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Cyberspace as product space Interactive learning about

interactive media

Article in Futures · November 1997

DOI: 10.1016/S0016-3287(97)00058-X

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 Futures, Vol. 29. No. 9, pp. 769-789, 1997
Pergamon 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
0016-3287/97 $17.00 + 0.00

PII: SOOlS-3287(97)00058-X

CYBERSPACE AS PRODUCT SPACE

Interactive learning about interactive media

Ian Miles

A bewildering range of new interactive consumer media products are emerging,

many of them under the label ‘Interactive Television’. This is the source of a
great deal of industry excitement. The future of television is opened up beyond
the vistas of countless new channels, to new or enhanced types of television
service such as video on demand, surfing the Internet, and teleshopping. There
is considerable uncertainty attached to market forecasts about them, to views
as to which of the various products on offer will succeed in the mass market-
even to notions of what exactly consumers might want to use these products
for. Rather than offer a pat set of answers to these questions, the present paper
approaches the matter of these new products through the perspectives provided
by innovation studies and, in particular, new evolutionary economics. Drawing
lessons from such products as videotex, audiotex, and optical disc multimedia,
it outlines implications for interactive television. 0 1997 Elsevier Science ltd.
All rights reserved

That interactive object of desire

The term interactivity is increasingly applied to new consumer products. We now have
‘multimedia’ products which are usually regarded as interactive ones-and lambasted by
reviewers if not making use of the interactive potential of CD-ROMs and Websites. But
for well over a decade we have seen ‘interactivity’ being used to describe home com-
puters and their software-some adventure games for PCs were described as interactive
fiction even before the advent of CD-ROMs; in the UK an important retailer is Virgin

Ian Miles is Director, PREST, University of Manchester, Mathematics Building, Oxford Road, Manchester
Ml3 9PL, UK (Tel: +44 161 275 5922; fax: +44 161 273 1123; email: ian.miles@man.ac.uk).

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Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

interactive Entertainments. The same is true for early telematic services-in the mid-80s
there were efforts to reposition the Prestel videotex service as delivering interactivity to
consumers, rather than simply downloading data to them-contrasting with its initial
promotion as putting ‘a world of information at your fingertips’. In the contemporary
multimedia world, ‘interactivity’ is applied to stand-alone devices (such as interactive
Compact Disc-CD-l-players), to PC-based systems like CD-ROM multimedia systems,
and to the rapidly diffusing telematics services based not on (the now primitive-looking)
videotex standards, but on the Internet and World Wide Web. A recent buzz-word has
been ‘interactive TV’, which covers all of these products and more, but sees the key
interface as being something not unlike the conventional domestic television screen.
As suggested by some of these examples, interactivity has generally been seen as
having positive connotations, as making a selling point for consumer goods and services.
Perhaps interactive products are felt to be not merely more powerful and functional, but
to be more domesticated than many earlier gadgets. Is2 Interactive features are nevertheless
both results of, and elements of, a number of interrelated trajectories in technological
functionalities and design, as Figure 7 indicates. It is the highly sophisticated component
and software technology underlying these systems that makes them (potentially, if not
always in practice) so user-friendly, and capable of delivering so many functionalities.
Interactivity places the flow of information to some extent under the control of the
user, and makes it a two-way (though rarely equal) affair). The design features of a given
medium are liable to permit different aspects of the flow of information to be controlled,
to different degrees, by (different) users, as compared to other media. A one-way flow of
information has heretofore been typical of mass broadcast and recorded media-and to
some extent of communications with long time-lags between messages (eg conventional

r7iGGq SOURCES AND PROCESSES

VIDEO
video / graphic / text DATA STORAGE
output new storage media
(increasing realism, such as CD-ROM
e.g. full-motion (increasing capacity.
video, 3D effects) portability, etc.)

INFORMATION
USER
CONTROLS PROCESSING
Human
(new pointing (increasing speed
Senses
devices. gloves.
and
touchscreens, ctc) information of all
Actions

AUDIO COMMUNICATIONS
audio output interconnectivity and
(increasing realism, interoperability,
e.g. digital quality increasing speed and
stereo sound) bandwidth, indifference
to ‘bitstream’ content

source: hascd on Thomas and Mile\ ( 1996).

Figure 1. Stepping stones into virtuality.

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 Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

mail). The new media resemble telephony, in that their usages are more like conventional
conversations, where new messages are, in effect, generated in response to user inputs
and exchanges, rather than following a single sequence predetermined by an author or
information supplier.3,4
The powerful information processing capacity of new IT products allows them to
respond to more user input, and to deliver more requested output, more rapidly. This is
underpinning new media, and the ‘publications’ and ‘programmes’ which they carry and
which offer forms of interactivity more like those provided by interpersonal contact.
Highly interactive products are often said to be intimate ones, with users expected to
shape what happens next by being engaged with and responding to a flow of events.
There may be ‘default’ modes, in which a linear flow of information is presented if the
user takes no action, but the design of the products typically anticipates interactivity.
However, there are quite different types of conversation and levels of intimacy permitted
or facilitated by different media. Table 7 distinguishes several gradations of interactivity,’
with examples of each.
Some of these new media, being based upon telecommunications systems, allow for
new forms of person-to-person (or people-to-people) interactions as well as human-
machine interaction. Electronic text and voice messaging systems allow for asynchronous
communication and rapid delivery of text, freeing users from some of the limitations of
traditional media. There may be scope for one-to-many and many-to-many communi-
cation in addition to the traditional one-to-one format. And some electronic media allow
for anonymous contact to take place in ‘cyberspace’, by virtue of the fact that individuals
happen to be accessing the same service, rather than because one has deliberately called
the other. On CB radio, bulletin boards and chatlines, individuals may adopt pseudonyms
and even role-play new identities; and in some MUDS (multi-user role-playing games
and the meeting environments that have been inspired by these),6 users both explore an
electronic landscape and interrelate with each other, thus combining human and IT inter-
activity.
Such new interpersonal media are important for thinking about the future of new
media in general. They are part of the product environment and consumer experience,
within which new product offerings have to find a place if they are to gain market success.
The convergence of computers, communications and broadcasting means that there may
be significant-and problematic-cross-over between media. This is not just a matter of
cybersoap operas being run on the Web (and numerous conventional TV programmes
extolling or exorcising the Internet). There are also prospects for the extension of the
‘sampling’ culture. As a movement in architecture, film, music and graphic arts (rather
than a fashion in social science), post-modernism has not just drawn upon styles and
conventions of past buildings, paintings, symphonies, etc., but has also often ‘borrowed’
for purposes of tribute, parody or in-joke, significant and recognisable elements of familiar
works. In electronic media, this has been widely adopted with the advent of sampling
equipment. The borrowing of riffs and snatches of vocals or instrumentals from popular
songs is central to much popular music. Now it is equally easy for video clips to be
captured, images processed (or have new soundtracks added, or be inserted into new
contexts, etc.), and distributed via computer-communications, for example.
There is also evident scope for the sorts of personal information which has been the
subject of controversies in the realm of videotapes and tabloid journalism to be utilised
in new ways in cyberspace. Already some firms have acted to stop use of their images

