A year earlier, the briefest read through of the ACLARA project plan would have told us ‘Advanced Communications for Local Authorities in Rural Areas’ wasn’t for us. But, without a network, our online local newspaper would be little more than a sophisticated desktop presentation. With a network, it would become a fully functioning electronic publication. So, when two researchers from the University of Bremen, which marketed itself as BIBA, arrived in our office saying it needed an industrial partner for ACLARA, the project looked a good fit. With luck, it could act as both a testbed for PictureBook and Reuters’ style funding for the launch of a vertical application. At last, a chance to replace video hairstyling with electronic news publishing. ACLARA might also enable us to reinforce our presence in Europe and mitigate the loss of our hardware market to Asian manufacturers …
… (An extract from The Ghost in the Labyrinth by Peter Kruger)
