Experiencing the bubble

This is my experience trying to buy a webTV service.

21-Oct-07: I contacted the commercial department asking for more details of the service provided.

25-Oct-07: I contact the CEO (a quite known enterpreneur and Web2.0 guru). He immediately answered begging excuses and sending a copy to the commercial department urging to contact me.

07-Nov-07: As I got no answered I send an email to the contact the CEO provided me. I get an email from another commercial staff. two days later I get a phone call and we discuss the details and terms of service. He tells me he will send me all the details by mail.

09-Nov-07: I send an email asking for those details (I never trust a phone conversation, I need downwritten statements). Got the email, but lacking of details. I analyze the data provided and send him an email back asking for the rest of information as well as for some other details.

14-Nov-07: Got an aswer saying "I am not able to anwser, I need to check it with the technical service. I will send it to you asap".

21-Dec-07: No answer or any followup by this company.


Bad service or no interest on providing a service. Is this company just waiting for the right moment to be sold for a dizzy amount of honey money?

Conference on Network Neutrality: Implications for Europe

The Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste (WIK) is organizing an international conference in Bonn on the Network Neutrality issue. The conference will be held on the 3rd and 4th December.
The program looks very interesting as it gathers a wide range of subjects. Though it seems the issue of cultural industries and the impact of transnational consumption of contents will not be treated in the session addressing the economics of NN. It focus on carriers bandwith consumption.

Link to conference info: http://www.wik.org/content/netneutrality_main.htm

Homo Googelicus

This is the story of how I became an homo googelicus:

I used Google (remember? you did not need to call it Google search because it was only a search tool) for the first time back in 2001. I can't precisize the exact date, it comes when you first don't give importance to your addiction. At that time I was an user of Altavista. Why did I switched? cannot say. Now my only browser toolbar is the Gooble toolbar.

By early 2004 my personal dealer forward me an invitation to Gmail. First I used it as a personal mailbox along with my jobmail, but as time went by I started to use it as my mailhub, my virtual hard-drive and my chat.

In march 2006 I started to share my first GoogleDocs. It is now my main work tool.

That very same year I started to use Blogger as a communication tool for my client's projects. As I got familiar to it I enroled the Adsense and Adwords programs.

Then I started to use Google Reader as my hompage where I have all my sindicated contents. Afterwards, Google calendar came into my life I divorced my beloved agenda. The same happened with Google Maps. Why people use GPS?

For a while, I thought I had some live out of Google. I was a Youtube user. It did not last long.
For a year now, my personal domain belongs to Google.

I could go for hours like that, with many other appliances I use with Google, and others that I have never been capable of finding its real utility (Desktop, Orkut).

But, now I can say Google takes up to 80% of my matrix-plugged live. In the last three years not only I have seen how I used an increasing number of service, but the intensive use of them.

They have all my data, all my preferences, all my consumer profile, all my personal likes and dislikes. I belong to a community.

I strongly recommend this documentary on Google:




English version



Spanish version

Is the market going too fast?

Almost everyone in the online video Industry agrees that its future lays on the monetization of content. So, in the last months we have seen an explosion of new services offering new opportunities for publishers and advertisers.

[note: while I was writing the post when I have seen the last post by Dan Rayburn where he states that advertising is just getting started though the environment is evolving: "more niche competitors, the Viacom lawsuit, the big media companies entering the space (Hulu) and the problem with getting advertisers to spend money around UGC content."]

I think there are two axes of rapidly evolution of online video. Firstly, there is a ride to deliver the highest quality:

• A couple of days ago Brightcove "announced a new service for delivering broadcast-quality Internet TV. Extending their widely adopted Internet TV platform, the new service, Brightcove Show, will give content publishers the ability to deliver instant-on, broadcast-quality streaming video to their viewers".
• Youtube is planning to deliver content bases on the H.264 standard
  
• The players (Silverlight and Adobe) figth is about to begin.
• Etc...

Secondly, new ways to embed or to somehow include ads in videos. Not long ago, Google-Youtube announced they would embed ads, and now they point out their brand new Adsense Video Unit.

My question is, may be advertisers and publishers overwhelmed by such a rapidly growing diversity of solutions and offers? The point is that since the first moment you offer a solution to the potential advertising client, up to the moment you really start developing the project, your solution is already old-fashioned. For most clients this noise is tough to understand, to feel comfortable with your solution and, eventually, get on this roller coaster and enjoy. They are used to "burn the windows of distribution" step by step. That is, they invest for a communication campaign and then they want it to work for a certain period of time.

