multimedia companies are now announcing 
products which can be run over the internet, 
allowing users to simply click on the file of inter- 
est and run the production in real time. These 
capabilities help solve the second problem men- 
tioned, the distribution of information for easy 
access by analysts and managers, 
Multimedia has intrigued people for the 
past several years but has also presented signifi- 
cant technical challenges in computation, mem- 
ory, storage, communications, and user interface. 
For example, 8 bit audio files, a standard CD 
ROM sound resolution, require 22 kilobytes per 
second or 1.3 megabytes per minute. Video files 
can vary widely depending on the compression 
algorithm and image complexity but generally 
range from 250 kilobytes to 3.5 megabytes per 
second or 15 to 210 megabytes per minute. 
As Figures 2 through 5 show, the appro- 
priate hardware infrastructure for multimedia is 
now becoming affordable and, in some cases, 
standard, launching a new approach to the distri- 
bution of complex information. Greater amounts 
of memory per dollar will assist in the real time 
rendering of 3-dimensional data or lengthy times 
series of images. One multimedia window could 
provide the user with the option to view 3- 
dimensional, temporal data in a variety of ways 
as defined interactively by the user rather than as 
a prerendered set of images. Higher resolution 
displays will show a full satellite image on a sin- 
gle screen - all in true color. It will also support 
multiple multimedia windows, each of which 
will be able to manage a high resolution view of 
the information involved, e.g. video in one win- 
dow and a 3-dimensional rendering in another. 
Improvements in storage and processor speed 
will assist in managing the multitude of images 
involved in a full scale multimedia production. 
All of these technologies support the representa- 
tion of the data or information in a way which 
makes it more useful to the end user. 
The impact of the dramatic increase in the 
communications bandwidth will be the ease with 
which multimedia files can be distributed to any 
interested party. Even large images or animations 
covering a long time period will not create the 
transmission and performance barrier they do 
today. For instance, with a 100X increase in com- 
munications bandwidth, the 50 megabyte file 
which required 40 seconds to transmit over a T3 
line could require only .4 seconds in the year 
2004. 
The increase in communications band- 
width will also make it possible to interact with 
multimedia products over the internet or other 
high speed lines. Today such files can be viewed 
but in several years a user will be able to interac- 
tively select images to be viewed, choose the rep- 
resentation, and make comments on his/her 
perception of the issue. 
Given the bandwidth, the reduced cost of 
transmission, and the trend towards distribution of 
executables (versus requiring special software), 
multimedia over the network will be far easier 
than paper publication. Environmental impact 
statements have been mentioned as an example but 
clearly the possibilities extend far beyond that, 
into both simple and complex problem representa- 
tion. 
Together with the high demand for more 
informative, and fun, approaches to complex data, 
the trend in multimedia is likely to be towards 
lower costs and rapid growth. If multimedia can 
also solve the two problems addressed in this 
paper, improved representation of information and 
easy accessibility to that representation, growth in 
the natural resources arena is certain to be substan- 
tial. 
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