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Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

TABLE 1. LEVELS OF INTERACTIVITY

Level Notes and examples

Minimal interactivity Public address systems - extremely low interactivity, where ‘users’ can at
best ignore them or drown them out (eg with personal stereos-and other
people’s portable media can be as much of a burden as any public address
system).
Traditional broadcasting media-also low interactivity, but at least
consumption is more usually voluntary. When multiple channels or radio
stations are available, the option of changing programmes is added to a
basic on/off choice. The convenience of this simple operation is greatly
increased by a remote control. ‘Channel surfing’ emerges as remote controls
are applied and the number of channels grows. More channels means more
choice of material (though often within a very restricted ambit...). But the
traditional broadcast presents information in a grossly linear fashion, with
item following item in a fixed sequence. It is not interruptible (at least, once
interrupted it cannot be resumed where left off). It cannot readily be re-
examined (though proliferating channels often carry more repeats). In other
words, it, cannot be accessed other than in the linear sequence originally
supplied, both in terms of the ordering of specific scheduled items and in
terms of the content within these items.. These features are shared with the
public address system.
Moderate inactivity Teletext-‘pages’ broadcast alongside TV signals, providing relatively rapidly
accessible information, with informative menus setting out what is available.
Each page is set out in a linear fashion (the extent of this varies), and some
pages follow each other in sequence, but most often there is great
opportunity for the users to navigate or create their own routes through the
large number of pages. Teletext is seen by its suppliers as relatively
interactive. The teletext user sends no messages to the information provider,
admittedly. But the users are effectively interacting with the TV by instructing
it to select among numerous pages of information that are being
continuously broadcast. The ‘feel’ for these users, as they summon up
specific ‘pages’ on their TV screens, is quite similar to that of extracting
information from an interactive videotex service (in which it is the remote
videotex system which sends out pages on demand.) Selection of teletext
pages would be much more tedious and uncomfortable if it involved
manipulation of controls located on the TV set. rather than a remote control.
Comfort counts, even in interactive media.
It is instructive to contrast teletext with printed media such as (indexed)
books and (familiarly structured) newspapers, which readers can similarly
navigate around easily, to select the information they want in the order they
want it, and at the pace they want. Of course, it is apparent in the case of
printed media that users can acquire skills which can let them get more out
of the texts (and effectively use them in more interactive ways-a point
which applies to new media too).
Videotape - in principle brings interactivity to broadcast TV and other video
material (teletext at present is simple text and very simple graphics).
Videotape can be used in non-linear ways; but use for this purpose is fairly
limited, and constrained to making linear material available outside of
broadcast schedules-watching pre-recorded movies, and time-shifting
broadcast programmes-though some users do make use of freeze-frame
facilities, etc. With current technology (analogue, tape-based) it is difficult to
construct indices and menus, and to rapidly search for and access material
from videotape. Thus it is hard for typical users to recompose the video ‘text’
in novel ways.

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 Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

TABLE l-continued

Level Notes and examples

High interactivity On-line databases - for decades, business and scientific users have been
accessing supplying information from mainframe computers (or now network
systems) via such systems-with the output having moved from reams of
computer print-out to displays on terminals and now manipulable
information supplied to PCs. An information provider supplies the raw
material for the database, and users deploy the (often cumbersome, but
gradually improving) interfaces and search languages to select and organise
material, whose precise content is not known in advance.
Videotex-was originally designed as a consumer equivalent, allowing
access to databases on train times, leisure facilities, etc. As with teletext, the
typical output is an assemblage of short bursts of linear information,
organised according to the users’ demands and navigational skills.
Optical disc-based multimedia-some are more text-based and can be
explored in much the same manner as remote databases; more games- and
video-oriented discs may use quite different genres of interface. Many early
electronic publications were little more than conventional text documents,
but hypertext and hypermedia supply material in less linear forms, allowing
users to determine the course of events. They do this via acting on several
different layers of the informational hierarchy-select from main menus or
submenus, browse forward or backward through texts, follow up particular
leads or search for definitions of obscure terms, and so on.
The World Wide Web is a development of hypermedia in a distributed
network of many computers. With search engines one can locate sites of
interest, and while the available material is still predominantly text and still
graphics, audio and video (and even virtual reality) material is becoming
available. While some Web sites are mainly linear texts-several are no more
than on-line books, where the only menu choices are between different
chapters-many others are much more like multimedia products, using
HTML (hypertext mark-up language) to allow users to switch rapidly between
topics of interest within a site and across sites to other locations which the
author has deemed to be of relevance.
Optical multimedia face the distribution problems of conventional publishing,
and thus tend to be dominated by a few large players, while Web sites are
fairly easy to set up and place in accessible locations of the Internet (thus a
proliferation of often bizarre and idiosyncratic sites-hobbyists. fetishists, and
humorists abound, along with most other ‘ists’). They continue to be the
focus of continuing innovation, with ideas like portable multimedia players
and Internet terminals attracting much industrial interest.
Higher levels of Most current interactive systems operate by responding to user choices by
interactivity selecting among items of material supplied by information providers-
material ranging from bibliographic texts to action-packed game sequences.
There may be novel combinations of material-an unique combination of
references may be concatenated. a novel array of attacking aliens may result
from the shoot ‘em up skill of the player-but this does not involve
modification of the underlying material. (Some products may store data on
the user, thus addressing him/her by name, presenting previous teleshopping
choices or game scores. But such ‘personalised’ interaction is hardly a
dialogue; completely new material is not being generated by a juxtaposition
of data drawn from two sets of knowledge.) More ‘intelligent’ interactive
systems can be expected in the future. Decision support software, employing
expert systems or neural nets that ’ learn’ in response to substantial
information inputs from users, are being developed. Such systems can
modify the rules they develop, with the result that similar information
requests may generate quite different outputs at different times. Future
interactive products may have attributes which make them capable of deep
conversations, not just casual or highly formal ones.

