Choose from today's state-of-the art entertainment, communication, and navigation products from industry leaders including Olympus, Motorola, and Panasonic:
digisette pencam wristpc micropda
More seriously, we are faced with the question what commercial
impact multimedia, and in particular digital convergence, may have.
Let's look at some news from business and comments from
the popular press.
OUR MISSION:
helping clients in Europe position themselves for
Their interests encompass the following types of content:
content
streaming media (audio and video), interactive gaming, virtual reality and 3D animation, interactive TV programming, interactive advertising, video on-demand, webcasting and multimedia
European Broadband
The advent of broadband Internet access, which has been available in the US for some time but is only now beginning to make inroads into Europe, makes a whole range of new services possible.
As download speeds have increased and more bandwidth has become available, the possibility of delivering screen-based content such as films, television programs and music has moved a step closer to mass market usage.
cable or (X)DSL? broadband landscape
Gaining competitive advantage and future revenue in Europe's broadband landscape will depend heavily on a company's ability to offer integrated services: access (fixed and wireless) and content.
It is virtually impossible at this point for one single company to offer these services on a pan-European level. This means that companies need to find partners to fill the gaps in their offerings.
Let me assure you, at the moment of writing the battle is still
going on!
Peter Greven 23/3/2001 (Volkskrant)
people like new technology.
they don't like new media.
The translation from Dutch is, admittedly, mine.
It says, in other words, that people like to receive
the old stuff on new gadgets, but that they are not willing
to pay for any new sort of services.
For example, when considering the TIVO smart
video recorder, that uses a disk cache for storing
MPEG coded versions of broadcasts, just think
of other gadgets and services that didn't make it or
that are encountering problems in being accepted:
acceptance problems TIVO ? Jan van Dijk (UTwente) The Network Society wireless entertainment
The wireless web is being unleashed. Cellular providers around the globe are spending billions of dollars to bring faster connectivity to cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and other mobile devices.
As new networks roll out, wirelessly streamed music will be a huge hit with commuters, while young media junkies will demand music videos and short animations.
Tens of millions of consumers around the world will use wireless devices to gain ubiquitous access to content.
The intent of the report is to investigate
whether investments in the mobile entertainment
are justified.
Quoting again:
wireless or worthless?
Webnoize examines how providers of music and video services can benefit from the wireless delivery of multimedia. Using survey evidence, pricing information from new wireless networks and interviews with industry visionaries, the report analyzes supply and demand to build an economic and business model for mobile multimedia.
Apart from the need to invent some business model,
there are a number of strategic questions
to be answered in order to estimate the risk
of making investments in this direction.
Following Bailey, we may list questions such as:
strategic questions
the players
Alltel, AT&T Wireless, AtomShockwave, Cingular Wireless, Clear Channel, HitHive, Ifilm, Infinity, KDDI, Liquid Audio, LMIV, Mannesmann, MP3.com, MTV, NetCom, Myplay, Nortel Networks, NTT DoCoMo, Omnitel, Sprint, Telefonica, Telstra, Vitaminic, Verizon Wireless, Virgin Megastores, Vodafone, Voicestream.
Now make up your mind, and ask yourself the
question whether multimedia is worth
your (intellectual) investment.
functions of media
So, perhaps, we could better state that we live in a
media society.
So far, in the latter part of the previous century, television
has dominated our lives, and observe that
(following Ernie Kovack, cited from medium
television is a medium 'because it is neither rare nor well done'
Back to the main issues, what is an information society?
According to information society
the new term 'information society' gave form to a cluster of hitherto more loosely related aspects of
communication -- knowledge, news, literature, entertainment, all exchanged through different media and different
media materials -- paper, ink, canvas, paint, celluloid, cinema, radio, television and computers.
From the 1960s onwards, all messages, public and private, verbal and visual, began to be considered as 'data',
information that could be transmitted, collected, recorded, whatever their point of origin, most effective through
electronic technology.
So, from the varieties of perspectives we have discerned,
including technological perspectives, societal perspectives
and psychological perspectives,
we must investigate the problem of communication:
communication draft version 1 (16/5/2003) TV meets the Web
Their mission:
In 2000 they issued a report sketching
the European broadband landscape.
Quoting from this report:
With respect to the adoption of cable or DSL in Europe,
they observe that despite the fact that cable companies
have gained firm ground, there is an even larger number of conventional
telephone lines.
In contrast, there are only 15 million cable subscribers,
giving DSL a large potential audience.
new media
new media sucks
Perhaps the reason for these failures is the trial-and-error
(aka spaghetti) method that is being followed in developing new media.
Just throw it on the market and see what sticks.
Perhaps that is not the right method to be followed.
But can you think of a better one?
observations
For example in Sweden, the upload of material
far exceeded download, which is contrary to the assumptions
underlying ADSL.
mobile multimedia
And more.
If you are interested whether anyone is willing
to take such risks and invest in mobile multimedia,
just look at what players are involved.
research directions -- the information society
That is, simply, who says what to whom in what channel with what effect?!
The remainder of the book will, however, will treat these
issues mainly from a technological perspective.
In the chapters that follow, we will enquire after
the technological assumptions that make
an information society possible.
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readme
preface
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
appendix
checklist
powerpoint
resources
director
eliens@cs.vu.nl
