Library Document

Convergence: Wisconsin Public Television and Learning Innovations

What is our measurement of success for the integration of television production and on-line computer based training/distance education?

Convergence -- this is the word which applies to all products which are based on digital technology. Our specific challenge is to take advantage of the convergence which is occurring between television production and distribution and the creation of computer based education. As we have looked at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the University based organizations charged with creating computer based instruction and training, and the University based public television organizations, we have found many similarities. Our Reforging the Links project proposes to help PTV and distance education organizations converge with each other. How will we know if and when we are successful?

At the University of Wisconsin we will have many measures of success, but I believe that one of the most important will be our financial viability. For reasons which may be unique to our environment, WHA-TV has long been encouraged to generate its own income. This does not mean that we have not also been supported through tax dollars, it means that we have been allowed to create and benefit from entrepreneurial activities. This model is being carried over to the UW Learning Innovations Center, although at a much more rapid pace. We are both expected to generate revenue streams by providing programs that are beneficial to the University and the public.

Behind the goal of financial success are the common practices which will lead to that success. As we progress in our convergence both technically and managerially, we will be able to measure our progress in the following areas: production, delivery, business practices, operational processes, marketing and distribution. As our Reforging the Links project unfolds, each of us will benefit from sharing our goals and achievements with much more detail in each of these areas. To start this process, I will share a few of the ideas which we are now discussing as a means to measure success. There will be much more written about this as the WHA/LI staffs begin to engage in a convergence of resources and opportunities.

Production: It is our belief that the production process of creating video and audio to tell stories and convey information to general audiences on TV is very similar to the creation of print, video and audio which tell stories and convey information to students on the internet and other computer based media. Digital technology being developed for television is based on computer digital technology. It is all data written in ones and zeros. TV producers can learn to create on the internet. Instructional designers can integrate video into their web based work. Our staffs are talking to each other and developing a common vocabulary to describe the possibilities. Achieving a common vocabulary which expands the capacity and creativity of both organizations is certainly an early measure of success.

Delivery: Data is Data. Digital television will speak the same language as your desktop computer. We will be broadcasting to your computer The computer and the TV set will become one appliance. This is not future speak, it is happening as we invent digital television. Datacasting is mentioned more and more as the promise of DTV. For public television and distance education it means that DTV broadcasting can become the delivery method of choice for the university. To prepare ourselves for this, we at WHA/LI are experimenting with Web-TV as a means to create enhanced television. This is an analog technology which connects a TV program with the internet through crossover links embedded in Line 21 of television signal. We are measuring the success of the Web-TV experiment through the interest of the public in this new technology, and the interaction between the TV producers and the web page creators as they learn more about each other's media. Web-TV's information rich production prepares us for DTV.

Common Business Practices: As WHA/LI begin to contract for and produce content we will adopt many of the business practices that have helped WHA-TV become entrepreneurial. In order to contract and invoice we must establish a budget based on an agreed upon rate card. We must measure our ability to produce the product through a cost accounting system. Tracking and billing professional hours is a concept which is not widely accepted in the university community. Then, after we invoice for the work done we will pass an audit indicating how well we have followed the rules of business and the state. Our ability to implement these business practices in a university environment will certainly be a measure of success.

Marketing and Distribution: Here, we will have some of the most pressing questions and measures of success, not only for our new enterprise, but for the survival of the idea of distance education. This is the area of, "whose content is it anyway. . ." Issues of intellectual property rights and royalties in the new digital distribution channels will be a measure of our success. Neither past TV practices nor past university practices will be valid in the new media. But, we will be able to help each other as we again develop a new vocabulary to deal with virtual rights to virtual media.