Digital-Lifestyles – Page 347 – Digital-Lifestyles pre-empted and reported thousands of articles on the then-coming impact that technology was to have on all forms of Media. Launched in 2001 as a research blog to aid its founder, Simon Perry, present at IBC 2002, it grew into a wide ranging, multi-author publication that was quoted in many publications globally including the BBC, was described by the Guardian as 'Informative' and also cited in a myriad of tech publications before closing in 2009

Digital-Lifestyles pre-empted and reported thousands of articles on the then-coming impact that technology was to have on all forms of Media. Launched in 2001 as a research blog to aid its founder, Simon Perry, present at IBC 2002, it grew into a wide ranging, multi-author publication that was quoted in many publications globally including the BBC, was described by the Guardian as 'Informative' and also cited in a myriad of tech publications before closing in 2009

AFP Sues Google Over News Copyright
A large question mark hangs over the future of aggregated news sites supplied by Web companies such as Google after it was revealed that Agence France-Presse had sued the world’s most popular search engine for alleged copyright infringement.
Google had been making the headline, summaries, and thumbnail photos of news stories available to everyone via a search function. Clicking on the story would then take users to the full story and photos on the original site.
It was this practice that set AFP into a giant hissy fit and before you could say “avocat”, the French news agency were filing a law suit in a Washington court.
The action sought damages and interest of at least US$17.5 million dollars (£9m, €13) and an interdiction on the publication of its text and photos without prior agreement.
“Without AFP’s authorisation, defendant is continuously and wilfully reproducing and publicly displaying AFP’s photographs, headlines and story leads on its Google News Web pages,” AFP huffed and puffed in their lawsuit.
The news agency added that it had already asked Google to stop using its copyrighted work, but that the cheeky monkeys “continued in an unabated manner to violate AFP’s copyrights”.
Since the law suit was announced, Google has embarked on the process of removing all AFP content, but has not released a schedule for when the removal will be complete.
Already some pundits are questioning the wisdom of AFPs litigious action, with the Political Gateway Web site serving up a damning article denouncing the ‘stupidity’ of the press agency:
“AFP has over 600 online clients using their news services, sites like Political Gateway. Being blacklisted by the number one search engine in the world is enough to make a news site immediately drop AFP and go to another news service like AP, Reuters, UPI, and the like. We know this to be true because Political Gateway is looking at options right now.
AFP will lose all its online clients except Yahoo.com (which is a search engine itself). However, Yahoo also syndicates its news out via RSS or ‘XML’ feeds. RSS allows webmasters to place news headlines on their site. This would be an offense to AFP and result in suing of Yahoo.
When the dust settles we believe AFP, the oldest news organization in the world, will have lost most of their online clients, their reputation, and face the worst Internet backlash a news service has ever encountered.
As of this week, all AFP news information will be deleted from Political Gateway and hundreds of other sites in protest against the stupidity of AFP.”
The Google News service was launched in 2002 with the site – still in beta – gathering stories and images from the Web and making them freely available to everyone.
With Google making the vast majority of its revenue through online advertising, the news service looks to be an important sector in the increasingly competitive online arena.
If other press agencies follow AFPs litigious route, we could see a premature end to this fledgling service.
We hope not.
Agence France-Presse
Google news
“Google shows AFP who is boss” (PoliticalGateway.com)
23 March, 2005
UK Is Fourth Most Digitally-Aware Nation In Europe
The UK’s mass adoption of digital TV and broadband has helped make the country the fourth most digitally-savvy nation in Europe, according a new report by Jupiter Research.
Calculated using 40 different variables including Net use, digital TV adoption, wireless, mobile and digital device usage, the European Digital Life Index revealed that consumers adopt different digital products and services in different countries.
Not surprisingly, the digi-savvy Scandinavian countries Sweden, Denmark and Norway came out top in the report, with Greece deemed the digital dunce, rating a lowly 17th place in the index.
