May 10, 2010
Volume XXX, Issue 9
GenosTV Debuts to SRO Crowd at Digital Hollywood
A standing-room-only (SRO) audience witnessed technology and entertainment industry history at the Digital Hollywood debut of GenosTV from ShambroWest Corporation on "Cinco de Mayo." And like the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French imperialists celebrated on this date, GenosTV is a true David-and-Goliath story. The event was held in the Arcadia Ballroom at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel.
CEO Rob Shambro outlined his provocative vision encompassing the world's first Internet-based cable system displaying high-definition (HD) television programming on TVs, complete with sleek and innovative set-top boxes (STBs) and remote controls, and, at the same time, demonstrated a number of compelling on-screen features with lots of "wow" power. GenosTV will offer users unprecedented choice and control as it enables all manner of web-based video to be displayed on consumer television appliances.
Rob also listed some of the impressive accomplishments in literally the first 117 days of the company's existence, and outlined the major milestones to be completed by the company's commercial launch at the 2011 International CES.
Co-Founder and CTO Mike West joined Rob in fielding questions during an upbeat and supportive Q&A session. An archival webcast of this event will be available soon, and DCINFO readers will be among the first to be informed of its availability.
Play vs. Run: Media in the Cloud
Excerpted from Media DoJo Report by John Gauntt
I've been sketching an outline for my next report for GigaOM Pro on cloud computing and consumer media. I'll give a heads up on the final version when it's done late this month or early next month. So this thinking is still raw.
My nose tells me that the recent tiffs between Apple/FLASH, Google TV/CATV, Facebook/everyone else is indicative of a larger trend.
It seems like the professional media industry is starting to say, "We've given this 'information wants to be free' stuff a good 15-year run on the web. To show for it, we've been gutted. Going forward, we'd rather cut a deal with a Cupertino/Mountain View/Redmond devil and get a slice of a real pie."
I know this doesn't sit well with the John Perry Barlow crowd. But then again, he had made his money being chef to the Grateful Dead before he got all cyber-libertarian.
Being a media snob, I've been looking hard to find the multi-billion dollar media content company that launched on the web. I'm still waiting. The market cap went to technology and aggregation plays, not to a new media experience.
To a large degree, it's the incumbent media industry's fault. Jeff Jarvis is tedious with his standard schtick about old media's problems. But it doesn't make him any less wrong. The fact is that the revolution came and instead of devouring its young, it feasted on print publishing and music. It's licking its chops over video. That's been the steady cycle for 15 years.
But going forward, there's not a hell of a lot of analog transmutation left. Either the media industry (however owned) needs to start working the revenue side of the ledger with truly new experiences in storytelling, or it can continue feeding off the corpse of the old world and cede the ground to the Googles of the world entirely.
Enter cloud computing.
Sure, the initial advantage rests with the technologists and device guys. But the difference this time is that the same technology DOES allow a media content start-up to scale linearly should it manage to capture lightning in a bottle.
The first green shoots are being found in transmedia properties, especially the next generation ones like we're seeing with my friend Brent Friedman's Valemont franchise. Brent doesn't base his business anymore just on selling copies of the story or restricting access to it.
The story has become a world in which the audience can dwell and participate; a world that provides multiple avenues for monetization; and a world in which competitive advantage involves how fast and how well Brent or his users can customize the experience at the margin.
Mass customization trumps mass distribution in this scenario.
This tells me that control over the "context" of a media experience is becoming more important than control over the media itself.
The range of devices, situations (e.g., location awareness), and business models has bumped complexity to a level to where a cloud-based platform would be the only one flexible and scalable enough to handle it.
Fundamentally, the cloud makes media itself more intelligent. In a hard media (e.g. CD/DVD) or standard web (non-mobile, non-social) world, the media player and UI was all you needed because the media was stupid. All it needed to do was PLAY.
Now, media must integrate with social identity, physical location, a preferred device, a specific service plan, and a configurable bundle of rights for the consumer.
It's a switch from a ROM-based media world to a RAM-based media world. That makes RUN the most important command.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 Congratulations to Victor Harwood and his entire team for a very successfully re-energized Digital Hollywood Spring (DHS) this week. There were a number of new offerings and a broader and deeper integration of industry participation than in recent years.
Thank you especially to everyone who contributed to the success of our inaugural P2P & CLOUD MEDIA SUMMIT at DHS, which offered plenty of new insights among its many learning and networking opportunities. We commend our sponsors, in particular, without whose support this event would not have been possible.
Abacast once again provided its webcast services for our conference. The archival webcast will be available soon, and DCINFO readers will be among the first to be informed of its availability.
