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May 14, 2007, 03:43 PM If you would like to learn about a professional musician who has turned his Apple computer into a symphonic orchestra, this interview is for you.
Suppose you are an aspiring film producer. You don’t have the money of a Hollywood production company. So you want to follow in the footsteps of the Florida college students who made a success of their self-produced Blair Witch Project eight years ago.
While the cost of video cameras and computerized editing equipment has dropped markedly since then, you recognize that every great movie needs a high-quality film score. But, you cannot afford to engage the services of a symphonic orchestra because that might cost $50,000 or more. However, if you know a good composer, you can perform his score at a fraction of the cost with the Fauxharmonic Orchestra.
Using digital instruments The Fauxharmonic Orchestra’s mission is to bring fresh and artistically meaningful experiences of orchestral music to a diverse, world-wide audience. Nearly 500 Gigs of MIDI notes and phrases for all instruments are stored on the Orchestra’s Apple computer. Essentially the computer functions as the orchestral instrument for the composer and conductor.
Our guest today Paul Smith who is the founder of The Fauxharmonic Orchestra.
This interview is about 22 minutes long.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) by clicking on the may 14th interview at the left, or
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on the podcast tab of our website.
May 11, 2007, 10:58 AM If you would like to learn how Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard built the company that seeded Silicon Valley, this interview is for you.
I have long been curious about the origins of Silicon Valley's dominance of the electronics industry. While I was aware that Shockley started his semiconductor company there in 1956, I sensed that it was not really the beginning. After all, Ampex, Lenkurt, Farinon, and Varian, among others, were already established in the Santa Clara valley. Even earlier, Philo Farnsworth pioneered television in San Francisco. But Farnsworth's company left no direct descendents nearby.
Therefore, by triangulation, it appears that Hewlett-Packard was the true source in 1938. Michael Malone recently published a book, entitled Bill and Dave, which explains how Bill Hewlett and David Packard got everything started and built their company into a pillar of the electronics industry.
Unlike today's swaggering VCs, the two young Stanford engineers basically formed the company merely to be gainfully employed in their chosen field, and to live in a desired geographic area. It was, after all, the Great Depression.
By comparison to later Valley entrepreneurs, their financial ambitions seem to have been secondary. Yet, after 70 years, H-P remains not only one of the World's most powerful companies, but also one of the most innovative.
I have stared a Wiki on this book at www.billanddave.wetpaint.com and you may email me for an invitation if you want to contribute.
Our guest today Michael Malone who is a noted author of a number of books about Silicon Valley.
This interview is covered in about 35 minutes.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) by clicking on the May 11th interview at the left or,
(2) through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on the podcast tab of our website.
May 9, 2007, 03:45 PM If you would like to learn about a cell phone that promises to work reliably indoors, as well as outside, this interview is for you.
T-Mobile is going to start marketing cell phones that will use WiFi networks to make phone calls when you are located in a WiFi area. The best example might be the WiFi in your own home if you have such a network. But, you will also be able to use other WiFi hot spots, perhaps including Starbucks.
From my viewpoint this is significant because it holds promise to give me a cell phone that will work inside my house. Right now if someone phones me on my cell phone while I am in the house, the signal strength is so poor that the call normally gets dropped.
I don’t like the requirement to pay an additional $20 a month for the WiFi augmentation, but our guest today says many people will pay it because it will circumvent the need for an ordinary landline telephone thereby providing an offsetting savings.
Our guest today Tom Evslin who is a successful computer industry CEO. He sold one company to Microsoft and took another pubic. His latest effort is the publication of his novel, hackoff.com. Tom comments on things digital at this blog, Fractals of Change.
This interview is covered in about 18 minutes.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking on the May 9th interview at the left, or
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on the podcast tab of our website.
May 7, 2007, 03:52 PM If you would like to learn how to create your own Wiki at no charge, this interview is for you.
Recently, I read Mike Malone’s new book entitled Bill and Dave which is a history of Hewlett-Packard and a biography of the two founders. Simultaneously, I learned about a website called wetpaint.com that lets you easily build your own Wiki. Not exactly being a rocket surgeon myself (to mix metaphors), I thought I would give wetpaint a try.
As a result, I formed a Wiki about Malone’s book. If you would like to contribute, just send me an email.
In sum, wetpaint worked as advertised. Ordinary people will find that they have the skills required to set-up their own Wikis there.
In today’s interview the founder of wetpaint.com demonstrates how to construct a Wiki as I question him about the steps he takes in realtime on our computer screens.
Our guest today is Ben Elowitz who is the founder of wetpaint.com.
This video interview is covered in about 15 minutes.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by visiting by clicking on the May 7th interview at the left.
You can also get it a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
May 4, 2007, 12:00 PM If you would like to learn why Microsoft SharePoint collaboration software might be coming of age, this interview is for you. (Part 2 of 2).
As everyone knows, Microsoft introduced its long-awaited Vista Operating System earlier this year. Along with it, they launched a new version of their Office Suite (Excel, Word, Power Point, Outlook, and etc). One of the key points about Office ’07 is that enables significantly enhanced versions of Microsoft’s collaboration software; SharePoint (for asynchronous collaboration) and LiveMeeting (for synchronous meetings).
