers/watson/scen103/xerox/

• Computer-based printer technology

Desktop Publishing (DTP)

Definition: Preparation of typeset or near typeset documents on desktop computers (personal computers). All text composition, page makeup, manipulation of digitized graphics and integration of text and graphics are performed on desktop computers.

Three activities of DTP

1. Pure text preparation
2. Creation and manipulation of graphic images, where text plays only a minor role

3. Complex page makeup, in which text and graphic elements are united in a harmonious way within the confines of a single page

Assumptions:

• Desktop publishing equipment fits on a desktop
• DTP software will enable the integration of multi-font text and graphics and its display in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) form

Components of a DTP system

• a data input device
• data manipulation software (Page Layout Software)
• a cpu to run the software
• a display device
• an output device

Key stages in the process of DTP

1. Need for publication: Conduct appropriate analysis to determine need for publication
2. Purpose and audience: Consider the audience, content, style, language, purpose.
3. Create text: Word processed, scanned or directly typed into program. Proof read text to ensure content is OK.
4. Create graphics: Graphics created with appropriate software,scanner, tablet or digitiser.
5. Design format: Determine grid, columns, headers and footers, page numbers, text style, design final layout.
6. Load files and lay out publication: Text and graphics are combined, formatted, scaled and positioned.
7. Print: Choice of a suitable high resolution printer, i.e. laser printer or imagesetter

History

1979 - Alto - Xerox PARC

• Local processing and memory
• High resolution bit-mapped graphics
• Keyboard, mouse
• LAN connection
• Graphical windows interface(WYSIWYG) with integrated text editor, illustration creation, and email

1981 - Model 8010 (Star) - Xerox PARC

• Designed for Offices
• Innovative HCI Interface
  • Desktop Metaphor
• Direct manipulation
• Options or properties
• WYSIWYG
• Generic Commands (e.g. Move, Copy, Delete)
• High Degree of Consistency
• Not Success
  • Too Expensive ($15K)
• Limited Functionality (e.g. no spreadsheet)
• Closed architecture (difficult for 3rd parties to write programs)
• Perceived by users as slow
• Mouse overused
• Lessons Learned
  • Design First, Then Code
• Use of Objects-and-Actions design method
• Attention to Detail
• Participation of Designers

1983 - Canon develops the 'engine' used in low cost laser printers

1983 - Lisa - Apple

• Steve Jobs saw Star prototype at PARC
• $10K
• Not networked like Star

 

1984- Hewlett-Packard produces the HP LaserJet

1984 - Macintosh - Apple

• $2500
• Mac succeeded but Star did not
• Mac did not need to trailblaze
• Apple learned from experience
• Mac aggressively priced
• Mac had powerful developer toolkit

• Mac had excellent graphics & 300dpi laser printer

1984 - Adobe introduce PostScript page description language (PDL)

 

1985 - Aldus develops PageMaker for Mac

1985 - Adobe builds PostScript hardware/software interface to Apple LaserWriter (cost $5000)

1986 - Microsoft release Windows 1.1

Mark-up Languages

Definition: A notation for identifying the components of a document to enable each component to be appropriately formatted, displayed, or used.

1967 - William Tunnicliffe paper-  titled The Separation of Information Content of Documents from their Format – separates content from formatting

1969 - Charles Goldfarb - GenCode project at IBM expanded this work to develop the Generalized Markup Language (GML) – by

1980, 90% of IBM documents formatted in GML

1973 – Joe Osanna - Unix operating System (PDP-11)

• nroff produced text output suitable for terminals and line printers

• troff generated a graphical output for a Wang typesetter

• 1979 – troff modified to work with different output devices.

1977 - Donald Knuth – TeX – begun in 1977, evolved through early ‘80s - detailed layout of text and font descriptions to typeset mathematical books in professional quality.

1980 – Brian Reid – Scribe : a document specification language and its compiler

• Prepare a manuscript file using a text editor.

• Process this manuscript file through Scribe to generate a document file, which is then printed on some convenient printing

• Scribe controls the words, lines, pages, spacing, headings, footings, footnotes, numbering, tables of contents, indexes and more.

• Scribe has a database of document format definitions which tell it the rules for formatting a document in a particular style.

• Under normal circumstances, writers need not concern themselves with the details of formatting, because Scribe does it for them.

• The manuscript document an author creates has markup statements throughout.

  • Describe the various components of the document to the Scribe processor.

  • The descriptive markup the author places in the document is interpreted and formatted by the Scribe document processor.

1986 - Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) extended GML and was accepted as an ISO standard

• 1^st working document by Charles Goldfarb in 1980

• Influenced by Scribe

• focused on the structural aspects of a document and left the visual presentation of that structure to the interpreter

• Specifies a syntax for including the markup in documents and a "metalanguage" for separately describing what the markup meant.

• Allowed authors to create and use any markup they wished, selecting tags that made the most sense to them

• Issues:

  • Generally found to be cumbersome, a side effect of attempting to do too much and be too flexible

  • Unknown to the masses

  • Too few tools to create files

  • Tools are expensive

  • Companion norms for style or hypertext are not ready

  • Not well supported by the major editors of the software market

1991 - Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Caillau - HyperText Markup Language (HTML) - some SGML syntax, without the meta-language

• HTML consists of a set of "known" tags that handle common formatting tasks

• Originally created to markup simple scientific papers and therefore need to be expanded in order to offer the rich content the web has today

• As a result additions often follow no logical design, although recent efforts have attempted to address this.