773
Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

by fans on Web sites. Intellectual property, and privacy/personal identity, concerns are
likely to enter new dimensions in cyberspace. New media are thus likely to provide the
platform for challenges to the ownership of information and knowledge. These challenges
will raise questions as to the definition and understanding of the sorts of information and
communication products which the new media may host.

Interactive learning in production and consumption

It is possible to use post-modern approaches in social studies to examine these post-

modern phenomena. (Often this adds little to the sufficiently articulate accounts of the
exponents of post-modern culture themselves. Perhaps this is because they are actually
developing their ideas through putting them into practice, rather than trying to squash
diverse social phenomena within a set of theories which celebrate diversity while them-
selves remaining one-dimensional.) Here a rather different approach is explored: we are
talking about new media, so why not explore what innovation studies might be able to
contribute to the discussion?
Admittedly, modern innovation theory and evolutionary economics’-‘” as yet have
not spent much time wrestling with the notions of interactivity in innovative products,
as set out above. But interaction itself has long been central to studies of innovation. From
early studies of the success and failure of innovations, which concluded that supplier
understanding of user requirements was a major element in distinguishing successful from
unsuccessful innovations (success as measured by the development of markets), to more
recent analyses which stress the nature of innovation as emerging within networks of
interconnected and interacting actors, there has been much stress on interactivity in the
innovation process itself.
These accounts frequently draw on metaphors from biology to theorise processes of
technological change, and their role in social and economic affairs. They are thus
returning the compliment to Darwin, who was himself inspired by Adam Smith’s accounts
of competition. (Though the evolutionary mechanisms described in the social and techno-
logical fields owe as much to Lamarck as to Darwin.) The metaphors can be pushed too
far, but there is value in thinking about how diversity and variety are generated, and how
selection processes operate upon these. A very elementary summary of some elements
of these approaches will be made here.
Knowledge is generated in technologically innovative organisations-especially
firms in the late twentieth century-about ways in which energy, matter (both inert and
biological) and information can be affected-stored, moved, transformed in other ways.
Some common features of the knowledge of a particular domain are typically very widely
shared. These go beyond narrowly scientific and technical knowledge, like the formu-
lation of a physical law or the documentation of the properties of a material or artefact.
They extend to broader assumptions and expectations about how best to achieve certain
ends. Some innovation theorists talk about ‘technological paradigms’ which reflect the
consensus among scientists and technologists and engineers about what technological
developments are likely, what problems can be solved, where efforts might best be con-
centrated. Widespread efforts to attack shared problems result in ‘technological trajector-
ies’-such as the continual increases in microelectronics processing power, optical disc
storage capacity and telecommunications transmissions capabilities, to mention a few
trajectories relevant to interactive media. Figure 2 displays a rather different sort of tra-

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 Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

The three “trumpet” shapes represent the telecommunications,

computer, and broadcast & print media fields. Over time the
product space to which they contribute, and its market size,
expands, and the three field overlap to an increasing extent.

Telecommunications

Time 1950 1980 2010 -

Figure 2. The convergenceof media.

jectory-the ‘convergence’ between broadcasting, telecommunications and computer

media that has been much commented on for the past decade. (We could also add
publishing into the mix, but the picture is already sufficiently complicated.)
People involved in developing new media are frequently exposed to, and participants
in, discussion of such trajectories and industry trends. Many of them are able to plan for
products based not just on current possibilities, but also on technological capabilities
which can be expected to be available at reasonable prices in a few years time. Thus
the media industry is able to take ideas of network computers and of vastly expanded
telecommunications facilities into account as it plans for the future. Likewise, though
probably with less security, they are able to plan for emerging markets and for the com-
petitive challenges that may come from within or outside their own familiar sectors. Many
of the greatest failures in managing technological change have been to do with a lack
of vision on this point: consider the traditional encyclopaedia companies who failed to
recognise the importance of multimedia.
The description above may be beginning to sound like mainstream economics, with
the emphasis on consensus and shared information. Mainstream economics’ notion of
variety is far from post-modern-it is simply that lagging firms have to catch up with the
industry leaders and apply their best practices. But evolutionary economics stresses diver-
sity, rather than the ‘average’ performer of mainstream economic theory. Variety in inno-
vation is seen as stemming from two sources-the pushing back of technological frontiers
by the creation of new knowledge, and the localisation of knowledge, which is no longer
assumed to be rapidly and freely disseminated.
Much knowledge is highly localised, being possessed and deployed by specific

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Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

groups of people in specific places and organisations. Even scientific and technological
knowledge, where there is a vast effort at documenting and disseminating information
in, for example, journals and patents, as well as in newer media, feature a great many
tacit and localised elements. This is especially so where it comes to pushing back the
frontiers. The uneven and local development of various elements of knowledge reflects
different capabilities, strategic decisions, and chance circumstances in different organis-
ations. It also means that firms are liable to release different sorts of product on the market,
even if they are struggling to gain market success by applying similar core technologies to
similar functional requirements.
There are, admittedly, some cases of one company or other coming up with some-
thing radically different from anything its competitors have in mind. (This may be even
more common with ‘cultural’ products than with those based more on technological
knowledge, and in cases where we are considering entrepreneurial and creative individ-
uals at the cutting edge of technology and its interface with new markets.) More com-
monly however, the situation is that numerous suppliers are seeking to create products
that are doing similar things, based on similar technological under-pinning-similar, but
not identical. Designs vary, the precise functionalities that are available may involve
different selections from the pool of possibilities, there may even be quite different ideas
of why the (same) market would be wanting the product.
Innovation theorists talk about a product space being created, within which con-
sumers can choose between alternative design configurations. At any one time there are
likely to be several competing innovations which offer overlapping functionalities and
design features.
For example (simply to line up similar innovations alongside each other),

l teletext vs videotex as ways of presenting page-based information in a large print

format;
l VCR vs laser discs (and several standards within each);
l similarly, direct broadcast satellite vs cable TV systems;
l home computers vs games consoles as media for increasingly sophisticated action
games;
l cellular telephony (with PCNs as distinct contenders) vs telepoint (CT2, eg the Rabbit
system, a rare failure-now in decline even in such niches as Hong Kong);
l the host of different types of palmtop computer/electronic organiser, varying in user
interfaces (Windows, pen inputs, etc.) and operating standards.

