Thank you for visiting "The Navigator – Live." Today's chat ended at 3 p.m. EST.

Today's guest was John Bell, creative director of Discovery Online, the Internet wing of the Discovery Channel. John answered questions about television, the Internet and the convergence of the two.

"The Navigator – Live" appears each Thursday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time. It's a live, moderated discussion offering washingtonpost.com users the chance to talk directly to intriguing and sometimes unusual guests who are shaping the digital world. "The Navigator" appears in The Washington Post print edition every Thursday. You can read past columns by following this link.

Linton Weeks: Greetings and welcome to another gas-guzzling episode of Navigator--Live. Let's go straight to the questions.

Linton Weeks: John, what exactly is Discovery Online?

John Bell: Discovery Online is the network of consumer sites produced by Discovery Communications and includes discovery.com, tlc.com, animalplanet.com, discoveryhealth.com, travelchannel.com, discoverykids.com, our two ecommerce efforts: discoverystore.com and naturecompany.com. We also have 5 digital networks and 12 international channels with online presences.

Discovery.com has been around the longest and has grown into a robust service covering relevant and current content in science, nature - including animals, exploration, history and technology. We have grown a science news service, continuous world expeditions, thoughtful mind games and other features that help users explore their world.

Linton Weeks: What is your story? How did you get involved?

John Bell: I was kidnapped from New York while I was minding my own business.... Okay, actually, my two most recent experiences set me up for the fall on this one. Prior to Discovery, I developed Interactive television content for AT&T and Viacom during the ITV goldrush of the early 90's. We were building ITV shopping programs, interactive Entertainment Tonight, kids programming, fantasy NFL, all sorts of cool stuff. Our trial - Castro Valley - didn't quite get off the ground but ITV is back! After that I had an interactive agency in NY - Media Circus- where we developed Web sites and services, ITV design and CD-ROMs.

Linton Weeks: What are some of the exciting projects you are involved in?

John Bell: There is a lot of activity going on right now. Some of the highlights include discoverykids.com - we just launched this great adventure service for kids. Kids can create their own adventure pages and are challenged to fulfill on THE LIST - this list of great adventures from making a time capsule to going on a dig to identifying all of the bones in the human body. Kids are involved and encouraged to experience the world in a big way.

eTV/ITV/Broadband - we've got a lot going on here. We will be rollling out a Web TV plus implementation within a few weeks. Viewsers- users+viewers - can watch popular programs like Savage Earth and immediately access online updates about current volcano eruptions, active tornados and hurricanes, and extreme weather conditions as they happen. Viewers of Wild Discovery can check out our live animal cams to see what's going on now in the shark tank in Maui or what the bats are devouring for dinner while watching this popular TV Show. Users of the service will even be able to communicate with experts from the show while they are watching.

We also have a live Video webcast of our popular science program, Science Live! hosted by Neal Conan every Wednesday night. Our online version runs along with a special digital network version on the Discovery Science Channel.

We continue to run live expeditions. In a week or two, we will be rejoining our live expedition to recover the Liberty Bell space capsule from the bottom of the ocean. During the first run a few weeks ago, users could follow the story as the capsule was first discovered! Now they are going bring it up and we will cover it on the web.

Bethesda: Would you recommend that a young person go into TV or the Internet--or neither? Where will the jobs be in the next few years--before this so-called convergence?

John Bell: The greatest opportunities are in Internet development, in my opinion.The deal is to pursue the medium that really excites you. TV has attributes the Internet may never have - linear, emotional entertainment, et al. The Internet is a whole new wacky world - we are making up the language of the medium as we go. I think that's pretty exciting.

Bethesda, MD: Have you done any research to discover, hah, who actually uses your website?

John Bell: We do a ton of research. Our efforts break down as follows: daily traffic reports, weekly audited reports on site traffic and activity, online surveys with our registered users, focus groups, and professional industry-wide reports. We are really trying hard to listen ot our users.

Washington DC: Will the Internet kill TV?

John Bell: No. We are experimenting with convergence programs right now. Again the two mediums have different attributes. i don't expect it all to boil down to one box in the future. A certain amount of interactivity will find it's way on TV, but the PC/computer terminal will bear the brunt of highly interactive exchanges for the near future. Kreskin predicts....

Linton Weeks: John: Who is your online competition?