Abacast is a commercial quality, hybrid content distribution network (CDN), offering the most options in the industry to distribute and monetize rich media for the online radio, online video, and enterprise markets.
FTI Consulting sponsored the Policy Track, which featured a strategic overview of recently enacted laws and court rulings, as well as now in-process regulatory changes that are of vital concern to our industry participants.
FTI Consulting is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations protect and enhance enterprise value in an increasingly complex legal, regulatory, and economic environment. With more than 3,500 professionals located in most major business centers in the world, FTI works closely with clients every day to anticipate, illuminate, and overcome complex business challenges in areas such as litigation, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory issues, reputation management, and restructuring.
Alcatel-Lucent sponsored our conference luncheon session, which included two sessions, a keynote address from Alcatel-Lucent Ventures General Manager Buck Peterson and a special session moderated by Ubiquity Broadcasting President Steve Jacobs.
Alcatel-Lucent is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, intellectual property (IP) technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivaled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry.
KPMG Partner Mark Lundin delivered the opening keynote address focused on managing the risks of cloud adoption. He described the cloud marketplace, benefits and opportunities, operational and business considerations, risk mitigation strategies, and the future of the cloud. Among key risk mitigation strategies are a unified risk and compliance program, risk assessment, due diligence, contracting, auditing, and ongoing monitoring.
BitTorrent VP of Business Development Claude Tolbert followed with an exploration of the untapped promise of P2P in particular related to online video. He chronicled the past decade in this area, coupled with projections for explosive growth ahead. Although relatively little video consumption now occurs from online sources versus TV transmission systems, this will change as viewing devices change. Meanwhile BitTorrent is positioned to help enormously with this transition and will introduce publisher support features, and already has over 100 million regular users.
Cisco Systems Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the IBM-Cisco Alliance Geng Lin zeroed in on the video cloud for business enterprises. Video now is like the web was in the nineties, except video delivers human interaction at scale. Business video has doubled from two years ago and is expected to double again in a year, with the education sector having the highest current percentage of video traffic and manufacturing expecting the sharpest increase. Geng talked through the business video life-cycle and the benefits of cloud.
Aleric CEO Vincent Hsieh offered a complete definition of cloud computing and how the Aleric cloud platform uniquely relates to that. He enumerated features and benefits of cloud computing for both enterprises and end users, but also pointed out the deficiencies in the four major types of cloud computing, which Aleric's secure cloud perform addresses. Vincent provided details of MyIVO, Aleric's dynamic cloud product and demonstrated how the company differentiates itself from competitors.
Rovi Corporation Product Development Director Michael Papish forecast a "partially cloudy" infrastructure "with a chance of" dynamic data. This means a hybrid public-private cloud ecosystem, or a way to host services in multiple places at once. And the value of that in turn is creating a future of exciting solutions based on recalling data in real-time to power dynamic applications. In short, flexible hosting can give customers the ability to create powerful and scalable applications that create dynamic data.
Giraffic VP of Business Development Assaf Benjamin talked about his firm's boundary-less P2P video-on-demand (VOD) service for any content. He outlined the challenges online video distributors face and how Giraffic's technology addresses them. He added detail on data fragmentation, coding, and seeding, as well as network monitoring and reporting. He concluded with a discussion of how Giraffic, with its breakthrough technology and patents, presents a new standard for cost efficiency and user experience.
Alcatel-Lucent Ventures General Manager Buck Peterson provided an overview of the ventures group within Alcatel-Lucent and its strategy for supporting network operators in keeping pace with multi-dimensional demand. Internet service providers (ISPs) are challenged by the rising costs of P2P, and adding bandwidth alone won't solve the problem because of exponentially growing content sizes. Buck shared findings from Alcatel-Lucent original research in this area and outlined the company's compelling peer optimization approach. He then talked about its fascinating cloud computing strategy, telco virtualization.
Please click here to find out more about these valuable keynote presentations. Share wisely, and take care.
FCC Net Neutrality Proposal Brings Broad Reaction
Excerpted from MediaPost News Report
Stoking the flames of the "net neutrality" wars, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is about to propose regulating broadband lines under decades-old rules designed for traditional phone networks. That's "despite a recent court ruling that the Commission had limited powers to do so," writes The Seattle Times. "The FCC has limited authority over information services but it has vast powers to regulate certain utilities. It contends a combination of those powers can be applied to broadband service."
"The decision, by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, is likely to trigger a vigorous lobbying battle, arraying big phone and cable companies and their allies on Capitol Hill against Silicon Valley giants and consumer advocates," reports The Wall Street Journal.
Notes USA Today: "Regulators also want to ensure they have jurisdiction to impose so-called 'network neutrality' rules requiring phone and cable companies to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their broadband networks."