This interview is divided into two parts.
The first part provides a summary of SharePoint and gives some illustrations by example. The second part tells us why SharePoint seems to be coming of age now, as opposed to when earlier versions were available.
Our guest today is Peter O’Kelly who is the Research Director at The Burton Group. His company is an IT consulting and market research firm specialized in computer and telecommunications software.
This video interview is covered in about 10 minutes.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by visiting by clicking on the May 4th interview at the left.
You can also get it a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
May 2, 2007, 03:16 PM If you would like to learn why Microsoft SharePoint collaboration software might be coming of age, this interview is for you. (Part 1 of 2).
As everyone knows, Microsoft introduced its long-awaited Vista Operating System earlier this year. Along with it, they launched a new version of their Office Suite of products (Excel, Word, Power Point, Outlook, and etc). One of the key points of Office ’07 is that enables significantly enhanced versions of Microsoft’s collaboration software, SharePoint for asynchronous collaboration and LiveMeeting for synchronous meetings.
This interview is about SharePoint. It is divided into two parts.
In the first part our guest provides a summary of SharePoint and gives some illustrations by example. In the second part he tells us why SharePoint seems to be coming of age now, as opposed to when earlier versions were available, and what some to the remaining drawbacks might be.
Our guest today is Peter O’Kelly who is the Research Director at The Burton Group. His company is an IT consulting and market research firm specialized in computer and telecommunications software.
This video interview is covered in about 27 minutes.
Today’s video interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by clicking on the May 2nd interview at the left.
You can also get it a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
April 30, 2007, 10:27 AM If you are interested in learning why Software-as-a-Service is replacing packaged and downloadable software in many applications, this interview is for you.
Have you ever bought a new package of shrink-wrapped software and found that after installing it, somehow your computer got all fouled-up? Have you had a similar experience after downloading a program off the Internet?
You are not alone. Many of the biggest corporations are also finding that installing new software on their IT systems can leave them so badly disabled that the only way to restore things to normal may be to consult an exorcist.
A more realistic way around the problem is to adopt new applications in the form of an online service. In such instances the service provider takes on all of the responsibilities for maintaining the software in good working order, and seeing to it that the application does not mess-up the customers’ computers.
WebEx pioneered the concept in Web Conferencing.
Salesforce.com blazed a trail in CRM software.
Concur Technologies led the way in expense account reporting.
Look for ever-broadening examples in the future.
Our guest today is Jeff Kaplan who is the founder of THINK Strategies and the Master-of-Ceremonies at the recent SaaScon Conference which is devoted to the Software-as-a-Service industry.
This interview is covered in about 19 minutes.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking on the April 30th interview at the left, and
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or here.
April 27, 2007, 12:43 PM If you are interested in learning how the interactive features of the Internet might also accelerate an increasingly popular technique of collaborative selling, this interview is for you.
Popular blogs and online newspapers, such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, have learned that one way to maximize their audience is to routinely provide a methodology for readers to contribute. Bloggers are learning to habitually provide a “comments” link at the end of each article, and the newspapers are also doing so with ever greater frequency.
If developing an interactive relationship with your readers optimizes the audience by empowering them to contribute, might the concept be applicable to the broader issue of customer relations?
Our guest today thinks so.
He wrote a book entitled Close Like The Pros, which teaches that selling should be an collaborative process with the customer. Unlike typical sales books, that are essentially variations on the “positive thinking” manifesto, this one emphasizes the importance of establishing a team relationship with your customers through an incremental and interactive process. The goal is to replace relationship tension with task tension.
As online collaboration builds through such features as Wikis, shared spaces, and Web Conferencing, interactive customer relations is likely to become even more important.
Our guest today is Steve Marx who is the author of Close Like The Pros, and the CEO of the Center for Sales Strategy.
This interview is covered in about 20 minutes.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking at the April 27th interview at the left.
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or here.
April 25, 2007, 01:43 PM A number of industry analysts conclude that Cisco bought WebEx partly because of the promise of the WebEx Connect strategy. If you would like to learn what that’s all about, this second part of a two-part interview is for you.
Perhaps one reason Cisco Systems bought WebEx Communications is to leverage the WebEx Connect strategy into a platform that will enable third party software vendors to escalate their independently developed software apps into on-demand collaborative sessions. To the extent that software becomes more web-centric (software-as-a-service) it is thought that online collaborative functionality shall become a routine expectation.
Microsoft will have the advantage of integrating collaborative functionality in its apps with Windows and its own LiveMeeting and SharePoint software. In contrast, independent software vendors (ISVs) will have good reasons to find a more open, neutral, platform.
In part two, of this two-part interview, our guest demonstrates how a hypothetical business software application can be enhanced by the ISV to provide on-demand collaborative functionality. Moreover, we learn how the ISV can place the collaboratively-enhanced version of his software into an ecosystem marketplace promoted by WebEx itself.
Our guest today is Shanker Iyer who is the Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at WebEx Communications. One of his jobs is to develop the WebEx Connect ecosystem.
This video interview is covered in about 11 minutes.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by visiting clicking on the April 25th interview at the left.