Two selection environments, to use the evolutionary economists’ jargon (borrowed

from biology), filter and shape the different technological possibilities that can be derived
from the knowledge that is being developed. First are those environments that exist within
firms and networks of firms, determining which areas of research to support, which pro-
duct development and market releases to fund. In many respects, these represent efforts
to predict the way the second selection process is liable to operate, and to estimate the
chances of the organisation succeeding with its innovations in this environment. This
second environment is the market itself, where consumers choose whether or not to spend
their money on the new product. Here the product is competing with other offerings in
the same ‘product space’, and with completely different activities in which the consumer
may choose to invest.
What is involved here is a process of interactive learning. As well as developing

776
 Cyberspace
as productspace: I Miles

new technological knowledge, innovators are learning about what products and product
features are liable to gain market success, to what extent and in which markets, and why.
Consumers themselves are also learning. There is learning of the very existence of new
products, there is learning about what these products can and cannot do, how different
product offerings compare, and as hinted above, there is the acquisition of skills in using
particular innovations which renders them more valuable.
The results of these processes of learning and selection are familiar ones. Some pro-
ducts succeed, others fail. Particular designs become dominant-innovation theorists talk
about design paradigms. The S-curve, which is used to describe the typical course of
diffusion of a successful product, is interpreted as indicative of a product life-cycle
(another biological metaphor). Early periods of the S-curve involve experimentation on
the part of suppliers and (vanguard) consumers-alternative designs are often available
and in competition with each other, and users typically have to be relatively skilled and
motivated. Later on, considerable learning has taken place, on the part of suppliers, as
to what users value and are prepared to buy, on the part of consumers on the relative
merits of different designs and suppliers. Issues of interoperability and futureproofing may
be increasingly important criteria for consumers of new media, for example. In product
life-cycle theories the process of maturation of a technology is represented by the devel-
opment of understanding on the part of suppliers and users about the marketable matches
between technological potentials and market demands. These accounts examine not only
how the focus of competition moves from alternative designs to costs and details within
a dominant design, but also the typical ramifications in terms of industry structure and
even international trade (Figures 3-7).
However, the process is not always characterised by a shift from diversity to closure.

The Situation in the mid-1950s

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

large. valve~hased

valve amplifiers

BROADCAST +
PUBLISHED MEDIA

Figure 3. The situation in the mid-50s.

777
Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

The Situation in the mid-1970s

I

TELECOMMUNICATIONS I(

AM and EM
lransistor rxlio,

Figure 4. The situation in the mid-70s.

The Situation in the mid-1980s

TELECOMMUNICATIONS I[[

Figure 5. The situation in the mid-80s.

778
 Cyberspace as pro&c-t space: I Miles

The Situation in the mid-1990s

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

computers and

World Wide

Vidrorecorders.

cable and satellite TV

BROADCAST + PUBLISHED MEDIA

Figure 6. The situation in the mid-90s.

In some situations competing designs coexist for long periods-perhaps indefinitely. This
may be the case, for instance, if specific market niches with distinctive user requirements
exist. Such has been the case for 15 years or so in the contest between IBM and Apple
Mac designs for PCs, for example. While many other alternative designs have fallen by
the wayside, or occupy extremely small niches (eg Atari STs preserved a market among
Midi music enthusiasts long after they were outclassed as home office and games
machines), Apple has maintained an edge in desk top publishing and educational mar-
kets. Industry commentators have been predicting the end of this dual paradigm for ages,
and with Windows and related innovations the PC paradigm has acquired many of the
features that gave Apple its distinctive edge in its niches. In some other cases the existence
of competing models looks far less secure-CD-l (the Philips/Sony pioneering effort at
optical multimedia) is struggling to survive in the face of massive growth in PC-based
CD-ROM systems-and in others there are several different types of system available
(cameras are a case in point) or there is no convincing case for the emergence of a
dominant paradigm (eg palmtop computers).
The ideas presented above stress interactive learning, but this is a dynamic process.
It is decidedly more than (a) simply an accumulation of knowledge about a static constel-
lation of alternative designs and user interests, (b) learning by merely the primary suppliers
and final consumers. A wider range of issues are addressed in the innovation literature,
especially but not only by the more sociological approaches within innovation research.
To simply highlight a number of these issues:

779
Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

The Situation in the mid-2000s ?

TELECOMMUNICATIONS [I]

computer\. in many
types of device
(e.g. Personal Digital

World Wide Wch

/ply digital videorccording

BROADCAST + PUBLISHED MEDIA

Figure 7. The situation in the mid-2000s?

Technological knowledge may not always take predictable steps. There may be unex-
pected discoveries (eg the laser), or bottlenecks-often in retrospect predictable, as in
the cases of the software delays which have haunted many major projects-and even
catastrophes (such as those confronted by the nuclear power and chemicals industries).
Consumer and other user preferences can evolve. Suppliers may think of users as sim-
ply needing to develop the skills to use a new product. But there is also liable to be
change in the satisfactions and frustrations experienced with engagement in different
kinds of activity-including those values associated with social status and peer
group pressure.
There may be additional innovators in the system. They can provide add-ons, software,
services that are unanticipated by the original supplier. Some of these may be commer-
cial; some may be mediated through user groups or public interest bodies; some may
be illicit (as in unauthorised broadcasts on cable TV systems, or the capture and terres-
trial broadcast of DBS TV-both experienced in Europe in the 1980s-or as in the
wide-scale piracy of software by teenage hackers).
l With or without this addition of new product elements, there may well be a process
of reinvention of the product. This happens when users establish a product space that
is quite different from that envisaged by suppliers in the first instance. Thus home
computers did not acquire mass markets through their capacity to process household

780
 Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

accounts and supply educational material, but rather through the scope they presented
for playing games.
l Other players can influence the evolution of designs and product use without them-
selves being innovators. These include, in addition to formal and informal user groups,
actors as diverse as hobbyist magazines and TV programmes, educationalists and
librarians, and regulators.