Under the headline, "Net Neutrality Fans Rejoice: The FCC Will Reclassify Broadband," GigaOM explains: "The entire wonky issue was brought to head at the beginning of April with an appeals court decision that the FCC had overstepped its authority when it censured Comcast for blocking P2P files."
According to The Next Web: "This news comes as a victory for Internet customers and Internet companies, both of which have been advocates of net neutrality. Consumers want to use their connections exactly as they see fit, and Internet companies want to make sure that they get the same crack at the ball as anyone else."
No doubt, cable companies like Comcast would almost certainly fight any regulatory efforts by the FCC - claiming it would discourage investment in the industry - analyst John Hodulik tells The Journal.
That claim, as eWeek notes, has been disputed in a report by the media watchdog Free Press. "You could have regulators involved in every facet of providing Internet over time," Hodulik told the paper. "How wholesale prices are set, how networks are interconnected, and requirements that they lease out portions of their network."
Wild Wild Web Needs a Different Kind of Regulation
Excerpted from On Media Report by Diane Mermigas
The wild, wild Web is about to be tamed.
Left to their own devices, the Internet and the developing broadband universe are being shaped by capitalist forces doing what comes naturally: Finding ways to make money and grow market share. That's all well and good, until someone gets hurt.
Regulators haphazardly put their stamp on the process during reviews and conditional approvals of mergers and acquisitions.
Promised broadband regulation has taken a back seat to financial, environmental, international, and political crises dominating Washington. The Obama administration has been distracted in its intent to shape and advance the burgeoning broadband backbone of global media, communications, advertising, and commerce. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) National Broadband Plan is a long way from fruition.
Spotty attention to the greatest universal force for change won't do when individuals and companies are poised to experience irreparable harm.
While no one wants heavy-handed government intervention, several recent developments underscore the need for broad checks and balances to assure consumer protections and a fair, level business playing field.
Facebook's new Open Graph instant personalization platform already has elicited calls by Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and others in Congress. They want the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to develop guidelines on how the leading social network can use the resulting information in order to protect member privacy.
In the weeks since Open Graph was simultaneously announced and launched, untold number of Facebook's nearly 500 million users have been enticed to share their favorite websites and virtual footprints with friends. Users must opt-out of the new functionality, which means they have to understand the ramifications of using it. In the meantime, Facebook has access to a personal preference treasure trove to generate long-sought ad revenues.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is making the case that legislators and consumers should not be surprised by this bold development; Facebook has been steadily compromising user privacy and personal information over the past five years. It has constructed a timeline of Facebook's eroding privacy policy since 2005, when it "earned its core base of users by offering them simple and powerful controls over their personal information." Facebook has since "helped itself - and its advertising and business partners - to users' information, while limiting their options to control their own information," the EFF says.
That breach has included Facebook's failed Beacon experiment, which instantly revealed users' online purchases under the guise of friend shopping recommendations.
Legislators and regulatory agencies eventually can make Facebook an example to other ambitious Internet vendors by imposing heavy fines, stern rebukes, and corrective actions. Such moves will come too late for consumers already revealing more than they intended about themselves to the web's black hole without a way to get it back.
Another area where interactivity is about to go haywire is advertising and commerce, thus far shaped by the driven enterprise of Google, Amazon, and eBay. Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently explained how the company is entering the fray in a manner that could send interactive mobile advertising spiraling out of control.
Now that Apple has enticed Madison Avenue and Hollywood with its new iPad, it is charging companies as much as a $1 million premium to be a first adopter of its new iAd platform, promising 1 billion ad opportunities daily on 100 million devices. Marketers will shell out a $10 cost-per-thousand and a $2 fee for every consumer interaction with their ad, while forfeiting creative autonomy. Apple keeps 40% of advertising returns for managing every aspect of the experience.
"Apple is reinventing mobile ad pricing - and not in a good way," Advertising Age observes. "They are essentially double-dipping by simultaneously charging a rate for 1,000 impressions (CPM) and a rate for click-throughs (CPC). That's different from other mobile ad networks that usually charge for one or the other, but not both."
The competitive response from Google, which dominates online advertising and is bucking to do the same in mobile, is heightening the Madison Avenue scramble for dollars. Nothing and no one is stopping these tech giants from using their clout to adversely disrupt the murky status quo. Companies ravaged by recession and technological change, will be signing on to new business models for fear of being left behind. Not all of the organic change will be detrimental, but some companies don't have the financial wherewithal to take unregulated business risks.
Before innovative disruption causes too much irreversible destruction, regulators need to establish just enough broadband rules of play to protect consumers and companies venturing into the new frontier without a safety net.
Skype to Make Group Video Chat the Next Killer Webcam Feature
Excerpted from All About Jazz Report
Starting next week, Skype will begin beta testing a new group video chat feature on Windows PCs.
