Why Banburyshire?

On a dial-up connection this image takes ages to load. On 512 broadband it still takes a while. With CD-ROM having a transfer rate ten times the speed of 512 broadband, what would you choose to get your message across? Add hi-fi quality speech and music, and the capability of playing on DVD, web-browser technology on CD-ROM crosses boundaries like no other media.

What are "offline internet portals"? An offline internet portal can be described as any way in which a number of web-site addresses are displayed in order to direct a user to a web-site. Examples are :- a) Signage on a bus or van (usually of just one web-site) b) Adverts in newspapers or magazines c) Directories of web-sites, usually just for a physical area or specialist group. d) CD-ROM based information, such as "The Banburyshire Beard" Why are offline internet portals needed? There are now more web-sites than there are people in the world. Even with the best search tools, it can take a great deal of effort to find what you are looking for. This is why portals are important, they act as filters, to direct you in (one of) the right directions. Why use CD-ROM? There are a many reasons why CD-ROM is ideal for use as an offline internet portal. a) By using web-browser technology on CD-ROM, the same look-and-feel of a web-site can be maintained. This gives a consistent result in promoting businesses or events. b) CD-ROMs can be played on a wide range of equipment, ranging from MP3 compatible CD and DVD players, through gaming machines, to PC's, Macs, Linux and UNIX computers. Because the format is an international standard, there is no other medium which can be used on such a range of devices. c) Multi-media content (also now known as "content-rich") allows speech, music, and animation to be added to text and static pictures in ways which can't be achieved easily on web-sites. By exploiting the data transfer speed of CD-ROM, speech and music, in particular, can be added to presentations, to add an extra dimension. It also allows CD-ROMs be be listened to, in much the same way that a radio station is, as well as looked at. d) Using web-browser technology on CD-ROM allows links to web-sites to be easily included. Web-sites are just a click away. This is a key feature for using CD-ROM as an internet portal. e) By customising the label, CD-ROMs can be thought of as a big, round business card. It is a physical object. In this way, contact information for a business, for example, can be read without going anywhere near even a CD-ROM reading device. Also, there are still many people who like to use and own material objects. The thought of using only a computer to access information, hold pictures and music etc, just doesn't appeal. So why "Banburyshire"? The term "Banburyshire" has been in use now for over one hundred years, but with different meanings at different times. It was first used to describe an area of roughly a fifteen mile radius of the town of Banbury, located in north Oxfordshire. In more modern parlance it described Banbury's "sphere of influence", as far as trade was concerned. In the nineteen-seventies, the name was coined to help differentiate the area from Oxford, as far as tourism was concerned. At that time "Oxfordshire" meant Oxford, so local government bodies, tourism authorities and business groups got together to promote the area of "Banburyshire". The use of "Banburyshire" to describe CD-ROM products stems from a number of things. Firstly, I wanted to create a flexible "world", which could key into the real world, but which didn't have physical boundaries. A CD-ROM version of "Ambridge" if you like, somewhere people could identify with. Secondly, the fact that "Banburyshire" has been used to cross boundaries seems very appropriate for a medium which links the off-line and on-line worlds of web-technology. Thirdly, technology has always come late to the geographic "Banburyshire" area, down the years. Whether it is transport links in the form of canals and motorways, or television and mobile phones, the area is always down the list. So it is ironic, that in April 2003, Clockwork Data Ltd. launched one of the first general-purpose CD-ROM magazines in Europe, "The Banburyshire Portal", and it's sister publication "The Banburyshire Beard". Julian "Harry" Procter - IT Technician/Director Clockwork Data Ltd. March 2004

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