You can also get it as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
April 23, 2007, 04:55 PM A number of industry analysts have said that Cisco bought WebEx partly because of the promise of the WebEx Connect strategy. If you would like to learn what that’s all about, this part one of a two-part interview is for you.
A number of industry analysts concluded that one reason Cisco Systems bought WebEx Communications is to leverage the WebEx Connect strategy into a platform that will enable third party software vendors to escalate their independently developed software apps into on-demand collaborative sessions. To the extent that software becomes more web-centric (software-as-a-service) it is thought that online collaborative functionality shall become a routine expectation.
In part one of this two-part interview, we learn just what the WebEx Connect strategy really is. Later, in part two, our guest demonstrates how a hypothetical business software application can be enhanced by the ISV to provide the on-demand collaborative functionality. Moreover, we learn how the ISV can place the collaboratively-enhanced version of his software into an ecosystem marketplace promoted by WebEx itself.
Our guest today is Shanker Iyer who is the Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at WebEx Communications. One of his jobs is to develop the WebEx Connect ecosystem.
This video interview is covered in about 12 minutes.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by visiting clicking on the April 23rd interview at the left.
You can also get it as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
April 20, 2007, 04:55 PM If you would like to learn what a Web 2.0 application is all about, this interview is for you.
Web 2.0 and Software-as-a-Service are two terms that are generating an increasing amount of buzz lately. Like most new terms, many of us are confused about their meaning. Even after they are explained, we may not fully “get it”.
Like most new concepts, a good understanding comes only after an experience with them.
Today’s interview provides such an experience.
Today’s guest demonstrates how his company’s digital photo-editing application can be used to edit photos that you have already uploaded to various websites like Flickr and Facebook.
Moreover, to use the application, you don’t even have to download software. It is all available as a web application that you can utilize from any Internet connected computer, wherever you happen to be at any given time.
Our guest today is Jonathan Sposato who is the CEO of Picnik.com. His company provides a photo-editing application that is available on the Web as opposed to a software program that you download or otherwise install on your computer.
Length: This video interview is covered in about 12 minutes.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by clicking on the April 20th interview at the left.
You can also get it a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
April 19, 2007, 11:40 AM If you would like to learn how Adobe and Microsoft are heading into conflict over the software tools to be used for future Rich Internet Applications, this interview is for you.
Microsoft is concerned that Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash might become the software platform upon which most Rich Internet Applications are constructed.
Originally many of us regarded Flash as a player for animation like those annoying hip swiveling silhouettes promoting online mortgages. But with the advent of YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace, the Flash player began to rapidly take market share away from the Windows Media Player for video.
But, Flash is more than merely a media player. It appears to have the potential to become what the original Java was intended to be, to wit, a software platform that will work via the browser on many disparate types of computer hardware and operating systems. As such, it is a serious threat to Microsoft’s dominance if computing becomes increasingly Web-centric.
In response, Microsoft has launched its own product, termed Silverlight, designed to be used in place of Flash. For example, Silverlight has DRM built-in and that is one reason that Major League Baseball chose it over Flash.
Our guest today is Greg DeMichillie who is a Senior Analyst with Directions-on-Microsoft which is a market research firm dedicated to understanding what Microsoft will be doing in the future.
Length: This interview is covered in about 16 minutes.
Today’s interview is audio and there are two ways to listen:
(1) by clicking on the April 19th interview at the left or,
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on the podcast tab of our website.
April 16, 2007, 11:46 AM If you would like to learn how to webcast and podcast anything (e.g. video, animation, sound) you can capture on your computer screen, this interview is for you.
Often online collaboration workers will demonstrate computer applications to one another remotely in a Web Conference. However, since everyone who might benefit from the demonstration cannot be present at the appointed time, it is often a good idea to record the demo and make it available as a webcast, or a even a podcast.
Since the worker is basically capturing anything the screen, including video, the concept is referred to as “screencasting”. In the future, it is thought likely to become an important component of asynchronous online worker collaboration.
Our guest today is Troy Stein who is the Product Manager for Camtasia Studio software at Tech Smith Corporation. He provides a best-practices demonstration of producing a screencast.
This video is about 13 minutes long.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by visiting www.insidedigitalmedia.com and clicking on the April 16th interview.
You can also get it a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
April 13, 2007, 02:01 PM If you would like to learn about a court case supporting your freedom to copy DVDs to a hard drive, this interview is for you.
A company named Kaleidescape manufactures an appliance that enables you to take your DVD collection and transfer it to the hard drive in the device. It will hold content from hundreds of DVDs on your hard drive.
You can then purchase a play-back box from Kaleidescape that permits the content on the hard drive to be transported across your LAN to the play-back device and thence to any connected TV or computer monitor.
Essentially Kaleidescape enables you to watch movies stored on it from anywhere in your home. Today’s model is priced for the high-end consumer.
Hollywood is annoyed with Kaleidescape. Through the DVD-Copy Control Association they sued the company for violating the copy protection license. A judge recently ruled in favor of Kaleidescape.
Subject: Our guest today is Jim Burger who is a partner with the law firm of Dow Lohnes in Washington, D. C.
Length: This interview is covered in about 15 minutes.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking on the April 13th interview at the left, or
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or the podcast tab at our website.