The feature will let up to five people join in on a video chat simultaneously, which is a big leap from Skype's current video chat limitation of two users.
Group video chat will initially be available for free, but Skype plans to start charging for it within three to four months, along with other new features. The company also plans to bring the feature to Macs later this year.
Skype Consumer Business General Manager Neil Stevens said that the group video chat feature was one of the most requested by its users. That doesn't come as much of a surprise. While one-on-one video chat has been available to consumers since the late nineties, it took the proliferation of broadband Internet access, faster computer speeds, and cheap webcam availability over the past decade to popularize it.
Now webcams are integrated into practically every laptop (including bargain-priced netbooks), and well also be seeing them in smart-phones like the HTC Evo 4G and the next-gen iPhone this summer. In short, all of the pieces are in place for group video chat to be the next big killer webcam feature. We can expect video chat competitors like Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and even Apples iChat to offer group chat in the future as well, but Skype will still have a major head start.
With the introduction of its video chat, Skype has also leapfrogged Cisco at bringing the technology to consumers. Cisco has long made group video conferencing possible for professionals, but its solutions remain too expensive and complicated for individuals and many small businesses. Its technology may be more advanced than Skype's, but Skype has the advantage of being a much stronger brand with consumers.
Game Maker Switches to BitTorrent Exclusively
Excerpted from Torrent Freak Report
The new release of MechWarrior 4 has crashed the game maker's distribution servers. The central distribution server collapsed last weekend when tens of thousands of people attempted to download the free game. To distribute the game to the public effectively and without issues, the game's makers will now switch to BitTorrent exclusively.
Together with Microsoft Games and other partners, game outlet MekTek is reviving the "MechWarrior" game series. The free game, set in the fictional BattleTech universe, was released a few days ago to massive interest from game fans.
With more than 100,000 people trying to get a copy of the free game, MekTek's distribution system (MTX) quickly collapsed, making it impossible to download the game. In order to get the product out effectively, MekTek has now announced that it is working on a release that doesn't rely on MTX.
"We are very aware that some of you are having problems using MTX to download and install the free release of MechWarrior4: Mercenaries. We are currently preparing a self extracting executable to install the game without using MTX," the MekTek Team said.
Instead of its own distribution system, the game maker will switch to BitTorrent only to get the new release out quickly. "Once this new version clears our beta team, it will be made available for download in your BitTorrent client of choice. Please be patient as this may take a few days," MekTek announced.
It's good to see that more and more content producers are recognizing the value of BitTorrent. Previously, EA chose the BitTorrent protocol to distribute the "Warhammer" Online Beta. Later, other gaming companies followed suit by signing official partnerships with BitTorrent Inc.
MekTek's decision to use BitTorrent is not the first to be prompted by distribution problems over regular channels. The Canadian public television broadcaster CBC was facing similar problems two years ago. Due to server complications, CBC decided to team up with MiniNova and let them seed the torrent files for "Canada's Next Great Prime Minister."
"As Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC is mandated to make its programming available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means. I believe BitTorrent is a terrific distribution technology and absolutely something we as a public broadcaster should be experimenting with," CBC told TorrentFreak at the time.
For large and popular releases BitTorrent is definitely the way to go. The larger the demand and the greater numbers of people active on a torrent, the faster a file can potentially be distributed with the protocol, saving the publishers money, too.
Kontiki Discusses Consumer Style Video at SME
Eric Armstrong, CEO of Kontiki, a leading provider of enterprise P2P video solutions, will moderate a first-of-its-kind panel this Wednesday May 12th at the Streaming Media East (SME) 2010 conference.
The panel will feature industry experts and end-users sharing insights into how companies in the enterprise and education markets are adding familiar "YouTube" like social media capabilities to their video communication programs; how to assess whether a company is ready to take the plunge into social video; how to integrate into existing infrastructure for live video, video-on-demand (VOD), or videoconferencing; and how to overcome the challenges of securing and controlling this powerful communication tool in a way that is consistent with company policies and culture.
Kontiki will also exhibit and host visitors at its show floor booth #331.
Founded in 2000, Kontiki offers an End-to-End Enterprise Video Platform, delivering all of the capabilities needed for a complete Video Communications solution to employees, while ensuring absolute security and control over the customer's network and content. From Live Video Webcasting and Video On-Demand to an Employee Video Portal with Social Media capabilities, Kontiki offers the ability to build a video culture and align an entire organization in the most engaging and effective way possible.
Offered as a Software-as-a-Â Service (SaaS) or Software License solution, Kontiki's technology is unique in the market in that its customers can securely deliver high-quality video to all employees globally, without deploying any networking or caching hardware thanks to Kontiki's P2P technology.
