Interactions - March/April 2011

for obvious reasons. Were books to be published as open content using a computer-based device, however, other artists could offer to substitute their own illustrations.

Authors do not want their work tainted by poor illustrations, of course, and the best illustrators may refuse to illustrate works except on an exclusive basis. Degrees of “ openness” are possible, however. At one extreme, a publisher may be completely open to third-party illustrations to allow the market to decide which ones are best. At the other extreme, the publisher may prefer to be closed to alternative illustrations (even while remaining open to other types of substitutions or additions, perhaps). In between these models, a publisher may accredit a limited number of “approved illustrators” from time to time.

For films, substitution and addition are already common practice—films are dubbed into foreign languages, and subtitles are added for foreign viewers or the hearing impaired. Foreign-language versions may be judged to be not commercially viable for minority languages, such as Breton for example. For Breton speakers, and those interested in preserving the Breton language, however, there may be much more incentive to produce subtitles or a Breton soundtrack. If films were published in an open content form, then interested third parties could obtain permission to add their own subtitles or dialogue.

Currently, the soundtrack of a film would not be described as a “companion”, of course. But once one conceives of all content as potentially open, articles like this are no longer an immutable fusion of their constituents but can be conceived as an ensemble of companions [ 9].

Since open-content technol-
ogy enables connections between

pieces of content, it could also
be used to create new ensembles
even when no third parties are
involved. Here are a few examples:
A cookbook could have a video
companion of the cooking tech-
niques: Wherever the technique is
called for in the text, the relevant
video demonstration could be con-
nected and invoked by the user
if needed [ 10]. There are many
similar opportunities to attach
video demonstrations to instruc-
tion and reference manuals. For
example, how to train an espalier
fruit tree in a pruning guide, how
to change the head gasket in a car-
maintenance manual, and so on.

Usually, opera lovers study the libretto before watching an opera because it is difficult to understand the words when they are sung (even for native speakers), and some of the language may be archaic. When a person is watching an opera on a computer-based device in the future, it should be possible to pause to refer to the libretto at the start of an aria or recitative. Vice-versa, it should also be possible to read a part of the libretto and then watch a performance of that part, repeatedly if desired.

During the radio broadcast of the BBC’s “History of the World in 100 Objects” [ 11], the image of that part of the object corresponding to its audio description at that moment could be displayed automatically. Apart from describing objects such as historical artifacts, antiques, and works of art, there are many other uses for audio files with image companions attached that are more lightweight and, possibly, more suitable than videos—online lectures, virtual guided tours or product instruction manuals.

A companion invocation need
not return content only; it can
provide any sort of gadget:
As part of a cookbook ensemble,
the user could invoke a companion
to remember the list of ingredi-
ents of each recipe chosen for the
coming week. On completion, the
companion could return a shop-
ping list for the chosen recipes.

End notEs

[ 1] By Stanley Wells (contributor) and Michael Dobson (editor), OUP Oxford, 2005. [ 2] See, e.g., The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, Margreta de Grazia and Stanley Wells (editors), Cambridge University Press, 2001. [ 3] Established authors and media firms can be ambivalent about the value of ‘companions’. See for example Rowling v. RDR Books at http://cyberlaw. stanford.edu/case/rowling-v-rdr-books/ [ 4] Here, therefore, ‘open’ refers to the ability of companions to make connections rather than to the property of being publicly available. [ 5] See, for example, http://www.patrickobrian.com/ home.html/ [ 6] Philarmonia Virtuoisi, 1996 [ 7] Patrick O’Brian, HarperCollins, 1997 [ 8] Anne Chotzinoff Grossman, Lisa Grossman Thomas, W W Norton & Co., 2000 [ 9] The term “ensemble” implies bringing together content elements in a controlled environment to create a new article, cooperatively when more than one author or artist is involved. In contrast to some bootleg content, or mash-ups, it is not meant to imply that elements are altered significantly in the process. [ 10] The BBC recipes website: http://www.bbc. co.uk/food/recipes/ inserts hyperlinks to video demonstrations into its recipes. Using companion videos is an alternative and potentially less intrusive method of illustrating cooking techniques. [ 11] http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/ explorerflash/ [ 12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Baba

About thE Author
Martin McCaig taught computer
science for several years. He
spent most of his working life at
Reuters, where he held a number
of IT and marketing positions,
March + April 2011