“The European Digital Life Index demonstrates that digital lifestyles are common today, but across Europe there is no single digital lifestyle,” said Nate Elliott, Jupiter analyst.
He went on to predict that the trend for gadgets and technologies, such as digital video recorders (DVR), broadband, and video-on-demand will continue across Europe.
Currently, more than six million UK households have broadband Net access and that figure is expected to rise to with 50% of all UK net users by the middle of 2005.
Although the UK is currently dragging its boots in terms of broadband speeds compared to other countries, faster technologies – such as NTL’s ADSL2+ high speed – are expected to significantly improve access speeds.
UK consumers will need that super-fast connectivity if they wish to enjoy bandwidth-hungry services such as high-definition TV (HDTV) and video-on-demand, already popular in France and other European countries.
In a separate survey by GMIPoll last week, it was revealed that the appetite for technology, gizmos and gadgets shows no sign of abating around the world.
The poll of 20,000 people in 20 countries found that 59% slavishly desired more technology, with the computer being the “must-have” gadget for most people (75%).
The trusty old TV set came in at second place (67%), with mobile phones ranked at third position with 54%.
According to the survey, the most popular choice of gadget for 2005 was the digital camera, with nearly 40% choosing this over wireless, home printing and DVR technologies.
In Britain, however, only 25% of Britons said a digital camera would be their top gadget purchase of the year. Almost a quarter, 22%, said they would be buying some sort of wireless device with the largest percentage – 42% – declaring that they would be buying something “other”.
This mysterious “other” result probably reflects the growing consumer interest in digital music players or gaming devices like the Nintendo DS, Sony’s PSP and Gizmondo, but seeing as the survey didn’t bother to ask them that, they could be hell bent on buying electronic cuckoo clocks for all we know.
GmiPoll
23 March, 2005
Xdrive Launches Wireless Access To Online Storage
Xdrive has announced an expansion to their service that gives roaming consumers wireless access to their files through any Internet-connected cell phone, smart phone or handheld device.
With a turn of phrase worthy of the cheesiest made-for-TV pilot, Xdrive implores users to “cut the cord and roam freely with your files” and skip gaily into a new digital dawn “liberated from the confines of a wired world” – possibly while “sipping Mai Tai’s on the sands of Bora Bora”.
Eh, what?!
Back in the real world, we can tell you that Xdrive’s new wireless service allows mobile subscribers to access their files and folders, send faxes, email documents, listen to music and view slide shows while on the move.
Users must first upload their files to their Xdrive account, and using WAP (wireless application protocol) technology they can access their files on the company’s secure server.
The service allows people access to a wide range of stored files – Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, digital photos and videos, QuickBooks files, and MP3s etc – through any Web-enabled hand-held device.
“As the Digital Lifestyle continues to become more and more engrained into our everyday life, people are beginning to break away from the concept of one stationary computer,” states Xdrive CEO Brett O’Brien, “People strive for mobility, yet yearn for connectedness. Xdrive’s new wireless features give people just that.”
Xdrive costs US$9.95 (£5.20, €7.6) or US$99.50 (£50.20, €70.6) annually, with subscribers having 5 Gigabytes of online storage space and access to all of the Xdrive applications and services.
The company offers new subscribers a 15-day free trial period at http://www.xdrive.com
Xdrive
23 March, 2005
3G Real-Time Multiplayer Gaming From 3 In UK
With a long parp on their PR trumpets, 3 notched up another first with the launch of “over-the-air” real-time multiplayer games over their network.
The service will go live in April and allows up to four gamer dudes to frag the feck out of each other in real-time over the 3 network.
The first real-time multiplayer games to be made available will be No Refuge, an explosion-tastic, tank battle war game supplied by Mobile Interaction.
Next up will be Synergenix’s Lock ‘n Load, a shoot’em up game with even more explosions, followed by the turn-based multiplayer game, Cannons Tournament, a shoot and fire cannon game supplied by Macrospace. With explosions, naturally.