Web's Users Against Its Gatekeepers
Excerpted from NY Times Report by Kevin O'Brien
With the majority of Internet traffic expected to shift to congestion-prone mobile networks, there is growing debate on both sides of the Atlantic about whether operators of the networks should be allowed to treat web users differently, based on the users' consumption.
Proponents of the current system - called network neutrality - see that principle as a kind of civil rights declaration of the digital age, one that requires the gatekeepers of the global Internet to treat all users equally, regardless of application, source, or download limit.
While operators have never been required to maintain neutrality, the industry has created that expectation largely by charging users a flat rate for unlimited Internet access.
But there is a big flaw in the concept, according to the operators: Networks have never been neutral. They have always been actively managed to some extent since their inception in the 1980s to ensure that all customers get a basic "best effort" level of service.
If an operator could not restrain bandwidth hogs, who typically make up 15% of customers but who generate 80% of the traffic, most Internet users would experience poor service.
"The Internet has never been a neutral environment left to develop freely on a first-come, first-serve basis," said Stuart Orr, the head of the telecommunications group in Europe, Africa and Latin America for Accenture, a US software services consultant.
The arcane issue of network management, and the free speech and competition issues it raises, has taken on broader political importance as operators have increasingly micromanaged the flow of data, favoring some users over others as they have sought to handle exploding levels of traffic or deliver premium broadband service at guaranteed speeds to heavy users and businesses.
In the United States, users of the BitTorrent file-sharing service, a large generator of broadband traffic, last year challenged a cable operator, Comcast, that had blocked the service by identifying and disabling a common protocol used by BitTorrent users.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered Comcast to stop the blocking. Comcast challenged the ruling. On April 6th, an appeals court in Washington sided with the operator, saying the FCC could not tell Comcast how to manage its network.
In Brussels, the European commissioner for the digital agenda, Neelie Kroes, plans to hold a public consultation on net neutrality this summer, which could lead to a push for new laws or regulations for operators.
Earlier this year, Ms. Kroes warned mobile operators not to block or hinder Internet voice services like Skype from their networks.
Operators are worried that any rigid legal mandate that forced them to observe net neutrality standards would be unworkable and make the economics of high-speed wireless broadband less attractive, which could limit future investment and improvement to the networks.
"We have no interest as an industry in policing individual surfing habits or acting as the gatekeeper for information," said Frederic Gastaldo, the head of strategy and innovation at Swisscom. "Historically, our industry has resisted attempts to force operators to act as the personal gatekeepers of information. That would be a very negative marketing approach. However, customers who do excessively use our data network are a big challenge for us."
Congestion is more problematic for mobile than landline broadband operators because wireless broadband capacity is limited by the ability of individual base stations to process the Web activities of hundreds of users simultaneously. The more users per station, the less performance for each user.
To avoid bottlenecks, operators use techniques like "traffic shaping," which sorts traffic to ensure basic service for all, or "throttling," which applies a general brake on large streams of data.
Kabel Deutschland, the largest German cable TV operator, has one million broadband customers. Its coaxial and glass-fiber network is so far able to satisfy all customers without restrictions, said Georg Merdian, director of the company's infrastructure regulation.
But he said that the number of its broadband customers was doubling each year. "We anticipate we will soon have to use some kind of management techniques," Mr. Merdian said.
For most mobile operators, traffic management is a fact of life.
Vodafone, one of the largest mobile operators in Europe and a part owner of Verizon Wireless, the No.1 wireless operator in America, routinely alerts its customers when they exceed the download limits of their service packages. Like all other operators, Vodafone uses sophisticated software that can pluck users or applications from the digital clamor.
"We use a form of network management to say, 'I'm sorry, you are not going to be able to get the same level of service unless you decide to top up,"' said Richard Feasey, Vodafone's public policy director in London.
As data traffic levels rise, some executives, like Cesar Alierta, the chairman and chief executive of the Spanish operator Telefonica, and Vittorio Colao, the Vodafone chief executive, have floated the idea of charging not only customers but also Web sites that generate lots of data traffic, like Google, Amazon and Facebook, for faster, guaranteed service.
Web businesses, which depend on fast Internet paid for by individual customers, oppose the idea and have been pushing lawmakers in Brussels and Washington to adopt restrictions preventing operators from making deals with content providers.
Prohibitions like that would make an operator's business untenable, eventually reducing cable and phone networks to unprofitable, crowded data freeways, said Robert Mourik, the director of Telefonica's regulatory policy in Europe.
"We have an explosion of traffic, but our revenues have not been growing at the same pace or staying flat," Mr. Mourik said. "We are not looking at content on the Internet. We are not trying to police the network. What we are looking to do are commercial deals."
