RICK SMOLAN - A Day in the Life of the Day in the Lifer Written by: Chris Cook Photos by: Nick Galante Digital cameras provided by Kodak Digital Science KALAPAKI BEACH, KAUAI, HAWAII 3 p.m. HST Friday April 27

"We break the rules of multimedia," Rick Smolan told an overflowing audience at the Storytelling For The New Millenium conference this morning, describing Passage to Vietnam, his new interactive CD-ROM. Smolan, the photojournalist who launched The Day In The Life book series is currently focusing on new media projects through his company Against All Odds' new line of interactive CD-ROMs. Smolan displayed sequences from his current CD-ROM title, Passage to Vietnam, a look at the once ravaged nation 20 years after the United States abandoned its war there. He offered a look at his upcoming, and perhaps most ambitious project ever, a global look at how cyberspace is coming to life around the world, a project called A Day In The Life of Cyberspace.

In the Passage To Vietnam CD-ROM, Smolan said he instructed his digital design team to create new and innovative methods of presenting the words and images of photographers' experiences while taking photographs for Passage To Vietnam. Images from the project were jointly released as a print and CD-ROM publication. Examples Smolan pointed out included a photographer who amazingly appears crossing a bamboo bridge amidst the subjects of the photographer's own image; the photographer describes what he saw in taking the image, and the ambiance of the setting. Smolan said he was bored by the now ubiquitous QuickTime video windows found within many CD-ROM titles, and had a special, TV-set looking, bevel edged window. The window successfully integrates the video into the overall window, allowing the user to concentrate on the content, not the technology.

Literally taking a page from Myst, Smolan's designers included an envelope that mysteriously pops up at various points on the Passage To Vietnam CD-ROM. An enclosed invitation allows the viewer to navigate to a photo editing session to learn how and why a light table of photographs were chosen from the book.

Passage To Vietnam recently received the Software Publishers Association's best CD-ROM of the year award.

The digerati gathered at the conference were especially interested in Smolen's latest project, A Day In The Life of Cyberspace (www.cyber24.com/), which focuses on the state of the digital on-line world on Thursday, February 8, 1996. There are hundreds of photographs on the website, selected from the more than 200,000 shot on February 8.

The big question in recording cyberspace, Smolan said, was "How do you photograph a place that doesn't exist, how do you capture it?" To find out, teams of photographers were dispatched throughout the world, to capture cyberspace in numerous nations and cultural settings. By the end of day on February 8, images had arrived at "mission central" along the waterfront in San Francisco via modem from around the globe, including some of its uttermost reaches, including the North Pole and Antarctica. Audio bites were also gathered from photographers so their stories could be told first hand on the Internet. Reporters included Tipper Gore, wife of Vice-President Al Gore, who posted photos and her story on Vietnam vets.

Smolan said one of the most interesting discoveries of the project was the great need for the Internet in undeveloped nations. He said remote countries, and those lacking modern communication networks are reaching out to the world through cyberspace.

Even with the successful gathering of materials for The Day In The Life Cyberspace Smolen said he still feels we are still "painting on the walls of the digital cave."

Smolan said to watch for a special feature in October from U.S. News, and later this year, a one-hour television special featuring Peter Jennings.