Library and academic interest in "push" technology?

[Prentiss Riddle]

> From web4lib at library.berkeley.edu  Thu Apr  3 09:36:58 1997
> Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 07:32:57 -0800
> From: Steve Hooley! <hooleyss at gsaix2.cc.GaSoU.EDU>
> Subject: RE: Library and academic interest in "push" technology?
> 
>         Absolutely! Many large systems have banned PointCast because it's a
> bandwidth hog - plus you might as well have CNN going on a tv beause of the
> distraction. Now, if it was WEB4LIB being updated . . . .

Yes, the performance issues surrounding Pointcast have been widely
discussed.  (To an extent an institution can address them by buying its
own caching server, which can deliver Pointcast content more
efficiently -- itself an interesting marketing strategy, which the
cynical might describe as "buy our product or your users will flood
your network with the free version"!).

But I'm more interested in the other points you raise:

  -- The distraction value of "push" media and whether they actually
     contribute to or detract from getting intellectual or operational
     work done.

  -- The content available on current "push" services and whether they
     might be more useful in an academic setting with a different sort
     of content.  (Is it possible to envision a "push" channel of
     value to faculty or students in Computer Science?  Astronomy?
     History?  English?)

-- Prentiss Riddle ("aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada") riddle at rice.edu
-- RiceInfo Administrator, Rice University / http://is.rice.edu/~riddle
-- Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.