Abstract (2000): Trends in Multimedia; Hypermedia & Telecommunication – development of a methodological design for an empirical study

Baumgartner, P., Holzinger, A. & Searle, G., 2000. Trends in Multimedia; Hypermedia & Telecommunication – development of a methodological design for an empirical study. In J. Bourdeau & R. Heller, eds. ED-MEDIA 2000. Charlottesville: AACE, pp. 1257–1259. 

Rapid development in the field of Multimedia, Hypermedia and Tele-communication (MH&T) is continually providing new work, study and research areas. The authors are of the opinion that these trends have found their expression within the ED-MEDIA (EM), which has meanwhile become the most important conference in this field, and intend to prove this hypothesis by the evaluation and classification of the published papers presented at the conference. The study is based on the assessment and analysis of theme structures, technological backgrounds and questions of contents, beginning with the clarification of methodological questions. Due to this rapid development, prefabricated categories cannot encompass a change in trend, rather, the categories must be developed on the basis of the information at hand. The authors present the argument that the "grounded theory", a procedure developed in social science, is a suitable methodical tool for the building of these categories.