Humble though your neighborhood Fotomat and Kinkos may seem, they occupy a key niche in the business ecology. In these service bureaus, expensive new technology can be offered at an affordable price, thereby establishing a foothold in the marketplace. They also serve as critical test sites, trying out new programs and machines and determining which ones are righteous workhorse tools. Back in the '80s, small businesses got their first taste of desktop publishing this way. Now, it's time for fledgling CD-ROM publishers to do the same.
There's a new breed of service bureau ready to make the jump to hypermedia: The One-Off CD Shop. Bring these folks up to 650 Mbytes of data and, in a couple days, they promise to send you home with an original CD-ROM. No matter what flavor CD you're interested in: audio, CD-ROM, CD-I, XA, Hybrid, or Mixed Mode, The One-Off CD Shop can serve 'em up.
Do they deliver the goods? I sent my local shop 12 Syquests of digital sounds, frame-grabs, and my entire collection of early QuickTime movies. A few days later, no muss, no fuss, I've got my own CD-ROM and, bubba, I'm one happy camper.
Costs, which are largely determined by your volume of data, range from US$100 to $200. The tab for my 500 Mbytes of data came to about $170.
So far, there are 10 specialty shops in Canada and the US. But keep your eyes peeled: a new One-Off CD Shop may be opening in your neighborhood real soon.
The One-Off CD Shops International Inc.: (800) 340 1633, +1 (801) 531 7585, fax +1 (801) 531 0740. Locations in the US: Minneapolis; Chicago; Huntsville, Alabama; White Plains, Maryland; and Scottsdale, Arizona. In Canada: Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta; Prince George, Coquitiam, and Richmond in British Columbia.
STREET CRED
Winchell: An Unlikely Liberator of the Information EraDigital Fanzine
Roll Your Own CD-ROM
The Cartoon History of the Universe
