Upon observing my ‘multimedia.cx’ domain name, someone recently inquired what kind of work I do in ‘multimedia’. I responded with a generic explanation of “digital multimedia technology” since multimedia can be kind of a broad field. When pressed to expound upon that term for the benefit of a non-technical person I responded with this:

Digital multimedia technology… you probably know that computers operate in bits– ones and zeros. 8 bits combine to make a byte. Computers store data as bits, retrieve the data as bits, and communicate with each other as bits. My field deals with taking pictures and sounds and converting them into as few bits as possible, and then turning them back into pictures and sounds again.

How’s that? How would you explain “digital multimedia technology” in the simplest terms?