Innovation theory and evolutionary economics are being actively elaborated in a

variety of ways in research groups around the world. (Indeed, it might be worth applying
the ideas of product evolution to these theories themselves). There are, for example,
accounts which seeks to identify strategic implications for management of various con-
figurations of capabilities; there are practical results in policy measures such as the UK’s
Technology Foresight Programme; there are even attempts to apply some novel computer
simulation techniques to modelling the processes described.“,12 Here we will draw upon
the ideas presented in this literature to examine the cases of some interactive consumer
media. Three experiences with interactive consumer media-videotex, audiotex, and
optical multimedia-are used in particular.

Experiencing interactivity: new communications media in perspective

Videotex’ 3

Videotex forms a particularly interesting example of the difficulties associated with

developing interactive products for consumers, and of the variety of national paths in
consumer IT use, at least in the telecommunications field. Prestel, the UK videotex pion-
eer, was an effort to establish a framework for interactive consumer media, in the absence
of much prior experience. The building-blocks of its design were the familiar household
technologies of telephone and TV-the design process took place before large numbers of
households had acquired (or even heard of) videorecorders, CD players, infra-red remote
controllers and of course home computers.
In the late 197Os, Prestel was hailed with rhetoric similar to that greeting the first
microcomputers. Here was access for the general public to massive computer power
which previously had been only available to large organisations possessing or leasing
time on mainframe computers. Whereas microcomputer pioneers were pressing the case
for distributed computing power, and only some decades later would take up the case
for networking in really large numbers, Prestel was centred on providing widespread
access to centralised processing power. l4 Two familiar domestic technologies were com-
bined together with a new piece of kit, to give this access. The television and the tele-
phone both already relied on elaborate infrastructures to deliver information products to
their final users; to these was added the keypad (a small device, with less functionality
than the typical microcomputer--or even palmtop- interface).
Sharing a format with the parallel innovation of teletext, the TV screen displayed
relatively large text characters and colourful, chunky graphics, organised in pages-a
presentation intended to appeal to non-professionals. This was configured as a medium
for electronic publication (database access rather than communication with other users).
It was recognised that learning to use the system would need to be simple, and the design
involved using the keypad to request action in terms of simple menus displayed on the

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TV screen. The small keypads made it difficult for users to input more than a few symbols
at a time, but that was all that the menus requested. This assumed style of interactivity
implied that data transfer from the videotex system would be rapid, and that from the
consumer slow-unlike most modems, Prestel systems began with extremely different
baud rates for transmission and reception. Consumers were envisaged as commandeering
domestic TV sets and tying up their phone lines, in order to spend time navigating menus
to locate such data as news stories, trivia quizzes, timetables. Happy families were por-
trayed in advertisements as sharing in these delightful pursuits.
However, the data which the users could access turned out to be of very uneven
quality. The PTO was more concerned with rapidly rolling out its technically advanced
system to as many potential users as possible, than with seriously assessing consumer
demand (research was commissioned, but does not seem to have been attended to) and
the adequacy of information providers. Information providers were inexperienced with
producing material in user-friendly and attractive ways in the new medium. Many were
only involved with the new service as a precautionary measure-waiting to see if com-
petitors were going to make a success of it. Finally, ‘gateways’ to real-time transactional
services such as teleshopping were not initially available. And despite a publicity blitz,
there were limited opportunities for users to gain hands-on experience with the new
medium.
Forecasts of millions of family users rapidly evaporated. Despite the advertising cam-
paigns and public displays, considerable uncertainty remained about the nature and value
of the product. Little enthusiasm was generated about the new service’s functionality.
Through the 1980s efforts to trigger off growth in consumer markets largely collapsed.
The main success was a few tens of thousands of computer hobbyists, who accessed
videotex on their home computers via modems, rather than using the special keypads
and domestic TV sets. Prestel eventually withdrew its consumer services in late 1991,
remaining as a low-key business service, allowing relatively untrained staff to access
information on flight availability or insurance rates, and to book seats or order automobile
components. Many businesses have abandoned Prestel as a videotex service provider,
using proprietary videotex systems set up by major companies in their sectors. BT is now
trying to position itself as an Internet service provider-one among many.
With Prestel’s failure as a consumer medium, major elements of its design fell. The
role of the TV as part of the videotex package has disappeared, though we are now seeing
efforts to establish Internet terminals which will interface with the domestic TV, (and
Philips CD-I, also TV-oriented, is being equipped with Internet capabilities). Videotex
and other mass telematics systems are currently mainly accessed via PC screens (and in
a few business applications, by dedicated terminals). More sophisticated keyboards are
used for user inputs; faster communications in both directions are now standard (even
for Prestel).
The great success in consumer videotex services, whose experience is often con-
trasted with that of Prestel, is, of course, France’s Minitel.” Unlike the British innovators,
who assumed that they knew enough to achieve closure on the design for interactive
services. the French PTO invested substantially in experiment and interaction with
users.lh In Minitel, on-line search could be made by keywords as well as by progression
through menus. There was no subscription charge. A simple, time-based cost structure
was used. ‘Gateways’ were provided to teleshopping and related operators from the out-
set-service providers were encouraged to interface with Minitel, whereas Prestel was