The real-time multiplayer gaming environment is supported on Terramove, a gaming solution from TerraPlay, allowing publishers to develop multiplayer games for the 3 network.
3 also announced advanced games boasting “near console quality”, which will, apparently, “bring the real gaming experience to UK mobile for the first time”.
The “near console quality” games will be made available to customers through the ‘Today on 3’ service and will include Rally Pro Contest and Lock ‘n Load, both 3D games.
These console-esque games are being supported on the 3 network by the Mophun gaming engine that is being supplied to 3 by Synergenix.
Gareth Jones COO of 3 was on hand to big up the offering: “3 has consistently been the first to deliver the very best on 3G. As the fastest growing UK operator, this is an exciting new development in our service offering. Combined with our great value and market-leading handset portfolio, 3 continues to set the benchmark for the other operators to follow.”
Graeme Oxby, Marketing Director of 3 was quick to join the quote action: “As the success of our music service demonstrates with over 10 million downloads in 6 months, 3 has learnt how to package and deliver compelling products over 3G. In Gaming, we are doing the same thing – picking the right games for 3G and delivering services that are immediate, fun and accessible at affordable prices.”
3 is currently the only UK operator to offer customers the choice of buying and renting games. Game-junkies can either pay 25p for a one game fix or double their money for up to three days of play on a game – this lets them see if they like the gear on offer before buying it.
With the ‘buy’ option customers make a one off payment, of between £3 (US$5.7, €4.3) and £7.50 (US$14.25, €10.8) and then have continuous use of the game on their video mobile till their fingers are reduced to stubs.
The ‘near console’ quality games will initially only be available on certain models and cost £7.50.
The announcement of these advanced handheld games would suggest that 3 is pro-actively targeting the lucrative console market, and looking to lure potential Gizmodo, DS and PSP customers.
We suspect that their success will depend greatly on how the games match up to the ‘near console’ quality claims.
After all, the Sinclair C5 was nearly a great idea….
Synergenix
3
Mobile Interaction
22 March, 2005
Ourmedia Launches Free Community Site For Podcasters And Vloggers
See our interview with co-founder of OurMedia, JD Lasica
OurMedia is a new community site providing online media creators a place where they can publish their content and share it with others, for free.
That last bit is important. Free. Nowt. Zip. Nada.
Anyone who creates digital media – whether it be podcasts, video blogs, photos, whatever – will soon learn that there’s no such thing as ‘free’ web space when you’re looking for a place to host those large media files.
Either you have to put up with a web page plastered with adverts or you’ll be lumbered with punitive restrictions on your bandwidth allowance.
Once you’ve got your latest artistic meisterwork online, the next problem is letting people know about it – unless you’ve got a degree in marketing or a hefty advertising budget, your video may get less hits than the Wurzels.
But – oh the cruel irony! – if by chance your work does become the hit’o’the web, you’ll be busting through your bandwidth allowance like an over-excited steam train and face having your page pulled by your web host – or be lumbered with wallet-draining excess fees.
And here’s where the self-styled “grassroots media organisation” OurMedia come in.
Using their service, video bloggers can log into the site, use the ‘upload’ tool to transfer their 50 meg video onto their server and waheey! – the file is now hosted online, complete with its own Creative Commons license – and with no bandwidth or file size restrictions.
Because it’s a community site, multimedia files can now potentially be seen and shared by thousands of people, with film makers and video buffs able to link to each other’s work, pool resources and share tips.
So what’s the catch? Well, none really, so long as you’re the sharing, caring kind.
Supported by free storage space from the Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library backed by the entrepreneur Brewster Kahle, ourmedia’s mission statement explains that they are a “free, not-for-profit effort to create a global home for grassroots media”.
