Re-Purposing of Content and Digital Delivery Convergence: Implications for Interface Design

With the introduction of the digital medium, an abundance of content previously obtainable through other media became available in digital form. Digital delivery implied the necessity for some kind of content modification dictated by the specific characteristics of the digital medium. The situation is further complicated by the convergence of different media used for the delivery of digital/digitized information. The same content has to meet the constraints of different display devices and bandwidth limitations. Furthermore, digital delivery makes possible adaptations of content not only in regard to characteristics of hardware used to display it, but also in regard to individual user's goals and needs. In this paper I will present the implications for content re-purposing with the migration from the traditional to the digital medium as well as the problems that arise from convergence of different types of digital delivery mechanism.