Fast Media Pod

Digital Media - Digital - Excellent Presentation Worth Viewing

2009-10-23T15:00:00.001-05:00

This has to be one of the best designed, and compelling presentations on the digital hemisphere that I've seen in a very long time. It's worth your giving it a view. David Gillespie did this and he did a great job.

Digital Strangelove (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet)

View more documents from David Gillespie.

Ultimate Gadget - Internet, Radio, 10,000 Channels in your ear

2009-07-02T12:54:00.002-05:00

I'm amazed at what we'll be hearing in the near future!

There's a video at the link at the end of this snippet from Lab Spaces with one of the investigators if this story interests you.

"MIT engineers have built a fast, ultra-broadband, low-power radio chip, modeled on the human inner ear, that could enable wireless devices capable of receiving cell phone, Internet, radio and television signals.

Rahul Sarpeshkar, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and his graduate student, Soumyajit Mandal, designed the chip to mimic the inner ear, or cochlea. The chip is faster than any human-designed radio-frequency spectrum analyzer and also operates at much lower power.

"The cochlea quickly gets the big picture of what's going on in the sound spectrum," said Sarpeshkar. "The more I started to look at the ear, the more I realized it's like a super radio with 3,500 parallel channels."

Sarpeshkar and his students describe their new chip, which they have dubbed the "radio frequency (RF) cochlea," in a paper in the June issue of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. They have also filed for a patent to incorporate the RF cochlea in a universal or software radio architecture that is designed to efficiently process a broad spectrum of signals including cellular phone, wireless Internet, FM, and other signals.

Copying the cochlea

Above: Rahul Sarpeshkar discusses research and education in his group and the intellectual challenge facing engineers at the frontiers of bioelectronics Credit: MIT
The RF cochlea mimics the structure and function of the biological cochlea, which uses fluid mechanics, piezoelectrics and neural signal processing to convert sound waves into electrical signals that are sent to the brain.

As sound waves enter the cochlea, they create mechanical waves in the cochlear membrane and the fluid of the inner ear, activating hair cells (cells that cause electrical signals to be sent to the brain). The cochlea can perceive a 100-fold range of frequencies — in humans, from 100 to 10,000 Hz. Sarpeshkar used the same design principles in the RF cochlea to create a device that can perceive signals at million-fold higher frequencies, which includes radio signals for most commercial wireless applications.

The device demonstrates what can happen when researchers take inspiration from fields outside their own, says Sarpeshkar."

Here's the link to the video:
http://www.labspaces.net/97881/Video__New_MIT_radio_chip_mimics_human_ear

I typically close with
See You on the Net!
In this case...Be Hearing from you on the Net!

Sincerely,
Peggy

Roundup of Webcasting - Iraq Based Soldier Witnesses Birth across World and other webcasting fun things!

2009-06-30T14:03:00.013-05:00

The first webcasting site noted is a pet website in beta. Along with your thinking....yep, seen that, done that. Still, it can put a smile on your face or amuse the kids (be they adult or young) for a few minutes - - Introducing My Pet Videos.TV http://www.mypetvideos.tv/

Here are some of the stories about the soldier who witnessed the birth of his child from across the world via webcasting!

Internet helps soldier witness son's birth Barron News Shield - Barron,WI,USA But Nate and Racheal are also technology savvy and were familiar with webcasting-a process by which video and audio signals can be transmitted over the ...

<http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20337358&BRD=1132&PAG=461&dept_id=157667&rfi=6>

The Internet isn't what it used to be -Pew at PM09 Atlanta

2009-02-17T09:35:00.008-05:00

We're in a multitasking world, as if we didn't know.

For example - 58% of readers are multitasking. Research from the Pew Institute sees this group multitasking with other media at the same time...such as a TV being on in the background. I'm an example of multitasking live, blogging while listening to a presentation by the Pew Institute at the Public Media Conference 09 presented by the Integrated Media Association. I grabbed the graphic from the Net at the same time.

On virtual worlds, Lee Rainie of the Pew Center says "You haven't seen anything yet!"

And the statistics are rising on different uses of virtual worlds, including the fact that some find immersive settings more meaningful. He added there's no reason to not see more use of immersive environments in education and other areas.

The graphic from the Pew Institute shows the differences between Internet use in 2000 and the latest statistics in 2008. 5% had broadband at home in 2000, and in 2008, 55% had broadband at home.

In 2000, 50% of us owned a cell phone, and in 2008, 80% own a cell phone.

A more detailed version of this will be available at the Pew Institute website.

Internet Radio Device Adding FM (FM Adding Internet Radio?)

2008-04-28T16:02:00.002-05:00

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uh, shouldn't this be the other way around?

This new internet radio adds FM, an Ethernet RJ45, built in Wi-Fi and wpa2 wi-fi sec. protocol.

With radio becoming more and more versatile every day, Tangent has tweaked its popular and critically acclaimed Quattro Internet radio.

To everything there is a season - turn - turn - click.

NBC Olympics 2008...Pivotal Internet Video Points

2008-04-20T15:09:00.000-05:00

I was shown a sneak peek of the NBC Olympics 2008 Beijing website set to launch this summer.

I think we'll look back and say this site launch was a pivotal point in time in the history of video on the Internet. (Another one will be the election in November in the US.)

What's in story this summer from NBC?

Hotspots in Video
In Video Navigation
Multiple Live Cameras (as in 4 or 5!) showing on your screen
Picture in Picture - where you can actually see and enjoy the small and large screen
Extensive search database - alerts of breaking news you want in video based on your preferences, and more.

I hope NBC does well with their website. It'll set a benchmark for other media companies, and I hope user generated content producers. To advance video quality and content distribution, let's hope all the bells and whistles on the website are 'best practices" for 2009 budgeting for all the media companies.

AOL and ESPN are doing great in the interactive sports race that includes video and portability on the Internet and beyond. We'll see how they cover the Olympics.

Now - this isn't web 2.0 or web 3.0 or web 4.0. It is just one of the things the net does and always what those of us in media envisioned. What will you call it? Who knows, but I hope you call it "good." Microsoft Silverlight was used to power the video portal multi-browser, multi-use Olympic website.

See you on the Net
Peggy

NBC Amazing.....TransMedia or Integrated Media - Heroes distributes

2008-04-20T14:39:00.002-05:00

NBC's Heroes gets around in the integrated marketing playground. In their case, one might call it a galaxy.

Here's where they play:

Video Commentary -web version goes live in 24 hours post show.
Clips - two-minute summaries, walk through, and video dossiers
Behind the Scenes - Mini-Docs
Wiki - Yep there....user generated content
Fan Site...user generated content
Innovative Video Content - Global News mock news reports
Weekly Comics and Interactive Graphic Novel
Mock Websites - links go to story related websites that really don't exist, but appear to do so. (This is a fun idea - primatech paper is an example)
WebCam Use - (Let the folks think they are back stage or snooping)
Mock Characters have pages on the social networking sites

Does this look real:
http://www.activatingevolution.org/

It's not - it's a fake PR site for the book on the show. At least I think it's fake?

You can't escape politics too. A characters has a site to run for congress at votepetrelli.com

Which brings me to the question. I was playing with a Carnegie Mellon interactive artificial intelligence online robot last night. Why not use this technology so the characters come to your crib or dorm room at say Zwicky, or second life, or face book to chat.

Or am I just way behind on this and it's been done?

If so - send me a link, and please connect with me. I want to know where you're surfing and what you're watching?

For a great chart of the interactive components in which I found out some of these features, you'll have to go to page 96 in the My 2008 issues of Fast Company. Sometimes print is easier to read, unless your screen is 19 inches or more.

The writer was David Kushner. I like. However, what really grabbed me was the cool layout of all their interactive elements and how they connected. You could see how print linked to recaps, web extras, video, fan generated content, mobile, online play, comics, even corporate spying!

If Fast Company would have put a link on the page to where it was on the Net, then perhaps Fast Company could say they're into integrated marketing. (Hint!)

See you on the Net

Peg

900 Channels or Video Applications on Facebook

2008-04-20T14:35:00.001-05:00

70% of discovery of new videos is done on Facebook Profile pages, according to a Facebook executive I was talking to in London a few weeks ago.

I was snooping around Facebook applications. There were 900 plus links for video related applications. Are search engines ever going to catch up with video search, or do they need to do so?

I can tell you this. I tried to find any of the live NAB webcasts, now on archive on the Net and can't find a thing. Where would you look? We've got a long way to go in the search process.

No one sent me a link, but I am pretty sure it is up on the net. I remember that Mogulus http://www.mogulus.com/ was webcasting something, so I wonder if I can find anything on their website. Then, there's tvworldwide but they're doing only the military operation to help the troops, and I can't find the video anywhere on the NAB website.

There's an NAB 365...which for some reason isn't letting me sign up to get further information from a couple of their vendors.Back to the drawing board.

If I do find NAB session videos - I'll post them to the NAB Blog and also to one of my blogs.

Cheers! See you on the Net

YaGoogle the Marketing of MicroHoo on the Net T-shirts....

2008-02-11T16:35:00.000-05:00

Yes. Ebay was a natural.

Sorry, no underwear found yet!

Microsoft-Yahoo - MicroHoo - www.microhoo.com a Microhoot.....and MicroHoo T-shirts too.

2008-02-11T13:36:00.000-05:00

=====================================================================================

I ended up by accident on an image search...and ran into a microhoo logo, not one, not two...but if I spent all day searching with you...we might find about a 100 logo mashups of the hoo with the mic or the ya with the micro from around the world.

Okay, I'll vote for "Microhoo" as the buzzword of the year (anything to upset 2.0 and social), but it's actually older news than I would have imagined.

I don't know who grabbed the microhoo.com domain website, but I was curious. To the early cyber squatter who's trying to sell it today and get a few bucks from his adsense ads!

I salute you Mr/Ms. "cybersquatter" for your sense of humor and/or your drive for a buck.

But I don't know if you're the person poised to make all the money off this deal on the Net. (Let's leave the Yahoo execs aside for now.)