My concern is that technology capabilities and potentials are going at light speed while advertising and consumers video literacy have a 1.0 speed.

New site feeding the Internet Neutrality debate

A couple of weeks ago Michael Geist announced he was taking over www.neutrality.ca, a cornerstone of the Internet Neutrality debate. Now, another site is coming to town: "What is Net Neutrality?", a site enhanced the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN). I am sure these innitiative will empower de debate and generate interesting contributions.

Is there anyone outside Canada concerned or interested in the subject? It would be reassured...

Net Neutrality questions (I)

Let's say it from the very beggining: Net Neutrality is good. Well, at least is "the least bad". But is it sacred?

The Net Neutrality debate has been developed around the pressure telcos to manage the bandwidth to maximize profit and many other reasons. Supporters of the Net Neutrality appeal to freedom and too other many arguments you may find out there (see recommended readings).

I have some questions rised up by the cultural diversity debate.

My first question would be: is there a right by States to tax audiovisual Internet sites profits to promote "national" content?

The point is: if I set up an enterprise in Canada to webcast or to sell audiovisual content through internet, I will (proudly) be obliged to pay my taxes to Canada Revenue. Whereas if I am a Canadian buying a film at amazon.com, Canada Revenue will not get a single centime from them.

And the same goes to large free-to-consume audiovisual sites. Joost or Youtube make large profits from around the world but all profits goes to the same place.

I am aware most people would argue that thanks to NN it is possible to make the same thing from anywhere else in the world so it is a free-trade and open market that might promote cultural diversity. But it is clear that the cultural domination comes from the USA audiovisual industry. So, the question is: could we implement to the Internet the same policy the CRTC applies to the Cable and Satellite industry? We could oblige Youtube to localize in Canada, so they pay the taxes they get from Canadian consumers, so we can reinvest in Canadian content, or…

Two elements to consider:

• The Net Neutrality is being undermined by the audiovisual industry through the rights management. We have recently seen the lock out of Pandora's site. But there are lots of others like Disney.com, blogtv.ca and BBC.co.uk (in the case of soccer matches, that affects me) which cannot be accessed from abroad.
• The Net Neutrality is already challenged in the gambling sector. Countries like Australia, Austria and France block internet gambling site to prevent their citizens to participate in what is a State monopole.

Recommended readings:

• Principles of NN (M Goldberg)
• No Tolls on The Internet, the Washington Post
• The Neutrality.ca is back (Thanks to Michael Geist)

Porno for mobile: a sure shot

The porno video content to mobile is blooming.

Last Monday Catalan TV3 broadcasted a special report on the blooming porno mobile video industry. It showed the business opportunity the mobile offers to the porno film industry. The program also rised up the lack of regulation upon this consumption of this type of content by youngsters.

(The video will be only available for free for the next few days. It is in Catalan)

Blogeurs et vidéobloggeurs, vous êtes des suspects!

Attention blogeurs et vidéoblogeurs, la police metropolitaine de Londres vous considère des suspects ! (heureusement j'ai vendu le pickup de mon père... Je capote...)

Beware, bloggers and videobloggers, the London Metropolitan Police suspects of you!

Spain is different (pas un post sur technologie)

« Spain is different » ce la définition que Franco utilisait pour expliquer la différence entre l’Espagne et le reste de la planète, ce qui justifiait la nécessité de la dictature. Juste avant son décès il avait publiquement dit qu’il laissait tout « attaché et bien attaché ».

Hier, 30 ans après, il y a eu des élections locales (et provinciales dans certains province de l’Espagne). En Catalogne ils étaient que des locales. Deux faits saillants :

• La participation n’a pas atteint le 48%.
• Dans ma ville de naissance, la Plateforme pour la Catalogne (un parti raciste carrément lepeniste) a obtenu un élu grâce au voix de deux quartier habités majoritairement par des enfants issus de l’immigrants andalouse des années 60s (comme moé) où a peine y habitent des immigrants maghrébins ou latinos. Dans le quartier centre-ville l’abstention a atteint le 65%.

Je Déprime…

Aujourd'hui j'ai tombé en amour avec...

