In its eleventh year, this offshoot of the South-by-Southwest independent film festival draws cutting-edge new media developers and content creators. Austin, TX. http://sxsw.com/interactive
Simon Perry
London Innovation Conference 2004
The business world is fast moving. News ideas and creative thinking are always needed if you want your business to stay ahead of the game. Having bright new ideas is not the only problem. You need innovation to transform those ideas and make them happen in the real world. This one day Conference will help you do just that. With expert speakers, practical support, sector and themed sessions and invaluable first-hand experience, it will give you the knowledge, inspiration and confidence to turn your good ideas into successful business ventures.
The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London http://www.london-innovation.org.uk/conference.htm.mobile domain on the way?
There has not been a new Top Level Domains (TLD) since .name came out a couple of years ago. Even that ended up as a bit of a damp squib. But now a collection of nine corporations, have applied to ICANN (Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers) to form a new domain. Their proposal, .mobile is to be used for mobile applications/devices and will be filed by 15 March 2004.
Nokia is leading some pretty heavyweight companies from the worlds of computing, software, tech manufacturers, mobile phone makers and cellular service providers. The list; Microsoft Corp., Nokia, Vodafone, 3, GSM Association, HP, Orange, Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd. and Sun Microsystems is not only from a diverse range of areas, but are feature companies that normally do not really like each other, like, Nokia, Microsoft and Sun.
If the current application is successful, the current estimate is to have the first names available during the second half of 2005. An independent, separate organisation would run the registry.
This is not the first time Nokia has tried to get some new TLD’s introduced, back in October 2000 they requested, the following form ICANN:-
.mas
.max
.mid
.mis
.mobile
.mobi
.now
.ownAt the time they came out with a press release, which sadly they have removed from their site, but thanks to archive.org (nee Way Back Machine), we can find the original release. (Interesting to see their projections for mobile handset, overtaking computers for IP access by 2003). The 2000 applications, clearly was not a success.
UMTS forum has been a big supporter for a Mobile TLD, or M-TLD, as they prefer to call it, and two years ago (March, 2002) they published the findings of ‘Benefits and Drawbacks of Introducing a Dedicated Top Level Domain Within the UMTS Environment’ prepared by Theron business consulting. The Executive Summary – is available to the public, the detail (TOC) is not without registration. The estimated cost of applying for and running the was estimated at less than 3m Euro.
The purpose of the .mobile domain, beyond opening up the domain market to another potential name grab, is not immediately clear. So after reading between various lines and carrying out further research we’ve concluded the following.
It appears that the idea is to limit the people who can get a .mobile name, and by doing this, they hope to ensure that, at the very least, the content is formatted for mobile devices and the service has a level of QoS (Quality of Service). If this will turn out to be a mobile walled garden, a mini-internet, only for mobile devices is not clear. Will .mobile domain only be available for use BY mobile devices, or are people to put their mobile-friendly content on .mobile domains?
Some quotes by the founding partner companies appear to support the walled garden theory.
“We expect that by leveraging the technologies of the Internet, appropriately scaled for mobile scenarios, this initiative will provide the ease of use and efficiency that will significantly fuel mobile Internet usage.”
Brian Arbogast, corporate vice president of the MSN Communications Platform at Microsoft“Creating a unique, standard platform for a mobile Internet environment is a natural next step to enabling new and compelling services for businesses and consumers,”
Felice Swapp, director of strategic initiatives and business development, HPForcing publishers to create a whole separate sites to operate under a .mobile domain appears a very expensive route. We would imagine that it would be a much better to define a standard that can be used with any currently existing domain. ie just serve it from the same domain as before but define Digital-Lifestyles.info/mobile or mobile.Digital-Lifestyles.info as the convention.
If the mobile phone owners would get a choice between .mobile-internet or Internet is also not clear.