It's spawned a micro industry of merchandising, but I'm saving the textile mashups until the next post since I have to get back to the original research I set out to do on Microsoft and Yahoo. I found this distraction, this exercise in branding, line extension rather amusing.

Oh by far...we're not done with this. I started running into MicroHoo Logos by the dozen. My vote for the #1 of the top 10 microhoots is not in yet, but the graphic that has got my vote....the fish eat fish one! What a Microhoot.

Forgive me for that, so moving on,

I had to see who was the microhoo.com mogul.
Domain Name: microhoo.com - Status: Client Prohibited - Godaddy.com
Expiration Date: 2008-05-04
Creation Date: 2006-05-04 (2006 registered? Geez, it's a toddler.)
Last Update Date: 2008-02-06

No luck, so it was back to logos.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where were these logos and fish found? Why Google images of course. " -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yacrosoft and Yahwin, better luck next time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers! See you on the Net!
----------------------------
---------------------------

PS T-shirts and Undies next? Good thing Microsoft has not been interested in buying that bar and restaurant where an "owl" so to speak is the mascot. Come to find out, guys think it's another mammal.

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I found references in more languages than I knew existed. I guess it's a trip to wikipedia to read about the history of "microhoo".Dvice.com had the vision to post the fishy graphic. I found a logo www.kizilotesi.net/?q=haberdetay&haber=40

The pics were from Japan, Italy to Denmark and more.
http:// www.kizilotesi.net/?q=haberdetay&haber=40
from http://www.winfuture.de. There's yahwin, and www.tie-blog.com calling it Yacrosoft.

Flektor - Testing It Out, This is only a test of photos-graphics found on a hard drive here.

2008-02-09T22:34:00.000-05:00

MIT Media Lab....Your Conference Badges know more than you do.

2008-02-04T19:47:00.001-05:00

Where do you go at a conference? How long did you stay? Did you back track and waste time?

MIT charts your path and that of others with conference badges. How about a small video camera to capture your experience too.

I'd have the URL to give to you but unfortunately I have the worst luck with blogs and I got this. Uh, where do I report this? How many clicks does it take until you find the "report this" on Google Help?

MIT Media Lab....Your Conference Badges know more than you do.

2008-02-04T19:47:00.000-05:00

Where do you go at a conference? How long did you stay? Did you back track and waste time?

MIT charts your path and that of others with conference badges. How about a small video camera to capture your experience in the middle of the tag.

I'd have the URLto give to you but unfortunately I have the worst luck with blogs and I got this. Uh, where do I report this? How many clicks does it take until you find the "report this" on Google email/form?

I love the free service, but I'd prefer they not mimic the mystery error codes like that of Microsoft. Yes, I did lose my original data - just like Microsoft does when it says - "We had to close this...and the data you will be working on may be lost". Google didn't say that. Google I love you guys....but my blogs are all messed up. I can't get into some of them? Yep, spell check didn't open either.

Video AdSense - the Video Scramble for Ad Dollars continues...

2007-11-14T14:24:00.000-05:00

blogger.com promoted the following on their home page today. (This is on their sign-in page for folks with blogs.) The big boys are jumping in with both feet to the video space to compete for advertising dollars.

Here's their promotional video http://adsense.blogspot.com/2007/10/introducing-video-units.html MediaPost today said Candidates slow to use search ads.

Do you see the strategy unfolding....

AdSense recently introduced a feature called video units, that lets you include relevant YouTube video on your blog, and make money from ads on it. Here’s what they have to say about it:

"We're excited about the launch of video units -- a new way to enrich your blog with quality, relevant video content in an embedded, customizable player. Simply embed a snippet of code and have relevant YouTube partner content streamed to your blog. You can choose categories of video to target to your site, select content from individual YouTube partners, or have video automatically targeted to your blog's content. Companion and text overlay ads are relevant and non-intrusive. To further blend the YouTube player into your blog, you can also customize the color scheme and layout as well as choose from three different player sizes."AdSense Help has some more information about video units. Once you’ve created the code for a video unit, you can easily add it to your blog’s template using an HTML/JavaScript page element.

Here's the FAQ on Video AdSense https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=12966

Here's one of Google's original blogs on the subject...a few months back if you'd like to catch up to speed.

http://adsense.blogspot.com/2007/05/adsense-coming-to-video-near-you.html brings you back to what they envisioned while it was in beta if you'd like to catch up as told by Christine Lee AdSense Product Marketing Manager

http://adsense.blogspot.com/2006/05/video-ads-your-questions-answered_26.html will bring you to a FAQ.

http://www.hitsearchlimited.com/news/999116/ This link mentions Google AdSense Video Units and the AdSense Product Manager Ryan Hayward (This is a blog originating out of Liverpool.

MediaPost Story on use of search engines for political reasons - http://www.hitsearchlimited.com/news/999116/ - note - I'm looking for specific video adsense use in Political Campaigns and it would be nice to track that and find out who is advertising and why. I expect policy groups, lobbyists, associations might find good use of this to place a video advocacy ad. Of course - one expects the candidates - 50% use text.

I think I'll ask Glenn Gaudet of podcast.com to estimate the number of blogs associated with politics, specifically that are using audio and video. Maybe he's seen a good google video adsense example he can share, or at least a smaller website using this. Here's Glenn from last Friday in Washington DC at http://www.digitalmediavip.com/. I suspect he's also on the facebook group digital media vip too.

DigitalMediaVIP.com

2007-11-11T13:52:00.000-05:00

Wow - what a great group of people. I'm amazed by those that came in from out of town. Alas, I didn't have time nor space to invite more people since our space could only fit 50. Wasn't Caroline Little, CEO and Publisher of the Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive washingtonpost.com fabulous and so nice to join in the conversations? She really didn't have time to come this week and she stayed a bit longer than I expected and showed up early. (How she does that I don't know).

Adam Clayton Powell III got up at avery early hour - I'm guessing 4 AM to fly into DC for us that afternoon. Again, I'm frustrated because he was showing off all these great new things and I was multitasking to make sure we had every thing in order at the Washington Yacht Club.

It was determined that we'd open up the Digital Media VIP facebook group to all, and somehow designate those folks who have been coming to these events. The topic du jour was Digital Media: Politics, Social Networking and Communities. Even though this was my own event, I can't help but say I'm tired of conventions and events, I've been to way too many in the last month.

Roger Dean was my partner in this digital media mashup. He's the partner in crime, not to be confused with the rap group in New Orleans, Partners N Crime made up of Kango Slim, and Sister Felicia. (No, I haven't listened to them but worth supporting artists in Louisiana. I hope they are positive in their rapping.)

Tom DesJardines was stellar with the location and help, of course. We missed the creative director Mike.

Newt and the Naked Avatar, Virtual World Video Search and other ditties.

2007-10-03T14:23:00.000-05:00

Wait a second, I’ll get to the naked lass in a second.

BBC aired a program entitled The Money Programme in early June of this year that focused on virtual worlds including Second Life and Lord of the Rings Online. The show was broadcast on traditional TV in the UK and within Second Life.

Now, that’s it over, where do I find it? Are there business plans yet for virtual world video search engines? Have you seen a search engine that recalls video on second life and puts you into that world? Virtual Video Youtube?

How far will this go into the real world of persuasion and influence?

GamePolitics.com reports on the political of gaming, and includes politics in games. The Politico site sticks mainly to politics but anything goes. GamePolitics.com commented…

"How important is it for a candidate to maintain a presence in Second Life? Not very, according to several presidential campaign strategists. Website Politico spoke with senior officials from the campaigns of Republicans Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani at a recent forum on new media. Also present were advisers to Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

While acknowledging the importance of web-based campaigning and the emerging potential for text messaging to reach potential voters, the strategists were less sanguine about the political benefits of Second Life: The panelists also doubted the usefulness, for now, of campaigning in the online universe Second Life, in which some candidates have virtual campaign offices."

Time will tell. An intriguing question, one would wonder is how the campaign laws will treat virtual donations if they happen to be converted to cold cash?

(GamePolitics.com - an interesting site for breaking video gaming and virtual world news. A headline for a recent article screamed, "Newt Gingrich Speaks in Second Life, Gets Heckled, Greeted by Naked Female Avatar" It's worth a trip to gamepolitics.com to see how they are covering a virtual news story. About 50 avatars were attending, complete with protesters. Those who were along for the get together are quick to mention that Gingrich's figure was approached by a "lovely" young figure, " who arrived moments before her clothes did."

YouTube link courtesy of Game Politics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UbADZklwe0
(This is Newt in real life with the screen behind him in Second Life live. The lass does not seem to be visually present on this clip. I'm a bit surprised she hasn't put out a press release.)

Best Regards,
Peg

PS A colleague commented to me, "How about trading politicians like we trade football players. A politician trades countries, takes up his position in a virtual world, and off he goes."

Virtual Video Worlds or Video in Virtual Worlds, Second Life and Streaming, TBS hops about the broadcast migration.

2007-10-03T14:20:00.000-05:00

TBS announced they are developing new virtual worlds that will include embedded video. Their partner in creation is Atlanta based Kaneva, who create components of video games and virtual worlds. The Hollywood Reporter noted that "The sites will have embedded video players with streaming content as well as social networking and 3-D capabilities." and likely will involve the company's non animated properties like TBS and Court TV. Noted was the fact that Warner Brothers (Time Warner) is building virtual worlds with cartoon characters. Disney (new owner of Club Penguin) and CBS have a site in Second Life. MTV offers several virtual world connections based on different programming.

Next Post...Newt and the Naked Avatar...and other virtual world ditties.

See you on the Net!
Peggy

Live Streaming Companies Funded - Different or the Same? Lifecasting? Justin.tv plus 20 or 30 others....

2007-10-03T07:44:00.000-05:00

Justin.TV has received funding for their Lifecasting website. (Paid Content Rafat Ali mentioned that this was an "actual live streaming service." (Actual?)

If you've been into streaming media, webcasting, broadcasting on the net, downloading for 10 years, like many of us here on this webcasting membership, you may be looking for that differentiation between the different websites of this type and who has the edge today?