April 11, 2007, 11:59 AM If you would like to learn about how to Webcast, or podcast, your own Power Point presentations, this interview is for you.
It takes a lot of work to put together an effective Power Point presentation. So, when many of your intended audience members can’t be present at the appointed time, your work is not as effective as it might be.
However, one way to reach those who could not be in attendance is to record your Power Point along with a video of your talking head. That way you can put it on the Internet where it will be available 24/7 on-demand to whoever is authorized to view it. You can even format it as a video podcast so that subscribers will automatically get it when they log into iTunes.
Most importantly, you can do all of this yourself without requiring technical assistance from your IT personnel or an outside Webcasting service.
Subject: Our guest today is Troy Stein who is the Product Manager for Camtasia Studio software at Tech Smith Corporation.
Length: This video is about 10 minutes long.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by visiting by clicking on the April 11th interview at the left.
You can also get it as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
April 9, 2007, 02:25 PM If you would like to learn how to record and podcast web conferencing sessions like WebEx, or Microsoft’s LiveMeeting, this interview is for you.
Web Conferencing is a great tool for online collaboration. However, not everyone who should be present in an online meeting can be available at the appointed time.
This interview demonstrates how either a presenter, or one of the audience participants, can record both the visual and audio elements of a web conference. Later the recording can be made available as an “on-demand” webcast for those who want to view it on their own schedule. Our guest even demonstrates how the recording can be formatted for podcasting via Apple’s iTunes.
Our guest today is Troy Stein who is the Product Manager for Camtasia Studio software at Tech Smith Corporation.
This video is about 12 minutes long.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by clicking on the April 9th interview at the left.
You can also get it as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
April 6, 2007, 12:09 PM If you have been hearing all the buzz about the term “mash-up” and would like to see a demo showing just what it is, this program is for you.
This video demo of a Google maps mash-up was prompted by my interview with Steve Borsch about the WebEx / Cisco deal. Steve is an expert on Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 applications.
He believes that the WebEx media tone network will form a platform for mash-ups by 3rd parties providing enterprise software. While there are not yet many examples in the enterprise environment, he recommended a visit to programmableweb.com to find some mash-ups for consumer applications. They will serve for illustrative purposes.
The applications at programmableweb.com provide concrete examples of how a given underlying platform can be leveraged with mash-ups. Even though all of them are currently oriented toward consumer uses, the website illustrates the power of the open platform for inducing creative innovations.
In this video example Google Maps serves as the platform. Push-pin icons are placed at various points on the globe representing live television feeds from those cities. Users can watch live TV from each city by merely clicking on the selected push-pin icon.
Length: This video is about 7 minutes long.
Today’s program is a video. It is available for playback by visiting by clicking on the Apirl 6th interview at the left.
You can also get it a a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
April 4, 2007, 01:01 PM If you would like to learn about some bloggers who may well merit a Pulitzer Prize, this interview is for you.
About a year ago there was torrent of overly sensationalized news reporting alleging a gang rape by members of the lacrosse team at Duke University. The reflexive reaction from nearly all conventional media was a hostile condemnation of the young men.
A year later, the accuser’s case seems to be unraveling. Except for the free press implications of the blogesphere, the lynch mentality from the establishment may have led to a rush to judgment.
Decades after reading The Kingdom and the Power my faith in the New York Times as the nation’s leading newspaper-of-record has been unshakable. But that faith was shattered as the Times’ underlying misandry boiled to the surface. It has been among the leaders of an influential mob of media properties, and other (formerly) trusted authorities, who were challenged largely by selected bloggers, such as the Friends of Duke University, Durham in Wonderland, and Liestoppers.
Contrary those who seek to discredit them, the supportive bloggers are not right wing extremists, impulsively jumping to the aid of the “Harvard of the South”. In point of fact, the guy behind Durham in Wonderland is a left wing, card-carrying Democrat, and graduate of the Harvard of the Northeast. Their voices of objectivity, amid the roar of prejudice, may well warrant a Pulitzer Prize.
Since the Prize is a creation of the newspaper industry itself, awarding the Pulitzer to a blogger would signal that the industry’s capacity for introspective criticism will not be one of the victims of this sordid affair.
Subject: Our guest today is Jason Trumpbour, who is a co-founder and the public face of the Friends of Duke University blog.
Length: This interview is about 20 minutes long.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking on the April 4th interview at the left, or
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on the podcast tab of our website.
April 2, 2007, 03:19 PM If you would like to learn about how lasers can be used as the light source in rear-projection TVs to provide better color, this interview is for you.
Consumers buying new televisions show a decided preference for big screen units. While plasma and LCD are the most elegant ones, they are costly. The folded optics of rear projection is a cheaper option and with lasers as the light source the colors are good.
Subject: Our guest today is Colin Seaton who is the Director of Business Development at Coherent, a manufacturer of lasers.
Length: This video is about 15 minutes long.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by clicking on the April 2nd interview at the left.
You can also get it as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
March 30, 2007, 06:16 PM If you would like to learn why one expert believes that Cisco bought WebEx, this interview is for you.
