media disruption

Information is tied to media. In business and private communication, information is transmitted by voice, as a fax, by e-mail, on paper or film, as a video or electronic file. If the processing of the information requires a transition to another medium, then this means a media break.

For example, if a printed text document or a received fax is entered into a computer as a text file, a media break occurs. Media breaks also occur when paper documents are scanned or files or paper documents are output to microfiche, or Computer Output on Microfilm( COM). Such media breaks interrupt the processing process and the information chain and cause errors, delays and costs. For this reason, care is taken in business processes to ensure that they are carried out without media breaks, from the procurement of information through to its processing.

Many e-commerce activities can be cited here as examples of such media discontinuity-free processing. These range from ordering from electronic mail order companies to forms processing in e-government and e-procurement. Downloading via podcast also takes place without media breaks, as the audio data is loaded directly onto the MP3 player.

Unfortunately, other examples from e-government still show media discontinuities. In many cases, for example, you have to print out a form from a government agency in Portable Document Format( PDF), fill it out by hand or with a personal computer, and then send it by fax or post.