Technology360

Do You Really Need Both Ends of the Curve?

Chris Anderson writes:  "I've argued, again and again, that successful Long Tail aggregators have to have both a head (hits) and a tail (niches) to work well. It's not enough to just have the tail. People need to start with what they already know and then discover, via effective recommendations and other filters, niches that suit them better.  ¶  But Adina Levin of BookBlog says I'm partly wrong. And, alarmingly, I find myself agreeing with her. ..."  Link:  The Long Tail weblog.

AttentionTrust

Seth Goldstein (whose excellent Media Future essays I linked to earlier this month), Steve Gillmor and Hank Barry have formed the AttentionTrust, "a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the basic rights of attention owners" -- that's all of us.  Goldstein and Gillmor have recently posted about this effort on their weblogs.  Links:  Gillmor, Goldstein.  Although the concept has been around for more than 20 years (see, for example, the writings of Michael H. Goldhaber here and here and Georg Franck here), and while it is implemented at Amazon and elsewhere,  Gillmor has been the primary advocate for standardizing the tracking of attention.

Because of the power of tracking attention, both for site owners and site users, attention owners deserve some protection from the abuse of this information.  The AttentionTrust posits four basic rights:  Property -- I own my attention and I can store it securely in private; Mobility -- I can move my attention wherever I want whenever I want to; Economy -- I can pay attention to whomever I wish and be paid for it; and Transparency -- I can see how my attention is being used.  Interesting ideas. --Dennis

Video Delivery to Consumers is Undergoing a Historic Shift

Will Richmond writes:  "The quantity of video content delivered over broadband internet connections such as cable modems and DSL is exploding.  ¶  Why? ¶ Because broadband-delivered video represents one of the most important technology innovations for delivering video to the home. Broadband creates a direct channel between video producers and their target audiences. This enables a vast array of personalized, on demand viewership and business models to be developed.  ¶  Simply put, broadband is taking its place as the next significant video distribution medium. ..."  Link:  Broadband Directions.

He's also written a 69-pp report, The Top 75 Basic Cable TV Networks:  An Analysis of Their Broadband-Delivered Video Opportunities and Current Initiatives.  Link (free registration required).  I've not had a chance to yet read much past the Introduction, but the contents look interesting and I'll work on it over the next few days.  Thanks to Richmond, David Liroff and CNET's Michael Kanellos (see Broadband catching on with TV producers) for the tip.  --Dennis.

Music and the Internet

First Monday has "reprinted" a collection of its articles on this subject from 2000-2005 with an introduction, "Collecting the fragments of transformation" by editor David Beer.  If you have an interest in this  subject, don't miss this.  --Dennis

Abstract:  The relationship between music and the Internet is a site of perceived possibility and volatility. Stories of music theft, illegal downloads, unresolved court cases, and anti-piracy technologies, are now prominent. Conversely, stories about the creation of real-time music composition, music's increasing accessibility, the regeneration of music collecting, and the development of virtual music communities have also become prominent. This paper introduces a fascinating suite of articles that originally appeared in First Monday on music's evolving relationship with the Internet, and are now included in Special Issue: Music and the Internet.

Sirius CEO interview

The Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference in May did an interview with Sirius Satellilte Radio's CEO, Mel Karmazin, an entertainment media veteran.  One-third of that interview is on the AlwaysOn web site (text).   --Dennis

Music podcast from KEXP

KEXP in Seattle is always doing innovative things and "is now offering a podcast of full-length songs by fourteen Pacific Northwest artists, making it the first radio station to offer a music podcast of this scope. This initial podcast is just the beginning of a series of music podcasts by independent musicians that we intend to offer through iTunes and for download at KEXP.ORG."  Links:  KEXP.  XML.  --Dennis

Podcasting: A Work in Progress

Jason Lopez has a useful overview article on podcasting.  In it, he talks about Podscope from TVEyes, "... The ... podcasting search engine ... searches using voice-recognition technology and delivers results based on the keywords it finds within the podcasts. Podscope also gives users the ability to listen to 15-second snippets of found audio before downloading it. ..."  He also interviewed yours truly for the story.  Link:  Top Tech News.  As an interesting aside, one of the stories also available on its site is "RSS Overhyped but Underused" but ironically, I couldn't find an RSS feed for the site anywhere.  TTN: get a clue.  --Dennis

Brightcove CEO interview

Robin Good has done an audio interview with Jeremy Allaire, chairman, founder and president of Brightcove, a new digital media distribution company.  Link:  Robin Good weblog (mp3).  --Dennis

Cable Industry Wary of Internet Protocol TV: A Content Delivery Technology That Makes Television Interactive

Abbey Klaassen writes:  "... 'This is the single biggest explosion for content,' said Josh Goldman, CEO of Akimbo, a company that delivers Web content to TVs and set-top boxes. 'We’ve already seen it in print and we’re seeing it right now in audio with MP3s. There’s no reason to think that it isn’t coming for the video world.'  ¶  IPTV also creates a host of new entrants to the video-delivery field, a turf formally owned by cable operators and satellite TV distributors. Telecoms Verizon and SBC are spending millions building high-speed networks that will deliver video and are lobbying lawmakers to grant them reprieve from the traditional franchise rules by which cable operators abide. ... Link:  Ad Age.

Motorola to Offer Yahoo Access on Devices

Cell phone maker Motorola Inc. and Internet search engine operator Yahoo Inc. on Tuesday said they are teaming up to offer Yahoo's online content and services on mobile devices made by Motorola, including the company's upcoming iRadio product. ¶ Users will be able to access Yahoo's offerings on Motorola's Linux-based mobile devices and other high-speed Internet products, including iRadio, a new device that can play Internet radio channels and the user's personal digital music collection. Motorola plans to launch iRadio later this year. ... Link: Chicago Tribune.  Billboard Radio Monitor headlined this as Internet Radio Is Coming To Your Car.  --Dennis