Their mission is to provide a “resource to bring homemade video, audio, music, photos, text and public domain works into an easy-to-access network” with the site acting as a “clearinghouse” to allow others to “search for video or music, download it, and reuse or remix it, with proper attribution. All legally.”
After the huge success of text blogging, pundits are predicting that video blogging (vlogging) could be one of the Next Big Things to hit the web, with a new audience tuning into alternative on-demand services, like a sort of alternative TiVo online.
Ourmedia.org The idea must be good, their servers appear a little slow
22 March, 2005
SPH-M4300 LAN: WiFi Music Phone From Samsung
Samsung’s R&D team’s crack-like addiction to creating new products continues apace with the announcement of a new Wireless LAN Music Phone.
Their all-singing, all-dancing SPH-M4300 LAN music phone allows users to watch a variety of television broadcast and Internet contents on the handset, and comes with a built-in ‘powerful sound system’, featuring dual speakers.
Now, when someone says ‘powerful sound system’, we think of an all-night squat party rave with bass bins the size of small continents, but Samsung are talking about how their adoption of SRS technology (a 3D sound technology usually used in MP3 players) will give the SPH-M4300 a sonic edge over their rivals.
Despite boasting more multimedia widgets than an interactive James Bond robot, the handset is a slim (114×59×25mm) slider-style phone, featuring a 2.8-inch LCD, a nippy 520MHz CPU and a 1.3 megapixel camera.
Running on Microsoft’s mobile operating system Pocket PC 2003 Phone Edition, users will be able to run applications like Outlook, Word and Excel, with the latest Windows Media Player on hand for playback of multimedia content like movies and music.
Sadly, there’s no QWERTY keyboard on the handset.
There’s been no announcement about internal storage capacity or expansion card slots, or if the unit supports Bluetooth as yet.
We like the look of this one, and (if it ever makes it out of Korea) the inclusion of wi-fi streaming could give it an edge over the hugely-selling PalmOne Treo 600/650 range.
Samsung
22 March, 2005
Interview With JD Lasica, Co-Founder, Ourmedia.org
During our preparation of our news piece on the launch of OurMedia today, we had a quick chat with JD Lasica, that we thought you might like to see. It gives a glimpse of the future for Ourmedia.
DL: Is the site entirely bankrolled by Brewster Kahle (The Internet Archive) or are there plans to raise revenue through advertising/affiliate programs etc?
JD Lasica: The Internet Archive is providing free storage and bandwidth, and that won’t change. We’re also getting subsidized hosting from Bryght (a Drupal site), and Marc Canter’s Broadband Mechanics has kicked in some dough to pay for some programmers in New Delhi to get us across the finish line. Other than that, it’s been an entirely open source effort.
We plan to meet soon with some foundations. An infusion of grant monies would go a long way toward taking us to the next level. We have a very long road map of features and improvements we’re planning.
Marc and I are still discussing revenue models. We won’t clutter up the site with banner ads. But we are open to the prospect of corporate sponsors in addition to foundation underwriters. It certainly seems that the kinds of digital creativity we’re helping to enable would attract a wide swath of companies involved with helping consumers create personal media.
DL: Sadly, I imagine that scammers, spammers, porn merchants and ne’er do wells will be attracted to this venture like a moth to a flame. What measures have you in place to keep these undesirables at bay – or will the site remain a free-for-all with no censorship (past legal necessities)?
JD Lasica: It won’t be a free for all. We have a good-sized team of moderators around the world (including Britain) who will be watching everything that’s published on the site. The two big rules are: no porn and no copyrighted material (unless it falls within the scope of what we Yanks call fair use).
We won’t be the censorship police, so we expect a wide range of media that won’t be to everyone’s tastes. For those who violate our site rules, we’ll be relying on our team of volunteer moderators to shut them down, much as Wikipedia does.
DL: What measures have you taken in case of copyright disputes?
JD Lasica: Our site rules spell out the steps a copyright owner should take if he or she believes their copyright has been infringed. We respect U.S. copyright laws, so you won’t see Metallica mp3s winding up here — unless Lars himself uploads them.
