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Thursday, March 31, 2005 |
From the below press release: "a one to sixty minute video uploaded to
MPEG NATION, encoded into Microsoft(R) Window's Media(R) Format (150k,
300k & 700k), costs just $4.95 including unlimited streaming (viewing)
bandwidth and storage for six months."
Long term, given the efficiency and convenience of time-shifted
consumption of text, audio, and video (and a fourth medium like Flash
that I call i-media... the "i" is for "interactive" and implies a form
of audio or video that the end user can interact with), and the fact
that portable hard drive space simply isn't an issue, I wonder whether
streaming will finally give way to downloading for all but the most
incredibly time sensitive news and information. About 99.99 perecent of
the content we consume doesn't have to be consumed live or while
connected to some network.
MPEG NATION Launches Powerful Broadband Streaming Video Service for the
Masses
Stream your video world-wide to millions of people for less than $1 per
month!
CHICAGO, March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- MPEG NATION, a division of Digital
Silo, Inc., a global provider of integrated content delivery and
streaming media services, today announced a new, first ever, low-cost
service to encode and stream consumer and commercial video content via
its worldwide content delivery network, within minutes, via a simple
upload.
MPEG NATION enables individuals and companies to inexpensively begin
streaming video across a high-performance, reliable content delivery
network without having to spend hours encoding and transcoding formats,
negotiating rates, or worrying about ongoing storage and bandwidth
costs. MPEG NATION is the first-ever "one-price-fits-all solution" for
placing video in blogs, auctions, personal and corporate websites.
"We are working towards a world where television and video
distribution are much more democratized and where a creative spark, a
camera, and a computer are all it takes to put video content before the
eyes of thousands of people. MPEG NATION is excited to announce the
first affordable streaming video service for delivering streaming
solutions to meet market demand for
Microsoft(R) Windows Media(R), RealNetwork's RealPlayer and Apple's
QuickTime video formats," said Scott Wolf, president and chief
technology officer of Digital Silo's MPEG NATION division. (more)
8:39:32 AM 
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This sounds to be true. But even if it isn't, it suggests that
entrepreneurs are out there thinking about interesting ways to move
broadcast media onto the internet. So, the theme is convergence and
broadcast media execs (radio and TV) have to be thinking about what
entrepreneurs like this mean to the their business. Whether this really
does what it says it does doesn't matter. Sooner or later, someone will
figure out how to do this and the international nature of the Internet
could will affect the legal options that are available to broadcast
media outlets.
From: Jonathan Rodriguez [mailto:JonathanR@bitmar.com]
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 1:33 PM
To: David Berlind
I am the creator of WebBrowserTV and WebBrowserRADIO; two new,
revolutionary, upcoming computer softwares. Basically, by inserting
these CD-ROM softwares into a computer, any user can watch live
worldwide television and/or radio, right from their computer. An
Internet connection is used as the receiving via (no antennas and/or
cable box needed).
Please take under consideration that most people are now, more than ever
before, going online for everything. Television networks and radio
stations are now realizing that the computer business is taking over the
world, including their own industries (TV and radio industries). As a
result of our constantly-changing competitive world, new technological
products are always arising, re-shaping each of the industries they fall
under. I feel that I may have a product line (these two products) with a
great possibility of becoming a major deal in the market, especially if
large chains (like Wal-Mart, Staples, Best Buy, Radio Shack, etc.)
decide to add these products to their catalogs. That could mean a
tremendous amount of long-term business. The other good thing about
these products, in particular, is that they are both hybrids of very
stable industries: The Internet, TV, and Radio... (more)
8:00:10 AM
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I received the following email on March 30, 2005. I'm not sure how many
people realize how vast the Windows Media empire is. In the traditional
ecosystem sense, where more developers begets more content and more
content begets more users and more users attracts more developers (all
to the benefit of the underlying platform), is there any digital media
ecosystem (the choices are quicktime, real and flash) that matches the
depth and breadth of the Windows Media ecoystem? The
e-mail does a great job of describing the reach of the Windows Media
empire. Don't forget that media platform pervasiveness begets
digital rights management platform pervasiveness.
