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Peak Interactive Books, Inc announces

Using Interactive Media to Communicate

A Guide for Authors, Educators, and Publishers

by Joseph Kappl

Overview

Written in a non-technical style, this book/CD-ROM combination explains interactivity, and uses interactive text and graphics to design interactive documents. The CD-ROM is an example of how a print book can be extended to an interactive book. Design guidelines are given for interactive documents on CD-ROM and Internet.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Levels of Interactivity
Interactive Graphics
Interactive Text
Interactivity - 
   A Technical Description
Desigh for CD-ROM
Design for Internet
Epilogue

Statistics

202 pages + CD-ROM 
20 interactive 
   graphics, 
60+ Videos

ISBN 1-888713-11-9
LCCIP 92513
publication date 9/98

Price $34.95

Author

Joe Kappl is a pioneer in the development of software that helps computers communicate with people. Beginning with graduate work at MIT and extending to the present, his work has produced the interactive book as a bold new media form.

Reviews

It's tough to know where to start after viewing and reading through Peak Interactive Books' USING INTERACTIVE MEDIA TO COMMUNICATE. "Fantastic" is the first word that come to mind.

But it goes beyond that to one of wonder: In the back of your mind is the suspicion that now you know how people must have felt upon first viewing the Gutenberg Bibles just after the ink had dried on them. You're left knowing that here is a method that can take us beyond what we have today, into a new medium that will be different from anything else we've known before.

Joseph J. Kappl gives the writer and the publisher tools and knowledge needed to produce an effective interactive book a reader can enjoy and easily navigate. Kappl gives essential layout tips, and warns about potential pitfalls as well. As an added bonus, there's a detailed overview of how to make Internet pages work, along with an outline of what will and will not work in that medium.

As we enter the age of the "e-book," and continue to see the explosive expansion of the Internet, Kappl's book is a "must read" that will help authors and publishers alike produce works that are entertaining, educational, and easily accessed by the public.

Duncan Long - Internationally recognized Author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books including the 9 volume Night Stalker series and
Spider Worlds Trilogy

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"Creating interactive media requires one to learn to think in different ways, not just master new software tools. Joe's book teaches you how to think interactively."

Harry Helms,
Co-Founder - HighText Interactive

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"By the time you've finished Using Interactive Media To Communicate, you'll have a complete grasp of the new media because it flawlessly integrates traditional print with an interactive CD-ROM. The message is practical and the media are appropriate."

Andrew Bonime,
Co-author, Writing for New Media: The Essential Guide to Writing for Interactive Media, CD-ROMs and the Web.

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Kappl's book is a concise, straightforward approach to using interactive media. It is easy to get into this book and use it quickly as a reference or instructional text. The accompanying CD provides a sophisticated, complex, and superior example of a hypermedia learning environment extending the usefulness of book.

Scott Grabinger -
Author- Hypermedia Learning Environments
Assoc Professor - Learning Technologies Program
Univ of Colorado

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The artificial intelligence and interactivity built into the CD-ROM/book provide a vision of the future in education.

Dr. Charles Herget
Author, Educator and Researcher (Iowa State University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
Past President - IEEE Control Systems Group

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"The CD for "Using Interactive Media To Communicate - A Guide for Authors, Educators, and Publishers" is simply one of the best CD ROM-based learning environments I've seen. Author and creator Joseph J. Kappl has created the perfect introductory CD for new media students from middle school to college. The quality and clarity of the real time video is terrific, with wonderfully rendered graphic examples throughout. The short "quizzes" at the end of each section are terrific: fun and informative - which is what all interactive media, educational and entertainment alike, should be."

Michael Korolenko
Media Instructor and author of "Writing for Multimedia: A Guide and Source book for the Digital Writer"
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With the interactive text, the student combines the time tested virtues of accessibility, reference, and reinforcement when reading, with three dimensional learning. Interactive learning is the wave of the future here and now.

Peter Quass, CEO,
Academic Authors Agency

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Joe has "broken the mold" of the traditional print book media form. His use of electronics and interactivity mark the beginning of a new creative age for books.

John Hontos, Sculptor, President - Artists of the Southwest,
Creator of the 1984 Equestrian Olympic Commemoration Sculpture

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"USING INTERACTIVE MEDIA TO COMMUNICATE provides a clear introduction to many key interactive media elements. Some of these elements, such as interactive graphics, are well documented with examples on the companion CD-ROM."

Timothy Garrand,
Author of Writing for Multimedia

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Joe Kappl uses interactivity to provide extraordinary accessibility of the information to both novices and expert users. This is a new form of book.

Brian Oliver, President
Underground Animation, Inc.

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Joseph Kappl has demonstrated that the old method of teaching the Natural Sciences with standard text and graphics is no longer acceptable. Students of physics, chemistry and biology will learn faster and better using interactive media. Mr. Kappl demonstrates how blowups, motion and stop frame analysis, object rotation, layering and sectioning can all be used to efficiently studyand analyze complex data and concepts. Using Interactive Media To Communicate - A Guide for Authors, Educators and Publishers will revolutionize the teaching of science especially the health sciences.

Peter M. Kelly, M.D.
Diplomate American Board of Internal Medicine

Ordering

Place orders by calling Peak Interactive Books, Inc at 1-800-247-6553 with a credit card.



Peak Interactive Books, Inc • 31220 La Baya Dr #110 • Westlake, CA   91362 
Phone: 818-991-8491  / Fax: 818-991-8538