What do you see differing from the previous websites that did this prior to the dot com blast, and do you see innovations worth noting? How many of these sites can the marketplace support and offer a return to investors? (We do have technological improvements, bandwidth increases, and a larger community aware and using audio and video, but where's the edge?)

As many of you know - you'll always find good news blurbs and stories from paidcontent.org from Rafat and his reporters. Here's the news clip today mentioning a couple of other "live video sites" or webcasting or streaming media locations.

"Justin. TV, the website for the “lifecasting” phenomena of sorts, is now relaunching as an actual live streaming service, allowing any user to broadcast live video for free. It has entered a crowded files with the likes of Paltalk, Stickcam, Operator911, Mogulus, Kyte.tv, and many others. The company has also raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Alsop Louie Partners. The site launched in October last year where founder Justin Kan had a webcam attached to his cap and the video was streamed live on the website. It developed into a community of sorts, and the new service hopes to replicate it for others."

Will it succeed and Why?

See you on the Net,
Peg

RSS and Community

2007-02-02T08:47:00.000-05:00

What's new is old again. It seems a lot of people are confused by the community aspects of new media and personal broadcasting. The terms fly about user-created content, and community this and that.

Most of us know, by common sense, there will be a portion of the public that will love to get their names in lights, or contribute their time, photos, video, or other personal or professional items to the greater community. Their motivations may be to make a difference, or to make them feel unique, or to get an ego boost, or to commuicate frustrations, attack others or help others. It may be they feel alone. The motivations are different but all have common threads.

We may feel something by connecting with others, no matter the form of communication. It may be we express our issues, because we can, and it's our form of communication. If you stumble on old letters of your parents, grandparents, or that of earlier generations, there are many of the same issues. You could simply change the dates on the letters, put it up on a blog, and it would be new, or would it be old?

For 10 years, I've been thinking about the digital soul. What makes the Internet into the next version, and in which it really crosses the barrier to touching and reaching out to someone. I thought about writing a book on this long and hard, mostly to figure this out for myself, and find out other opinions from smart people.

Yes - you can touch someone, but there's still something missing in this technology tangle of connections. Even when you go to a webpage today, it's impersonal and distant, despite the personal photos and words.

In a cover story I wrote awhile back on Bill Gates and digital media for Digital Media Magazine (Streamline Publications), I labeled this (current) generation the digital me generation. It was about the new ability to have better control over our interactions, media, communications.

Once we can do all this, I still wonder if we really will have control, or perhaps we will feel that we do.

Pre-Coffee ramblings,
Peg

Does it Take a New Intel 2 Dual Core Chip to Really Watch Video and Multi-Task?

2006-12-09T17:05:00.000-05:00

Have you had your computer work life slow down to a crawl? It's more frustrating than the traffic around Washington, DC!

My Dell has been hanging up (E1505). I'd go get a cup of coffee or rather could go get lunch when it was downloading email from Outlook 2003 and resolving on some web pages. I was frustrated when a client or colleague would call me up and say - let's look at that file I just sent you. I'd have to make small talk or call back.

I'm a heavy heavy multitasker, and it gets rather annoying going to another computer (many folks who rely heavily on computers for their jobs may use an older laptop or another computer as their secondary computer or screen) to surf or process. Then, they may go back to the main computer to check emails, etc if things drag, and vice-versa.

That was just not convenient to me to have two screens everyplace I work, nor comfortable in my setting. I'm often traveling, and there's no way to really take two screens along, so I'd often resort to the one screen. If you do email on a couch in other rooms, it's just not practical. Now, maybe Mark Cuban has it set up so he has a number of screens in every room, on his private jet, and projecting from his mobile phone net connection, but it's just not practical for mainstream users.

I broke down and had to get (didn't have to)...but who wants to wait for a computer and waste an hour or two a day... when you already live half your life on it. I was estimating I was wasting at least 1 hour a day at least waiting for things on the computer. I tried all the techniques to speed up things, and read and tried many of the tips, and what other software might be dragging down my computer. I'm pretty redundant and daily on virus software, and online virus testing from some of the recommended online virus websites. Unfortunately, everybody should be these days.

Who wants to sit around and stare at a screen that is working for so long, you forget what you actually were waiting to do on the computer? Please tell me I'm not the only one who forgets what they were looking for while waiting for Outlook to do its deeds. Who wants to read the same paragraph twice, or get stuck on a webpage?

I got a rather close to top of the line notebook, a Dell XPS M1710. Those who get into this, the speed is quite high wirh Intel's new T7600 chips. You don't need to know any of this, nor the hard drive speed, and all other features UNTIL you want to really make sure you're getting the computer you want at the best price.

The best price I found anywhere was from online power sellers at EBAY Express. Many recommend to just buy from power sellers with great reviews if you're doing a purchase over $1000.00. I heartily agree. There was one guy I had to report to Ebay that they have now banned since he had hacked into someone else's ebay account and was trying to get folks to send them checks, or payment. I don't wait for the auctions, I use the buy it now selection. Do talk to or email the buyer before you buy and verify information. Reputable power sellers are more than glad to do so, and send you their address and other identifying information. I'd highly recommend buying a computer from someone that is selling multiple computers and has sold some in the last couple of weeks. A guy selling tire rims by the dozens who then comes up and is selling one top of the line computer may not be able to transfer the warranty, nor really know what they are selling, or even have the device yet.

So...My goal is to be able to do outlook, leave a video or audio running, browse the net, maybe check a PowerPoint or Excel and not have Outlook stop everything including the browser when the system just couldn't handle all the activities. (The old Dell did have 2 Gigs of Ram.)

I selected a 17 inch screen (weighs more) but staring at computers for way too long and trying to figure out some of the small text in PDF documents (without zooming) was getting way too old. I want to have a web browser on the right and outlook on the left of the screen.

In essence, my new processor should be about twice as fast as my old processor on the computer, although I'm sure someone who really knows computers will tell me the exact speed increase (and relative percentage) from this and the (older) Dell.

So..after spending two hours downloading updates from Microsoft Updates, Dell Updates, McAfee updates, and having to reboot a total of 15 times, I'm on the new computer. I think the first update I did from Microsoft was 47 updates. Then, I had to update Office programs, and numerous security fixes, virus updates, and the like. Plan on spending about 3 or 4 hours getting your new computer up to speed just on updates, no matter what you purchase. You can skip some of the updates, but who wants a new computer to collect viruses, have software or hardware conflicts right out of the box.

To Be Continued. Peg

When my coputer arrived, a friend of mine says why aren't you excited about your new computer and running to open it up immediately? Alas, I was dreading the hours of updates necessary to just keep your computer safe before you even use it.

I still have a lot of work to do. I have to configure all my email accounts and move over some software and programs and data. That's another day or so to do. I have a faster usb pc to pc link on order which should be dropped off in the mail in a day or so to speed things up. If you have any tips, please let me know.

Podzinger...audio and video search

2006-08-09T10:24:00.000-05:00

PodZinger This audio and video search start-up moved into new offices in Cambridge last week and cut the cord with its parent company, BBN Technologies, which provided $5 million in financing. BBN's first consumer spinout, PodZinger uses speech recognition technology to create a text index letting customers subscribe to and download podcasts. Users of the technology can find content anywhere within podcasts and jump to the points where key words are spoken.
- according to Boston.com

(I'll need to compare this to the search engine run by tveyes.com)

Remember BBN?

I remember going to BBN offices in about 1994 and saw a voice activated remote control. Then - that was absolutely incredible. It seems like they are still in it - and in it deeper. They have been working on speech recognition since the early 70's.

If the name rings a bell - in 1969 launched the Arpanet.

My first attempt with PodZinger alerts me that it's a work in progress. (Aren't they all?)
the error message said the audio had to close...because of an add-on program with the RealPlayer ActiveX Control. It also shut down my browser.

Here's what the Microsoft error page sent back to me...Error caused by RealPlayer: contact RealNetworks, Inc. for help, Thank you for submitting an error report.
Problem description The error was likely caused by RealPlayer. This software was created by RealNetworks, Inc.. Recommendation Microsoft has researched this problem with RealNetworks, Inc., and they do not currently have a specific solution for the problem that you reported. For help on RealPlayer, visit the following RealNetworks, Inc. support site.
RealNetworks, Inc.

Consumers don't need this.

Videoonthenet.com

2006-08-09T10:05:00.000-05:00

I'll be (with luck) in Boston moderating a few panels, and other things on Sept 12-14th for Jeff Pulver's new/(actual old) (but that's a long story) conference.

It's been interesting places speakers for Jeff and talking about the new wave of broadcast2.0 or whatever we're calling it today.

I want to thank a lot of friends for answering my call without any information on what they were speaking on - where and for what show....and rerouting to Boston.

A couple that come to mind -Caroline Little - COO of the Washington Post/Newsweek. Rick Ducey - VP of BIA Financial and President of Spectrarep who got a 2 line email from me months ago - asking can you do this and said Yes - without much information at all. Travis from RedSwoosh, and Jeremy Allaire Brightcove were quick to answer too.

Thanks

StreamSage went to Comcast, August 25th digital media vip in Chantilly - and Congratulations to the new Time Warner Cable pundit and Tom DesJardines..

2006-08-09T10:04:00.000-05:00

The Video Search engine StreamSage sold to Comcast a year or two ago. I'm trying to find one of the founders Seth Murray. He had been to the DC digital media vip events.
www.digitalmediavip.com (outdated, but you'll see on advisors we have a fun group.)

Seth - if this gets your way - August 25th in Chantilly - a number of us are getting together for drinks at BoneFish. Skip Pizzi from Microsoft found the location. We hope to get "Tom" off his new sailboat and congratulate him on his sale to AOL. (Tom DesJardines Lightningcast)

Also -our friend Eric Manchester - AOL Broadband Operations - moved over to Time Warner Cable leading efforts in streaming and more.

testing live webcasting by phone with William Mutual, founder of ComVu

2006-03-26T14:55:00.000-05:00

This is one of those "videos" we'll look back at in a few years and say - Wow - that was "interesting" in respect to content and quality.

But what I did was grab a cell phone and start a live webcast.
It then went live over the net.
You can hear someone else watching it on my phone call, (happens to be William Mutual - founder/CEO of comvu.com)
I am heard talking about what he was watching and I was watching.
This is low light, lounging on a bed, chatting on the phone, laptop laying next to me.