John Bell: The simple answer is - we have no competition. Okay, maybe not. We do a lot of different things - our exploration of the world is fairly unique but other groups like NatGeo have done expeditions,we credibly cover Science News but with more context and relevance to the individual than MSNBC or ABCNews...
in all seriousness, wwe do have a fairly unique offer. For tracking purposes, we have identified a competitive set of sets to measure ourselves against, but if I tell you who they are I'll have to kill you....

Washington DC: When is your site used the most? At what time of day? Do you think people watch TV and use your site at the same time? Is that your hope?

John Bell: We call our customers "viewsers" 'cause they do watch and go online simultaneously. Actually we see a spike in traffic immediately after an on-air promotion, after the program ends and the next morining. It's very interesting, people become interested in a topic they see on-air and express that interest online the following day or so after the program.

Linton Weeks: Why does the Discovery Channel need a Web site?

John Bell: We are a media site and a great brand. Our whole reason for being is to enable people to explore their world. Discovery was made for the web. This venue allows us to really touch people in a meaningful and personal way. Users can get great infromation about the topics we cover, interactively explore, but products that are meaningful and relevant, get credible health information and even book quality travel experiences.
Our business expands as we facilitate customers/viewers/users consumating transactions around the experiences they value.

Linton Weeks: All right. A litte more than half-way through the hour and we've just scratched the Discovery surface. I'll take a sip of iced tea; you keep those questions rolling in.

Silver Spring MD: How many people visit your Web site every day, and what's the most popular part of the site in terms of traffic?

John Bell: We are averaging 23 million page views per month, well over 125,000 visitors per day. Our top trafficed areas include News, our live Expedition, Someone in Time - which is one of our Mind Games, and Cams

Washington DC: What is the future of Web TV?

John Bell: Web TV is doing some interesting things and they are deployed which is a big plus. They have been wrestling with the issue of what is a good TV-based interactive experience. We will be launching some content with them in a few weeks that relates to that thinking. They have created a great, simple UI for people. Their software will be deployed in settop boxes. I think their biggest challenge is getting their devices into consumer's hands and being on the edge of defining what TV-based interactivity is.

Rockville MD: Will Discovery Online eventually offer the channel's TV shows on-demand?

John Bell: We have a ton of RealVideo on our site currently. We also have a video webcast of our science program, Science Live!, which also appears on one of our digital networks but the future of PC-based video-on-demand isn't clear. i do see that not too far down the road on digital TV which is a better venue for that experience anyhow.

Miami: What are your favorite sites on the Web?

John Bell: I am really into discoverykids.com right now but I am terribly biased on that one. I have kids and also dig Headbone.com (a partner of ours). Check out: http://web.jet.es/jab.

I like Bolt.com - a good teen site.

Silver Spring MD: It surprises me to hear you say news is a top traffic area on your site, because I don't see your news briefs area linked from your home page. I only see the news link on your feature page.

Which brings me to a follow-up question--what was the point of the site redesign?

John Bell: On our current design, News is dead center in the circle in the center of the screen (www.discovery.com). We actually did a Java implementation which was a bit controversial - something we probably won't repeat. At the time, we were really trying to make a big statement about our new News coverage.

The redesign - which is over a year old (there'another one on the way) - was motivated by a lot of reasons. We reorganized our offer around the content categories that you see: News, Feature Stories, Expeditions, Cams, Mind Games & Conversations. We wanted to make a stronger brand statement about Discovery Online - an area where the previous design was weak. Our offer had expanded and we need a new architecture that would accomodate it. We are at that point again, of course, and an updated design is in the works.

San Diego CA: How many people work for your Web site and how often do you update it? More than once a day?

John Bell: We have about 40 folks who touch the content here - many more in support of that effort. We have a big update every day, and many smaller updates throughout the day.

Washington Dc: I'm curious how your marketing efforts reflect the integration of TV and the web -which they must, I'm assuming-. Any new creative ways of "branding" DISCOVERY that you can pass along?

John Bell: We do try to connect the marketing elements of offline content with our online content. It's actually a user issue - if a user sees a show promo and is inspired to go online for more info or whatever, a related look or presentation of the material will help them be successful quicker. Branding on the web is an interesting topic - our toolset for branding is different than TV or print. As an information service in a narrowband environment we have certain attributes we must design for - download times, above-the-fold screen presentation, installed technical standards in the market, etc..
Full screen, photographic motion photography - a staple of many of our brands can't be used here. Look and feel is a tool, site architecture - how information is organized, editorial voice, how a process unfolds for a user - these are all tools native to this environment that convey "brand"

Linton Weeks: And that concludes another rapid-fire episode of Navigator--Live. With this show, I sign off as your Navigator. Beginning in July, I will be covering the world of books for The Washington Post. Thanks to everyone who has kept Navigator--Live alive. My guests, the good folks at Washingtonpost.com and you loyal participants. Thanks so much for playing along.