DL: Is there a long term plan as such, or are you going to ‘go with flow’ and see where the venture takes you?
JD Lasica: We have a long road map of immediate features, functionalities and fixes that need addressing, and a longer-term plan for versions 2 and 3, which will incorporate more social networking functions, ratings, improved search, and so on.
DL: You mention that you will be getting involved with P2P – are there any other technologies up your sleeve?
JD Lasica: We’ll be looking at BitTorrent right away. I’m attaching a press release about some of the other things we’re doing.
One interesting item that will be rolling out soon: We’ll be working with Jon Udell and Doug Kaye to devise a standard for what we’re calling a media clipping service. Users will be able to cite a particular portion of a video or audio clip (a 2-minute dialogue that falls in the middle) rather than just point to the entire clip.
Here’s our version 2 roadmap as of this moment: http://www.socialtext.net/ourmedia/
DL: Thanks for sparing us time when you must be busy.
JD Lasica is co-founder of Ourmedia.org, author of “Darknet: Hollywood’s War Against the Digital Generation” (May 2005) and Senior editor of the Online Journalism Review.
He also writes the following blogs:
http://newmediamusings.com
http://darknet.com
http://socialmedia.biz/
22 March, 2005
Yahoo Buys Flickr
Yahoo has whipped out its wildly wedgified wallet and snapped up the online photo-sharing service Flickr, less than a week after launching a beta test of its new blogging tool.
Flickr lets users upload digital photos from computers, PDAs and camera phones, create their own photo albums, post photos to blogs, and store, sort, search and share your photos online.
Joanna Stevens, a spokeswoman for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, confirmed the deal Sunday: “We look forward to working with them for their innovation and product development across the Yahoo Network in the coming months,” she said.
Stevens said Flickr will remain a standalone site for now. The company’s employees, however, will have to up sticks to Sunnyvale later this year.
Yahoo’s existing photos hosting and sharing service, Yahoo Photos, will gain features from Flickr, although the two services will remain separate “for the foreseeable future.”
There will be some early integration, however, with the ability to log into Flickr using a Yahoo ID and password.
According to Caterina Fake, Flickr’s vice president of marketing and community, users of the company’s free and paid-for services will get more space, while prices for professional accounts are expected to fall.
This announcement comes less than a week after Yahoo announced Yahoo 360. This service combines a new blogging tool, along with long-established Yahoo products such as instant messaging, photo storage/sharing and Internet radio.
The service also includes social networking tools for sharing recommendations about places to eat, favourite films, fab music, great clubs (like London’s Offline, for example!) and so on.
The acquisition of Flickr (and parent company Ludicorp Research & Development) and the development of the Yahoo 360 service reflects a growing interest in social networking and blogging services.
Microsoft added a blog product for its MSN Web service in December, called MSN Spaces. Google, meanwhile, owns the hugely successful Web log service Blogger and social networking site Orkut.
Flickr
Yahoo 360
21 March, 2005
Nokia 6680 Camera Smartphone Starts Shipping
Incorporating not one, but two digital cameras (VGA on the front 1.3 megapixels to the rear), the handset was showcased a month ago at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes.
The stylish new smartphone features two-way video-calling and sharing, push email, a crisp 262,144-color display (176 x 208 pixels), MMC card slot, plus a 1.3-megapixel snapper with flash and 2x digital zoom.
Whereas many 3G handsets prompt the question, “Is that a 3G phone in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?”, the 6680 is a bit of a miniature marvel, measuring up at a Y-front unruffling 10.8 x 5.5 x 2.1cm – one of the smallest 3G handsets around (although not quite as teensy-tiny as Sony Ericsson’s upcoming K600i).
Running on the Symbian Series 60 OS, the smartphone comes with a personal organiser, video streaming and Internet browser, with a range of funky 3G-enabled features such as two-way video calls, video sharing and push email.