You can see the practical use of starting a live webcast that sends an emergency feed to the police department.

Video to anyone, anywhere on the planet by my mobile phone.

this is the link to the test archive. click here -

NOTE:

This was my pointing the phone to find any available source of "movement" in my home. Sorry, no dog or cat activity. They didn't want anything to do with it.

Please bear with the content.

This is a test with no intentions of any content value rather than seeing if you could instantly do a live webcast on a Sprint phone.

Funny thing is on this smartphone - you can't get any of the Sprint TV content, but I can webcast live and view webcast content on my phone, but no Sprint TV services.

Well. Is there still a debate regarding "walled garden"?

Watch 1000's of TV Channels for Free - Video Search Engines, Consumer Electronics Show, ESPN Mobile

2006-01-25T23:36:00.000-05:00

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas a few weeks back was great, but grueling. I didn't get to 10% of the events and booths that I wanted to see. I hope I can closely review the new developments at CES and share them with you - if I can.

In the meantime...as I was doing a bit of net research, I ran into this.

PCShowBuzz - an Internet Video Search Engine for Beginners?

Tonight - while I was surfing...I ran into PCShowBuzz. The offer was interesting.

$29.95 to search, find and watch 1000's of TV Channels for free. http://www.inklineglobal.com/products/tvo/index.htm

It's a software download interface and a list of internet video links you install on your computer. (At least that's what I've read.) The users I found on the Net say they can't find anything live that they wanted. Interestingly - they were looking for live, not downloads. Perhaps it's the way this company is advertising its product or perhaps there's a need. It's obvious that we're not at the content level expected. I wonder what the drivers are for live, besides the obvious Sports, News... Do you have thoughts?

This site reviewed PCShowBuzz

http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/internet.html

I also found out that PCShowBuzz has ads running on Tucows and elsewhere. They offer a "radio" link product as well. I don't know if they update the guides once you buy the system. There is limited information regarding their technology or software anywhere I could find.

Video Search Engines

Why was I looking at this company?

I haven't found a good video search engine yet, that has a pleasing interface and information, where I can flip through the channels like a TV, but also find out what I'm looking for through a search. I believe RSS will be the way some of my content will come down to me.

But there's another element that I haven't found in the video space...

Do you go off on tangents linking on the Net, or flipping channels in TV? Where is that equivalent with web video, an intelligently random feature?

http://www.blinkx.com/ isn't bad. What's better? Is TiVo the best DVR software out there, does Microsoft Media Player/and partners now have everything in it to match the TiVo experience?

Are their any illegal or any types of software that may be hot that you've been wondering about?

Go see the new ESPN Mobile Phone...and let me know what you think? I believe that Manish and his crew did outstanding work on the interface. I'm not an avid sports fan so I'm not the one to judge it and I only had about 10 minutes to play with it at CES. I didn't need any help navigating at all! However, I talked to the Promotions Director Megan at ESPN and told her that I might need to go to the eye doctor after viewing the multimedia on the device. The text wasn't to my liking. She then told me I could change the text. It was great to know that they thought about that too. Usually - the answer is "we'll take your great suggestion consideration." That interface is going to win some awards.

Let me know what is out there that you find interesting...

See you on the net.
Peg

One of our list members mentioned this link list: http://www.webtvlist.com/

Podcast Metrics...Audible and Apple. How long do people actually listen? They know!

2005-12-12T22:53:00.000-05:00

I finally caught up with Frank Barnako (MarketWatch) for coffee in Washington, DC. Frank founded CBS Marketwatch.com. You can hear him daily on the radio and is well known for one of the longest running newletters about the Net.

We had been trying to connect for a bit, and hadn't seen each other in years.

He was kind enough to sit on an IPTV panel at Government Video and add his wit and wisdom a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed his banter, as did the rest of the panelists and the audience.

As I was surfing today - I noticed that Frank had caught something in a New York Times article this summer that I had missed. Perhaps you did as well.

"What will Apple do?
Sunday New York Times article buries the lead: "... Audible's exclusive agreement with Apple runs through September 2007; under that agreement, Apple cannot charge for spoken-word programming other than Audible's." Full story. Frank's personal blog. http://barnako.typepad.com/barnakocom/

Audible may end up collecting a large quantity of content for resale until 2007.

In the case of Howard Stern (Sirius Satellite Radio Air Personality), he may not need Audible to promote his audio programs. Let's imagine that Stern via Sirius Satellite Radio repackages different programs, comedy bits for resale, or creates his own audio portfolio. Will Audible be an attractive place to promote the Stern content?

With five payment services (Paypal and Bitpass to name a couple) offering micropayments for podcasts, Howard Stern doesn't have to use Audible. He can syndicate and sell his content through RSS, and doesn't need an Audible. He can promote his shoes on Sirius or through his own website or other methods. It would depend on his contract with Sirius.

His situation is unique. Many other content owners need a service that promotes and markets a program, or provides the beginning to end solution. Podcasters and content providers may or may not use Audible. It depends on the revenue share, the ease of use, and...of course marketing.

Audible has existing exclusive contracts with a number of book publishers and others. Audible has an extensive library and consumers can find the information in one place. That's an advantage that will help Audible as the marketplace becomes more competitive.

How Long Did That Person Listen to That Podcast or Video Blog?

Here's another interesting tidbit about Audible. They have the technology to tell you exactly how long a person listened to a podcast or audio program. It's just a matter of a little code and
Audible "throwing" the switch. Perhaps it's already in play.

Here's how I understand that this happened. The first Audible players downloaded part of the"book on tape" that you had requested and sent it to a portable player. The first portable media players didn't have the space to hold an entire book on tape. Once you finished listening to the first section, or whenever you docked your portable media player, the Audible software system "talking to the player" would figure out where you stopped listening and load more audio, say the next section or chapter of the book. That information can provide most of the the data necessary to figure out how long someone has listened to a podcast and may also provide other metrics of interest.

The other company that could quickly provide podcast or video blogging metrics would be?

Apple.

That wasn't too hard to guess since they also have a closed system where they can monitor everything from software to hardware to content.

Best,
Peggy

Interested in metrics on portable devices.
(John Federico, Audible.com, was on my panel at podcastexpo.com/portablemediaexpo.com
on audience metrics.) Here's John's blog. http://johnfederico.brandbrains.net/
He's also blogging officially for audible.com http://blogs.audible.com/podcasting/

John mentions a few of the features built into audible that can tie into
user and advertising metrics:

Audible's ow ".aa"
format.... ... AudibleReady platform: bookmarks, chapter marks, saved playback state and playback capability on 140 devices. ...(The Audible file format has the largest base of playback devices, second only to mp3.)"

(The metrics panel at podcast expo/portable media exp included: Dave Van Dyke - Bridge Ratings, Diane Williams - Arbitron, Mark Donovan - M:Metrics, John Federico, Audible.com, Peggy Miles - Intervox, (that's me.) and Mark McCrery - Podtrac.

As a personal note. It's great to see the company that pioneered downloading of
audio maintaining a strong position. You can see the first audible player in the Smithsonian.

Here's more about Frank...

Frank Barnako has co-founded three Internet ventures, including CBS MarketWatch.com where he's managed the company's Washington unit and launched the company's radio network four years ago. The Network provides newscasts twice an hour, seven days a week to 240 stations, making it the largest business radio network in the U.S. Affiliates include WTOP Washington, WINS New York and WBBM Chicago. He is also the editor of Internet Daily, the
oldest column about the business of the Internet, which he has written since 1996. A daily audio version of the column is also distributed by the CBS Radio network.

Prior to his involvement with the Internet, Barnako had careers in radio and television broadcasting and management.

List of Free Upload and Video Content Service Companies

2005-11-28T22:17:00.001-05:00

You'll find some video or video related web sites I'm watching in this space below. These sites offer various online video services. Some offer free video uploads, video micropayments, video subscription services, video content distribution network hosting, video portal creation software and more.

veoh.com. Veoh is funded and "boarded" by media players and net influentials. They are soliciting videos from the web community and will serve them on their website for free.
ourmedia.org
Ourmedia is a free public archive for everyone to upload and share their personal content, it can be text, audio, music or video. Their mission is to help others store and share work around the world at no cost.
ifilm.com
IFILM is a video-entertainment web portal, offering channels of movies, short films, TV clips, video-game trailers, music videos, action sports and its celebrated Viral Videos collection. IFILM.com delivers more than 30 million streams per month, making it one of the top ten streaming media sites in the world. Through its distribution partners, including Real Networks, WindowsMedia, MovieWeb, Rotten Tomatoes, Starpulse and AskMen, the IFILM Network reaches more than 20 million buzz-building visitors per month. The Network offers unique brand-building programs for blue-chip advertising partners, including Activision, Capitol Records, Warner Brothers Entertainment, Toyota, Apple Computer, Heineken and Chrysler.IFILM is a privately held company based in Hollywood, California, with investors that include Axiom Ventures, Inc., Eastman Kodak Company, Liberty Digital, Rainbow Media, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Vulcan Ventures, Inc.
Yahoo Video Search, Yahoo Personalized Home Page, Podcasting Beta Page and online content producers.
https://upload.video.google.com/ Google Video, Expect contextual video and text ad insertion.
Prodigem - If you want to sell your movie or your own high quality album download, Prodigem helps you to do that. They take a 10 percent commission and applicable credit card fees.
YouTube.com - upload, share and "tag" your videos!
olivelink.com - streaming video do it yourself through a pointer to your video files.
http://www.omn.org/ - Open Media Network, I've tested this and the software worked well. I didn't find enough video content that I liked a month or so ago. That has probably changed. You upload your videos to the Open Media Network. They offer a video reader and options to send your video to portable devices.
Podcasting Advertising Networks, kiptronic, podvertising (background in DSP), podtrac and others.
Streaming Ad insertion - lightningcast.com and others.
http://www.participatoryculture.org/ has a system called the Broadcast Machine. It helps with uploads, integrates RSS, provides ways for you to list Metadata. The system is based on BitTorrent P2P. This program can only be used on the Mac at this time
Akamai, limelight, and the audio/video content distribution networks offer specialized audio and video based hosting from different locations around the world.
Video Content Portals Software and Systems. Some of these systems include subscription or individual download pricing. You decide on the subscriptions or flat costs per download and the software does all the work. theplatform.com, accordent.com, media-publisher.com are three examples.
P2P streaming sites. RedSwoosh.com and others serve streaming content owners
ComVu is William Mutual's new company that allows you to upload video and stream to phones with just a few clicks. The results are immediate.
MobiTV. The largest content aggregator and host for mobile video content.
nontonBlog a server side mobile video blogging tool for Linux/Unix (public domain)
http://freevlog.org/ - step by step guide to setting up a video blog.
BitPass and PayPal are provide transaction services to the audio/video community. They have just started offering affordable credit card micropayment transactions.
feedburner.com - a podcast/video blog tool that tracks video blogging use and information. Tonight's favorite video blog on feedburner was offered by a "dominant" female.
vlogmap.org has a small but growing list of video bloggers posted by their physical location on a map. Some video bloggers may not want to advertise their "physical" location. This video log map showcases video bloggers country by country, and city by city.
http://vlogdir.com/ This is a vlog or video blogging directory. They are featuring a video blog from Rock N Roll TV. It's episode 7 - and here's a description of the content and the file sizes.