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initially all run them on its own host computers. The French PTO distributed, free of
charge, a standard simple computer-type terminal with an alphanumeric keyboard and
built-in VDU. User learning was motivated by placing an important information resource
(the telephone directory) on the new medium.
Interpersonal messaging, rather than database access” proved to be the foremost
consumer application of Minitel. Capability for this had been designed in, after it emerged
as surprisingly important as an unexpected by-product of pilot studies. Numerous ‘mess-
agerie’ services were established, with the notable successes being those which allowed
anonymous communication on erotic topics. l8 A consumer market for new forms of inter-
personal communication emerged, based around exchange of simple text. This allowed
individuals to make contact with little of the awkwardness, sense of social distinctions and
risk of embarrassment familiar in traditional meeting-places, even adopting new persona,
pseudonyms, genders if they wished. A critical mass of terminal users had been estab-
lished by the free distribution of terminals. This meant that other users could be located
at any time of day or night, so subcultures could come together, and information services
with limited commercial appeal for mass markets could often generate enough revenue
to remain viable.
In the UK, the PTO was under pressure to restrict messaging facilities. Chatline sys-
tems on Prestel were withdrawn, alienating many users; there was little hard evidence,
but a fear that sexual and other controversial content might be a source of embarrassment
to the PTO. The fear that such applications might dominate was cited as a factor to
consider when BT finally ruled against following the French in subsidised distribution of
terminals. (This was in 1989-a point in time when BT was smarting from problems
experienced with voice chatlines on conventional telephones.)
Even in the UK, where videotex was a consumer failure, some similar design features
did prove successful in the case of teletext, where ‘pages’ are accessed via a TV set using
a small remote control keypad. The limited resolution of the TV screen was not, in this
case, an insuperable barrier to user acceptance. As with the early vision of Prestel, teletext
use actually did require consumers to acquire new TV sets, with the necessary chips for
decoding the signals in them. However, these could be acquired as part of the TV pur-
chase, after which; teletext use involved no extra cost; there were no new telephone,
subscription or access charges. Teletext information might be basic, but it was free. It
complemented TV viewing with TV listings; it could be accessed without major interrup-
tion to regular viewing; it was a convenient source of weather and similar intelligence.
Interactivity may have been limited (see above) but this meant that the standard remote
controller which was becoming available at this time could be used. The teletext screen
format was acceptable because other design features did not get in the way-unlike in
the case of Prestel.
Videotex was an effort to establish a design paradigm for mass public use of tele-
matics information, messaging and transactional services. In France it has had some suc-
cess as such, but now it is being challenged, even there, by the rapidly-diffusing global
model represented by the Internet and, in particular, the World Wide Web (plus search
engines). In effect, a design model from the telecommunications industry is being sup-
ported by one from the computer industry. Interactive TV features different definitions of
its product space and designs from each of these groups, as well as from the TV industry.

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Audiotex’ 9,20

Audiotex” has proved extremely successful in terms of market growth of many services.
The level of interactivity involved varies across simple tape recordings (with their linear
information on health and other topics); live conversation and/or recorded messages from
other clients of the service; to computer-based services like televoting and financial infor-
mation (where voice-synthesised data are generated in response to tone-dialling). The
domestic technology on which this service rests is the familiar telephone. Unlike Prestel,
this ‘terminal’ was typically available for prospective users, and required no modification.
The audiotex interface, based on the privacy and physical closeness of the telephone
handset, provides a level of intimacy which may complement to the personalised-often
personal-nature of the information being conveyed.
Also in contrast to Prestel (again we are focusing on the UK experience), audiotex
was introduced without any huge publicity. There was not a massive investment on the
part of the PTO in establishing a new medium, to be sure-audiotex Premium Rate Ser-
vices (PRS) were delivered via a system introduced to supply freephone (0800) services.
Other important differences involved the opportunity for different service providers
to experiment with the new medium, and the ease with which users could learn about
the cost of gaining a particular output. Independent service providers were allowed to
use their own equipment and to develop their own service formats. Audiotex bills users
via a billing system similar to that utilised in France with Minitel-no subscription is
required, and the cost of the services is based simply on the length of the call and the
time of day (peak or off-peak) that the call is made. *> Audiotex calls are treated as part
of normal telephone bills, though the revenue is shared by the network operator and the
service provider.
Low-cost learning on the part of consumers was facilitated by the possibility of trying
out the new services at someone else’s expense-children (or, equally notoriously, their
baby-sitters) used parents’ telephones to call chatlines, or employees used workplace
phones to listen to sports results, horoscopes or sex lines. Outrage about having to
shoulder these huge bills added fuel to a moralistic outcry about unsavoury content
(fuelled, no doubt, by lurid advertisements for sex lines). 23 This moral panic followed on
a previous wave of concern about ‘video nasties’, ie the use of another new medium as
a means of communicating taboo material. The Internet is now the focus of even more
fervent concerns.
Concern was expressed in Parliament, in the press, and via consumer organisations
and trading standards bodies, over both the structure and the content of audiotex services.
The main concern with the structure of audiotex was the billing problem, which led to
a directive ordering the network operators to provide free call barring to PRS numbers
where this was technically convenient (ie on digital exchanges), and to the creation of
compensation funds to reimburse bill payers afflicted by the unauthorised use of their
phones to call ‘live conversation’ audiotex services. In addition, restrictions have been
placed upon advertisements. On the question of content, the main objections concerned
so-called ‘telephone sex’ services. Although some of these involve live conversation on
a one-to-one basis, they are mostly recordings of people ‘talking dirty’. With chatlines,
there were worries about what children and teenagers might talk about in group conver-
sations, and that paedophiles might use children’s chatlines as a way to initiate contact.
Worried about its image, BT dropped its own highly successful chatlines in 1987 (and

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as noted earlier, subsequently discontinued the textual equivalent on Prestel). In 1992

audiotex chatlines were banned completely by Oftel, the telecommunications regulator.
Audiotex more generally has found it hard to shake off a rather dubious image. This
partly reflects the prominence of sex lines, but is also fuelled by bad publicity over frauds
in which service providers relieved end users or operators of money.
Various regulatory models have been introduced to deal with such problems around
the world. In the UK an independent regulatory body, ICSTIS (Independent Committee
for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services), funded by topslicing
audiotex revenues, reacts to consumer complaints and initiates its own investigations. Its
powers are enforced through the licences issued to the PTOs-effectively, if ICSTIS cannot
come to an informal agreement with a service provider it deems to be infringing its Code
of Practice, it can order BT or Mercury to withdraw one or more PRS lines used by that
service provider.
Regulatory frameworks have also been devised to deal with cable TV and other new
media, often under pressure of concern about porn, advertising, or lack of local content,
as well as ownership and competition. (In this context, there has been a long-running
battle in the UK about BT’s being prevented from offering broadcast video-though not,
it seems, Video on Demand, and perhaps other iTV services-except as a minority partner
in local cable TV schemes.) The impact of service providers and users, and opinion-
formers on questions of public morality and standards, is very apparent. Audiotex has
become widely identified with unsavoury services which have not prevented the expan-
sion of the sector, but have led to a regulatory regime which influences what can and
cannot be done. Its experience has also, as we have seen, impacted upon other new
media.

