Display of continuous media using self-organizing ad hoc networks of wireless communication systems will potentially be used in a variety of applications. Example deployments might include disaster relief missions, conferences, and university campuses to name a few. Challenges of these environments include their mobility, and unpredictable network bandwidth and loss characteristics. This paper explores a three step science of design for applications that manipulate continuous media. This science strives to satisfy the requirements of an application. It consists of a number of principles that impact the design of algorithms. These principles guide a system designer towards parameterized algorithms that treat network bandwidth and storage as one.