The Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) has released its video player for Windows platforms. PCF’s video player for Mac platforms has been out for a while, but this Windows-based version should give a boost to the non-profit’s efforts.
The player comes pre-programmed with Internet video channels, such as Rocketboom, although PCF claims there are over 300 channels on the menu. The player also features a video search tool (although right now it looks like a user can search only Yahoo and Blogdigger).
The video is surprisingly good, appearing in a large window (I’d say 5 inches by 4 inches) and the player integrates with video social networking site videobomb.com, so that users can “bomb” videos to their connections. In a big news day for video self-publishers, PCF’s platform for Windows also enables self-publishing of uploaded video content, with optional BitTorrent functionality.
The platform, however, has an unfortunate name: The Democracy Platform. (I am aware of the irony here given that this site is called IP Democracy). The mantle of politics and copyleft-ish lingo makes the platform sound either partisan or boring or just good for you, the way brussel sprouts are good for you.
But the goal of PCF is to create an Internet TV platform and not push polemics. In the email announcing the release of the player, PCF says
Here’s the mission: there’s an opportunity for all of us to create a new, open mass medium of online television. We’re building the Democracy internet TV platform so that watching internet video channels will be as easy as watching TV, and broadcasting a channel will be open to everyone. Unlike traditional TV, everyone will have a voice.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 4:53 PM | Print | Comments (0)
You have to hand it to Apple…those folks in Cupertino know how to get the press eating of their hands. The latest episode: a cryptic invitation to selected press to attend a briefing on February 28. No subject matter. No advance warning.
The Internet and the blogosphere are now buzzing with insatiable curiosity and escalating speculation and Apple executives are no doubt loving every minute of it. Be prepared for scores of Apple-related blog items and articles between now and February 28.
And if Apple does indeed produce something stunning at this event (such as the bigger-screen, touchpad video iPod that ThinkSecret predicts), sit back after that and wait for the avalanche of press pieces and blog entries.
Alfred Hitchcock once said that the key to his success was “Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.” Apple’s key to media success: always put the press through as much suspense as possible.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 2:02 PM | Print | Comments (0)
Google has come under criticism in the U.S. for agreeing to censor its new Chinese service, Google.cn, as a condition laid down by the Chinese government. Now, Google is taking it in the neck in China too. According to this Reuters report, Chinese officials are mumbling about how Google doesn’t have a license to operate in China, purportedly in retaliation for Google’s policy of noting when Internet content has been censored.
While Google agreed to censorship, it also took a somewhat principled stand by implementing a system that affixes to censored results a statement that the results have in fact been censored. Government officials don’t like this middle-ground solution and are issuing veiled threats through the press that Google might not be free to operate in the country until it gets rid of the censorship notifications.
But the China Business Times, a business paper with a sometimes nationalist slant, blasted Google for even telling users that links are censored. “Does a business operating in China need to constantly tell customers that it’s abiding by the laws of the land?” it said, adding that Google had “incited” a debate about censorship. The paper likened Google to “an uninvited guest” telling a dinner host “the dishes don’t suit his taste, but he’s willing to eat them as a show of respect to the host.”Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:25 PM | Print | Comments (1)
Susan Crawford has this excellent summary of a speech given by former FCC Chairman Michael Powell at the annual Silicon Flatirons conference. Powell, apparently, told the attendees of the high-powered event that there is too much choice in the media these days, that the old concepts of community are giving way to fragmented choices.
“I have no idea what’s in my iPod. You don’t want 25K songs. You want the songs and pictures you care about. Maybe there is too much diversity, too little community, media is too influenced by the political environment.”
It’s a funny observation for the pro-competitive former regulator to make, but oddly enough I hear it all the time from industry insiders, journalists and other observers who follow the rapid changes being wrought by technological convergence. I don’t buy it — I think the human capacity to consume information is infintely plastic — but if even Michael Powell thinks we’re drowning in information and entertainment choices, the idea is worth considering.
P.S. Susan also has this thought-provoking list of arguments in favor of a tiered Internet, arguments that net neutrality advocates had better be prepared to answer. She’s no rabid free-marketeer so when Susan suggests that there might be some merit to the tiered Internet model, she’s probably on to something.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:33 AM | Print | Comments (0)
In the second of what appears to be a series in the Washington Post, writer Philip Pan has this longish piece on the perils of blogging in China, and the difficulties faced by U.S. Internet companies doing business there. The article focuses on a famous incident involving journalist and blogger Zhao Jing, also known by the pen name Anti.
Zhao ran a blog in China that teetered on being pro-democracy and critical of the government. But, a posting that criticized the firing of editors at the Beijing News prompted Chinese officials to ask Microsoft (Zhao’s blog was on MSN Spaces) to yank the blog for being in violation of laws that bar political speech on blogs. Microsoft complied, although clearly the company was sympathetic to Zhao — it offered to give him a disc back-up of his blog.
But the interesting part of Pan’s article is not how Microsoft caved to the Chinese government but rather the contempt that some bloggers in China hold for Zhao.
One popular Shanghai blogger, who declined to be identified, compared Zhao to an airline passenger who stands up and curses hijackers. “He makes the other passengers uncomfortable and nervous,” the blogger said. “What he is saying might be right, but it makes the situation unpredictable, and perhaps more dangerous for everyone.”
Pan will hold an online discussion today at 11 am ET on the Post’s website to discuss his series.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:59 AM | Print | Comments (0)The Wall Street Journal fronts above-the-fold this extensive piece on online video, but the real focus of the article, written by Peter Grant, is Cambridge, MA-based start-up Brightcove. Brightcove enables a lot of self-publishing of video, a radical shift in both the entertainment and Internet worlds.
Even in its early days, this business model represents a challenge to the media industry, and an opportunity for entrepreneurs. Once, producers of films, TV shows and video material relied on other big companies — broadcast networks, cable systems — to get shows in front of an audience. Now, these new forms of distribution could turn anyone into a producer with a nearly endless array of possible outlets. “In the past, content owners had to rely on gatekeepers like cable companies to get to consumers,” says Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove’s founder, a 34-year-old serial entrepreneur who doubled the value of his baseball-card business when he was a teenager. “Now they don’t have to do that.”
CBS, which has been aggressive in experimenting with video distribution on the web, is purportedly eyeing a deal with Brightcove, following in the footsteps of Reuters and a host of cable networks. (Disclosure: We’re developing a video channel using Brightcove over at IP Media Monitor.)
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:45 AM | Print | Comments (0)
Blogs We Read