Recently Cisco announced plans to buy WebEx for $3.2 billion in cash. The price equates to about 8x the WebEx revenues for the trailing twelve months.
Our guest today believes that Cisco intends to leverage the WebEx platform to provide a host of Enterprise 2.0 applications involving telepresence, online collaboration, and unified messaging. He sees the WebEx market share leadership and media tone platform being the key factors attracting Cisco.
Moreover, the a acquisition puts Cisco in a position to foster the growth of an ecosystem whose members may independently develop mash-ups of their own applications to employ the platform for collaborative purposes. It is a direction that the Web Conferencing leader was already heading with its WebEx Connect strategy.
Subject: Our guest today is Steve Borsch who is a consultant on Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 strategies. You can learn more about Steve at his blog, Connecting the Dots.
Length: This interview is about 23 minutes long.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen,
(1) by clcking on the March 30th interview at the left, or
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on the podcast tab of our website.
March 28, 2007, 03:32 PM If you would like to learn about a test of the Fair Use exemption as it applies to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act involving YouTube and the NFL Super Bowl, this interview is for you.
After a YouTube registrant posted a clip from the Super Bowl featuring the Copyright Notice of the NFL, the football league sent YouTube a letter referred to as a take-down notice. The notice is used to inform YouTube that a user has posted copyrighted material and that YouTube should remove it.
In this instance, however, the posting was by a law professor who felt that the clip is a legitimate posting under the Fair Use exemption. She sent back a counter notice to YouTube explaining why she believes the clip is legitimate.
Currently YouTube is (apparently) pondering how to respond. It might become a test case for the limits of Fair Use as it applies to the take-down notice procedures of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Subject: Our guest today is Wendy Seltzer who is a professor of law at the Brooklyn School of Law and a fellow and Harvard’s Berkman Center for the Internet and Society.
Length: This interview is about 13 minutes long.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking on the March 28th interview at the left, or
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on the podcast tab of our website.
March 26, 2007, 01:48 PM If you would like to learn about a recent court decision that prevents Cablevision from offering DRV services within its network, this interview is for you.
It is no secret that DVRs are no longer limited to early adopters and becoming a mass market item. Although originated by TiVo, the cable TV industry has become the biggest provider of DVRs.
When cable operators sign-up new subscribers they must send a service technician out to the subscriber’s location to install the unit. This is costly for the cable company and an inconvenience for those consumers who work for a living. Cablevision’s solution was to provide a DVR capability as a service embedded within its network facilities thereby enabling the subscriber to select programs for recording by merely using his remote unit.
Some content owners did not like this and sued Cablevision for copyright infringement. A New York Federal District Court ruled that the planned Cablevision service is an infringement and not entitled to the fair use exemption.
Our guest today is Jim Burger who is a copyright attorney with Dow, Lohnes in Washington D.C.
Length: This interview is about 12 minutes long.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking on the March 26th interview at the left.
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on the podcast tab of our website.
March 23, 2007, 03:14 PM If you would like to learn about how Digital Media interests will be impacted by a court ruling that Bell Labs (Alcatel) is entitled to royalties for MP3 compression, this interview is for you.
Late last month a trial court in San Diego ruled that Microsoft must pay Alcatel $1.5 billion in royalties for the software company’s use of MP3 technology in a number of products including the Windows Media Player. Previously many industry observers had supposed that the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany controlled the patents. For example, Microsoft had paid Fraunhofer $16 million in royalties already.
So, that means that the San Diego judgment is nearly 1,000 times greater. Why so much higher when a 1956 consent decree requires Bell Labs to license its technology at reasonable rates?
Moreover, if Microsoft owns money to Alcatal, then other software and hardware manufacturers may owe them as well.
In today’s interview a prominent industry consultant shares his views on the matter. We also discuss ways by which the copyright holders may be compensated as media distribution increasingly moves to the Internet.
Our guest today is Jim Griffin who is the CEO of media industry consulting firm, OneHouse, LLC. Prior to that he was an executive with Cherry Lane Publishing, which is a major music publishing company.
Length: This interview is about 21 minutes long.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking on the March 23rd interview at the left, or
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or our own website.
March 21, 2007, 01:46 PM If you would like to learn the latest about Video Conferencing and Telepresence systems, this interview is for you.
Steady advances in computer and Internet technology make it increasingly convenient for workers to collaborate online. As a result, Video Conferencing is becoming more popular. Andrew Davis of Wainhouse Research gives us his latest analysis of the market.
Specifically, Andrew updates us on the latest developments with High Definition Video Conferencing as well as Telepresence.
He concludes that HD Video Conferencing is much improved and will encourage users to stay active in a video meeting for much longer periods of time.
He defines a Telepresence system as a Video Conferencing system that creates the illusion that people separated at vast distances are meeting in the same room.
This video is about 21 minutes long.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by clicking on the March 21st interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
March 19, 2007, 09:46 AM If you would like to learn about the increased royalties that Internet Radio operators are required to pay, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Jon Potter who is the Executive Director of the Digital Media Association.
Length: This interview is about 16 minutes long.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking on the March 19th interview at the left, or
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on the podcasts tab at our website.
March 16, 2007, 05:21 PM Summary: (Part 2 of 2)If you would are confused about HD-TV and would like to get a clear understanding of what is going on, this interview is for you.