Whether operators can successfully sell preferred Internet access to big Web businesses remains to be seen. Such a move would drastically alter the economics of the Internet, forcing content providers, in effect, to pay a toll, and perhaps a heavy toll, for access.
Naturally, none of the big websites are interested in doing that.
In February, at an industry convention in Barcelona, Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, was asked to comment on statements made by Mr. Colao of Vodafone, who had called for the right to clinch commercial deals with big web businesses like Google.
Mr. Schmidt, who during a speech that day had stressed Google's role in helping network operators build their wireless broadband businesses by attracting consumers to the mobile web, declined to comment, adding that Mr. Colao was a friend.
Virtualization Ideal for a Dynamic Cloud Infrastructure
Excerpted from TMCnet Report by Jayashree Adkoli
Cloud computing technology is suitable for meeting the needs of both IT providers - who demand exceptional flexibility and efficiency, lower costs and complexity and support for varied and huge workloads - as well as of Internet users - who expect high availability, function and speed.
Exponential growth of smart mobile devices, high-speed connectivity, higher density computing and data-intensive Web 2.0 applications all have contributed in the adoption of cloud computing technology. Even virtualization and corresponding management services such as automation, monitoring and capacity planning services have become more mature, thereby facilitating wide adoption of cloud computing.
Consequently, vendors across the IT industry have announced cloud computing efforts of varying capabilities. In addition, corporate clients have shown great interest in the cloud, including infrastructure outsourcing, software as a service key processes as a service and next-generation distributed computing.
IBM, a technology and IT consulting corporation, has released a new white paper entitled Seeding the Clouds: Key Infrastructure Elements for Cloud Computing, which not only explains technicalities of cloud computing technology and the key infrastructure elements for cloud computing such as virtualization, but also introduces the company's vision of a data center that supports a dynamic infrastructure.
The company's new white paper will help those clients who want to adopt cloud computing technologies as well as management techniques to increase the efficiency and flexibility of their data centers.
In addition, the new white paper also describes a high-level cloud computing infrastructure services framework and the underlying technology enablers, such as virtualization, automation, self-service portal, monitoring and capacity planning.
According to IBM, cloud computing is a computing model by which users can gain access to their applications from anywhere, via any connected device. It is both a business delivery model as well as an infrastructure management methodology.
The business delivery model provides a user experience wherein resources are optimally utilized to offer innovative services over the web, and servers are provisioned in accordance with the logical needs of the service using advanced, automated tools. The cloud enables usage of these services via a web-based interface that abstracts away the complexity of the underlying dynamic infrastructure.
The infrastructure management methodology facilitates IT organizations to manage large numbers of highly virtualized resources as a single large resource. In addition, it also enables IT organizations to massively increase their data center resources without significantly increasing the workforce.
The user-centric interface makes the cloud infrastructure supporting the applications transparent to users, says IBM. These applications exist in huge scalable data centers where computational resources can be dynamically provisioned as well as shared. With the help of a strong service management platform, the management costs of adding more IT resources to the cloud can be significantly lowered.
IBM has been defining as well as improving the cloud computing framework for running large scale data centers. This framework incorporates automation for the complex, time-consuming processes of provisioning servers, networks, storage, operating systems and middleware. The framework also provides support for extremely data-intensive workloads and also supports requirements for resiliency and security.
In addition, IBM also discussed about its vision of a data center that supports a dynamic infrastructure, in its new white paper. The company's vision -- which is optimized for security, data integrity, resiliency and transaction processing -- combines the strengths of the Web-centric cloud computing model and enterprise data center. It also offers request-driven, dynamic allocation of computing resources for a mix of workloads on a massively scalable, heterogeneous and virtualized infrastructure.
IBM says that it is well prepared to deliver clients with the best solutions to achieve its vision of the cloud computing data center. To know more, check out the white paper.
AT&T Launches U-verse Online Video Website
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report
AT&T on Wednesday launched U-verse Online, a new companion website for its digital TV service that will let subscribers watch select streaming TV shows and movies on their PCs.
The service is actually available to all users, but offers "additional features and account integration" for U-verse TV subscribers.
AT&T also plans to offer a U-verse Mobile application later this year that will let users download and watch select shows on Wi-Fi-enabled phones.
SopCast, Another P2P Streaming TV Player
Excerpted from Zeropaid Report by Jared Moya
With TVUPlayer's Vidoo site now down, it's time to start looking for alternative P2P cable TV options just in case. The website is no longer reachable and merits testing other P2PTV streaming applications as a precaution.
Vidoo.com was home to TVUPlayer's channel menu, chat room, and forums, and was recently closed.