One things that the mobile industry understand is if each handsets has its own domain name, there are significant issues in maintaining DNS records and monitoring their connection to the Internet – as the phone connect and disconnect so regularly. This lead us to think that they are talking about maintaining a separate DNS system for mobile devices. If they do end up running a separate DNS, Nokia (or their JV company/partners) would become the gatekeeper to and from the mobile world – a very powerful position.
More details of this are bound to popup over the next few weeks, if anything relevant turns up, we will let you know.
The mobile Top Level Domain initiative
Nokia October 2000 application to ICANNFT New Media & Broadcasting Conference
For more than twenty years the FT New Media and Broadcasting Conference has provided a unique platform for the exchange of information and ideas in the media industry. Characterised by its editorial independence the programme consistently attracts speakers and delegates at the most senior level. Recommended.
Programme
Renaissance London Chancery Court Hotel 252 High Holborn London WC1V 7EN http://www.ftconferences.com/mini_site/new_media2002/ft_nmedia/Digital Music Forum
This is the 4th year this event has been run, covering all areas of world of digital music. The French Institute 55 East 59th Street New York, NY 10022 http://www.digitalmusicforum.com/
More details of BBC iMP revealed – All content DRM’d
More details of the intriguing BBC interactive media player, iMP, first made public at IBC 2003, were revealed this evening at a AIGA meeting in London. Sara Watkins, Executive Producer, Broadband, BBC New Media gave the audience further details of what iMP will do and importantly, what it will not.
The most significant revelations were concerning the protection of the content. All content will be DRM’d, only available for a limited period time, once downloaded. As expected, it will also only be available to UK broadband users. In a break with the BBC’s long-standing support of Real, Microsoft DRM will be used for the technical trial, but it appears that no final decision has been made.
Sara started by running a video giving an overview of what the BBC hope the iMP will be and where it might go.
As was known previously, the EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) will cover fourteen days; seven looking forward and seven backward. The programs that have been broadcasted will be downloadable to the computer simply by clicking on them. A preview of a piece can be watched before committing to download a complete show.
Although it was not mentioned in this presentation, in previous discussion we have had we understood that upcoming programs could be selected to download, once they have been broadcasted.
People will also be able to recommend programmes it to friends.
The iMP, originally envisaged by BBC man Ben Lavender, will be a PC-only application that will be downloaded from the BBC website.Further into the future they are looking forward to having the content on other devices, such as portable music players and even further forward, towards mobile phones. This portable content will initially be limited to audio, as the rights to these programmes are nearly all owned solely by the BBC.
Running through the demonstration version of the product, we were shown the player would have four sections
_Library area
A list of the content residing on the computer will be shown, as you would expect from any filing system. A new revelation was that the rights information for each show would be displayed on the right hand side of the screen.
Each separate show will be capable of having its own DRM setting, primarily how many days it will reside on your machine and therefore, how quickly you will need to watch the show before it become unavailable.
The examples given were
Eastenders (most popular UK soap) might be available for two weeks
An episode of Blue Planet (recent super budget natural history programme) might be available for two days.The amount of compression applied to each piece of content will vary, so the video quality will vary. More popular programmes will be lower quality but programmes that would benefit from better quality will receive it, such as Blue Planet.
_Traffic area
As per standard peer-to-peer (P2P) packages – showing what is being transferred to and from your machine at any time.
It was reiterated that P2P file sharing technologies would be used to automatically exchange content between broadband-connected computers running iMP, thus saving the BBC a considerable amount of money on individually serving each files.
_TV and radio guide areas
No real details were given about this.
Stages of development
The BBC plan to carry out an internal technical trial, where they will work out the logistics of how to get the content from its original source (tape, etc), how to will be encoded, archived and make it available.
Later in the year, possibly around Easter, a closed network of users will be given the product to test it. During this phase they hope to understand how effective the interface design is.
Following these stages they will enter a product development mode – taking all of the learning and re-polishing the product. No date was mentioned for a public release.