• La qualité et l'idée du site de Made in Montréal. (J'avoue qu'une larme a ecroulé en regardant ce vidéo). Félicitations à Blue Sponge.
  
• Life After Death by PowerPoint (ou, is there life after powerpoint). Ben drôle.

Life After Death by PowerPoint

• Neave.tv
• Participate.net: Movies have the power to inspire.

Google Hoax

Finally I have discovered the real algorithm behind Google!!! Eureka!
No, seriously. I applied to Google News to include my blog into its indexation (you can call me pretentious) and I got this this reply:

"Thank you for your note. We reviewed http://le-depanneur.blogspot.com/ and
are unable to include it in Google News at this time. We don't include
sites that are written and maintained by one individual. In addition, we
currently only include articles from sources that could be considered
organizations, generally characterized by multiple writers and editors,
availability of organizational information, and accessible contact
information. When we reviewed your site we weren't able to find this
evidence of an organization.

We appreciate your willingness to provide your articles to us, and we'll
log your site for future consideration. Thank you for your interest in
Google News.

Regards,
The Google Team"

It is funny 'coze Google is:

• Under trial for its illegal indexation of journals.
• Getting more and more lawsuites due to piracy contents in its Youtube service.
• A source of viral and hoax contents.

On the one hand, it is comforting to feel some humanity behind Google. Someone has waste his/her time to arbitrarly to not consider my blog enough interesting. On the other hand, it worries me. I confirm some base concepts of postmodernist construction of truth and reality.

Anyway, it will not affect my opinion that Google is the best communication enhancer platform.

What did it happen to the Yahoo! Current Network?

When redacting my previous post, I dived into the Current TV world, that i consider one of the ever best ideas on iptv. Some time after I discovered Al Gore's Current TV, I got surprised because of the Current TV - Yahoo! partnership, what was called the Yahoo! Current Network.

Current TV is an independent cable and satellite TV cable network broadcasting in the USA, UK and Ireland. Current TV programming is mainly based on content provided by users. The content providing is based on Current TV's website. Users upload their contents which allows other users to rate it. To set up the schedule, Current TV chooses between the top rated contents.

When the Yahoo! Current Network was launched it created a big buzz in the sector. Specially, because not long ago, Current TV was flirting with Google. Google and Current TV looked like the perfect non-mainstream couple. And then, the move towards Yahoo!

It seems that, as every divorced couple, they have spared parts and split their belongings and both follows its own path.

Then I read this message from Current TV:

"As of December 1, 2006, pursuant to the Contest Rules, Current TV, LLC ("Current") has TERMINATED the Yahoo! Current Launch Contests in connection with the Yahoo! Current Network ("Contest"). All Contest entrants will be notified of this termination by Current TV, LLC. All rights related to any Contest entry that Current has not optioned as of December 1, 2006 shall immediately revert to the original owner and Current shall have no rights in or to any such entry. Thank you for supporting the Yahoo! Current Network. We apologize for any inconvenience."

C-Net also echoes this split up: "Current is exploring better opportunities to distribute our content," (Current TV spokesman Alex Dolan).

I donno' if I get the full implication of the business model shift Dolan was refering to. What I see is that between Google and Current TV there is no content sharing, as it was with Yahoo, but a diffusion of Google's content.

Then, surprisingly we come accross Google Current: "Google Current airs every half hour on Current TV and provides a look at what the world is searching for on Google", updated every hour!.







I think it is a very interesting move for the iptv/audiovisual sector, and we would love to know any details you may be aware of. You are welcome to post your comments.

CNN to launch video-citizenjournalism program

Today (19/052007) at 12.00h (heure normale de l'est) CNN will launch its first user-generated video content program: News to Me.

News to Me wil broadcast videos created by users as well as videos produced by Blip.tv, Jumpcut.com, Revver.com and ThePalestra.com.

With this experience CNN will incorporate a similar Current TV approach to content distribution.

This approach is based on users that upload content which will be rated by other users. The top rated content will be broadcasted. At first sight, the difference is the pay-scale for video creators. In Current TV, users whose content has been selected for tv schedule are rewarded. There is not such reference to payments in the News to Me scheme.

3alacarta VoD, a mirror for IMPlayer and BBC

3alacarta is the IPTV service of TV3 or TVCat, the Catalan public broadcaster. It was launched a couple of years ago through the CCRTV Interactiva, the Internet division of the Catalan Radio and Television Corporation (CCRTV).

