A CALL FOR PARTICIPATION FOR
THE W3C CONFERENCE
THE INTERACTIVE FUTURE
27/8/96
MACROMEDIA EUROPE
About Macromedia
Macromedia, Inc. is the leading provider of cross-platform software tools for web publishing, multimedia and graphics. Headquartered in San Francisco, Macromedia delivers a complete, affordable set of software tools for digital media creation and delivery anywhere. Macromedia's award-winning products for Windows, Macintosh and the Internet are available to business, education, and government customers worldwide in more than 50 countries.
About Shockwave
Shockwave is Macromedia's technology for bringing interactive multimedia and learning, streaming audio, vector/resolution based graphics and VRML to the World Wide Web. With existing authoring tools such as Director, Authorware, SoundEdit 16, Freehand, xRes and Extreme 3D content for Macromedia Shockwave can be created easily.
High-profile sites such as Warner Bros. Records, Capitol Records, CNN, Paramount's "Escape From LA", Virgin Interactive, People Magazine, the Discovery Channel Online and Sportsline USA are among the tens of thousands of leading web sites using Shockwave to "shock" the Internet with interactive multimedia and graphics.
Shockwave Ubiquity
Since the introduction of Shockwave in December, 1996 well over 9 million shockwave plug-ins have been downloaded from macromedia.com, and many more taken from cover-mount CD-Roms.
The Shockwave ActiveX will be included with the next version of Internet Explorer and the next version of Windows 95.
"We are pleased to see Shockwave supporting Internet Explorer 3.0," said Brad Chase, vice president of marketing for Microsoft's Internet platform and tools division. "Because it's built on ActiveX technology, Shockwave can be used by developers using a wide range of programming languages and tools to make their applications and web sites more interactive and engaging."
"With 6 million downloads, Macromedia Shockwave is rapidly becoming the standard for multimedia on the Internet," said John Ludwig, vice president of the platforms group at Microsoft. Now, by supporting the ActiveX platform, Shockwave is available to a host of new developers and to millions of customers browsing the World Wide Web with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0."
The Shockwave plug-in has been included in the Netscape Power Pack 2.0, from Netscape Communications Corporation.
"Shockwave is a leading plug-in for Netscape Navigator," said Mike Homer, vice president of Marketing at Netscape. "We're including the Shockwave plug-in in our Power Pack 2.0 to make it even easier for more Netscape users to experience rich, dynamic multimedia on the Internet."
Shockwave is also included in the specification for the Network Computer. It is hoped that a demonstration of this will be given at the conference.
"We are pleased that Shockwave for Director will be available as part of the Oracle NC System Software Suite from its inception," said David Roux, executive vice president of Corporate Development at Oracle. "Director is a leading tool for multimedia production on PCs and we welcome its large development community to participate in the growth of the NC platform."
Apple Computer has also announced that it is to be included in the Apple Internet Connection Kit and Macromedia is working with Apple on a version of Shockwave for Cyberdog.
"Macromedia's Shockwave for Cyberdog is a concrete example of how Apple is taking advantage of current leading-edge technologies to provide Cyberdog users with a rich user experience," said Larry Tesler, vice president of Internet platforms. "The Macintosh platform is leading the way towards OpenDoc-based component software."
Macromedia has also made an agreement with America On-Line. Under the agreement, AOL will license and distribute Macromedia Shockwave for use with its services. In addition, Macromedia has licensed AOL ART compression technology and the AOL SDK (Software Developer Kit) for use with its products. AOL ART compression will be embedded in Shockwave and distributed as a Macromedia Xtra for Macromedia authoring tools. Macromedia will also distribute an Xtra for the AOL SDK, which enables developers to provide "one-button-access" to AOL and the Internet from within their applications and CD-ROMs.
"We continue to bring the best Internet technologies to our members," said Ted Leonsis, President of AOL Services Company. "AOL's more than 6 million members will now be able to enjoy multimedia content with Macromedia Shockwave. By using AOL's new compression technology and image formats, Macromedia developers can now take advantage of great consumer technology to create content for CD-ROM, AOL and the Internet."
NetManage and Macromedia have also announced that Shockwave will be bundled with the NetManage Chameleon family of Windows and Macintosh IntraNet software.
"This agreement allows NetManage to bring multimedia capability to NetManage's installed base of 5 million corporate IntraNet users who are building company-wide-webs to publish and disseminate information internal to the organization," said Bob Williams, NetManage Vice President of Business Development. "Important corporate applications such as training are moving to a Web-based model and the IntraNet is the ideal communications medium. By bundling the Shockwave plug-in with WebSurfer, we insure that our Chameleon suite of software applications continues to deliver the greatest breadth and depth of advanced TCP/IP networking functionality."
