*Negroponte, as the author of the book doesn't like to read. With this, he wrote Being Digital in a very simple and understandable manner. He relates topics and chapters coherently. Facts and experiences are also presented very well. We can also relate and compare his ideas to Mcluhan and Innis' technological perspectives.

The book is divided into three parts and has 20 chapters, included the prologue & epilogue.

INTRODUCTION: THE PARADOX OF A BOOK

       The paradox of the book lies beyond Negroponte's reasons of using an old fashioned book to explain how our world is turning into digital. The reasons why BEING DIGITAL was rendered into atomic forms or pages rather than bits are:

1. "Even where computers are omnipresent, the current interface is primitive."
2. Negroponte's having large audience for his monnthly column in Wired magazine.
3. "Interactive multimedia leaves very little to the imagination."

PART I:  BITS ARE BITS

Chapter 1  The DNA of Information

      Bits and Atoms.   Bits and atomes are different. Identifying the differences between bits and atoms is helpful in order for us to appreciate the merits and consequences of being digital.

      What is a Bit, Anyhow?   A bit has no color, size, or weight, and it can travel at the speed of the light. We consider it as 1 or as 0. It is the underlying particle of digital computing. The measure of how many bits can get through a given channel is called Bandwidth.

      When All Media are Bits.   Being digital means turning atoms into bits. When all media is digital, bits will commingle effortlessly and a new kind of bit is born. "Being digital creates the potential for new content to originate from a whole new combination of sources."

      Where Intelligence Lives.   In broadcast television and newspaper, intelligence both come from the transmitter of information. However, information transmitted from the source will be interpreted and consumed by different people, at different times and ways. On the other hand, being digital means that intelligence lives both on the transmitter and the receiver.

Chapter 2  Debunking Bandwidth

      From a Trickle to a Downpour   Bandwidth is the capacity to move information down a given channel. Channels like copper telephone lines (twisted pair), fiber-optic connections, and the radio spectrum (ether or air waves) have different bandwidth. Negroponte proposed a "trading places" between the wired and wireless information-"what is in the air will go into the ground and what is in the ground will go into the air."

      Fiber, Nature's Way.   Fiber is cheaper than copper. Copper on the other hand has the ability to deliver power. From the perspective of being digital, the entire planet will eventually be fiber. However, while fiber is the future, there is a lot that can be done in order to use the copper plant of today.

      Less is More.   The current economic model of telephony is based on charging per second or per bit, irrespective of what the bit is.

      Stars and Loops.   Configuration of channels can be classified into stars and loops. The phone system is a star network. The cable television, by contrast is a loop network. Star networks have a vast-point-to-vast-point system, while the loops have a point-to-multipoint system. Negroponte predicted that there may be no difference between cable and telephone, twenty-five years from now. However, most wiring will be stars. Loops will be used in very local areas or in the form of wireless broadcast.

      Packaging Bits.   We pay for packets, not minutes. The broadcast of most bits will do nothing with the rate at which we consume them.

Chapter 3  Bitcasting

      What's Wrong with this Picture?   Japanese created the Hi-Vision televisions or high-definition television (HDTV). This Hi-Vision was embraced and lobbied by United States with Japan for it to become a world standard. Europeans, on the other hand developed their own analog HDTV system-HD-MAC.

      The Last shall be First.   Japan invested 18 years of money and effort on HDTV; Europeans also invested on television; United States, saw HDTV as the great oppurtunity for re-entry into consumer electronics, and improved television technology. The Americans proposed for HDTV to become digital.

      Right Technology, Wrong Problems.   United States is employing the right technology - digital. However, United States are minding and addressing the wrong problems, that of image quality. "What sounds logical today will prove to be nonsense tomorrow."

      As Scalable as the U.S. Constitution.   The digital world is intrinsically scalable. Being digital is the option to be independent of confining standards (like TV's NTSC, PAL and SECAM).

      TV as a Tollbooth.   "Our insatiable appetite for bandwidth puts cable television currently in the lead position as the broadband provider of information and entertainment services. The computer has been "out-boxed" in the making of digital television.

      The TV as Computer.   Negroponte predicted that the future open-architecture television is the PC, and there will be no TV-set industry in the future. He proposed that the computer industry will dominate because of the rapid growth of PCs which are becoming more and more video enabled.

