Testing new information delivery options
For the publishing media production of information is often costly and labour intensive. Therefore streamlining the process requires a high-end solution that affords both viable service costs and suitability for a number of publishing modules. As such, the PEACH project undertook the evaluation of 150 such web-based modules looking into best practices for groundwork for their solutions. The first thing required was a suitable definition of personalised information services that would further guide the project's investigation and development. To begin with, reference processes were developed, with the intention of developing these references into flexible entities that could be adapted to any number of publishing enterprises. Regardless of what information business model they had, such as pay-per view, membership access only or subscription fee, they would have to provide the potential to develop an integrated standard. In so doing, they devised a definition for an information product called personalised information service that constituted the focus of the project's study. After examining a variety of websites for "best-practice" functional and technical commonalities, the PEACH project then adopted these commonalities as the major input for the PEACH distribution technology. Because the user survey conducted at the very early stages of the research constituted the basis of the project's focus, the evaluation stage proved that the PEACH service was viable. Moreover it could be offered with little additional work adjustment on the production of traditional media. The study has an additional impact in that it can act as a guideline for establishing prototypes.