Visitors to the site now get a message in French stating that the domain is up for sale as shown in the picture to the right.
One of the P2P TV streaming applications that I came across is called Sopcast.
From the site: SopCast is a simple, free way to broadcast video and audio or watch the video and listen to radio on the Internet. Adopting P2P technology, it is very efficient and easy to use. Let anyone become a broadcaster without the costs of a powerful server and vast bandwidth. You can build your own TV stations comparable with large commercial sites with minimal resources. Using SopCast, you can serve 10,000 online users with a personal computer and a home broadband connection.
The program offers you the ability to either view or broadcast content, a feature that distinguishes it from TVUPlayer, which is limited to viewing only.
Now when it comes to the content consistently being streamed on Sopcast, its is far more limited than TVUPlayer. It's mainly sport oriented, offering ESPN Sports, ESPN NFL, NBA Live, Telecapri Soccer, Start Sports, and some others.
The overall categories include News & Entertainment, HiFi Music, Radio & Education, Netherlands TV, Reference TV, Italian Web Radio TV, Brazilian TV, French TV, Christian Broadcasting, Poland Internet TV, Pakistan TV, and the list goes on but, it's only the sports offerings that I found any real desire to watch.
I did however, find the Discovery and Animal Planet Channels but, they are listed under the "Test Group" category so how long they will last is anybody's guess.
The real feature that would make SopCast most attractive I think, and compel me to use it the most would ave to be the broadcast function that it offers.
It's very, very easy to use and setup. You simply pick a Channel name and category, and then agree not to broadcast any content that disparages or disgraces the People's Republic of China (where the site is hosted).
You can either broadcast by directory of file, with allowable file types including .WMV, .ASF, .MP3, .RM. RMVB, and .SPL.
Another cool feature for all you blogger types out there is that you can embed SopCast into your blog page. You can embed your favorite channel listings, all of the listings, or better yet, have it autoplay a single channel like one you may be broadcasting for instance.
Unfortunately an embedded SopCast only seems to work in Internet Explorer, so you may have to have a blog disclaimer to get visitors on the right track.
Exent Launches 3rd Project for EU R&D Framework Program
One of the more exciting areas of online gaming today is the ongoing evolution of massively multiplayer online games (MMOG), in which thousands of players can simultaneously interact with each other in a virtual world. The growth of broadband Internet availability has facilitated the rapid expansion of MMOG diversity and consumer adoption over the past decade. The Community Network Game (CNG) project, a new initiative supported by the European Union's RTD Framework Program, will facilitate another wave of MMOG expansion by developing new technologies that enable players to experience an unprecedented ability to share user generated content (UGC) while playing online.
Though MMOGs currently enable some degree of player community activities while playing online, the client-server architecture typical of most games has limited the degree to which this can be done and has virtually prohibited the integration of sophisticated user generated content (UGC) within the game. The CNG project promises to remove these limitations through the addition of peer-to-peer (P2P) networking and in-game graphical insertion technology (IGIT) from Exent. Exent, the leading distributor of online downloadable video games, has pioneered the development of IGIT, which enables game content to be inserted or replaced in real time without the need to change the game's code on the client or server side. Coupled with P2P networking, the possibilities for MMOGs are limitless.
"We are honored to continue our relationship with the European Commission (EC) as we begin a third project with the ground-breaking Development Framework Program," stated Itay Nave, VP and CTO of Exent. "Migrating our IGIT technology from the one-to-one environment to a one-to-many, or more accurately, many-to-many environment is an exciting challenge and one we are uniquely qualified to undertake. Exent has frequently led the industry in the application of IGIT, including the recent introduction of our U-Pic series of customized casual games."
Exent has been involved in the EU's fifth and sixth framework programs (FP5, FP6) and now embarks upon the seventh with the CNG project. The new project will partner Exent with industry leading companies like MMOG operator RedBedlam, UGC specialist Kaltura and organizations like the European Game Developers Federation to overcome the challenge UGC presents to networks already occupied by MMOG client-server traffic. The project intends to research and develop new techniques for 3D/video streaming that are "friendly" to MMOG client-server traffic by pushing their processing and integration to P2P networks and end-user devices.
Additional partners to Exent in the CNG project are Research Academic Computer Technology Institute (CTI), Groupe des Ecoles des Telecommunications (ITE), De Montfort University (DMU) and i2 media research Ltd (Goldsmiths, University of London). The team of partners brings together expertise in games development (Red Bedlam, EGDF), User Generated Content (Kaltura), network/transmission (CTI, DMU, ITE) and user needs/user research/ market research (i2 media research).