• Advantages

  • Simple to learn and to use

• Easy to create from scratch or by converting legacy text files

• Easy to parse

• Disadvantages

  • Syntaxless

  • Much more a presentation language than a structural language

  • Too limited

1998 – XML – extended Markup Language

• XML is a strict subset of SGML

• Like SGML, XML is a grammar ( or a metalanguage ) and NOT a language

• XML extends SGML features

• Out of date SGML features are eliminated

• Well-formed document syntax

 Other Languages

Adobe PostScript

• Interpreted programming language used to control typesetting machines and laser printers
• Used as a page description language
• Can be used to create vector graphics

 

Adobe PDF

· Optimized PostScript

· PDF document attributes:

• external links

• article threads

• security features

• device independent colour

• notes

 Groupware and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)

• Computer-assisted coordinated activity carried out by groups of collaborating individuals

• e.g.

• communication

• problem solving

• co-authoring a document

• Groupware - information technology used to help people work together more effectively.
  • Groupware makes user aware that he is part of a group.
• Groupware defined by Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz (1982) - their ideas included:
  • messaging
  • conferencing
  • filtered exchanges
  • relational structures
  • voting
  • decision support tools

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (1984) coined by Gireif and Cashman

• Today serves as a forum - collaborative/cooperative a metaphor, it could support competition.

A Paradigm Shift for Computing

Transformation from human-machine to human-human interaction

Results from several convergent phenomena:

• Pervasive networking
• Growth of workgroup computing
• Growth of technology supporting executive and managerial group decision making
• Merging of telecommunications and computing supporting applications such as video conferencing
• Advancement in work-at-a-distance
• New technologies - ISDN, DSL, cable modem

 Widespread groupware:

• Email
• Computer conferencing (aka structured email)
• Teleconferencing (use of audio/video)
• Joint problem solving:
  • Collaborative writing or drawing
  • Group decision support systems (with electronic meeting rooms)

CSCW Taxonomy

• DeSanctis and Gallup (1987) - 2x2 matrix differentiates groupware technologies into two groups - bridge time and bridge space

• Today systems are moving toward anytime/anyplace

Asynchronous Groupware

• Supports communication and problem solving among groups of individuals who contribute at different times

1. Email and computer conferencing systems
2. Structures messaging systems
3. Cooperative hypertext or hypermedia systems

• Email and Computer Conferencing

1. Most successful: asynchronous, fast, can be sent to multiple receivers, has built-in external memory
2. Can contain text, image, video, sound
3. Organized email:
   • Computer conferencing system: Messages organized by topic, emphasizing dialogue
   • Electronic bulletin boards: Messages organized by time, emphasizing broadcast of information

Structured Messages, Agents and Workflow

• Structured messaging systems - better methods of organizing, classifying, filtering, and managing messages
• Agent - create intelligent messaging system delegating tasks to computer process

• Workflow - focus on messages that define processes - sets of rules which create conversations

Cooperative Hypertext and Organizational Memory

• Applications focus on messages or documents and their interrelationships - cooperative hypertext systems
  • Supports:
    • collaborative knowledge building
    • Asynchronous collaborative writing
    • Creating organizational memory
  • e.g. Schatz (1991-1992)
    • Community systems project - build electronic scientific community by collecting all community's scientific Knowledge and make available
    • The Telesophy System - 500 researchers studying the nematode worm
  • Extend support beyond document to include process. (Conklin 1992)
    • Software integrates three technologies:
      • Hypertext, groupware, and a rhetorical method (improves dialogue and conversational record and Organizational memory
  • Most successful organizational memory - Lotus Notes
    • Integrated communications and database network application
    • Designed to gather, organize, distribute information among workgroups
    • Platform for developing workgroup applications
    • Used for message routing, report distribution, idea discussion, and for tracking and managing projects
    • Biggest application - Price-Waterhouse (tens of thousands of notes licenses) why?
      • No on knew who had knowledge to solve a particular problem
      • Constantly reinventing wheel worldwide
      • Need for better communication
      • Results:

1. Retention of knowledge
2. Support for global collaboration and global discussion
3. Enhanced communication

Synchronous Groupware

• Software that assists a group of individuals in working together simultaneously to carry out a task
• Four classes:
  • Desktop conference systems (e.g. outlining, writing, sketching, spreadsheet)
  • System infrastructure for desktop conferencing
  • Electronic meeting and decision rooms
  • Media spaces that include computer controlled AV networks and virtual meeting environments

• Desktop Conferencing Systems
  • NLS shared-screen conferencing systems 1968 -augment face-to-face communication
  • Xerox Parc Colab Project 1987
    • Tools for collaborative brainstorming, argument development, free style sketching
    • Workstation-based with large touch screen in front of room
    • WYSIWIS (what you see is what I see)

• System Infrastructure for Desktop Publishing

  • Two approaches to developing groupware:

1. Collaboration transparency - single user software made available to group

2. Collaboration aware - rewritten software for group use

• #1 is simplest approach - some software run on multiple workstations under control of screen sharing software

• Electronic Meeting and Decision Rooms
  • Decision support systems - work in electronic meeting room
    • Supports parallel or sequential activity
      • Idea generation
      • Idea organization
      • Voting

• Media Spaces
  • Computer controlled teleconferencing system where A/V communication and shared digital workspaces overcome physical separation
    • e.g. Hiroshi Ishii - Teamwork system
      • Display of shared digital workspaces with displays of drawing surfaces and desktop materials
      • Implements seamlessness between individual and workgroup by overlaying translucent workgroup by overlaying translucent workspace images-live video analog images of computer screens and desktop surfaces
      • Computer screen overlay is a shared screen combining windows from individual collaborators
      • Creates shared interpersonal space using small windows displaying live video of one's collaborator