Three themes knit together Keen’s wide-ranging study of multimedia. The first is the claim that, unlike networks, which just move information, multimedia humanizes it. Multimedia is essentially about making digital information seem natural and commonsensible (p. 193). Multimedia presentation is self-evident and self-justifying to the human senses. Thus, one of the explanations of multimedia promised and delivered by Keen is paradoxical: no further explanation is required because it works. Still, he offers many other detailed explanations and thought-provoking analyses for the benefit of the business managers who, along with executives and business-savvy technicians, are the audience for this text.

High on the list of explanatory devices is the notion of dominant design. Running through Keen’s work is the task of identifying dominant designs (see Utterback on innovation [1]). Examples of nontechnical dominant designs include the QWERTY typewriter, 8.5 × 11-inch paper, and the VHS format. In multimedia, the array of dominant designs includes CD-ROMs, JPEG, MPEG-1 through MPEG-4, HTML, and VRML. (Also, see the entries on “Agents,” “Knowbots,” “Morphing,” “Objects,” “Paper,” and “Silicon Graphics.”) The competition between candidate dominant designs for the ultimate multimedia domain--the World Wide Web--is between the current WINTEL alliance and the low-cost network appliance fueled by Java, the first programming language designed for the networked environment.

A recurring theme is the convergence of telecommunications and computing technology in the form of the Internet and the Web. Here, however, the tail wags the dog. The Web is a subset of multimedia. Hypertext is on the way to hypermedia. The technologies are reaching a critical mass where the increasing power of processors combined with fiber optics, cable modems, and digital phone lines leads to new forms of digital economics, of learning, and of being in the world.

An “opportunity checklist” (p. 25) gives four breakthrough areas for the application of multimedia to business: knowledge management, customer interaction, natural decision input, and shared understanding. Multimedia dramatically reduces training costs and improves retention of what has been learned. Customer service and the power of the ultimate online catalog (the Web) are a reality. Natural decision input and shared understanding are more complex, but ultimately more important. Visualization is central to everyday human thinking and to synthesizing large volumes of data (p. 20). Visualizing complexities in finance, manufacturing, and communication renders matters more manageable by making them seem simpler. In the workplace, effective understanding between members of workgroups, between customers and salespeople, and between designers and producers are all enhanced by multimedia presentations and simulations.

A substantial 64-page introduction presents the basic distinctions relating to the business uses of multimedia. Then these themes--including dominant design, self-evident and self-justifying technologies, and the Web as a subset of multimedia--are discussed in an alphabetical listing of key concepts and terms. Although this second section, which runs to over 300 pages, is called a “glossary,” that term is misleading. Many entries are the equivalent of multipage, standalone essays, combining facts with executive briefing–style editorial comment. Given the author’s impressive command of the language and IT expertise, these entries are rewarding to read, as is the rest of the book, from cover to cover.

Alternative scenarios are fair game. For example, one thing that could tip the design paradigm competition in favor of Sun and Netscape and against Microsoft is if banks decide to give away--or lease, as the old monopoly phone company used to do with telephones--the network appliance when people sign up for home banking (see pp. 289–290).

One key to Keen’s success is his promotion of a dialogue between business and technical specialists. Multimedia adds a dimension to that; it is necessary to include a design specialist with the skills to build Web pages or CD-ROM disks. However, in the end, no technology, including multimedia, generates value by itself. That most precious and limited of commodities, management skill, does that. This is Keen’s point and the power of his message.