(ps: I normally don't publish emails without the
permission of the sender but this e-mail is obviously a boilerplate with
nothing specific to me or other recipients. I redacted the sender's
contact information)
==Email Begins Here=
Microsoft Corp. today will announce the launch of MSN Video Downloads,
which provides daily television programming, including content from
MSNBC.com, Food Network, FOX Sports and IFILM Corp, for download to
Windows Mobile(tm)-based devices, such as Portable Media Centers and
select Smartphones and Pocket PCs.
Since launching the Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Center last
fall, more than 20 new partners, including CinemaNow Inc., MLB.com,
MSNBC.com, MTV Networks Music, Napster Inc., SnapStream Media Inc and
TiVo Inc., have agreed to make video available online specifically
formatted for Windows Mobile-based multimedia devices.
In addition to MSN Video Downloads announced today, there are a number
of ways to obtain legal content that can be transferred to Windows
Mobile-based devices:
* People can transfer recorded television to Windows Mobile
devices from any Windows XP-based PC, either with Media Center Edition
PCs or PCs with built-in TV-tuner cards from companies such as ATI and
NVIDIA and third-party PVR software such as SnapStream Beyond TV 3.
Soon, via the TiVoToGo service, people can take their TiVo Series 2
content from the PC and transfer it to a Portable Media Center.
* The recently launched Napster-to-Go service allows people with
a monthly subscription to have unlimited access to hundreds of thousands
of songs that can be transferred to Windows Mobile devices. In
addition, online movie provider CinemaNow will have hundreds of movie
titles formatted specifically for viewing on Portable Media Centers.
* On March 16, CinemaNow and MediaPass announced it will make
music videos available specifically for Windows Mobile devices.
Following is a summary of today's announcement. The full press release
is below.
* The MSN Video Downloads service is one of the first online
video download services dedicated to portable entertainment and is
designed to keep people better entertained and informed, wherever and
whenever they want. MSN Video Downloads debuted in a preview of the
service at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January
2005.
* New in the launch of the service is the ability to select the
specific content downloaded to the subscriber's Windows XP-based PC each
day. Also people will be able to activate a new "automatic deleting
feature," which specifies how long video from the MSN Video Downloads
directory remain on the PC, avoiding a large backlog of clips.
* Along with our CinemaNow and MediaPass partnerships announced
last week, content from MSN Video Downloads is for use with PlaysForSure
compliant devices that play video, enabling people to download to their
Windows(r) XP-based PC and transfer to any Windows Mobile-based Portable
Media Center, or Smartphones and Pocket PCs equipped with Windows
Media(r) Player 10 Mobile.
The Following Companies Have Announced Support for Windows Mobile-based
Devices : (more...)
7:46:34 PM
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Thursday, February 17, 2005 |
I've been at LinuxWorld this week hammering out podcasts one after
another. By the time I'm done with the show, I think I will have
published a total of ten podcasts. For transparency's sake, not
ALL of them were done at the show. To get my coverage off to a
headstart, three of them were pre-recorded. One of those pre-recorded interviews was with Emic Networks vice president of product management and marketing Donna Jeker.
Although it doesn't happen often, this was the second time in a week
where my interviewee didn't have the answers to some obvious
questions. I don't want to turn this transparency channel into a
bitching and moaning session about poorly executed PR. While this
again is an example of how a the practice of media transparency can be
embarrassing to interviewees, the companies they work for, and their
public relations representatives, there's an upside. Transparency
should make all three of those parties much better at what they do
because they know that there's more on the line than just the
story itself. And why shouldn't that be the case. Everytime a
journalist writes a story, their ass is totally on the line. Why
shouldn't the demand for that excellence be pervasive throughout the
entire food chain of a story. If this was the case, then the
final outcomes (the stories) would consistently be better throughout
all of journalism. So, transparency raises the bar for everyone,
as well it should which is why I think examples like this are worthy of
discussion. Again, the purpose of this channel isn't Public
Relations 101. But if this it what it takes to raise the bar and
make journalism better, then, then it needs to be done.