Apparently only half of consumers who have purchased HD-TV sets are actually watching any HD programming. Additionally, half of the half (25% of the total) who are not watching HD programming with their HD sets erroneously think that they are.
To understand what is going on we interviewed Bruce Leichtman of Leichtman Research Group. For years he has been the “go to” guy for statistics on broadband Internet penetration in the States. As today’s interview illustrates, he is also a good source of information on the latest technological trends in television.
This video is about 10 minutes long.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by visiting www.insidedigitalmedia.com and clicking on the March 16th interview.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
March 12, 2007, 08:17 PM If you would like to hear from an author who believes that Wikis will change the way we do business, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Don Tapscott who is the co-author of the current best seller entitled Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.
Earlier Don authored a number of books analyzing and forecasting the impact of the Internet including, Paradigm Shift, The Digital Economy, Growing Up Digital, and Digital Capital. Some consider him to be the most insightful writer about media since Marshall McLuhan.
This interview is about 13 minutes long.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen.
(1) By clicking on the March 12th interview at the left, or
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on the podcast tab of our website.
March 9, 2007, 11:05 AM If you would like to learn whether the Hollywood Studios or the Internet Distributors will hold the upper-hand as Digital Media distribution comes-of-age, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Paul Vigna who is a writer and editor for Dow Jones. Paul recently wrote an editorial for The Wall Street Journal arguing that content will be king.
This interview is about 19 minutes long.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking on the March 9th interview at the left, or
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or one the podcast tab at our website.
March 7, 2007, 07:54 PM If you would like to learn how to protect your network from Instant Messaging, P2P File Trading, and other “Greynets”, this interview is for you. (Part 2 of 2).
As computer workstations have become connected to the Internet, a variety of programs proliferated offering the ability to extend communications, gather and deliver information, and to serve various needs. Among the first to emerge were instant messaging clients such as ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger. These are called greynets.
The problem with greynet programs is fourfold. First, they create network security risks by causing broad vectors for malware dissemination. Second, they create privacy issues for the network by opening large holes for information leakage. Third, greynet programs create compliance issues for a computer network by creating an invisible parallel communications network. Fourth, they create issues on local machines through the consumption of local system resources and possible operating system or program stability concerns. All of these things increase network and IT administration time and costs.
Our guest today is Kailash Ambwani who is the CEO of Face Time Communications.
This video is about 12 minutes long.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by clicking on the March 7th interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
March 5, 2007, 08:50 PM If you would like to learn how to protect your network from Instant Messaging, P2P File Trading, and other “Greynets”, this interview is for you. (Part 1 of 2).
As computer workstations have become connected to the Internet, a variety of programs have proliferated that offer the ability to extend communications, gather and deliver information, and to serve the needs of marketing concerns. Among the first to emerge were instant messaging clients such as ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger. These are called greynets.
The problem with greynet programs is fourfold. First, they create network security risks by causing broad vectors for malware dissemination. Second, they create privacy issues for the network by opening large holes for information leakage. Third, greynet programs create compliance issues for a computer network by creating an invisible parallel communications network. Fourth, they create issues on local machines through the consumption of local system resources and possible operating system or program stability concerns. All of these things increase network and IT administration time and costs.
Our guest today is Kailash Ambwani who is the CEO of Face Time Communications.
This video is about 13 minutes long.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by clicking on the March 5th interviewat the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
March 2, 2007, 05:05 PM If you would like to learn whether the content rights holder or the Internet distributor will hold the upper hand as Digital Media comes of age, this interview is for you.
Google’s YouTube and Viacom have apparently squared-off in their negotiations with disagreements about whether the content rights holder or the Internet distribution site holds the upper hand.
Our guest today is a Professor of Interactive Communications at Quinnipiac University who shares his views on the topic. He is Richard Hanley.
This interview is about 14 minutes long.
Today’s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen by selecting March 2nd interview.
(1) At the Website on the left,
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on our website.
February 28, 2007, 12:07 PM If you would like to learn about technologies that will enable you to talk to your automobile's entertainment system when you want to tell it what to play, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Craig Palmer who is the CEO of Gracenote.
This audio interview is about 22 minutes long.
There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking on the February 28th interview at the left.
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or on the podcast tab here at our website.
February 26, 2007, 04:39 PM If you would like to learn about the future of voice recognition and voice response technology, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Dr. Bill Meisel who is the founder of TMA Associates. His company is a market research firm specializing in computerized speech technology.
Bill specializes in analyzing commercial developments that are enabled by advanced speech technology. He is one of the computer speech industry’s best-known industry analysts.
This video is 20 minutes long.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback by clicking on the February 26th interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
February 22, 2007, 05:45 PM If you would like to learn about a family-friendly social networking site, this interview is for you.
Recently the Wall Street Journal ran a story about how websites like Digg are providing ways to popularize new products and Internet applications. For example, last summer a respected Digg commentator posted his views on a new family-oriented social networking site called Famster. As a result, Famster’s traffic skyrocketed from a trickle to a flood.