During the Q&A session another interesting revelation concerning the Greg Dyke’s idea floated at RTS Edinburgh 2003, the Creative Archive. The content that makes up the Creative Archive will be downloaded using a similar application, but will not be restricted by DRM enabling people to re-edit it, or use it to make other programmes. Importantly it will not be the complete BBC archive, the examples given was – it will be nature programmes but it will not be show such as Dad’s Army (An old very popular comedy show first show in the 1970’s).
Ofcom Chair: UK with True Broadband by 2010
Fifty days in to Ofcom’s existence, its Chair David Currie delivered a speech to the Communications Management Association conference. He recapped on what Ofcom had been doing, then outlined where he felt it was going, focusing mainly on broadband.
We feel the most exciting part of the speech was, in his words, True Broadband.
Anyone with a real understanding of why broadband is such a vital part of the future will be hugely encouraged by his words. In summary, what is currently being sold as broadband to the UK consumer and many other around the world, a 512k connection, is not broadband. It is the equivalent of a 1200/75-baud modem.
We heartily agree with Currie view that ‘DSL at 512k is a convenience product’. He argues that it is not practical or possible for the UK to lurch from a 512k connection to something much faster – the current copper-wire based system we have simply would not support it.
Instead a target of 10Mbps should be set for 2010 and that it should be provided competitively. We read this as; the long lasting monopoly that BT has, and does enjoy will be removed. His comparison with the multi-supplier mobile market bears this out. In our view BT consistently hoodwinked Oftel. At first glance it looks like they will not have the same joy with Ofcom.
This was further underlined by his praise of the Parliamentary Trade and Industry Select Committee point that
‘[we must] make certain that the regulatory framework ensures that commercial decisions by private companies are aligned with the wider economic and social needs of the country.’
He and his colleagues clearly recognise and understand what is required for a proper broadband service. With connections being symmetric rather than the slow transmit, asymmetric we have now, he identified the need for the network to enable distributed system, not just central services delivering to the ends of the network. We also find it encouraging that he reiterated the pursuit of wireless connections.
Currie states his aim is ‘Liquid bandwidth; all you can eat; always on. No contention.’
Very encouraging.
Full text
David Currie, Ofcom chairman, Communications Management Association Annual Conference, 16 February 2004The Connected Consumer: Opportunities & Challenges Facing Broadband Providers
In just a few years, the opportunities and challenges faced by broadband providers have grown remarkably. In this half-day workshop, Parks Associates’ analysts will provide insight and understanding about the “connected consumer” and the broadband-enabled services which leverage in-home & mobile connectivity. Research provided includes Parks’ latest consumer data. San Diego Convention Center, USA http://www.parksassociates.com/2003_design/events/workshops/2004/bb_wireless.htm
Nokia and Samsung Work Together on Push to Talk
Push to talk over Cellular (PoC) is felt by the mobile phone business to become an exciting advance for consumers and business user alike. PoC give a walkie-talkie style connection between two phones.
Nokia have been working on the technology for a while and have developed an open standards approach, which they have put forward to the OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) for use by the industry. They currently have it on trial with 30 operators around the world.
To underline how useful it is, Nokia must be pleased to announce today that Samsung will be releasing products in 2004/5 that will use the standard.
Nokia Announce Updated 9500 Communicator
After having blazed a trail with their originally Communicator almost ten years ago, Nokia have worked for the last year to develop and have now releases a new compact, lighter version called the 9500.
Working closely with IBM to target it at corporate users, they feel it will be particular useful to sales and support staff. This is being perceived as Nokia determination to be a big player in this market which Microsoft is applying a lot of attention to, as are Symbians co-developer Psion. Andy Brown, analyst at research group IDC says “The world’s number one in e-business services hooks up with the number one in mobile devices. This tells me Nokia is serious about developing products for enterprises, which I wasn’t sure about before.”
Thought to retail for around 800 euros (£538, US$1,000), it now support WiFi as well as cellular communications.