Up to now the business model was based on an mixture offer of free and and pay per view content. Always on a Video on Demand scheme. It is to believe that this model was not very successful, though the website was very popular. From now on 3alacarta will show for free all content broadcasted during the last seven days.

But what is "astonishing" is that 3alacarta can be watched worlwide! (People from the BBC, are you writing it down?)

We recommend you the radio internet service from the CCRTV: ICatfm. Enjoy it before copyright nights will stop them webcasting abroad (as it has happened with Pandora).

BBC iMPlayer ready to go (but internet is not international network)

Some weeks ago we exposed that the BBC was undergoing a Public Test Value to analyze the impact and suitability of their iMPlayer proposal.

Well, some days ago the BBC Trust Board has finally aproved the iMPlayer with some changes. I would say minor changes.

You can read the it here.

Two outsanding observations:

1. the large participation of implied actors (consumers, industry, lobbies, etc.)
2. the iPlayer will use Digital Rights Managment (DRM), although it will be under a neutrality plataform scheme, that is, they will not use a single type of DRM, as Apple used to do up to not long ago.

the iPlayer is intended to be "an application in development offering UK viewers the chance to catch up on TV and radio programmes they may have missed for up to seven days after they have been broadcast, using the internet to legally download programmes to their home computers. iMP uses peer to peer distribution technology (P2P) to legally distribute these programmes. Seven days after the programme transmission date the programme file expires (using Digital Rights Management - DRM - software) and users will no longer be able to watch it. DRM also prevents users emailing the files to other computer users or sharing it via disc." BBC

Of course, there is a doubt on what content will be available from abroad. Something is clashing and it is time to fix it. But who? WIPO? We will come back to that.

If you have been a iMPlayer trial tester, your opinion will be welcomed.

Here it is a good comment in the Guardian Technology Blog.

Previous post on iPlayer: iPlayer BBC on-demand service goes under Market Impact Assessment

Wifi is in the air... But what do telcos think?

You just have to set up your computer wifi connection anywhere and you will reach many wifi network connection. Of course many of them are locked up so you cannot connect.

Moreover, the latter cellular generation include wifi connection.

In fact, where do we use the cellular:

• At home
• At work
• Waiting in a cafe for somebody who's late
• At a friends house
• At a shopping center
• At the airport or stations
• ...

So what if sharing wifi connections experiences (under secure schemes) do popularize? There are some experiences (Guifi.net, Fon,...).

What if people use voip software (no calling cost) to communicate in those place?

How would telcos react?

In fact, they are reacting. We will come back on that.

Recommended reading: Wi-Fi is Evil by Mark Evans

Pandora lock out: signs of the future

Pandora has been forced to close down (http://www.pandora.com/restricted) since the music industry has alleged Pandora did not have the rights to webcast away from the US.
It is nothing new. BBC radio unplugs non-UK listners when tthey webcast a Premiership match. They only have the rights for the UK territory.
It is to believe that this practice will be increasing in the forthcoming months. I see two very important implication on that:

• a new actor comes up to the undermined net-neutrality scene: the right's holder. Up to now it was feared that internet providers or States would interfere in the traffic content.
• Next step is to shut down all internet radio and "real" radio that are webcasting their signal. In fact they all schedul and broadcast music and other content whose rights belong to a third party. In fact, in this right moment i am listening from Spain to Radio Canada which is broadcasting "Audi Coelum" by Claudio Monteverdi and featured by IAN PARTRIDGE, NIGEL ROGERS, COLIN TILNEY, EUGEN MULLER-DOMBOIS, HEINRICH HAFERLAND, THOMAS BRANDIS. Radio Canada is infringing the copyright as they are broadcasting abroad.

A new post on net-neutrality trap will be coming in the next days: Who does net neutrality really really interest?

iPlayer BBC on-demand service goes under Market Impact Assessment

BBC has recently published their intention to launch an on-demand service (see Guardian new). The service would comprehend 4 channels, three of them would run through Internet under a its iPlayer (DRM-free).
As a public service, BBC has to undergo a Public Value Test (PVT) commissioned by the OFCOM in order to analyze the iPlayer and the service impact in the british audiovisual market (see OFCOM update)

Issues to follow up:
- Other operators reactions to BBC online strategy.
- Where does BBC online strategy goes? social or simulcast?

I'll Keep an eye.