Using XpressPrint or PictBridge, Nokia phone snappers can print pictures, emails or contacts directly from the 6680 using a range of compatible printers or photo kiosks via USB and Bluetooth – or by simply whipping out the MMC card and slapping it in a card reader.
Joe Coles, director of imaging product marketing at Nokia, was at hand to get suitably enthused: “The Nokia 6680 enables the full benefit of high-speed 3G networks to be enjoyed with a wide range of multimedia services, including video, email, music downloads and internet browsing.”
“We are very pleased with the fantastic demand for the Nokia 6680, and expect it to be widely available in all the major 3G markets around the world.”
Mindful of the fact that trying to write long emails on a handset’s tiny buttons is as much fun as counting ants, Nokia have also announced their new SU-8W Wireless Keyboard.
This small, lightweight add-on folds out to provide a near full-size keyboard, which connects to the phone via Bluetooth.
It must be said that while these fold out keyboards are really handy things to have, they look about as cool as a comb-over in a gale. So use yours discretely!
Nokia
21 March, 2005
IF… TV Goes Down The Tube – The Media 2016
I was asked to be lead technical advisor to a TV show, that was originally called IF … Media 2012. Over the last six months of script alterations and shooting the direction has changed, but finally the docu-drama is airing at 11:20pm BBC2.
It’s part of the highly respected BBC’s IF … series and it examines where TV may go in the next seven years. The piece is designed to give you some further background.
There’s little doubt that the media is changing significantly … and we haven’t even reached 2012.
Computers turned office life upside down. Now they’re focused on changing entertainment.
Each stage of the process – creation, distribution, and consumption is being altered, apparently inextricably leading us to the realisation of the long-held digital mantra (repeat after me) – What You Want, When You Want, Where You Want or WYW3 as it’s may become known as.
For those of you who haven’t downloaded and faithfully listened to the podcast of this chant on your media player, let me clarify – you will be able to access/consume any piece of media (text/audio/video/etc), on what ever device you have handy, no matter where you are.
Sadly the dream starts to falls apart at this point, because your commercial music or videos will only play on equipment approved by the owner of the content (more on that later).
Change is Afoot – High Definition
The Consumer Electronics companies have been spending a huge amount of effort promoting High Definition TV (HDTV) around the content production industries. They’re telling everyone that 2005/2006 is the year that HD will start to become a major driver for buying new TV equipment.
For those who haven’t watched HDTV on a large screen – let me tell you, it’s impressive. It looks far more real that Standard Definition (SD) and makes a return to watching SD difficult.
Will the dazzle of HD blind the buying public to the loss of control they will have over what they previously thought of as “their media”?
What do I mean, loss of control? Well, there are changes underway which mean that what you previously did without thinking (eg. recording a TV show, backing up a DVD) will become difficult, and in a lot of cases illegal.
Encrypted to the Eyeball
The companies that produce/own audio recordings, video, TV shows and films don’t trust the general public (a director of a large film distributor used those very words to me). Because they don’t trust you, they want to ensure that throughout the value chain (their words – meaning from production, to you watching it), the content will remain encrypted. The only time it’s not encrypted, is when it leaves the screen or speakers and hits your eyes/ears.
This way of locking the content, called Digital Rights Management (DRM), can also restrict other factors such as, whether you can record or how long a recording can be kept for.
DRM protection is intrinsically flawed. It can be broken and traversed. Aware of this, Governments have been lobbied and they‘re making it illegal to examine how a DRM scheme might work.
In Europe this legislation is called the EU Copyright Directive (EUCD), and in the US, it’s the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act ).
Given this, it will be illegal and you will be open to prosecution, if you use a program to take a copy of disc if it has copy protection on it., unless you use an approved application. What you can do with your media will be directly controlled by its rights holder.
If you want to watch films in HD resolution in the future, you will need to ensure that your equipment (Set Top Box, screen, etc) all have a HDMI interface and are able to support HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection).