Linton Weeks: Greetings and welcome to another gas-guzzling episode of Navigator--Live. Let's go straight to the questions.

Linton Weeks: John, what exactly is Discovery Online?

John Bell: Discovery Online is the network of consumer sites produced by Discovery Communications and includes discovery.com, tlc.com, animalplanet.com, discoveryhealth.com, travelchannel.com, discoverykids.com, our two ecommerce efforts: discoverystore.com and naturecompany.com. We also have 5 digital networks and 12 international channels with online presences.

Discovery.com has been around the longest and has grown into a robust service covering relevant and current content in science, nature - including animals, exploration, history and technology. We have grown a science news service, continuous world expeditions, thoughtful mind games and other features that help users explore their world.

Linton Weeks: What is your story? How did you get involved?

John Bell: I was kidnapped from New York while I was minding my own business.... Okay, actually, my two most recent experiences set me up for the fall on this one. Prior to Discovery, I developed Interactive television content for AT&T and Viacom during the ITV goldrush of the early 90's. We were building ITV shopping programs, interactive Entertainment Tonight, kids programming, fantasy NFL, all sorts of cool stuff. Our trial - Castro Valley - didn't quite get off the ground but ITV is back! After that I had an interactive agency in NY - Media Circus- where we developed Web sites and services, ITV design and CD-ROMs.

Linton Weeks: What are some of the exciting projects you are involved in?

John Bell: There is a lot of activity going on right now. Some of the highlights include discoverykids.com - we just launched this great adventure service for kids. Kids can create their own adventure pages and are challenged to fulfill on THE LIST - this list of great adventures from making a time capsule to going on a dig to identifying all of the bones in the human body. Kids are involved and encouraged to experience the world in a big way.

eTV/ITV/Broadband - we've got a lot going on here. We will be rollling out a Web TV plus implementation within a few weeks. Viewsers- users+viewers - can watch popular programs like Savage Earth and immediately access online updates about current volcano eruptions, active tornados and hurricanes, and extreme weather conditions as they happen. Viewers of Wild Discovery can check out our live animal cams to see what's going on now in the shark tank in Maui or what the bats are devouring for dinner while watching this popular TV Show. Users of the service will even be able to communicate with experts from the show while they are watching.

We also have a live Video webcast of our popular science program, Science Live! hosted by Neal Conan every Wednesday night. Our online version runs along with a special digital network version on the Discovery Science Channel.

We continue to run live expeditions. In a week or two, we will be rejoining our live expedition to recover the Liberty Bell space capsule from the bottom of the ocean. During the first run a few weeks ago, users could follow the story as the capsule was first discovered! Now they are going bring it up and we will cover it on the web.

Bethesda: Would you recommend that a young person go into TV or the Internet--or neither? Where will the jobs be in the next few years--before this so-called convergence?

John Bell: The greatest opportunities are in Internet development, in my opinion.The deal is to pursue the medium that really excites you. TV has attributes the Internet may never have - linear, emotional entertainment, et al. The Internet is a whole new wacky world - we are making up the language of the medium as we go. I think that's pretty exciting.

Bethesda, MD: Have you done any research to discover, hah, who actually uses your website?

John Bell: We do a ton of research. Our efforts break down as follows: daily traffic reports, weekly audited reports on site traffic and activity, online surveys with our registered users, focus groups, and professional industry-wide reports. We are really trying hard to listen ot our users.

Washington DC: Will the Internet kill TV?

John Bell: No. We are experimenting with convergence programs right now. Again the two mediums have different attributes. i don't expect it all to boil down to one box in the future. A certain amount of interactivity will find it's way on TV, but the PC/computer terminal will bear the brunt of highly interactive exchanges for the near future. Kreskin predicts....

Linton Weeks: John: Who is your online competition?

John Bell: The simple answer is - we have no competition. Okay, maybe not. We do a lot of different things - our exploration of the world is fairly unique but other groups like NatGeo have done expeditions,we credibly cover Science News but with more context and relevance to the individual than MSNBC or ABCNews...
in all seriousness, wwe do have a fairly unique offer. For tracking purposes, we have identified a competitive set of sets to measure ourselves against, but if I tell you who they are I'll have to kill you....