As I said in my tranparency notes on the first case,
I believe the responsibility for such gaffs are shared by both the
interviewee and his or her press relations counsel. But not
equally. Unfortuantely, Ms. Jeker was not prepared for some of my
technical questions nor did she have specific pricing information
regarding the product her company was announcing (the reason Emic
originally pitched me on the story, and I took the bait). I'm not
even sure what to say about not having pricing information. That
mistake speaks for itself. But regarding the technical question
problem, I believe from my observations of PR people in action is that
one of their jobs is to prepare the interview for the type of questions
they're going to get from a journalist and figuring that out isn't hard
to do. Except for brand new reporters just coming onto the scene,
it's not all that difficult to research a journalist's body of work to
get an idea (in the case of tech journalism) of how technical the
questions might get.
So, the following clips are from the raw unedited audio of the
interview. It's perhaps another example of Mike Manuel's
recurring nightmare (time codes indicated where exactly in the MP3
file you can listen to that part of the conversation. The
announcement was about a product for people who run open source-based
J2EE application servers.
[8:10 Me] When
you say restarted, do the transactions restart themselves, or does the
user have to physically recognize that the transaction needs to be
restarted an take action.
[8:25 Answer] That may depend
on the exact scenario and maybe for the purposes of this conversation
those details might be too fine grained. Is that a fair answer?
[9:33 Me] We're describing the
type of failure that happens for example when you're on a Web site and
you've started an ecommerce transaction. What about with J2ee -- what
your announcing today -- with J2ee, a lot of the transactions and
workflow take place behind the scenes. When there's a failure there.
How does the system respond. How does it get back to the point that a
transaction must be restarted? How does it take the same action that
let's say an end user might have to take if they're sitting in front of
their browser and they realize they have to restart?
[10:12 Answer] That question
is actually not something I can answer right at this moment. Not
because I don't want to but because I'm not a J2EE expert. If you're
users would like that answer, I can get that for you and it can be
posted at a later date.
[16:59 Me:] [just after gettin a rundown on the pricing of
previously announced (existing products) I ask about the one being
announced] And for J2EE?
[17:03 Answer] Basically we have some bundled pricing -- one for the LAMP cluster and one for the LAMJ cluster [DB's note, the latter is the one with J2EE as signified by the "J"] and that pricing I don't have memorized but its a combination of the products and an effective discount applied.
[17:39 Answer] [DB's note: at this point in the interview, the
interviewee makes a mistake that all potential interviewees and PR
people should learn from: comparing apples and oranges in a way that
paints the solution in a better light than a competing
alternative.] We're providing Oracle RAC like capability at MySQL prices.
[18:19 Me] [DB's note: At this point in the interviw, my
thinking was, OK, if you want to go there, we can go there and I
do.] With [Oracle's] 9iRAC or
10g, my understanding is that they use a shared everything approach
....is your solution the same sort of thing? My understanding is
that the engineering that goes into that sort of approach is
extraordinary and its sort of unusual to find that.
[18:59 Answer] I probably don't want to get into the pros and cons of the different approaches...