Macromedia Backstage
Macromedia's Backstage product line, is the most powerful family of tools for building dynamic web sites. Backstage is an object-oriented web development tool, empowering developers to create Web sites with database connectivity, discussion groups, Shockwave, Java and more without complex programming. The Macromedia Backstage product line includes Backstage Designer, Backstage Designer Plus, Backstage Desktop Studio and Backstage Enterprise Studio.
Sites created with Macromedia Backstage move beyond today's static text and graphics and offer a much richer and more personalized experience. The Backstage Studios integrate a powerful WYSIWYG Web page designer which incorporates the Backstage object architecture to give developers an integrated tool for creating interactive Web sites with no programming, scripting, or HTML coding.
The Backstage products leverage Macromedia's traditional strengths in graphics and multimedia. All Backstage products will include Macromedia's new PowerApplets.
The latest version of Backstage will be demonstrated at the session.
"With Backstage, Macromedia has delivered a powerful, easy-to-use, and open environment for developing interactive Web sites," said Macromedia's chairman and CEO, Bud Colligan. "Backstage Designer will appeal to the web authors focused on the content rather than on the HTML. Backstage Studios provide web developers and MIS professionals with a scalable solution for highly interactive and customized sites."
"Macromedia's Backstage is the right product at the right time," said Michael Green, President of Visual Systems Development Group, Powersoft's #1 VAR in Canada. "For corporate customers it is a compelling product because of its 'WYSIWYG' Web publishing, integration with content development tools and access to SQL databases. We've been looking for some time for a single product that we can use with our corporate clients to build serious Internet and intranet business solutions, and Backstage is it."
PowerApplets
Macromedia has developed PowerApplets, which are designed to allow non-technical graphics artists and Web designers to easily enhance their Web sites with dynamic multimedia. Created using both Macromedia Director and Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s Java technology, the PowerApplets are the first of a new line of Macromedia applications for custom multimedia Web creation. The PowerApplets are included with Macromedia Backstage and are also available free from http://www.macromedia.com for a limited time.
Macromedia's first PowerApplets Animator, SlideShow, Icons, Banners, Bullets and Charts add high-impact multimedia to Web sites with no programming. Because the PowerApplets work independently, users can add exciting special effects without having to use Macromedia Director or Java. Using a Macintosh or Windows PC, the user can customize each PowerApplet by inputting their own specific information and graphics, such as a company logo, resulting in dynamic, Web-enabled multimedia for inclusion in their Web pages.
Examples of these and other new PowerApplets will be shown during the session.
"The new Macromedia PowerApplets will enhance the Web with millions of dynamic images," said John Kannegaard, VP of Products, JavaSoft. "Macromedia's making an important contribution to the Java multimedia platform."
AppletAce
AppletAce, is the first Java application which allows designers and graphic artists to easily enhance their Web sites with Macromedia's Java PowerApplets without HTML or Java programming. AppletAce, available free of charge from Macromedia's Web site, offers an easy-to-use graphical user interface for customizing applets, extending the power of Java to a broad audience of non-technical Web designers.
Web developers can use AppletAce to enhance their Web pages with Java based animated banners, interactive image maps, animated bullets and dynamic charts ideal for advertising, interactive entertainment, education and corporate uses. Users need simply enter information in pop-up menus, radio buttons and text fields to customize each applet, automating the traditional HTML and Java programming process required by Java applets. Over 26,000 PowerApplets have been downloaded from macromedia.com since their release in April of 1996.
"Macromedia is committed to making interactive multimedia using Java easy and accessible to the widest range of creative, non-technical designers," said Joseph Ansanelli, director of Internet products at Macromedia. "AppletAce is a tremendous timesaver, allowing Web developers to add exciting Java based special effects in minutes without any Java programming."
New Java Authoring Tool
Macromedia has also announced a new drag and drop Java tool for Internet publishing. This solution combines the potential of Java with the power of Macromedia authoring tools to create the definitive Internet publishing studio.
Details of this tool cannot be given in this document but will be available at the time of the conference.
Director/Authorware
There will also be information on how Java Applets can be easily incorporated into both of Macromedia leading multimedia authoring tools, Authorware and Director and how you can easily create hybrid interactive titles that can incorporate media from any source, be it Hard-Disk, CD-Rom or the Internet.
Macromedia will also discuss how other technologies are being used in conjunction with Macromedia's existing tools to help shape the future of the World Wide Web.
Robert Woodford 27/8/96