Oct. 8, 2022. Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian exhibit on the Age of Multimedia: 1994-2008 opened for public viewing in the Gore Digital Museum complex located in the old Department of Agriculture Building. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the invention of the transistor, a milestone in the dawn of the Information Age.
The term “multimedia” implies a hidden comparison to single forms of media. Electronic information was first expressed through visual and/or audio input that was complementary rather than integrated. Information appeared as text, video, or audio. Individuals communicated electronically using one or two of these formats. Multimedia involves weaving all three together. The exhibit is composed of three modules: the technology that spawned multimedia, and the impact this information form had on American business and on the personal lives of Americans.
The technology exhibit begins with a virtual walk through one of the first transistors developed by Bell Laboratories, then still a subsidiary of AT&T Corp. Blown up to 1,000 times actual size, the spaces between the component parts are cavernous, and the materials used had not advanced beyond metal wire and rubber insulation. Standing to the right of the device is the vacuum bulb, an oddly sensual component that replaced the transistor.
Thematically, the viewer takes a virtual walk through the first silicon chip, as well as the gallium node introduced at the beginning of the millennia by Anastasia Electronics of St. Petersburg, Russia.
In comparison to the microchip, which miniaturized transistors, the significance of the innovation of the gallium node is in its ability to send electrical signals to the brain that mimic the sensory input of touch, hearing and sight. The node is attached by platinum wire to a pad placed on the left upper forehead. The node is so compact, that at 1,000 times actual size, the virtual size of an individual exploring the interior has shrunk to a centimeter.
The exhibit notes that technology did not define the beginning of the Age of Multimedia, legislation did. The Telecommunications Reform Act of 1994-1995 promulgated a new era where information made full use of the auditory, tactile and visual senses, a technique defined now as conversational sensations.
Previous to that, the “info-in”(short for the information industry) was segmented by distribution channel and by content provider. The Telecoms Reform Act broke down the legal barriers to cross industry competition and led to the first attempts at packaging screen-based information in the conversational sensation style.
One technology critical to this style, though, was a wireless “spread-spectrum” approach, and the Smithsonian gives substantial attention to the role it played. The conversational sensation protocol of information relay needs portability. The user must have the ultimate freedom to take his or her Neighbor (an information appliance) with them, unencumbered by the need to have a communications line plugged in somewhere.
Spread-spectrum radio communication made the most efficient use of the bandwidth available. To promote further efficiencies, the Federal Spectrum Board, successor organization to the Federal Communications Commission, convinced Congress in 2002 to tax spectrum use by individuals and corporations.
The first Neighbor was introduced by Microsoft Inc. in 1998. It combined the features of a folded hand-sized wireless phone with a flat key board and a voice-responsive computer. The computer, sized 30 centimeters by 15 centimeters by 2 centimeters thick, was extremely powerful for the time, equaling the capability of IBM Corp.’s high-end mainframe computer of a mere decade before.
Using the Gates programming language, the Neighbor’s software was designed to provide a seamless interface into the entertainment and information databases just becoming available on the National Information Infrastructure, now known as the we-way.
Though not completed until 2013, the we-way eventually provided all Americans wireless access from any location in the country. Neighbors and the we-way rid the American office and home desks of much of the machinery that swallowed needed space. Later versions of the Neighbor included gallium nodes for virtual reality. The Smithsonian exhibit displays the first model of the Neighbor to come off the production line.
In the Multimedia Age
The Smithsonian exhibit examines the impact of technology on both manufacturing and service sector businesses. To frame the changes properly, the exhibit briefly reviews how electronic information impacted the work place in the half century preceding the Age of Multimedia.
After World War II, the structure of most American manufacturing businesses mimicked that of the army-a hierarchal management with multiple layers of middle managers. The production schedule and purchase of parts was laid out months in advance. Information within the firm was bottled up in the layers of bureaucracy. Responsiveness to the whims of the marketplace occurred over periods of years rather than months and weeks.
In the service sector, especially retail, firms with large bureaucracies dominated the marketplace. Economies of scale allowed companies such as Sears and J.C. Penney to purchase goods at a per-unit cost that was much less than a “mom and pop” retail establishment. Yet these firms, too, were unable to respond to rapid changes in fashion and customers’ taste. Inventory of dresses and skirts would accumulate and have to be sold at cost just to clear it out of the warehouses.
By the start of 1995, electronic information made the hierarchal mode of management void and ineffective. To be successful, the firm needed to harness small changes in customer preferences for goods and services. Bureaucracies, even those with management innovative enough to want to make the changes in corporate culture, were, in general, unable to do so. The process of slimming down the staff left surviving managers shell-shocked and unable to adjust.
The Age of Multimedia brought further changes to the management structure of service and manufacturing firms. When Microsoft first introduced the Neighbor in 1998, the machine had sufficient computing power to load “expert” software. Employees were freed from the need of knowing how to perform any kind of in-depth analysis (your Neighbor did it for you and presented it in a sensory stimulating manner) and you were left to focus on the more creative and strategic aspects of business.
Until then, the creative and strategic aspects of business were the domain of senior executives only. Soon individuals selected for advancement were chosen purely on their ability to lead. Leadership skills are a function more of personality, vision and charisma than of knowledge. These qualities have yet to be duplicated by a machine.
More than ever, the firm needed to focus on providing intellectual stimulation for its employees, since not everyone has the opportunity to lead. By 2010, continuing education benefits were a standard part of the benefits received.
In the year 2002, medical science documented the amount of information a mind could absorb in any given day without loss of memory. The long-term effects of information overload included loss of concentration and an unusual fascination for situation comedies such as “I Love Lucy” and the “Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
Those individuals with a creative bent worked to fully develop any latent ability. The we-way required massive amounts of new programming to compete against outdoor physical activity. Individuals who could write stories or compose music saw their salaries jump exponentially as demand far outstripped supply.
Social trends
In comparison to the first two modules on technology and business, the last one-social trends in the United States-proved to be the most intriguing exhibit. The issue of what forms a community or a society in the age of the Neighbor was presented in a most inventive
manner.
Each viewer plugs in a gallium node and attends a virtual wedding as the bride or groom in 1994 as well as 2014. About 125 guests attend each reception. As the bride and groom scan the room, the name of each guest appears along with a description on how each one knows the bride or groom.
All the 1994 wedding guests are either related to the bride or groom (around 25 percent) or are friends they met in college, high school or work. All of the friendships were formed through face-to-face contact, whereas almost a third of the friends who attended the 2014 wedding were made over the we-way. The wedding was the first time these friends actually met in person.
In comparison to 20 years ago when most Americans spent their evenings watching television or a video, in 2014 most everyone spends an hour talking in virtual chat rooms on subjects of personal interest. Besides being fun and stimulating, men and women find it easier to “cruise” each other over the we-way.
The downside to the we-way is the increased physical isolation individuals experience from the person living next door. Virtual communities are much closer now than actual communities. Steps are being taken by neighborhood associations to reverse that trend.
All in all the exhibit is worth seeing. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, the old Agriculture building is near the Washington monument. The hours are from 9 a.m. to 5: 30 p.m. daily. For a virtual walk through, connect to the Smithsonian, Gore Digital Museum, Retrospective on Multimedia.
Steve Saleh is director of Teleweave Strategies, a consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.
