Information Formats: The Battle Rages on All Fronts!
I want to take a short break from the thread of my first post regarding the use of MFP technology as an asset in the widget-making process. The reason is that during my Christmas shopping I had to make a decision about a purchase that reminded me of the frustrations of information sharing when that information is in different formats. This year, I purchased four technology-related items for my family. My wife picked up a laptop and an iPod, my youngest son a Game Boy Advance, and my oldest son a PSP. Unknowingly I walked into a technology battle raging on at least two fronts: iPod vs. Zune, and Game Boy vs. PSP. The Game Boy/PSP battle was a no-brainer. The PSP won simply because it’s cool! I mean come on. WiFi, a large LCD screen, and movie, photo, music, and internet capabilities as well, how could I resist?
The iPod vs. Zune battle was a little more difficult. I pondered for days which one to go with! Both have the same basic capabilities in the class I was looking at: 30 gig hard drive, a nice LCD screen, very portable, and both have music, movie, and photo capabilities. The real question in my mind came down to which one would give me less grief about downloading music and integrating it into my Media Center at home? I run a box with MC 2005, two TV tuners, and a Linksys Media Center Extender. Our TV (live and recorded), digital photos, and music are accessed from the TV with everything stored on the computer. I had to decide how to handle the differing digital rights implementations as well as the potential for incompatible music formats between devices.
This is not unlike the battle that goes on within the enterprise. As Vista is rolled out, will you go with the XPS format? For printing, you probably have solid support for PS and/or PCL, but will you be willing to change every client driver in your environment? Not to mention your mainframe applications that use PJL commands within PCL. What about file image formats? Most clients in your enterprise probably support Adobe PDF and your users have become comfortable with it. Will you migrate this existing implementation to XPS? The magnitude of change can be quite large if existing formats are embedded in your processes. I’m interested in knowing what you think.
Well, I decided on the iPod, and though I’m happy with it, I still experience the frustration of differing information formats. For instance, if I want the ability to play a song on my Media Center, iPod, and SanDisk MP3 player, I can’t just download it and go. I have to either burn a CD then RIP to an MP3 or convert it directly using a conversion tool. This is incredibly frustrating! I’m sure Microsoft has a case for why WMA is better than MP3 and Apple has a case for why AAC is better than WMA etc. etc., but look, I don’t have a PhD in music and I’m not an audiophile, so in general, as long as it sounds better than an AM radio station, I’m good with it! Unfortunately, I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel on this one. I’m afraid there will always be differing, incompatible formats from different companies. We’ll just have to figure out the least disruptive way to deal with it.
I never used to have this trouble with CDs you know….
Bruce Talbert
Architecture & Systems Engineer
Xerox