Page 28 RAIN September/October 1985 Community Information Technology Community Information Technology is a regular feature sponsored by the Information Technology Institute (ITI), a sister organization to RAIN under the organizational umbrella of Centerfor Urban Education (CUE). ITI helps nonprofit and public agencies learn about and use the latest in electronic information technology. It offers a computer lab and library, computer classes, on-line information services, technical assistance, and other programs. For more information about ITI programs, contact the Information Technology Institute, 1135 SE Salmon, Portland, OR 97214. A Pidxire is Worth 8,000 Bits Sometimes just speeding up the number of facts or words we can crunch (process) and distribute isn't enough. The appropriate organization of information should make it easier for us to assimilate it. The overall inventory of information may increase with our ability to organize it, but what is available to us at any point should decrease, as the organizing tools (computers) reduce the variables, providing us with only what we truly need. Computer graphics play an important role in this electronic reducing function. As the old adage has it, "a picture is worth a thousand words." Graphics can present complex displays of information, in a manner that is easier to comprehend, and very importantly for a sane political future, more universal in nature. Up until the introduction of Apple's Macintosh computer (and now Commodore's Amiga), small computers replicated the world of numbers and words; the computer screen looked like a dreary television version of a typewriter. When you make the shift, as I have, from the world of CPM operating systems to MS- DOS, to the Macintosh, you are forced to change your workstyle. The impact is rather subtle, even congenially insidious. FROM: Becoming a MacArtist Itbecomes difficult to return to screens with rows of green words. In a recent World Future Society article, Alex Petofi, vice president of Creative Business Ideas, speculates that "the growing use of computer graphics could lead to a more 'iconic', or symbolic, way of communication. ... Such a pictograph language could be taught easily, could convey vast amounts of information quickly and unambiguously, and would not have the partisan taint of a foreign tongue." Computer screens with higher graphic resolution are looking different. "Desktop" software packages are very popular, warranHng the cover story in Popular Computing (August 1985). These packages attempt to duplicate one's desktop, with features such as clocks, calendars, a rollodex file, and so on. There are also new graphic aid software programs. One of the best, that comes with the Macintosh, is Macpaint. One's first encounter with Macpaint usually brings out the doodling child. There you are, holding a thing called a mouse, looking at a blank gray screen, with a row of tools you can manipulate using the mouse — a paintbrush, spray- can, pencil, straight lines, and angled lines. The first urge is about the same as with an etch-a-sketch: draw a line, circle, loop, or the classic stick person. But stick with it and your attitude may change. For me, a basket case when it comes to arts and crafts, learning to use these graphic tools was like being handicapped and then cured, seeing or hearing for the first time. Macpaint provides magic for us unequally gifted, latent artists. Macpaint duplicates the environment of a freehand artist, while other graphic programs emphasize more stylized artwork. For example, Macdraw is more appropriate for business applications, allowing one to produce a wider variety of straight lines and shapes, and keep track of specific size ratios. Up the scale from that is Macdraft, tailored for the graphic artist, architect, etc. Or, if you want to lay out pages for publication, you can use programs like Macpublisher, Ready-Set-Go, or Pagemaker. Now with the introduction of relatively inexpensive laser printer technology, when combined with high resolution graphic-oriented computers, and a variety of software, publishing enters a new phase, with a new order established between the traditional players; writers, editors, graphic artists, designers, typesetters, and printers. With the new electronic tools, writers can become artists, typesetters, and publishers of their own work. Eventually, with increased on-line capability to allow transmission ot text and graphics, the "traditional" book could go the way of the hoola hoop. But there's little reason, really, to believe that the art of printing is going by the wayside. In fact, the outcome may be increased production of printed material. One of the most fascinating activities sourrounding the Macintosh computer is the growing library of graphic art. Anyone who has produced a newsletter has probably used Dover clip art books, those volumes filled with uncopyrighted graphics that can be copied and integrated into other published material. Well, now there is a growing number of companies providing disks filled with graphics, and rumor has it that there is a growing underground of graphic disks, similar to public domain software disks, as hackers busily exchange their digital artwork. There are also a growing number of how-to books for the Macintosh. Curiously, for something of such subtle revolutionary quality as Macpaint, it also was provided with probably the world's
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