Posted by Tilman Baumgaertel on March 03, 1997 at 11:36:04:
In Reply to: Re: A Push Media Critique posted by Dave Mandl on March 03, 1997 at 11:32:55:
Thank you for your enlighting piece about this silly Wired cover
story.
I pretty much agree with your analysis, but I think you have
overlooked on important detail, that makes this whole story even more
questionable: that Wired magazin itself is in the business of
internet-based push media.
Iīm not talking about the slightly obnoxious attempts of certain
Wired-editors to make Nettimers participate in Chats with their
cyber-buddys (the ones that eventually donīt take place, haha). Iīm talking
about the News-Service that Wired offers in collaboration with "Pointcast",
the pioneers of "push media".
Apparently the news that are published at www.wired.com/news/ are
also delievered to "the comfort of your own home" via one of the "channels"
of Pointcast, a programm that downloads stuff to your computer when you are
not using your internet connection, and displays it as a screen saver. You
have to subscribe to this service like you would subscribe to a magazine. I
do not use "Pointcast" myself, but thatīs what I learned from various
reports in the internet press.
That would make this cover story a bold attempt of "hard sell":
"Wired" first creates a demand for "push media", than it is there to meet
this demand with a product. If "Wired" manages to put that "push media"-
meme into circulation as it did with other ideas, this "Wired News Channel"
would certainly be one of the first businesses to profit from this new
hype.
Yours,
Tilman
PS: If you want to see grown men or women cry, make them install the
"Castanet"-Software. So much for the state of the art of "push-media"...