      The Bit Radiator Business.   "The key to the future of television is to stop thinking about television as television." We should think of TV in terms of bits. When TV is digital, it will have many new bits that allows us not just to adjust volume, brightness and channel controls, but also the topics and learnings we like. TV will be like a computer downloading all kinds information. Thus, TV will no longer depend on time or day, or the time required for delivery.

Chapter 4  The Bit Police

      The License to Radiate Bits.   The Federal Communications Commission or FCC regulates some of the paths for information and entertainment such as: satellite, terrestrial broadcast, cable, telephone, and packaged media. One area of major FCC concern is the spectrum used for wireless communications. FCC's job is a difficult one. FCC is usually torn between protection and freedom, between public and private, between competition and monopolies.

      Bits of Change.   In a digital world, spectrum allocation will be very difficult. The bits will not be confined to any specific medium. The bit police will want to control the medium itself, which really makes no sense at all.

      Bit Protection.   Copyright law is out to date in the case of being digital. Copyright is obsolete because digital copy is as perfect as the original. The copy is perfect; therefore, the digital copy is an original. With this, Negroponte stated that the medium is no longer the message.

Chapter 5  Commingled Bits

      Repurposing the Material Girl.   "Repurposing goes hand in hand with the birth of any new medium." Negroponte suggested that information and entertainment services must take advantage by defining new multimedia, evolving and needing a gestation period which should be long enough to accommodate both successes and failures.

      Birth of Multimedia.   The creation of multimedia rooted from Israelis extraordinarily successful strike on Entebbe,Uganda,airport, rescuing 103 hostages. The American military was impressed with Israelis strike where only one Israeli soldier and three hostages lost their lives, "that the Advanced Research Projects Agency or ARPA was asked to investigate electronic ways in which American commandos could get the kind of training the Israelis had, to succeed at Entebbe."

      Beta of the '90s.   Multimedia offerings are mostly consumer products which are in the form of CD-ROM titles. CD is used as read-only memory (ROM). It has a storage capacity of 5 billion bits. CD-ROM is the "Beta of the '90s" according to Louis Rossetto, founder of Wired Magazine. Multimedia in the future will no longer be in the form of CD-ROMS; multimedia will be an on-line phenomenon.

      Books without Pages.    It is through Hypermedia that the digital world will no longer be a problem of depth/breadth. "Hypermedia is an extension of hypertext, a term for highly interconnected narrative, or linked information. Through hypermedia, information will no longer be limited into three dimensions like the book. Hypermedia helps multimedia to become interactive, making multimedia as a desktop or living room experience of today.

      Mediumlessness.   According to Negroponte, the medium is not the message in a digital world for the medium is an embodiment of the message.

Chapter 6  The Bit Business

      A Two-Bit Story.   Technological and regulatory changes are moving faster. There is no speed limit on the electronic highway. Negroponte however stated that although the rate of change is fast, innovtion paced less by scientific breakthrough. He reminds us that one way of being digital is through focusing on the entrepreneurial, business, and regulatory landscape of U.S. The financing of bits is important as the valuation of bit is determined by its ability to be used over and over again.

      Transporting Bits.   Transporting bits is a worse business. Today's tariffs are determined per minute, per mile, or per bit. The system of economy is being ruputured by the extremes of time, distance and number of bits. However, in the world of being digital, we must make a better standard for economy instead of using time, distance or bits as the controlling variables. Negroponte suggested that maybe bandwidth should be free.

      Greener Bits.   The signal of digital age began when Bell Atlantic agreed to buy cable giant Tele-Communications Inc. in the fall of 1993. However, the joint collapsed after a few months. Telephony and cable still positioned themselves as archrivals. Thus, the digital age had suddenly been postponed again. But, from Negroponte's point of view, the casuality was not important. From this event rose other merging companies. Consumer electronic companies have tried to merge with entertainment companies. However, there is less synergy because of cultural differences not just between nationalities but also between fields.

      Culture Convergence.   Even though culture differences exist, there is still a perceived polarity between two contradictories. The burgeoning field of multimedia is likely to be one of those disciplines that bridges the gap between cultural differences of disciplines. "The means and messages of multimedia will become a blend of technical and artistic achievement."

      Pulling versus Pushing.   "Being digital will change the nature of mass media from a process of pushing bits at people to one of allowing people to pull at them." This change is a radical one wherein information industry will become more of a boutique business. The marketplace is the global information highway and the costumers will be people and their computer agents. "This digital marketplace will only be real only if the interface between people and computers improves to the point where talking to your computer is as easy as talking to another human being."