Rock n Roll TV - Episode #7: Click to play. 25Mb, Windows version 37M, iPod version 22Mb

Description:
It's part of the rocker experience to get ink'd.......so we went in search of a great tattoo shop here in LA and found one with Vintage Tattoo. From the owner, Baba to legends Rick Walters and Tennessee Dave James who have both been tattooing a verrrry long time, Vintage Tattoo was a perfect place for my Friday Night Tattoo. And before you ask....no, it didn't hurt too much.

I'm looking for other sites disrupting the current media ecosystem. In particular, some video blogging content that is a little different than the rest. (The video blog site I usually recommend if you've never been to one is www.rocketboom.com.)

As always - let me know if I'm off base or my data needs an update or a correction.

Thanks! See you on the Net.
Peg

Internet TV Companies Raise Funds. Innovators - Brightcove,

2005-11-28T22:17:00.000-05:00

Internet TV Startup BrightCove raised 16.2 for their Internet TV network last week. It's their second round of funding. Barry Diller is on their Board. They closed a deal with AOL.

Brightcove

The BrightCove blogs said this, 'In practical sense, the agreement with AOL reveals one of the ways we plan to give publishers very powerful means to build their Internet TV businesses by leveraging the distribution that AOL.com can provide to reach consumers and ultimately to make publishers money. We very much believe that Internet syndication, whether it's to a major web destination like AOL.com or a network of smaller affiliates is going to be one of the defining characteristics of Internet TV. "

Syndication as defined in the RSS world is still my bet as the early syndication leader. The challenge I see now for Video RSS is that the current state of podcasting and videoblogging client software (reader or viewer) still leaves a little to be desired. I suspect that will be solved soon by Yahoo.com or one of the many podcast/soon to be video blogging client software programs.

Portable Media and Podcasters Converge in Los Angeles

2005-11-12T12:15:00.000-05:00

I didn't know what to expect of a podcast expo or portable media expo. I assumed I'd be meeting people who are excited about creating their own audio podcasts, and some technology providers.

The event at the Ontario Convention Center (near Los Angeles) is the brainchild of Tim Bourquin. You'll find the agenda at portablemediaexpo.com or podcastexpo.com

What I didn't expect was this.

Heavyweights around every corner.

They weren't necessarily wearing badges...but you'd recognize the faces.

The older Internet companies were circulating, friends we know in the media business, and content providers of podcasts like Disney, Whirlpool and others. Yahoo brought a team. Interestingly, I haven't seen anyone from Apple. NPR had a presence on a keynote, and are finding podcasting a very valuable and popular service for their listeners. I saw some familiar faces from the radio world. I met a few investors. There were visitors from the Netherlands, China, Korea and other parts. As expected, consumer electronics companies were in the mix.

On the user or individual creator side....

There seems to be a new breed of excited, passionate individuals creating their own podcasts. Some of them making significant money - unbelievable as it seems through adsense, amazon and other links off their podcasts or blogs or websites. Others - it's a labor of love. They are into advertising models, sponsorships, per inquiry methods, direct sales, contributions and who knows what. An old radio friend - David Lawrence (net music countdown, online tonight, the davidlawrenceshow.com) has launched a real estate podcast network or portal at www.newhomepodcast.com A few companies including PayPal were pushing their micropayment solutions. The commissions were reasonable.

It was a mini-focus group for those of us who are involved in this area but have not had time to talk to this new generation of podcasters. The podcasters are quite similar to the group of individuals that do their own webcasts in their passion and interests. I've met the most diverse group of people from professionals and hobbyists who are driving the new distribution model of RSS, and aggregation services. I'd expected to see a few more rebels of a sort, but only saw one goth looked purple haired woman with a crown, and a few others that you wouldn't see at broadcast conventions. Someone mentioned there was a drag queen about, but I didn't see him.

I was very surprised that the conference sessions were sold out and the attendees were technology companies, a content providers and podcasters, investors, and a little of this and a little of that.

One my session yesterday - Orb Networks (get your media from anywhere using the Net or phone or any other portable device ), limelight (CDN), RedSwoosh (remember Scour.net - Same folks!) p2p Streaming, and Veoh - a contributed video site with plans to package or integrate advertising in the future. Veoh said they accepted all types of video - including, as the founder mentioned, a rather robust of adult media content. They do filter for children and other visitors. Veoh seems to have a model in some ways like current - Al Gore's user contributed web enterprise. The panel had an interesting dynamic, I don't think anyone said streaming or downloading was better or worse. Befitting the show - on-demand was the topic and focus for the most part. What I found very interesting in looking into their backgrounds is who is funding these companies, and who's on their board of directors. I'll post later some of the names.

Today - my session is on metrics for podcasting (and of course this applies to video blogging).
On this panel - Arbitron, Podtrac.com, BridgeRatings and m-metrics.
(Note: There are still about 5 names for the video portion of podcasting, so you may call it by another name today.) It's very interesting to see the evolution of metrics, and how this is happening faster than webcasting metrics. It's not just because these are primarily downloads - it's because the technology has had time to mature. The manufacturers and the application companies are partnering to be able to communicate to devices, whether on the chip level or in a proprietary system like iTunes or Audible.

PS - In talking with P2P "professional" service providers serving content, I believe you'd be amazed at the number of huge media content sites that are using their services.

PPS - You won't see podcasters using the name ipod in their business name. Apple has sent out cease and desist letters to many, if not all of them. Some have till December to rename their businesses, and can refer to their old business names until the middle of 2006. The negotiations with Apple are different for the individual companies who had iPod in their name.

Best,
Peggy

Disruptive Broadcasting... An Invitation

2005-11-09T15:10:00.000-05:00

I wanted to drop you this first note to give you a heads-up on what’s been brewing between a few of us. The concept has taken a life of its own. We’re in the midst of building a community of the best and the brightest in digital media.

Our community includes executives and experts from around the world who are exploring, challenging, investigating, and creating opportunities in the new digital media world.

Challenged Broadcast Empires

As you know so well, broadcast firms, publishers and the motion picture industry were living in a tightly controlled competitive space. They built their empires, became dominant and others couldn’t find a place. The expense needed to secure the technology infrastructure and content was out of reach. Political hurdles were way too high.

Media Industry Digital Boom Today?

Today, I can’t keep track of the number of industries jumping into the new “broadcast” space. Some will find the space 'sexy", talk a big game, spend millions of dollars and be gone. A few others are here to stay and are creating chaos for many of us. A growing number of established businesses are effectively learning how to manage change. Others will be sold, merged, or forgotten. In the meantime, what do we do to compete or work in this new media environment?

Common Interests

Our colleagues in our new community have a common desire to discuss the challenges they're finding in this disruptive digital media space and to explore and investigate new developments and businesses.

They realized that talking to the same people over and over again in their own unique sectors was only the starting point.

This executive community includes those challenging the status quo, shaking up the "old school" and the creative ones figuring out how to make this work today in their established businesses.

The one central connecting point between all of us is that we're all involved in the new business of broadcasting, multimedia, audio and video distribution, content and media.

Who’s Involved?

This new community includes those working in the new “interactive broadcast” space. Broadcast. This includes executives from all of these industries: consumer electronics , broadcasting, publishing, cable, telecom, motion pictures, powerline, Internet, satellite, media syndication (traditional and RSS/MRSS, podcasts/videoblogs), P2P, Video Search, IPG/EPG, DRM, retailers, advertisers, educators, corporations and entrepreneurs, content producers, and creatives and others sitting at the same table. Isn’t that too expansive? Unfortunately – we can’t compete without knowing what is really happening in all these spaces. In fact - this community won't work unless we have the diversity.

We’re selecting experts to include on our advisory panel from the entire media ecosystem. Maybe you’re the next new disrupter, innovator or creator that will receive a nomination to the advisory board. Today’s media changes are not built on a time-line or controlled, and the best new advisor to our community might be a teen-ager, reformed “hacker”, a politician or a Doctor. Who knows? Nominations for advisory positions come from the other advisors who have accepted the challenge to look for innovation and enterprise. Media isn’t just News and Entertainment any more, it’s corporate communications, medical broadcast networks, and the individual. We have a bigger media universe to explain than 10 years ago.

We’re filling out the advisory positions making sure we have people from around the world, in different areas of our interest.

How do we handle the disruption in digital media today?

“What” or “Who” do we need to know as we transition into the “media anywhere” universe?

How do we manage the media chaos? Is there a process?

What will I be doing in my job 5 years from now? How do I manage my “new” career responsibilities?

This new community gives all of us a head start in figuring out what companies have a chance of succeeding and who’s dead in the water. It’s about figuring out the fact from the fiction in all the media and technological hype. It’s impossible to figure that out by yourself. There are way too many moving parts to figure out who’s working with whom, and what’s behind the curtain.

