Managing Interactive Media Glossary: I

Glossary: I (37 entries found)

i-mode: Web service originally provided by NTT DoCoMo in Japan for mobile telephones and now used elsewhere in the world.
icon: A pictorial symbol or representation used on the screen to denote an active area. It will allow access to further data or trigger an interactive reaction of some type. It has become common for a text explanation to appear when the user positions the cursor over the icon to help the user understand its significance. See also picon and micon.
ICT: Information and Communication Technologies, term used as short-hand in describing aspects of convergent technologies.
image map: A graphical menu of a website usually put on the front page. This has fallen out of favour as it often took so long to download.
IMAP: Internet Message Access Protocol, a recent alternative to POP for email.
implied licence: In the context of a website it is usually assumed that the web pages are published so that they can be viewed across the Internet. Any other use of the pages, such as extracting images from them or displaying them out of context, would breach this implied licence to view. Many websites now have an explicit set of terms and conditions under which the site is viewed.
in-bound communication: Communication that needs to be understood by the person receiving it only sufficiently to fulfil a specific need. The need can be linked to various levels of understanding: gist, relevance, decision, action, etc. Here the context is understanding a level of another language enough to understand the message without actually seeing a correct translation.
indemnity: A guarantee that if any cost is incurred as a result of your action, you will cover it.
indirect competitors: Companies that are in related lines of business to you who may win sales from your potential customers with their products.
information architect: Helps users find and manage information successfully by designing organizational and navigational systems (also called information analyst or information strategist).
inlining: Linking to someone else's image so that it appears to be part of your web page even though it does not reside on your server. Potentially a breach of copyright because of a breach of the implied licence under which web pages are published on the Internet. Also known as hijacking.
instructional design: The study of methods of teaching and learning with particular reference to the selection and use of media to aid instruction. The term is widely used in the USA. Europe tends to use the term educational technology.
instructional designer: A person who applies the principles of instructional design to convey information using a variety of media and methods.
insubstantial portion: A qualitatively small proportion of a literary work that can be reproduced without infringing copyright.
integrity (of moral rights): The author's right for the work not to be changed.
intellectual property: A general term for rights such as those protected by copyright and patents.
interactive design: The definition of how to structure the content and interactive paths through the material for an interactive application.
interactive TV: Interactivity applied to broadcast television and including multimedia electronic programme guides, information systems and adjuncts to the transmitted programmes allowing viewers more involvement. This last application is also known as enhanced TV.
interactive video: An interactive system that uses an interactive videodisk to deliver sound and pictures and combines them with text, sound and graphics from a computer source. Prevalent in the 1980s and used by large corporations for training, it is now obsolete. Also denoted by IV.
interface: The way an application is designed for people to use. This includes the screen designs, the use of icons or menus, the way interactivity is set up and the overall structure of the application.
interlaced: Describes a television picture that is made of two halves, which interlace with each other like the lines of a comb and the spaces between.
internal clients: People - part of your own organization - who define a piece of work for you to do. Budgeting for the work might be affected by company practices.
internationalization: Producing software in a way that facilitates adaptation to suit other languages and cultures without the need for reprogramming.
Internet: A world-wide interconnection of computer networks, originally set up between the American military, its suppliers and research base to make a network that, by virtue of its multiple interconnections, would be safe from destruction. Up to the 1990s the Internet was largely the preserve of the academic and research communities, but the invention of HTTP, HTML and the World Wide Web has made the Internet into a mass communications medium.
interpreted: In computing, a computer program where each individual command is translated into machine code instructions for the computer before moving on to the next one. The opposite is compiled.
interstitial: An advertisement which appears between the user clicking on a web link and reaching their destination.
intranet: A local area network, such as in a company, which operates using Internet protocols and systems. This will now usually include a local implementation of the World Wide Web with web pages read by browsers. Intranets have changed the way most large companies communicate with their staff.
ionizing: The process of electrically charging something by removing or adding electrons.
IP address: A number, in the form 123.123.123.123, which uniquely identifies a computer on the Internet. See also domain name.
iPod: Trade mark of Apple Computer. A family of tiny music players.
IPTV: Internet Protocol Television, broadcasting by using broadband telephone lines and Internet technologies and protocols.
IRC: Internet Relay Chat, a protocol for typing messages between computers in real time.
IrDA: Infrared communications standard used in mobile telephones, PDAs and laptop computers for interconnections and connection to fixed devices such as printers.
ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network, a digital phone line which provides a link of either 64 kilobits per second (European standard) or 56 (US standard) per channel with a minimum of two channels. Data or voice calls over ISDN are charged based on time and bandwidth/channels used. The advent of broadband is gradually making ISDN obsolete.
ISO: The International Standards Organization.
ISP: Internet Service Provider, the organization that connects you to the Internet, usually by means of a dial-up telephone connection with a modem. Some ISPs operate nationally and internationally (such as AOL, MSN and Demon), while others operate locally.
iTV: See interactive TV.