Today’s guests are three officers of Famster.com. They are Kristin Criss who is the Vice President of Operations, Brett Ratner who is the Vice President of Product Development, and Jennifer Weaver who is the Public Relations Manager.
This video is about 14 minutes long.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the February 22 interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
February 21, 2007, 03:24 PM If you would like to learn what an independent market research analyst thinks about Apple’s iPhone, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Avi Greengart who is a specialist in the mobile telephone industry for the market research firm of Current Analysis.
This video is about 30 minutes long.
Today’s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the February 21st interview at the left.
February 20, 2007, 03:25 PM If you would like to learn more about the licensing agreement that permits YouTube to show vintage television programming in an advertising supported business model, this interview is for you.
Recently YouTube struck a deal to license vintage television shows like I Spy and My Favorite Martian from Digital Music Group. The shows will be available at YouTube on demand. YouTube will generate advertising revenue from those watching the program and share the revenue with Digital Music Group.
Our guest today is Mitch Koulouris who is the CEO of Digital Music Group.
This audio interview is covered in about 16 minutes.
There are two ways to listen by clicking on the February 20th interview at the left.
Or through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple’s iTunes or here on our website.
February 9, 2007, 07:54 PM If you are interested in relaxing with great literature in your free time, this interview is for you.
According to our guest today the English departments of American colleges and universities have either minimized the importance of traditional English literature or have characterized its as extreme bigotry in religious, gender, racial, and political contexts. Therefore, the departments discourage the traditional teachings about the merits of Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, Johnson, Austin, Dickens and others.
Our guest today is Dr. Elizabeth Kantor who is the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature.
This interview is about 27 minutes long.
Today?s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen.
First, here at our website by clicking on the interview for February 9th.
Second, through your iPod or other portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple?s iTunes on our webpages. February 7, 2007, 07:42 PM If you would like to learn about TeleSpan?s ten predictions for the coming year, this interview is for you. (Part 1 of 2)
For the past 25 years Elliot Gold has been providing market research on the Electronic Conferencing market at his firm, TeleSpan. Initially he focused on the audio teleconferencing market, but now covers Video Conferencing and Web Conferencing as well.
Each January for the past dozen years Elliot has been providing ten predictions for the industry that he expects to materialize during the ensuing twelve months. At the end of the year he checks his accuracy and claims a 75% success ratio over the full 12-year period.
This video is about 6 minutes long.
Today?s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the February 7th interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
February 6, 2007, 06:37 PM If you would like to know how to get started as a podcaster and maximize your distribution, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Jason Van Orden who is the author of Promoting Your Podcast: The Ultimate Guide to Building An Audience of Raving Fans.
You can get it at Amazon.com and other fine book stores.
This interview is about 22 minutes long.
Today?s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen:
(1) By clicking on the interview at the left for February 6th.
(2) Via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at no cost at Apple?s iTunes or here at or website.
February 5, 2007, 06:05 PM A number of investment bankers and venture capitalists complain that securities regulations adopted after the dot-com bust has made it hard to do IPOs in the United States.
Adam Lashinsky who is a Senior Writer for Fortune Magazine disagrees.
This audio interview is covered in about 9 minutes.
There are two ways to listen.
First, you may click on the February 5th interview at the left.
Second, you may get it as a podcast via our website, Apple's iTunes, or other podcast aggregating software.
February 2, 2007, 09:03 PM If you would like to learn how to get your podcasts to your mobile phone wirelessly, this interview is for you.
Most of us are used to having our podcasts automatically downloaded to our iTunes software in our computer. The iPod gets ?synched-up? with iTunes when we connect it to the computer. So, most of us are listening to, or watching, our podcasts on our computers or our iPods.
However, there is no technical reason why you cannot get your podcasts delivered to your cell phone wirelessly while you are on the move. Melodeo offers a service called MobilCast, through Cingular and AllTel, that enables you to just that. Our interview today describes how it works.
You can have your podcasts either (1) streamed to your phone or (2) downloaded to it. Streaming tends to provide a near real-time experience.
Our guest today is Rob Greenlee who is Senior Marketing Manager for Melodeo.
This video is about 15 minutes long.
Today?s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the February 2nd interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
February 1, 2007, 07:41 PM Increasingly consumers want to get Internet video played on their televisions. Our video today illustrates two competing LAN technologies that can do the job and provides our comparative analysis.
Ultimately consumers will want to enjoy Internet video on their televisions as well as their computers. Most do not want to string new wires through the walls of their homes. That is why Apple TV uses wireless Wi-Fi. But the existing electrical wires in your home may provide a better solution.
In the past week or so we have provided the episodes of our interview with Intellon which is a company that makes semiconductor chips for Power Line networking. Today we provide our own analysis of the technology.
Today's video is about 8 minutes long.
You can watch our analysis via Windows Media Player by clicking on the February 1st ?interview? at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
January 31, 2007, 08:41 PM If you would like to learn how to use the electrical wiring in your home to transport video from your computer to your television and other display screens around the house, this interview is for you. (Part 4 of 4).
Our guest today is Andy Melder who is the Senior Vice President for Business Development at Intellon Corporation. His company is a fabless semiconductor house that makes circuits to enable others to make devices that let the electrical wiring in our homes become reliable LANs.
