HOME INFORMATION SYSTEMS The storage problem
Andy Sloane, Arthur B. Harris, Wenyu Huang · 2000
Most service providers concentrate on delivery and this involves communication and value-added services. These are increasingly being taken up by users and new digital services are set to become ubiquitous. However, traditionally the home has been using information in a variety of ways and it is envisaged that this type of use will continue and expand, especially since the new services also have their own requirement for storage (at least in the short term). The storage of information in home has, until now, been done via a diverse range of devices and formats and physical and logical storage systems have become widespread. (e.g. books and bookcases, video cassettes, audio CDs etc.). Now storage is set to become fully digital and transitional arrangements are showing that this is not always an easy process. The ways in which users organise their stored information has largely depended on the format that was used to store it. This imposes physical restrictions on both the storage and retrieval of information in the home. One of the main considerations being ease of use and ease of location. Digital storage, whist providing a simple, robust, physically small and highly searchable store has the problems of needing specialised programmes to recreate what users may want from the systems and at the same time users may not be aware of the power of systems that are available for home use. It is our contention that both the usability, the organisation of storage, and the user's programme to access it will have far-reaching effects on the use and applicability of near-future home information systems.