Interactions Magazine now fully available online

In a previous post I wrote how it would be a good idea for the publishers of Interactions Magazine to make the magazine content available online. It just happened.

Here is the announcement by Scott Delman, ACM Group Publisher:

ACM is pleased to announce a new innovation for subscribers to interactions, the leading magazine publication for the Human Computer Interactions community. As from the January-February 2008 issue, ACM will be offering a digital edition of each issue of the magazine as an added benefit to subscribers. This new offering is provided in addition to the current print edition of the magazine and articles posted in the ACM Digital Library. The magazine’s new digital edition will serve as an additional service that will enable members to view a true digital representation of the entire print magazine from cover to cover in an easy to use digital format.

Digital editions are becoming increasingly available because they provide the reader with increased usability of digital content, including enhanced navigation, search, linking, and browsing features. Our digital editions will give readers the feel of thumbing through the pages of interactions, as well as the ability to zoom in on particular paragraphs, instantly check particular references or advertisements, or search an issue for particular content markers, and then store these editions on their PC or laptop for long term archiving or sharing of interesting articles with friends and colleagues.

Specific features available in the digital edition of interactions include the ability to:

• page through articles online or download the issue to your computer
• click on links for direct access to online source materials, advertiser web sites, or author e-mail addresses
• conduct keyword searches of the current issue or all issues in the digital archive
• print articles or forward them to colleagues
• use digital editions without the need to download plug-ins

Although the above announcement message is aimed at subscribers only, the online version of the January-February edition of the magazine is really available to all – and I sincerely hope it is not a one off thing. Communications, the ACM flagship publication on computing research, is also going online (press release).