A Theory for the Stratification of Digital Data Elements in Temporary Files
In order to facilitate the customisation of data elements in a digital information display it should be constructed from a set of frames in the form of temporary files.
Date: 01/11/2001
Article
Since the development of multi-channel audio recording, the concept of breaking down a whole piece of music into discrete strands. This allows engineers to alter the balance between the different elements so that they can be recessed or enhanced within the total mix. This allows the recording of different 'mixes' for different environments so that, for example, it is commonplace for major rock recording companies to produce a special 'mix' for use in discotheques, as opposed to the product released for domestic consumer electronics. The limitation of this process is that the end user only has control over altering the output in toto by using volume, tone and ambience controls and the only sound balance on a standard domestic electronics appliance is the balance between the two parts of the stereo output.
The history of photography and cinema is based around the idea of the instant 'take', frame or shot where all the content of the image is bound into one artistic and then chemical process. Moving pictures have subsequently added titles and sub-titles for foreign movies (and sometimes for deaf people) and chemical printing has developed methods for altering contrast, vividness, biases in the colour spectrum of the coloured picture.
Digital photography now allows a much greater degree of flexibility in manufacturing visual information but at the moment most Web page designers are producing the visual equivalent of mono sound where, for example, if it is allowed at all, magnification is only possible at uniform scale. Some applications allow the 'stereo' of foreground and background which facilitates alteration in the colours of each. This 'stereo' also allows for the asymmetric magnification of symbolic language and the alteration of print font, though this is much more frequent in data than metadata.
Because of the relatively low cost and simplicity of using a simple digital image to capture a complete 'bundle' of information, the tendency is for images, text and space to be bound into one, unalterable picture so that, for example, the symbolic language (text) is non maniplable just as it is in an oil painting in which biblical text is clearly legible.
Some people, with poor vision or cognitive skills, find it difficult to decode complex images. One solution which has been proposed for this problem is the "Text only" site but this creates digital apartheid. It assumes, wrongly, that users can be divided into those who can decode complex images and those who can only decode "text only" as if there were no intermediate position. It also ignores the complex of trade-offs between simultaneous media that mutually confuse and mutually reinforce perception. Learners often find that colour and simple physical objects alongside words help them to read. What may crucially matter is the ability to manipulate the object and the word so that they are, for example, proximate rather than superimposed or, worse still, partially superimposed.
It has also been argued that this problem can be overcome by Web page designers exercising self-discipline by not including background images which are not directly 'relevant' to text but are purely 'ornamental'. Aside from the point that this is a peculiarly occidental, not to say Puritanical, way of looking at the presentation of information, it again confines categories of people to a non-aesthetic and even barren information environment. Again, it is much better to give the user choice over the way complex information is accessed. 'Eye candy' may well distract most users and it may, incidentally, detract from the objectives of the information provider by distracting users from key messages, but as long as it can be temporarily deleted then its presence should be acceptable.
For these two sets of reasons - the simultaneous presentation of images and text, the essential and the tangential - it is therefore vital that information designed for optimal use should allow for the separation and manipulation of different data elements.
It is therefore proposed that each digital display should be presented as a set of superimposed frames, each one containing a single data element with the remainder of the frame transparent except for any base background requirements which may be numbered and allocated sequenced attributes. With the exception of these, the numeric sequence of frames is not significant. The role of labelling will be primarily for identification purposes not for sequencing, though the creator may wish to label according to criterio such as ideal display simultaneity, such as the case when a pair of figures is shown against a plain background where the artist wishes them to be viewed simultaneously, even if each can be isolated on a frame for the purposes of individual magnification and inspection.
A proper balance needs to be struck between the citizen's right of access to data and the author's right to the preservation of its integrity. This calls for the proper distinction between the author's initial display and its manipulation by users. It is proposed that the unbinding of a display's set of frames should transform them into a copied set of temporary files, one for each frame which cannot, therefore, be confused with the source material.
KEVIN CAREY
Director, humanITy
Version 1.0
1.xi.01.
Status of Paper.
This Paper may be quoted or copied in whole or in part for non commercial purposes as long as it is fully attributed as follows:
"Carey, Kevin: A Theory for the Stratification of Digital Data Elements in Temporary Files, Version 1.0, 1.xi.01. www.humanity.org.uk"