We are about the old and the new coming together (people and ideas) to challenge our ideas and explore ways to help us plod through this transitional media stage.

We’re connecting virtually, with conference calls, roundtable discussions, and at events.

What’s our Acceptance Rate for our Advisors?

So far we’re batting 100% on nomination acceptance and participation. We knew we had to have the highly influential businesses on board as well as the innovators. We started with the experts working on large efforts. The advisors are all experts in their own right, and many you will know instantly work at large companies. We have executives on board as advisors who work for Microsoft, Apple, the BBC, AOL, a partner in the global law firm, Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw Pittman, WorldSpace (global satellite radio), and others from around the world. This is only the start.

How’d this start?

Jeff Pulver and I have been talking about this for years. He’s been a great supporter to the webcasting/broadcasting community. He owns a slew of successful companies under pulver.com and appropriate to this forum, owns pulvermedia.com. He's called the Father of VoiP often because he created an Internet community among the individuals and companies who started VOIP. At about the same time, 1996 - I started a webcasting community a year after I started working with broadcasters, the Net and streaming. Both communities grew. And nearly a decade later, both communities remain active.

Jeff has agreed to support this new community idea. He’s allowing us to gather together an incredible community of thinkers and doers in digital media who are working through this disruptive state in media. We’re figuring out the virtual communications of the community, and feel it’s important to get together for coffee, dinners, roundtables, and forums here and around the world. Thank you Jeff

The New version of TV? Disruption in Broadcasting and the Media. What do you call it?

2005-11-07T17:13:00.000-05:00

Even with a number of smart people around a room, no one has figured out what to call this new media audio and video interactive distribution and personalization thing? ? Do you have a guess?

What's the new age of broadcasting called that includes personal broadcasting? It is certainly a disruption for traditional broadcasters, but it also allows all communication companies to be broadcasters. All devices in your personal space will be IP connected, they will broadcast or webcast or stream or download to you as long as it has a screen.

Some folks call it ITV (interactive) or ETV (enhanced) or IPTV (internet protocol), or webcasting, streaming. Some consumers call these enhancements what you do with your DVR or TiVo. Then there's mobile media, mobile TV or portable media. One carrier was calling it TV, another carrier was calling it streaming. There is also TelcoTV, Powerline TV (or name du jour), wi-fi or wi-max TV. You can't leave Sirius, Worldspace and XM Radio as they start to send video.

In the horseless carriages days... would they have guessed the name would be cars, autos? Wireless seems a little odd too, doesn't it? Some of us still say we're on the "line" when we're on the telephone and that references goes back to the telegraph.

My pitch and thoughts on screens have become old news for some people, and still a few think Science Fiction.

About 10 years. I had a Microsoft PR agent say to me one day - oh - you're the one that gives talks about screens. Today - we use a few more terms than just screens.

Here's the drill that I've been known to "sermonize."... A screen is a screen is a screen. If you want to view something on any screen, you'll be able to do it. A screen big or small, on the wall or projected on your windshield. Anywhere there is a screen - consumers will be able to get the content of their choice. Some call this TV today. And any device or wearables may have screens.

I realize that projections out of your phone or other devices are not technically screens, but it has in the past been the easiest way to explain it to people. My term screen or monitor may have to change. With Phillips new screens in the bathroom integrated into your mirror, there's not a surface that can't be converted to a screen sooner or later. It's a mirror or it could be a wall, it's the side of a building, it's a rolled up newspaper (or magazine) updated all the time or it could be disposable. It's a wearable piece of art or advertising marquee. (I have met the two owners of the company that's working on this last bit. You can display art, rotating or moving graphics, embedded lights in material. (You can control what people are seeing on your shirt by remote control on the Net. New Age People Sign-boards. It may not even be something where we see the screen end or begin...and sci-fi inspires a number of us, as we look to holographic displays and wet-wires.

Will podcasting, video blogging, vblogs last as the name for consumer driven or contributed audio/video? It's already moved out of just consumer audio and video months ago as commercials broadcasters, corporations, stores, retailers started to do their own podcasts or video blogging. How soon will it be until blogs are pay per view or paid subscription? You don't have to wait, it's already up and running by a number of podcasters to pay to view extra content.

Remember Push? Front page of news magazines in the dot com heyday. They were touting Push as the big thing. (Remember Pointcast, Backweb, Miranda?) We see bits and pieces of all the earlier software in today's new syndication services RSS, mRSS and others that drive the subscription and distribution components of aggregation software.

We still have push, but we don't call it that. It's likely that McAfee is pushing you virus updates, Macromedia an upgrade and Microsoft a security update every day or week.

Perhaps you're pulling your podcast feeds, or blogs or they're being pushed at you in a manner of alerting for you to download later? Is it push or pull, or a little of both? It may matter technically, but not to consumers as long as they get what they want when they want it.

We still need many of the readers updated so that it's easier to subscribe. All multimedia types will be standard in the future, so why not add them today and make it easy for people to upload or change their audio or video on any device.

We have to transition to easier software if we want the general public to get podcasting and video blogging and aggregation software.

This "name to be determined" in the digital media area of what "interactive" audio and video is...inludes a little push, pull, subscribe, random, personalization, progressive download, downloads, streaming, and interactivity.

Your system will decide that your content can be receive on a P2P network for a bit, then hop to a satellite when you're out of range, then back to cheaper bandwidth when you're near a hot-spot, wi-fi or a mobile network or broadcast frequency.

New devices are picking up all sorts of data "signals". We see data bursts and streams hopping from network to network, from person to person. Motorola - iRadio takes it one step. Then there are developments transferring wi-fi, wi-max to DTV, to wireless, or wired, satellite, voip and others in all sorts of configurations.

How will your data be delivered?

Your intelligent engine or your smart "agent" or client software will find the cheaper content based on your location or when you want the content or where you can get it. Do you care if it's bouncing off your neighbor's wi-fi, as long as it's okay with your neighbor and your data is secure?

We've paid for bandwidth before so this is old news.

It's akin to that surcharge for "roaming fees". Some networks are more expensive if you want to communicate or receive information.

Will you be able to pick and choose the networks at will, based on content or cost?

Yes...it will be seamless and you won't know a thing as the data flies by if you're paying premium rates. If not - you may be forced to see other advertising information which may alert you to the network. The intelligence on the network or your client figures out the fastest way to get things to you based on what you need, a data trickle, delayed information or a live stream . It might be a little P2P at max times, then DTV data signals, wi-fi/wi-max this and that.

Content will come in different configurations, with exclusives here, there, and "hold" dates and fees for different release times. This is nothing new. We see it sliced, diced, rehashed, bundled and split into different things for people with different interests.

Isn't this fun?

Video on Microsoft's New User Interface (UI) Code Name: Ribbon

2005-11-07T16:53:00.000-05:00

What's a new Office user interface got to do with digital media? It would be a natural extension of uniformity if they brought it over to all their products. Will Windows Media be next? Maybe, maybe not. But either way - if you're developing in the next 6 months before Microsoft upgrades in 2006, you may wish to get an idea about what Code Name: Ribbon is all about, and perhaps use some of these techniques in your layout and UI design.

Bottom Line - the new UI is easy to use and that's great news. It's taken awhile for them to do this and that's a shame, but finally! It may not be as simple or uniform as the Mac, but it looks like a very good revamp. This will impact so many people, as they have to spend a week or so learning the new user interfaces. I think it'll be worth the effort.

Here's the explanation and a few glimpses of the New User Interface for the next Office version. If I remember correctly about 7 minutes into it, you'll see the Word interface if that's of interest. PowerPoint visuals are shown at around 17 minutes. In my opinion, it is much better than the existing user interface in all regards. I couldn't tell if Outlook was revitalized. I know a new version of OneNote is in the works, and not soon enough for those of us who are addicted to it. It's a great program for dropping graphics, text, audio, video into a folder and later finding them.

The New Interface is such that all drop down menus/levels as you know them today. are deleted.

This is an interview with MS employee Julie Larsen in the Office area for Microsoft. The code name for the new navigation bar at the top is called the Ribbon. They are estimating it'll take 2 weeks for the average person to get used to the new UI.

It's worth considering as you develop new interfaces that may embed or play audio and video. You may find some ideas that will help you develop skins, web pages, special effects, with an easy to use interface that people will come familiar with very soon. If you're manipulating audio and video, you could use some of the techniques of the UI to manage transcriptions, perhaps search, or add your own multi camera viewpoints.

http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=114720

Returnpath.net Forwarding email tool

2005-10-20T10:51:00.000-05:00

http://www.returnpath.net A handy (not multimedia) tool where if you move from one email service to another email - this service grabs your incoming email (you provide passw0rd) and routes it to you and sends a note to those that contacted you about the change of your email address.

They display ads in some cases. They have a trust-e privacy statement which you might want to read, since you have to give them the password to your old email account for this system to work. There are advanced services are fee-based.

This may not be appropriate for business accounts depending on which service you pick, but may be helpful with free or personal accounts.

Not about fast media - but time to time I send notes about services that might help you do your job better.

5 Year Old Podcaster, Video Search, Movie Video Blogs and do it yourself programs.

2005-10-04T13:30:00.000-05:00

Here are few of the items I'm looking at today.

Research into: Podcasting, Video Blogging, Video Search

1. Corey Dietz from about.com reviewed a do it yourself podcast maker. "Podomatic is a portal which enables anyone to create, mix, host, search, share, and grab podcasts and mp3s." Corey says "No experience or particular skills required, either!"

2. Blinkx.tv announced they are allowing free video upload and storage like Google and other web sites.

3. Lycos Planet will support video for blogs. Lycos has had audio video search for quite some time. http://www.lycos.com

4. A new movie is advertising with a pop-up on the New York times site. On the graphical multimedia ad - you see a link to the movie's "video blog" embedded on small movie screen. Maybe you'll see it if you click this New York Times story in #5. I hope you can tell me the name of the movie and the URL. I wanted to capture the graphic to show others at presentations.

