Experiment with another life form

Richard Dawkins tells Stephen Pritchard what academics can expect if they are chosen as multimedia stocking-fillers.

The reputation of multimedia CD-Roms for putting form before content is a deterrent for academics looking to publish electronic versions of their work. Will the message be trivialised? How difficult is it to maintain editorial control? Can something marketed for the high street be credible in academic terms?

The Evolution of Life, Richard Dawkins's collaboration with publishers Notting Hill, certainly has high-street appeal. The Pounds 39.95 disc, to be published next month, adopts the mechanics of a game rather than a book. Dawkins accepts that it is not a pure reference volume or a textbook, but is as much entertainment as anything else. "You treat CD-Roms as either a resource to look things up, or a wonderworld to wander round at whim," he says. "I have done both."

Dawkins's move into digital media is appropriate, for his Oxford chair in public understanding of science was endowed by the legendary computer programmer Charles Simonyi.

Speaking about the disc, he seems well-versed in the language of computer publishing. He talks about user interfaces and interaction; the publicity for Evolution of Life boasts of an "evolutionary engine" called Cybertation. But he admits the disc is far more the work of the publishers than would ever be the case with one of his books. CD-Rom production brings together scriptwriters, editors, artists, producers, and programmers. Dawkins describes his role as a "consultant".

"It has to be a team effort," he explains. "An individual can still write a book, but when you are creating a multimedia product, more creative collaboration has to go on."

Time pressures meant Dawkins was less involved with producing the disc than he might have liked to be, leaving Notting Hill's Ben Whittam Smith to call him in as needed. This required an element of trust, although Dawkins had regular sight of prototypes.

"As it has turned out, I've been happy with the product, but it could have been a disaster," says Dawkins. "You have to pick the publisher carefully."

The CD-Rom works for Dawkins in a way that it might not for another academic, or another academic discipline. He has modelled evolutionary theories on computers, and is now using the computer to bring those theories to a wider audience. The reader is able to change the model and observe the outcomes. Dawkins believes this interactivity makes complicated theories easier to understand.

Evolution of Life's main purpose is to educate people about evolution, but the prospect of playing with the simulation software - some would call it artificial life - means the CD should appeal to computer owners with a more casual interest in science. "I would like to hope that people who don't have to study it for an exam will also use it," Dawkins says. CD-Roms in this category resemble paperbacks by high-profile academics: they have a market beyond the core readership of scholars. Given the competitiveness of electronic publishing, it is doubtful that Notting Hill would have approached someone with less bookstand appeal than Dawkins.

Dawkins concedes that only a minority of academics will ever be asked to produce CD-Roms. They are simply too expensive to develop and, especially, to market. Evolution of Life, for example, will be one of just ten titles stocked by WH Smith this Christmas. As with paperbacks, the worry is that it will become harder and harder for the majority of academics to publish their work in popular form; instead, the marketing money will concentrate on an elite group of bestselling experts.

Evolution of Life is a world apart from general interest software such as Microsoft's Encarta, not just because of its greater depth but because it has a strong voice: Dawkins's voice. CD-Roms can make good vehicles for textbook-style treatments of a subject, because search engines make it easy to compare the views of different academic camps. Younger academics might find it easier to reach an audience through that sort of product, but Dawkins believes a more reliable route into electronic publishing is traditional: making a name first of all by writing books. However, he points to the Internet, with its very low cost of publishing, as a growing forum for the dissemination and discussion of new ideas.

He sees Evolution of Life very much as an adjunct to his paper publications. Books are linear, giving the author a better chance to guide readers through his or her theories.

"I have written five books, so all my experience has been to take readers by the hand and lead them to the end," he says. "I enjoy doing that and I think it is what I do best."