Optical disc multimedia

There has been substantial commercial effort to develop and market new multimedia
products using optical discs to deliver video as well as text, graphic, audio and animated
material. These multimedia products are being marketed as educational and entertain-
ment media. A major debate among multimedia innovators has been whether to design
the interface around a home computer keyboard or a TV remote control. The implications
for how consumers view the product are substantial. Some suppliers have sought to
develop new consumer electronic products which will play through TV sets like video
recorders, but which offer the sorts of interactivity that consumers have become used to
with computer games and professional users with CD-ROM systems. Notable here are
CD-using videogames consoles, and the more general-purpose Philips/Sony CD-I system.
CD-I consumer products released to date resemble video recorders and CD players,
with interfaces like TV remote controls-but with small pointing devices on the remote
controls, to allow the user to interact with menus and other images on the screen. Not
too many people can operate a single remote controller at once. If this renders interactiv-
ity focused on one user, this may be more like solitary home computer use than TV use.
The suppliers hope that users will be able to work through educational and other practical
material together, but it remains to be seen how satisfactory this will be in typical
home settings.
Design paradigms may break down as new interactive products blur received distinc-
tions between consumer technologies. It is not always obvious which are the appropriate

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Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

models on which to base a given application-TVs, PCs, telephones... The level of inter-
activity that will be required by an active user may be one of the key features. This is
associated with the distance or intimacy between that user and the application which
the new medium is being used to realise. The quality of intimacy may be of importance
in the design of products which are intended to be highly interactive. One rival has
criticised CD-I as being based on TV visual output-associating it with a product normally
kept at a distance from the consumer, implying a barrier to intimacy. A PC environment,
in contrast, provides higher-quality screen resolution and a certain closeness to the appli-
cation which (supposedly) gives the right interactive ‘feel’. Whether it is such character-
istics, or whether it is more to do with the delays experienced in getting CD-I onto market,
and the clout of computer suppliers, it is clear that PC-based CD-ROM systems
(‘multimedia computers’) have vastly outnumbered CD-I in home and business uses alike.
A large market has now been established, which has implications both for consumers’
familiarity with interactive media (and their expectations as to the quality and func-
tionality of such media), and the availability of time and money for other new media.
It is probable that the path to multimedia PCs was paved by users’ experience with
earlier home computers, and by the rapid uptake of CD-ROM systems in the business
world. Opportunities to learn about the new media-by extrapolation from what was
available on floppy disc, or by exploration at the workplace-were abundant for at least
some classes of user and, as with the original home computer boom, there has been an
explosion of hobbyist magazines 24, this time offering cover CD-ROMs which provide
tasters of new products on the market-and stimulate the desire to equip one’s home
computer with the power to access these tempting megabytes.
As in the other examples discussed above, we see a new medium being shaped in
ways that its pioneers did not expect. As in the case of videotex, the availability of com-
peting technological platforms has led to unanticipated paths of technological change.
Optical multimedia come closer to offering the visual quality of TV than the other
examples cited, though we cannot say what sorts of video service may be available
through the Internet in a few years. (Already low-cost videophones and videoconferencing
are becoming available on corporate Intranets.) It may well be that CD-ROM (and its
more powerful Digital Video descendants) and iTV will find themselves in head-on con-
flict, with potential consumers evaluating the cost, performance, and programme avail-
ability of each. Or it may be that one or other will gain such an early substantial share
of the market that it will call the tune. In practice it is quite possible that a combination
of the two emerges, especially with recordable disc-based media. In this context we
should also be aware that other hybrids are likely to be launched into the product space-
for instance, plans are advanced to deliver cable TV based Internet access, and even
hybrid DBS/lnternet services.

The heart of the matter: interactive learning

Product spaces are constructed, rather than waiting ‘out there’ to be explored like outer
space itself. There are numerous implications for new interactive media like interactive
TV, and for their suppliers, users, and policy makers, raised in the sort of analysis which
has been ventured above. Let us indicate some of the most significant ones:

l Continuing development of technological possibilities, and competition between differ-

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 Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

ent types of product, are the norms. These form major drivers for innovation. The
existence of a single dominant paradigm early in the establishment of a new product
may stifle innovation. Efforts to impose such a paradigm at an early stage in definition
of the product space (as in the case of Prestel) require considerable caution. Dominant
suppliers may believe that they are able to define the product space and design, but
this may be far from easy. In the case of interactive TV, broadcasting, telecommuni-
cations and computer industries and products are converging. Even the most powerful
broadcasters, cable companies and PTOs may find themselves wrong-footed by devel-
opments from the computer industry, in particular (as was the case for Prestel, again).
It remains to be seen whether there will be mass markets for TV set-top boxes which
allow Internet access, when PCs and even hand-held computers and telephones are
doing the same thing. Since diversity is the underpinning of evolution there may be a
case for seeking to maintain alternative platforms for the delivery of interactive services:
different functionalities may permit experimentation in different directions, for differ-
ent uses.
l However, a proliferation of platforms can impose costs on potential service suppliers.
This has been evident in the case of authors preparing material for new optical multi-
media and computers (which format to use for games and publications-CD-l, CD-
ROM? and which computer platform to write for: PC, Mac, Amiga...) Interconnection
and interoperability between services which can allow suppliers to make their offerings
available to more than just niche markets will promote more activity, by generating
the possibility of wider markets. ‘Gateway systems’-such as authorware which permits
material to be output in different formats, or interfaces between different telematic
services-are important here.
l Platforms are more likely to take off if they are open to reinvention of products by
users and new service suppliers. Reinvention typically means new markets being
developed, which can spur innovation-though it may lead to the product’s image
slipping out of the control of the suppliers (eg mobile phones being seen as emblematic
of drug dealers). It is likely that unanticipated uses of new interactive media will stimu-
late public concerns, as are apparent in the scares about pornographic content and
exploitative use of new telecommunications media such as audiotex and Internet facili-
ties, and the very early warnings about the eroticisation of virtual reality.25 Historical
cases suggest that it is very difficult for suppliers to maintain tight control over the use
of a widely diffused product. Possible strategies on suppliers’ sides may require
alliances to combat particular forms of use, excluding the third parties held responsible
from service of various sorts. There is also scope for action on the part of governments
(who have increasing problem policing cyberspace) and citizen groups (but it is not
unknown for these, like some governments, to seek to impose extremely narrow-
minded and even fundamentalist ideologies upon anything over which they can
exert influence).
l There are liable to be continual challenges to sensitive information of various kinds,
raising questions about Intellectual Property and privacy. Suppliers may need to con-
sider being rather less heavy-handed where it comes to the IPR issues thrown up by
‘sampling’ and fanzines. There are several cases of fans being turned into enemies by
film or music makers seeking to limit their use of clips of film and music on Websites.
On the other hand, privacy and personal identity concerns deserve a wider public
airing before problems proliferate.