5. New Video Search Article in NYTimes

The story talks about the general search engines who are indexing video. Again, blinkx is in the news. They scan clips from Web sites, and use speech recognition software to index the words. The words aligned with the video are a key enable contextual video search. Numerous video blogs are on their search engine at http://www.blinkx.tv

Here's the New York Times story. Multiple hits require free registration.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/business/03ecom.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1128448347-LTpFapvNKsMuPS6yEEBpkg Have you tried their software?

7. PodSpider (RapidSolution) launches Search Engine says they are bigger than iTunes with more than 20,000 http://www.podspider/. (English Language)

I thought you'd like this story about the 5 year old podcaster and other Pinoy podcasters.

Here's an excerpt from a story by Alexander Villafania for www.inq7.net, a Philippine News Portal
http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=52301

Filipino life, according to Pinoy podcasters

"THEY are musicians sharing their music for free, a priest telling tales of life in Europe, a five-year old girl’s day-to-day activities at home and at school, a group of friends discussing food and politics, a geek’s perspective on the latest technologies. They are all Filipinos into podcasting.
While many are happy with blogging as their most common form of freedom of expression online, some of them have gone to making their voices heard through podcasting in the last several months.

There are currently 13 known Filipino-owned podcast sites with own blog sites, most of them delivering their podcast files in English. Some of these Filipino podcasters update their podcasts prolifically. Not surprisingly, the method is reminiscent of the days of the voice tapes that overseas Filipino workers sent to their families back home."

The story also reports on other podcasters, here are three examples.

- PinoyPodcast is supposedly "the first Filipino podcast, first posted on February 25, about four months earlier than the others.

- One Filipino podcast, "Mundo ni Sofia," is allegedly done by a five-year old Filipina girl living in California. She gives exceptional insights about her school activities, her friends, and how she discovered podcasting through her father.

- In "Topdogs in Manila," male Filipino radio jocks exhibit assertive male machismo, giving tips on how to get women and making fun at people. In all of their shows, they invite women to their "kennel" to spill their thoughts about men, Filipinos in particular."

Read More Here...
http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=52301

What have you found?

Cheers,
Peg

Free Spyware Programs Oxford University

2005-10-03T11:02:00.000-05:00

If you work a lot from home and have to install programs, or you surf the Internet for research, it seems that there is always a spyware program or virus that leaks through to the computer. I found an adaware spy this morning. Every six months or so, I use the free online services from www.pandasoftware.com and Trend Micro Housecall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp to double-check my installed spyware and virus programs to see if they are missing anything.

This is off my usual topic - but I share helpful information when I find it. I use Spysweeper.com (webroot) for my spyware. It was recommended by the Toshiba Authorized Service Center in my area. I have also used Spybot mentioned below and it is a good program.

My Toshiba Computer Repair Center remarked to me that the Microsoft Spyware may conflict with other programs. Take that with a grain of salt, as I've received so many suggestions from technicians in the past who did not have the expertise to guide in a certain area, and were totally wrong. What may happen is that multiple versions of spyware programs can conflict on your system and can disable each other.

This is from the University of Oxford at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/viruses/adware/index.xml.ID=body.1_div.2

Adware and Spyware
2. Removing Adware/Spyware
A number of free software products check for and remove adware/spyware from your system. Some of the most well-known ones are:
Microsoft Windows Anti-Spyware (performs ongoing detection and removal.
Spywareblaster (performs detection, removal, and some ongoing protection against infection)
Spybot Search and Destroy (performs detection and removal)
Ad-Aware (performs detection and removal; free for individual private use only)
Spy Audit (performs detection only but is very small (500 kbytes) and fast (approx. 10 second scan time))
HijackThis (specifically aimed at home-page hijacking)
MacScan (for the Apple Macintosh)
A fuller list of products is available at https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/soft6.htm
As with anti-virus software, it is crucial to keep adware/spyware removal products up-to-date for them to be effective.
Unfortunately, some supposed adware-removal programs exist that are of doubtful quality, or that give inflated numbers of detection warnings to encourage sales, or that even install their own adware. The Spyware Warrior web site gives more information on such products.

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/viruses/adware/index.xml.ID=body.1_div.2

Digital Media Watch - Howard Gordon - Surveyorcorp

2005-05-30T11:05:00.000-05:00

Surveyor Corporation develops foundation technologies for visual connectivity.The company was founded in 1998 by Howard Gordon, also founder of Network Research Corporation (1982) and Xing Technology Corporation (1990, acquired by Real Networks in 1999). Gordon developed the first commercial software-only JPEG codec (licensed to Microsoft), co-developed the first software-only MPEG codec, and led the teams that pioneered the technology for first Internet music archive (IUMA), first private network video distribution system (NBC PFN), and first live streaming radio and TV stations on the Internet.

Digital Media Moves

2005-05-26T09:14:00.000-05:00

Comtex News Network in Alexandria VA named Chip Brian as President/COO. He's been with Comtex since 2004.

Comtex supplies financial news and content over the web.

Brian lives in NY and worked for Nyfix in a product operations management position. From 2000-2003, he was the manager of trading support operations for the BNY Brokerage division of The Bank of New York.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050523/nym111.html?.v=8

Digital Media Watch

2005-05-23T12:52:00.000-05:00

Ted Cohen EMI Music

Senior Vice President, Digital Development and Distribution
Ted Cohen is Senior Vice President of Digital Development and Distribution for EMI Music, and oversees worldwide digital business development for this “big five” record company, which includes Capitol, Virgin, Angel/Blue Note, Parlophone and Chrysalis. Under his guidance, EMI has led the industry with its initiatives in new technologies and business models such as digital downloads, online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio.

Digital Media Watch

2005-05-23T12:48:00.000-05:00

Mitch Feinman -News Corp. - Vice President, Digital Content

Apple iPod Phone?

2005-05-23T10:59:00.000-05:00

What would an Apple iPod phone look like?

The Wall Street Journal reports that "Wireless Phones to Steal iPod's SpotlightAccording to a Wall Street Journal report, wireless phones could steal the digital music spotlight from Apple's iPod device. Wireless phones have one major advantage to the iPod, they are already in most pockets and purses. Wireless phone manufacturers continue to add functions to devices, with many expected to launch music-capable devices in 2005."

Nokia Mobile Media - LifeBlog

2005-05-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

Nokia has a content management system on your mobile phone to manage, photos, video and other content. A mobile media personal blog.

Nokia Lifeblog automatically builds your diary as you take photos and videos, and send and receive messages. When the phone memory is full, a user can connect to their PC and the Lifeblog software will save and display the media. Lifeblog allows one to locate and share pictures, videos, notes, and MMS's. It includes horizontal-scroll "timeline" navigation, favorites, browsing on PC and mobile, latest hits, and provides sync functions. There's a search function as well.

Investors in Digital Media

2005-05-09T18:49:00.000-05:00

Here are some firms investing in digital media. I'll add to this list as I run into other companies on my files. If in Washington, DC - there are a number of local angels groups. They can be located through netpreneur.org.

Menlo Ventures, since 1976, investments into LSI Logic, UUNET Technologies, Xros, Cyras Systems, Hotmail Corporation, Ascend Communications and Clarify. They currently focus their investments in the areas of communications, software, Internet infrastructure, semiconductors, storage and computer hardware.

Redpoint Ventures was founded in 1999 by top partners each from Brentwood Venture Capital and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), two leading venture firms. Redpoint has an interactive community of entrepreneurs, partners, service firms and industry experts.

Gefinor Ventures is a venture capital firm providing capital, guidance, and strategic support to early stage companies with innovative products and services. Offices are in Colorado Springs, Austin, and New York.

Sorrento Ventures is a San Diego-based venture capital firm founded in 1985 and committed to providing strategic capital and vision to promising emerging growth companies based in Southern California. Sorrento invests in companies led by experienced management teams that have demonstrated that a large market opportunity exists for their products and services.

Lockheed Martin

Adams Capital Management - Bill Frezza General Partner

Selby Venture Partners - Doug Barry

CIBC World Markets John Corcoran, Internet/Digital New Media analyst at CIBC World Markets

Audax Group

AOL Time Warner Investments

Sequoia Capital - Active Investor -in atomshockwave, google, mp3.com and many more. Mark D. Kvamme

Insight Venture Partners invested in eyeblaster.com for example

Accel Partners invested in Macromedia, RealNetworks and more.

Nokia Ventures The link is to submit a venturing proposal. Here's a general link on mobile TV at Nokia

Bluerun Ventures

Siemens Mobile Acceleration - xingtone, go networks, phonebites, rock mobile, svox ag, oplayo, v-enable and more

VantagePoint Venture Partners - 2.8 billion under management

Motorola Ventures

Intel Capital - Varsha Tagare - Senior Investment Manager
Varsha has been covering the worldwide cellular software and services investments at Intel Capital for the last 4 years. Her investments include 2 public companies: JAMDAT(Entertainment Publisher:US), Cybird(Entertainment Publisher: Japan) and 6 private companies: MontaVista(Linux OS: US), PacketVideo(Mobile Audio/Video Streaming:US), Pollex(Linux solutions:China), Yavox(Messaging Infrastructure: Latin America) and Moblie365(Messaging Infrastructure:US). Prior to cellular investments, Varsha worked on Customer Relationship Management as market development Manager for Intel Architecture. She worked on investments and alliances that included Silknet(bought by Kana) and webline(bought by Cisco). Varsha Tagare has a MS in Computer Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Madison and BS from University of Bombay.

Nighmares of Records Ending on the Radio Live (Digital Music Simplicity)

2005-05-06T09:12:00.000-05:00

Scratching Back Records wasn't for the Sound - It was Radio 101.

If you've been a dj or on-air personality in radio, you may remember the archaic way we had to get a record to play instantly on the air. It involved taking your finger and scratching back the record (with the audio in cue so you could listen to the reverse sounds) about half a revolution on the turntable. That was for a record turning at 45 rpm (revolutions per minute). You shifted the scratch back when the record ran at 33 rpm or 78 rpm.

Turntables at 33, 45, 78 rpm, Playback with Windows Media, MP4, Real, Apple or with podcasting.

