The future of computing will bring us multimedia and multimode presentation of information. This short paper, which describes a research system for presenting the news, provides a glimpse of what that future might be like. Displayed at the EDUCOM 1990 conference, the system employed a range of technologies including writable optical disks, digitized audio, hypertext, and networking. The goal was to present information interactively in a way that combines the best aspects of newspapers (easily browsed under user control and selection) and television (the dynamism of sound and motion video). The result: interactive browsing of still images and video, selecting stories of particular interest, retrieving sound bites, and using hypertext to delve more deeply into a topic.

Sometime in the 21st century, we will receive our news electronically. It will be interesting to see how that future compares to the capabilities provided by this experimental system.