The dialog speaks for itself. If you're not prepared to
back up a claim, then making the claim in the first place probably
isn't a good idea. Any decent journalist will grab hold and the
outcome will not be good. In this case, here is the resulting
coverage from my story:
"At the end of the interview, Jeker initiated a comparison of
Emic's technology to that of Oracle's and made it seem as though you
get the benefits of Oracle's clustering solutions for a fraction of the
cost. Ultimately, yes, both solutions deliver a degree of fault
tolerance, scalability, and manageability. But the approaches to
providing those services and the degree to which the solutions can
power massive, mission-critical applications are so different that I
can't help but wonder if that's like saying that a Kia offers equal
protection to that of a Hummer because both have airbags. While Emic's
solutions may very well be worth the investment for what you get (as
are many low-to-midrange clustering solutions), just remember you get
what you pay for. I'm not sure making the comparison to Oracle is a
good idea."
Almost finally: Sometimes, the interviewees get straight
A's. If you're looking for an example of this, check out my audio interview
with AMD's vice president of commercial servers and workstations Ben
Williams. This is a shining example of how well-prepared an
interviewee can and should be for an interview. What was
the role of William's PR counsel in getting him to that state of
preparedness? I have no idea. Nor should I, right?
Finally, I'm going to make this my last post on the effects of media
transaparency from the PR/interviewee angle. This is an
experiment for now and I think two real-world observations are enough
to conclude that the impact of media transparancy goes well beyond the
issue of media credibility. This was a surprise result of the
ongoing experiment, but a result nonetheless and when Jay Rosen said I
should write about how the experiment is going as it's taking place, it
was precisely these sorts of unforseen results that he knew I'd
encounter and that need to be noted.
11:23:43 AM
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Tuesday, January 25, 2005 |
After noticing that my wireless Good G100 wasn't getting copies of my
e-mail, I found out that Good's datacenter was down yesterday morning
(Jan 24 2005). Good and RIM have done their fair share of
trash talkin' each other in the past (most of it off the record).
So, I thought I'd ping each of them for comment now that the lights
went out at Good. I have two e-mail threads, one from Good's PR and the other from RIM's. Here's the resulting blog entry. As you can see, the comments that I received were 100 percent cut and paste.
12:37:52 PM
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In response to a blog entry
that I wrote about Intel's Vanderpool and Silvervale virtualization
technologies, Jessica Beyers, who does public relations for VMWare has
pitched me on a possible update on the company and its
products. The company probably wants to respond to this comment
that I made:
"What all this means for companies that have staked their future on
software-based virtualization like VMWare (now a division of EMC)
remains to be seen. Perhaps people will end up using solutions from
VMWare to further divide each hardware-based partition in to multiple
software-based partitions thereby turning individual systems into grid
super-nodes, or better yet, self-contained grids."
Here's a copy of the original pitch.
8:14:14 AM
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Saturday, January 22, 2005 |
There's a report in the blogosphere that provides an interpretation of this report
by BBC Persian that indicates the Planet (a US-based ISP) may be
revoking hosting services from an the Iranian Students News Agency
(ISNA). The report has no response from The Planet so I've sent
an e-mail (click through above link) to media contact Kristin Herring
who is listed on a press release by the ISP.
More to come (hopefully)
12:32:40 PM
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Thursday, January 20, 2005 |
IBM has some announcements at LinuxWorld and is lining up the
press. I received an invitation today (click thru the above link)
and accepted. Over on ZDNet, I ask readers if they have any questions for Big Blue's Linux execs.
10:57:53 PM
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Copy of my request for extension on Userland Radio's 30 day trial period for the purposes of covering it on ZDNet.
In his response, Userland CEO Scott Young approves. At the time,
I didn't realize that using this as my transparency channel would be
the perfect test.
4:21:02 PM
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See the comments to view the exchange between me and Userland Tech Support in the process of me reviewing the product
3:22:22 PM
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Here's a copy of the e-mail
thread between Userland Scott Young and me regarding his involvement as
an interviewee in my experiment on media transparency. Says
Young in this thread:
"I would be much more comfortable under all circumstances in providing
interviews if this was the general practice. I have little doubt this kind of
transparency would have a positive (drive towards honesty) effect for all
concerned."
1:48:40 PM
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© Copyright 2005 David Berlind.
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