Strange as this sounds - if you relate these "turntable" challenges to today - we all have to adjust what we do to the current state of the art technologies. We have to tweak things whether recording something for playback with Microsoft Windows Media, QuickTime, RealNetworks or for syndication for podcasts, blog creation, vblogging, video blogging and for downloading to different portable media devices.

Cart Machines (Still in Use) - Intermediate Technology Solutions today in all media - especially with Podcast Tools

I still wake up having nightmares of my record ending at the radio station and I can't find the record in the library. Sometimes - you could grab a cart of music if your radio station had that technology and start the song up instantly. As technology advanced - cart machines replaced physical round records. If there were no records "carted" or a record wasn't cued - there was dead air on the radio station. (Carts was an intermediate technology - still in use today - of a physical unit (tape in a plastic casing) that were played in cart machines. There are other ways of playback at radio stations from Denon's to full digital audio systems. Most radio stations are in a transition and use hybrid systems and a combination of analog and digital.

Disclaimer: To not alarm the podcasters - who I love - many of the tools that we see popping up for podcasters are transitional "tools" that companies like Microsoft, mobile phone carriers, or consumer electronics manufacturers will create or embed into their software in the next year or two. It won't be as hard to be a podcaster, and it isn't that hard to be one today. It is hard to create a good sounding radio program or podcast.

Webcasting Trauma - Years Ago or Yesterday

It was very hard to be a webcaster at the beginning. 9 years ago - some of us had to manually take up encoders and had to find hidden ISP closets and equipment in office buildings, often dusty and sometimes behind storage or cleaning supplies.

Example: Transporting Xing encoders with CEO Howard Gordon (first live streaming media on Internet before RealNetworks) to a switch in the Westin Building in Seattle, WA to get KZOK and KMPS connected for live streaming.) It's a little easier to be a webcaster today as we've for the most part eliminated cobwebs.

Radio Station Hotline! Alarm!

Human Failures Caused Technological Innovations in Broadcasting or was it the Girls on the phone?

If you failed to start a record on time at a radio station, you were in trouble. That meant the Radio Station Program Director or Assistant Program Director would give you a call on the hotline. This is the special phone line in the control room where your boss could get you anytime. The bank of 800 numbers or local lines were often tied up with listeners calling on the radio station promoted numbers. Not untypical - djs were male and they tended to spend a lot of time on the phone with the female callers tying up all the listener lines.

Disk Jockeys were Male...because that was what the market wanted then.

Technology helped Female djs get on-air.

Djs were male. Strange as it is to remember, I was the first morning drive female "co-host" in my radio station's market, and first afternoon drive female dj, and I don't consider myself that old. (The station was KROK.) This was a novelty. We made the front page of the local newspaper's style section in that we had a female in the morning. In many cases, radio station focus group testing showed that females liked to listen to males, and males liked to listen to both for different reasons. As the years passed, smart programmers and audiologists (chief engineers or specialized audio consultants) realized they needed to adjust the audio processing (microphones and systems) for female audio delivery. This removed some of the annoying shrill tones that many females and males find offensive. It is now easier to do with a few tweaks from a trained engineer who understands how females and males listen to audio and perceive it differently. This is art and science to have all the audio mix together and play comfortably for most listeners.

Not Quite Automation - But Helping Transitional Tools to "Play" Radio

Some smart technologists in radio (called engineers at that time and still today) figured out how to put tones (inaudible tone on the tape) that would cue a relay when the song was ending and blink lights in the studio to warn the dj that their song was ending in a minute or 30 seconds. A dj might be doing something else and the yellow light or red light would get your attention to snap to it to physically wait for the last second of the song to manually start the next song. One had to mix the fading song that was ending and bring in new song starting to play audio. Those of you that dj at clubs understand the challenge and talent required to do this perfectly and consistently It's art (and practice) to do this live and have this sound great every time. It's precision in timing understanding the musical structure either by training or experience to combine the musical elements in a slow mix, long mix, fade out, cold ending or add a transitional element of a jingle with the right music tone and tempo.

Disk Jockeys were Engineering Transcriptionists and Maintenance Providers.

Fast forward to today. I'd love to be dj again today because the technology allows you to be creative and not have to monitor "tower" transmissions, be a music librarian, and do a number of maintenance duties that are now automated. Dj's wered licensed by the government in the US. They had to have an FCC (Federal Communications Commission) license and had to take transmitter and relay log readings. All of us that worked in radio a mere few years ago remember studying for our FCC licenses, having to clean cart machines/tape machines with alcohol and
q-tips, splice audio tape with a razor blade and tape, and knew what to do if you happened to spill a glass of orange juice in a turntable. We now have learned how to reboot and run system diagnostics and still have to grab a q-tip from time to time. Most have to learn how to record a 4 hour show in an hour, not live, but perhaps near "live" on demand adapting a bit a term from TV and cable of that of Near Video On Demand (NVOD).

24 Hour Operations - Drama, Fun and Frustrations
Trust it to say, in a 24 hour operation, those of us who were working our way up in radio to get off the midnight to 6 am air shift didn't want to wake up the chief engineer. It wasn't uncommon, usually at awkward times such as 3 AM in the morning when an engineer received a call that one of us had blown up a turntable in the studio because of a careless orange juice spill. One can't forget having to blow dry the turntable on low heat at 4 am in the morning. DJs had to cue records on one turntable, talking between songs while an engineer was crawling under your feet. The engineer wasn't in his best attitude form at 4 AM trying to sort out the orange juice stickiness factor from the live wires. This hasn't gone away - ask any 24 hour operations center in TV, Radio, cable or in any tech center to tell you if anything unusual may have challenged their sleep. It's amazing where small crumbs of cake, staples, paper clips and donut sugar can be found and the havoc that can be caused by a loose LAN cable or an electrical plug.

The Moral of our History - Transitional Times in Radio, Internet, Broadcasting and Media

Perhaps we all need to reflect on the fact that what we think is cutting edge is just that...but it's a "baby step", "big step" or "transitional step" to personalized, fun and informative media future where we can't really imagine 50 years into the future our media needs.

It's exciting to see people marveling over the latest and greatest. I do it every day as do many of you. I still have to remember with admiration that all of what we're seeing today was built with hard work, mistakes, corporate drama, and luck. Whether we solved a problem with scotch tape, duct tape, hand made machined tool, lines of code, plans on a napkin or a tentative "self-imposed stupid" idea to get us to the next stage, all of us are pushing forward technology.

If your expertise is communicating our passion to the next person, or evangelizing on the subject, it is okay to call yourself a futurist or technologist or communicator or broadcaster. There are no "should be" no lines of differentiation in this new media world. We all contribute to the future whether as an individual media communicator, inventor, or as employees or as CEO of a global conglomerate.

24 Hours Anytime, Anywhere Digital Media With No Problems

I'm watching transitional technology until we get to the anytime, anywhere 24 hours a day media anywhere on the planet. You'll see here fun companies, products, innovations, business models, tools, gadgets, devices as I find them or if they are shoved in my email box and get my attention from the 40 other firms pitching their wares. Some will last, others won't. Some may be fabulous - but many companies don't have the marketing or contacts to make it happen. Others will take or "steal" their designs and make them universals. The big guys may buy up the technology or the talent. Sad for some of us, but true. *** (That's why my post of yesterday about patent reform fits into the digital media future.) ***

Even with our frustrations of today, running into the bad guys and good guys of our personal and professional lives, please feel gratitude from those of us who appreciate your passion and innovation. We really do appreciate the tinkerers, the guys behind the scenes, as well as those guys and gals who move it forward for everyone to use this new media.

See You on the Net.
Peg

PS In upcoming reports, I'll follow the different paths in media regarding automation, personalization, software, tools and content built to ease our lives or to inform, whether we're podcasters, broadcasters, hobbyists, or programmers who deal with multimedia.

Patent Reform - Important to all Podcasters, Webcasters, and the Streaming Media Community.

2005-05-05T13:14:00.000-05:00

Podcasters and Webcasters Troubled by Digital Media Patents

This article on the Washington Post <http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W4RH04DBD77C62282E87F3CE661BD0> may be relevant to those webcasters - broadcasters - podcasters troubled by companies that aggregate or purchase patents and issue licenses, such as those for streaming or on-demand transmission. The reporter for the Washington Post is Jonathan Krim and he can be reached atkrimj@washpost.com.

Acacia Media Technologies wants a license from any media using digital transmissions that infringes on their digital media patent.

As you may remember, Acacia Media Technologies have been back and forth with many streaming companies and webcasters in a heated licensing debate. Acacia makes money by securing and licensing patent rights and technologies such as digital audio and video on-demand transmission. Some thought that Acacia was singling out pornography webcasters or small streaming media companies. Acacia Media Technologies Corporation has added Time Warner Cable, Cablevision Systems Corporation, Insight Communications Company, Bresnan Communications, and Cebridge Connections, to its patent infringement litigation commonly referred to as DMT (Digital Media Transmission). Story on the cable litigation on http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050428005176&newsLang=en

Do Webcasters, Streaming Media Companies, Broadcasters Podcasters Need Patent Reform?

If a webcaster, streaming media company, broadcaster, podcaster, video blogger or whoever is concerned wants patent reform - what do they want to change? If they seek reform on the patent laws - what do you want to change that does not limit that small webcaster or podcaster from protecting something they invent or design and having a patent issued for their creation?

What Efforts Will You See on Patent Reform?
If the industry decides on a strategy that they want to push forward with patent reform, it will take a concerted effort to change the law.

- It will also take money, manpower, power, and access to the decision makers and influentials in Washington DC.

- Who will the groups pay to lobby, or who will they partner with to educate others of their position?

- Do they have the legal resources and who would be the one to evaluate what is the position, and then get enough people to agree on it - and spend the money on education, lobbying and building momentum for this cause?

Many of us have discussed these issues and it is a challenging dilemma.

I thought this might be of interest from the Washington Post, "
Evaluating A Patent System Gone Awry <http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W4RH04DBD77C62282E87F3CE661BD0>
While brawls over Social Security and lobbying high jinks dominate the news on Capitol Hill, Congress is quietly moving on one of the technology industry's top priorities: revamping the patent system."

Peg

First posted to Webcasting List Membership and Community - founded 1996