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Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

l The central issue is interactive learning. What sorts of product space can be carved
out in cyberspace? This is a matter of experimentation and learning about the best (or
most commercially successful?) matches between technological opportunities and user
activities. Learning about products, market requirements, and social concerns is thus
on the agenda. Social innovations to facilitate this learning are in order. These include,
but go beyond prototyping and market testing new services. They may involve public
involvement in technology assessment; Foresight exercises; design of flexible regulatory
systems. The latter would allow for innovations to evolve in the light of experience
and new technical possibilities, while deterring features which would disadvantage or
antagonise significant or vulnerable sections of the user community.

These are general points which apply to many innovations as well as to specific
cases of interactive media. More specific policy and strategy conclusions for interactive
and digital TV systems will obviously require closer analysis of the concrete circum-
stances of the particular sets of innovations-including, not least, the oligopolistic tend-
encies in several of the key industries involved. The perspectives set out above can be
of use in undertaking such an analysis. All too often new media are approached as if
they have no history. If nothing else, the experiences recounted here demonstrate that,
if we are concerned about the future, we should take care to learn lessons from history
as to the processes which shape new media, their markets, and the product spaces that
they come to constitute.

Glossary

BT British Telecom
CD Compact Disc
CD-I Interactive Compact Disc
CD-ROM Read-Only Memory Compact Disc
DBS Direct Broadcast Satellite (TV)
CT2 Cordless Telephone 2 (telepoint)
ICSTIS Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone
Information Services
IT Information Technology
iTV Interactive Television
PC Personal Computer
PCN Personal Communication Network
PRS Premium Rate Services
PTO Public Telecommunications Operator

Notes and references

1. For discussion of the domestication of technologies, see ref. 2.

2. Silverstone, R., Beneath the Bottom Line, WCT Charles Read Memorial Lecture, 1991.
3. See the discussion between Brand and Lippman, ref. 4.
4. Brand, S. The Media Lab, New York, Viking, 1987.
5. This draws on Thomas, G. and Miles, I., Tclematics in Transition. Longman, Harlow, 1989.
6. The ‘D’ is for Dungeon, reflecting the genre of game (Dungeons and Dragons) where the interactive
rapabilities were first developed extensively.
 Cyberspace as product space: I Miles

7. Modern is here used in the sense of ‘contemporary’-these approaches in innovation studies are not
necessarily incompatible with the insights in self-styled post-modern intellectual developments. The pres-
entational style is, however, a parallel universe away from the baroque ornamentation of most self-pro-
claimed post-modern writing. For a good guide to the more economics-oriented end of this literature, see
ref. a; Cawson, Haddon and Miles draw upon a more sociological interpretation in their study of the
creation of new consumer electronics (ref.9) For a ‘social shaping’ approach, see ref. 10.
a. Dosi, G., Freeman, C., Nelson, R., Silverberg, G. and Soete, L. feds). Technical Change and Economic
Theory. Pinter, London, 1988.
9. Cawson, A. et a/., The Shape of Things to Consume. Avebury, Aldershot, 1995.
10. Berg, A.-]. and Aune, M., Domestic technology and everyday life. COST A4 (Trondheim) Workshop Pro-
ceedings, Brussels, European Commission, DG XII, 1994.
11. A helpful stimulus in the preparation of this paper was the study by Windrum and Birchenhall, who are
modelling the coevolution of designs and niches (ref. 12).
12. Windrum, P. and Birchenall, C., Is the life cycle theory a special case? dominant designs and the emerg-
ence of market niches through coevolutionary learning. PREST mimeo (University of Manchester),
presented at MERIT Conference, Maastricht, September 1996.
13. This discussion draws heavily on ref. 5.
14. The difference in perspectives reflects the garage shop mentality of the microcomputer pioneers as com-
pared to the public service provider viewpoint of the PTO.
15. Strictly, Teletel is the communications service and Minitel the terminal.
16. Recall that in the 1970s the British PTO could define even the colour and style of telephones, and had
little experience of consumers who could opt for alternatives. A dramatically more competitive environ-
ment surrounds communications services as we reach the end of the 20th century.
17. With the exception of consulting the telephone directory, the most heavily-used Minitel service.
ia. Messaging proved popular on the section of Prestel used by home computer hobbyists.
19. This discussion draws heavily on ref.20.
20. Latzer, M. and Thomas, G., Cash Lines: The Development and Regulation of Audiotex in Europe and the
United States. Het Spinhuis, Amsterdam, 1994.
21. Audiotex services are also known as Premium Rate Services (PRS)-we are not here including freephone
services and some other kinds of computer-enhanced telephony which are sometimes also known as audi-
otex.
22. Increased digitalisation is expected allow a proliferation of tariff levels; multiple tariff levels already exist
in some countries.
23. So lurid that one service provider was successfully prosecuted for failing to deliver on the high promises
being made.
24. Both new magazines with a multimedia focus, and revamped computer hobbyist magazines. CD-ROMs
have now been issued on other publications too, such as music magazines; and CD-ROM material is
sometimes available on audio CDs.
25. Broadcast and recorded video are also sources of concern-and serious controversy about virtual reality
products no doubt lies in the future.

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