After 1 July this year, it will be against US law to manufacture or sell equipment that is capable of handling/recording HD material, if they do not recognise what is referred to as the Broadcast Flag – a copyright flag that is controlled by the broadcaster. Indeed to qualify for a European “HD Ready” label equipment must support HDCP.
Old equipment might have problems. All those who have bought their dream 42” plasma screen, had better check around the back. If you don’t have full HDMI/DHCP support, your £5,000 screen will be of no use for HD content.
The Content Explosion
While content created by the current commercial entities, like studios, will become more restricted, the good news is that the places that we’ll be able to source media from will increase substantially. It won’t just be from what are currently thought of as “normal” sources.
With a TV connected to a broadband connection (and they will be broad by 2012), you will be able to access the content from around the connected world. Any subject you imagine will have content available about it.
If you’re finding it hard to visualise, think WH Smiths in 1970. Back then the whole range of magazines available to you would have been about 20. These days the groaning shelves take up half of the shop and there are 100’s of regular magazines available to you.
User Generated Content
We are in a period of an explosion of User generated content. It’s no news that this type of content is going to be huge, but it will also be diverse, plentiful and importantly, quite well indexed.
The first few rungs on the Bandwidth Ladder have been reached. Blogging tools, essentially word processors for the Web (they print Web pages not paper), have enabled people to simply generate huge amounts of content online.
Audio content is currently seeing a lot of increase through Podcasting. Already the breadth and depth of the programming available is impressive.
Video is less prevalent and some way off. The delivery and receipt of it are all possible. It’s the generation of original content that is very time consuming, as it is currently cumbersome.
The public creating programming by using pre-made segments of content, is far more achievable. But where do the segments come from?
The BBC Creative Archive is important
The Creative Archive – started as an inspirational idea. The BBC has thousands of hours of content (audio & video) in its archive, This content has already been produced and paid for by the licence payers of the UK.
The inspiration of pioneers of the project was to make this archive content available for people to be able to download, watch, re-edit and create new programming from, to share with the UK. Ideal.
Since the project was floated the BBC has been very good at making the right sounds about it – and have generated interest in the idea around the world.
I hope that the loss of Paula LeDieu a joint- head of the project will not be too big a blow. I also hope the BBC delivers what it has spoken about – a wide range of free programming, which can be freely edited.
To maintain its highly regarded position in the world, the BBC must not continue to make bold new media statements, only to not deliver them. Failure to do so will reflect badly on the whole of the BBC.
Ofcom – Hands off the Internet
Given the restrictions that will be hoisted on to users of media, it is all the more important that there is no restriction on flow of information that can come down your Internet connection. By 2012 this will include your radio and TV.
Having been technical supervisor for the show, seeing the script going through the twists and turns before coming to life – the decision to bring the dark side of IPTV (Internet delivered TV) to centre stage disappointed me.
I felt the programme helps the argument of those who want to control and restrict the Internet and the video/audio it could provide, missing the opportunity to highlight the many great advantages about having a free IP-based media.
I feel it’s important that the limitation of what people can access over the Internet is decided by the individual or household, not an external, overseeing Quango like OfCom.
Conclusion
As with any massive change, there are going to be advantages and disadvantages. I think the advantages of a new form of media, where everyone is able to contribute is a good thing. Any objectionable programmes like The Cage, while they may generate a lot of headlines, are ultimately insignificant when weighed against the advantages against a freer media.
It is vital to a healthy society that expressions are freely available to all, without restriction.
If you see the show, it would be great to hear your thoughts simon(at)Digital-Lifestyles.info.
>BBC IF …
21 March, 2005

Change is Afoot – High Definition

Encrypted to the Eyeball

The Content Explosion

User Generated Content

The BBC Creative Archive is important

Ofcom – Hands off the Internet

Conclusion