News Services of Charted Space

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The News Services of Charted Space sell what is perhaps the most important commodity of all within Charted Space, which has always been and continues to remain: Information.

  • They are controlled and/or regulated by many different actors on the interstellar relations stage: polities, megacorporations, various sophont races, and vast array of interest groups.
  • All of these different actors hold different values, relationships with data, and priorities.
  • A few of these actors believe in traditional values of bringing the facts to the people to prepare them to make their own decisions.
  • Please see AAB article Communication Technologies of Charted Space for related information.

Please see the following AAB Library Data articles for more information:

Description (Specifications)

Even in a galaxy where FTL star travel is a way of life, information travels relatively slowly throughout Charted Space. Instantaneous communication, a long-held dream, has never been achieved by any known race. Thus communication is usually limited to the speed of packets, couriers, and other types of message-laden starships. Lesser frequented spaceways might only receive mail transmissions, physical mail packages or letters, and other communications once every few weeks through a Postal Union. While the more frequented trade routes most often receive messages several times a subjective Terran-standard 24-hour period (day).

  • Regardless, the great stretches of Charted Space are vast, and it can take months or even years for information to pass from one end of civilization to the other.

Holovid Network Providers

Among the best known Holovid networks and providers are:
Interstellar News Networks:

  1. Carnak News Database
  2. Coalition Information Network
  3. Daryen News Network
  4. Expanses News Service (ENS)
  5. Express Boat Network
  6. llelish Interstellar Information Interchange
  7. Imperial Courier Service (ICS)
  8. Imperial Data Network
  9. Information Dissemination Services
  10. Interstellar News Association
  11. Solomani Confederated News Service
  12. Sylean News Network
  13. Terran Information Network
  14. Traveller News Service (TNS)
  15. Vanguard Reaches Extra
  16. Vilani News Network (VNN)

Periodicals of Charted Space

Magazines:

  1. Carnak's Surface Weapons
  2. The Emperor's Eye
  3. Mora World Review
  4. Travellers' Digest

Books of Charted Space

Books:

  1. Almost Disaster by Albert Croale
  2. The Authentic Experience by Johann Kramm
  3. The Book of Larm by Makkhii Larm (Larmism)
  4. The Bucherei Conundrum by Kethrin Virbek
  5. Carnak's Surface Weapons
  6. Codices of Aosoilte by Aosoilte
  7. Crowe's Encyclopaedia Xenobiologica
  8. A Deeper History by Middleton Rothery
  9. Dru'mhilla Manifesto by Ahaja Bucherei
  10. Encounter on Kaiid by Nelagid Marsid
  11. Hoard of the Sky Raiders by Jothan Messandi
  12. Lost Throne by Otis Adelbert Molitor
  13. Shambhala by Mornal Bruton
  14. The Solomani Hypothesis by Magis Sergei haut-Devroe
  15. Trane's Historical Cycles by Julian Trane
  16. Twilight's Peak
  17. Wiseman's Guide to Sophonts

History & Background (Dossier)

Charted Space contains a vast variety of technological information systems. While standards exist, news is typically formatted into a number of different media based upon bandwith, locality, TL, and a variety of other criteria. Despite all of these differences, basic plaintext data bursts in common binary computer codes still predominate amongst news agencies using FTL starships for news transfer. These basic data transferences have the advantage of being usable by worlds of very different levels of technology mastery.

More complicated data involving sound, graphics, and video files can be added to these basic binary data bursts for the more prosperous markets that can afford larger and more expensive news data files.

  • For additional information, please see the following AAB article: News Media

Network Sizes & Polity Reach

News networks operate anywhere were there is a market to support them.

  • Even the largest networks can only move information at the speed of travel. Some news networks with adequate funding run X-boat-like systems to move news.
  • While most news data has broad appeal to most sophonts, entertainment programming is much more species and region specific. Some polities closely control the news and rigorously censor it.

They generally grow in the following sequence:

  • Subplanetary News Networks
  • Planetary News Networks
  • Subsector News Networks
  • Sector News Networks
  • Multi-Sector News Networks
  • Very Large Networks

Postal Unions

A Postal Union is a group of political units associated to a greater or lesser degree for the purpose of communication among citizens, businesses, and governmental units over interstellar distances.

  • They are more properly known as Interstellar Postal Unions.
  • Please see the AAB article Postal Union for more information.

Interstellar News Association

The Interstellar News Association is a cross-polity organization intending to promote the largely free flow of information across Charted Space.

References & Contributors (Sources)

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