CDC Software Acquires its Way into the Supply Chain
Excerpted from Spend Matters
Last week, CDC Software Corporation announced a potential new acquisition in the supply chain sector. According to their press release, CDC "signed a term sheet to acquire a leading provider of on-demand software as a service (SaaS) supply chain management solutions," which represents "the latest move by CDC Software to expand its growing portfolio of SaaS solutions." Even though the move appears to be aimed at the supply chain planning or transportation space based on its description, I highly suspect we'll see CDC become more active in the broader procurement and sourcing sector as well, given that the "transaction is part of CDC Software's acquisition strategy to increase its maintenance and SaaS recurring revenue to about 70 percent of total revenue over the next few years." Simply put, organic growth rarely comes that fast.
Late in 2009, I wrote a post questioning whether CDC Software would target the buy-side applications. Clearly, I was on to something here, but where should CDC expand next if they're interested in the broader procurement and sourcing market? I would suggest four areas of key interest: spend analysis, sourcing, supplier management and P2P. All four areas are logical beachheads to expand and there are multiple options in each area to consider for acquisition. Moreover, each has proven out a successful business model in SaaS already (and some, like supplier management, are dominated by a SaaS business model, with what Spend Matters estimates is SaaS market penetration over 90% compared with installed or single-tenant hosted models).
I suspect CDC will have significant competition for deals in the procurement area this year and next if they pursue the Spend Management sector. I've had numerous conversations with private equity/venture investors, CEOs and corporate development types in recent months that suggest the M&A cycle is heating up in this sector. Large companies with a dominant position like Ariba are looking to consolidate the market and build logical extensions; others are looking to break into it; and best of breed vendors are looking to round out their capabilities. It might be challenging for an offshore provider to compete in this mix, but I don't think we should count anyone out of the M&A hunt.
I also believe there could be a strong case to be made to buy from China-based software companies in these areas as well. Especially if CDC can tie potential solutions in the supply chain and Spend Management arenas to broader solution and content offerings, including unique insight into Chinese suppliers or the types of activities necessary to better manage global suppliers, they could differentiate their capabilities in the market. Regardless, I suspect that in the next few years, that just as we have the option to buy manufactured goods and services offshore, that we'll have greater opportunity to buy software as well.
Online Privacy Bill Criticized for Weak Consumer Protections
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
A number of consumer and privacy advocates are criticizing new draft legislation intended to address online privacy as not going far enough to protect consumers. Introduced by Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, and ranking member Cliff Stearns (R-FL), the bill's draft language intends to increase privacy protections for consumers by compelling companies to disclose data collection policies, and seeks to regulate ad networks and other data collecting services.
"Our legislation confers privacy rights on individuals, informing them of the personal information that is collected and shared about them and giving them greater control over the collection, use and sharing of that information," said Boucher.
However, groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Consumer Action, and Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) criticized the draft legislation as not protective enough of consumers' privacy.
"It still largely depends on the opting in and out regime where notice and consent is kind of at the center of privacy practices," Leslie Harris, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, told Wired.com. "At least from CDT's perspective, notice and consent has not been working."
"Please explain to me why a marketer would need your information for 18 months?" Michelle DeMooy, senior associate for national priorities at Consumer Action, asked during a call with reporters, referring to the bill's allowance for marketers to hold consumer data for 18 months before being required to delete it.
Coming Events of Interest
Broadband Policy Summit VI - June 10th-11th in Washington, DC. The most comprehensive, in-depth update about the implementation of the FCC's National Broadband Plan. No other forum provides the detailed coverage, expert insight and networking opportunities you'll receive at Broadband Policy Summit VI. The expanded program includes top-notch faculty who will address the most pressing broadband issues in six panel discussions, two debates and four keynote addresses.
Digital Media Conference East - June 25th in McLean, VA. The Washington Post calls this Digital Media Wire flagship event "a confab of powerful communicators and content providers in the region." This conference explores the current state of digital media and the directions in which the industry is heading.
NY Games Conference - September 21st in New York, NY.The most influential decision-makers in the digital media industry gather to network, do deals, and share ideas about the future of games and connected entertainment. Now in its 3rd year – this show features lively debate on timely cutting-edge business topics.
Digital Content Monetization 2010 - October 5th-6th in New York, NY. DCM 2010 is a rights-holder focused event exploring how media and entertainment owners can develop sustainable digital content monetization strategies.
Digital Music Forum West - October 6th-7th in Los Angeles, CA. Over 300 of the most influential decision-makers in the music industry gather in Los Angeles each year for this incredible 2-day deal-makers forum to network, do deals, and share ideas about the business.
Digital Hollywood Fall - October 18th-21st in Santa Monica, CA. Digital Hollywood Spring (DHS) is the premier entertainment and technology conference in the country covering the convergence of entertainment, the web, television, and technology.
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