Washington DC: When is your site used the most? At what time of day? Do you think people watch TV and use your site at the same time? Is that your hope?

John Bell: We call our customers "viewsers" 'cause they do watch and go online simultaneously. Actually we see a spike in traffic immediately after an on-air promotion, after the program ends and the next morining. It's very interesting, people become interested in a topic they see on-air and express that interest online the following day or so after the program.

Linton Weeks: Why does the Discovery Channel need a Web site?

John Bell: We are a media site and a great brand. Our whole reason for being is to enable people to explore their world. Discovery was made for the web. This venue allows us to really touch people in a meaningful and personal way. Users can get great infromation about the topics we cover, interactively explore, but products that are meaningful and relevant, get credible health information and even book quality travel experiences.
Our business expands as we facilitate customers/viewers/users consumating transactions around the experiences they value.

Linton Weeks: All right. A little more than half-way through the hour and we've just scratched the Discovery surface. I'll take a sip of iced tea; you keep those questions rolling in.

Silver Spring MD: How many people visit your Web site every day, and what's the most popular part of the site in terms of traffic?

John Bell: We are averaging 23 million page views per month, well over 125,000 visitors per day. Our top trafficed areas include News, our live Expedition, Someone in Time - which is one of our Mind Games, and Cams

Washington DC: What is the future of Web TV?

John Bell: Web TV is doing some interesting things and they are deployed which is a big plus. They have been wrestling with the issue of what is a good TV-based interactive experience. We will be launching some content with them in a few weeks that relates to that thinking. They have created a great, simple UI for people. Their software will be deployed in settop boxes. I think their biggest challenge is getting their devices into consumer's hands and being on the edge of defining what TV-based interactivity is.

Rockville MD: Will Discovery Online eventually offer the channel's TV shows on-demand?

John Bell: We have a ton of RealVideo on our site currently. We also have a video webcast of our science program, Science Live!, which also appears on one of our digital networks but the future of PC-based video-on-demand isn't clear. i do see that not too far down the road on digital TV which is a better venue for that experience anyhow.

Miami: What are your favorite sites on the Web?

John Bell: I am really into discoverykids.com right now but I am terribly biased on that one. I have kids and also dig Headbone.com (a partner of ours). Check out: http://web.jet.es/jab.

I like Bolt.com - a good teen site.

Silver Spring MD: It surprises me to hear you say news is a top traffic area on your site, because I don't see your news briefs area linked from your home page. I only see the news link on your feature page.

Which brings me to a follow-up question--what was the point of the site redesign?

John Bell: On our current design, News is dead center in the circle in the center of the screen (www.discovery.com). We actually did a Java implementation which was a bit controversial - something we probably won't repeat. At the time, we were really trying to make a big statement about our new News coverage.

The redesign - which is over a year old (there'another one on the way) - was motivated by a lot of reasons. We reorganized our offer around the content categories that you see: News, Feature Stories, Expeditions, Cams, Mind Games & Conversations. We wanted to make a stronger brand statement about Discovery Online - an area where the previous design was weak. Our offer had expanded and we need a new architecture that would accomodate it. We are at that point again, of course, and an updated design is in the works.

San Diego CA: How many people work for your Web site and how often do you update it? More than once a day?

John Bell: We have about 40 folks who touch the content here - many more in support of that effort. We have a big update every day, and many smaller updates throughout the day.

Washington Dc: I'm curious how your marketing efforts reflect the integration of TV and the web -which they must, I'm assuming-. Any new creative ways of "branding" DISCOVERY that you can pass along?

John Bell: We do try to connect the marketing elements of offline content with our online content. It's actually a user issue - if a user sees a show promo and is inspired to go online for more info or whatever, a related look or presentation of the material will help them be successful quicker. Branding on the web is an interesting topic - our toolset for branding is different than TV or print. As an information service in a narrowband environment we have certain attributes we must design for - download times, above-the-fold screen presentation, installed technical standards in the market, etc..
Full screen, photographic motion photography - a staple of many of our brands can't be used here. Look and feel is a tool, site architecture - how information is organized, editorial voice, how a process unfolds for a user - these are all tools native to this environment that convey "brand"

Linton Weeks: And that concludes another rapid-fire episode of Navigator--Live. With this show, I sign off as your Navigator. Beginning in July, I will be covering the world of books for The Washington Post. Thanks to everyone who has kept Navigator--Live alive. To J Weis, Vic Sussman and all the good folks at Washingtonpost.com, to all my guests and to all you loyal participants, thanks so much for playing along.

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