The technology has advanced to the point where power line LANs are capable of transporting video from our computers to televisions and other display screens around the home or office. The hardwired connection may well be more reliable than the wireless approach that has dominated to date, and that is to be used in the new Apple TV.
In this Part 4 of a 4-Part interview, Andy concludes his presentation and leaves me time for questions and answers.
This video is about 7 minutes long.
Today?s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the January 31st interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software January 30, 2007, 06:00 PM Microsoft?s introduction of its Vista Operating System today provides Apple a fresh opportunity to consider licensing its OS to PC manufactures. Those who buy PCs with Vista will have to re-learn their computer systems anyway, so why not give them a chance to learn the Apple OS that Mac fans have raved about for years?
There are a couple of other factors suggesting that this is an appropriate time. First, Michael Dell has indicated that he might be receptive to the idea. Second, Apple computers now use Intel chips, as do the PCs.
Our guest today is Tom Evslin. Earlier he sold one of his companies to Microsoft and then was in charge of the team that developed the Exchange Server. Afterward he founded, took-public, and sold a successful VoIP company. Now he writes books and comments on the industry from his website, Fractals of Change.
This interview is about 16 minutes long.
Today?s interview is audio. There are two ways to listen. First, you can click on the interview for January 30th at the left. Second, you can get it as a podcast via iTunes, our website, or other podcast aggregating software.
January 29, 2007, 07:57 PM If you would like to learn how to use the electrical wiring in your home to transport video from your computer to your television and other display screen around the house, this interview is for you. (Part 3 of 4)
Our guest today is Andy Melder who is the Senior Vice President for Business Development at Intellon Corporation. His company is a fabless semiconductor house that makes circuits to enable others to make devices that let the electrical wiring in our homes become reliable LANs.
The technology has advanced to the point where power line LANs are capable of transporting video from our computers to televisions and other display screens around the home or office. The hardwired connection may well be more reliable than the wireless approach that has dominated to date, and that is to be used in the new Apple TV.
In this Part 3 of a 4-Part interview, Andy discusses an overview of the business and the prominent venture and corporate investors in Intellon.
This video is about 7 minutes long.
Today?s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the January 27th interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software January 26, 2007, 11:26 AM If you would like to learn how to use the electrical wiring in your home to transport video from your computer to your television and other display screen around the house, this interview is for you. (Part 2 of 4)
Our guest today is Andy Melder who is the Senior Vice President for Business Development at Intellon Corporation. His company is a fabless semiconductor house that makes circuits to enable others to make devices that let the electrical wiring in our homes become reliable LANs.
The technology has advanced to the point where power line LANs are capable of transporting video from our computers to televisions and other display screens around the home or office. The hardwired connection may well be more reliable than the wireless approach that has dominated to date, and that is to be used in the new Apple TV.
In this Part 2 of a 4-Part interview, Andy discusses an overview of the business and the prominent venture and corporate investors in Intellon.
This video is about 8 minutes long.
Today?s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the January 26th interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
January 25, 2007, 07:06 PM If you would like to learn important, but subtle, implications of the iPhone and Apple TV, this interview is for you. (We have augmented our earlier video with product demos).
Essentially we believe that the iPhone is a prototype manifestation of a product concept originated by George Gilder about ten years ago. He termed the device a ?teleputer?. The teleputer is a portable communications appliance that enables the user to access information from a World Wide Network nearly instantaneously. Telephony is merely one of many applications. As such, the iPhone is hugely significant.
Apple TV appears to be well ahead of competing devices designed to transport Internet video from our computers to our televisions. However, it does not do Windows or Flash. We infer that their exclusion is a subtle, if (maybe) unintended, way for Apple to establish dominance in digital video as it did in digital music.
This video is about 6 minutes long.
Today?s interview is available for playback by clicking on the January 25th interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
January 24, 2007, 06:24 PM If you would like to learn how the electrical wiring in your home can be used to transport video from your computer to your television and other display screen around the house, this interview is for you. (Part 1 of 4)
Our guest today is Andy Melder who is the Senior Vice President for Business Development at Intellon Corporation. His company is a fabless semiconductor house that makes circuits to enable others to make devices that let the electrical wiring in our homes become reliable LANs.
The technology has advanced to the point where power line LANs are capable of transporting video from our computers to televisions and other display screens around the home or office. The hardwired connection may well be more reliable than the wireless approach that has dominated to date, and that is to be used in the new Apple TV.
In this Part 1 of a 4-Part interview, Andy discusses an overview of the business and the prominent venture and corporate investors in Intellon.
This video is about 7 minutes long.
Today?s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the January 24th interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
January 23, 2007, 09:35 PM If you would like to learn about a company whose business is benefiting from the YouTube phenomenon, this interview is for you. (Part 3 of 3)
Our guest today is Stan Woodward who is the CEO of Reflect Systems. His company serves two markets: (1) Corporate Webcasting Services and (2) Digital Signage.
In this Part 3 of a 3-Part interview, Stan discusses the digital signage business.
This video is about 7 minutes long.
Today?s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the January 23rd interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
January 22, 2007, 07:03 PM If you would like to learn about a company whose business is benefiting from the YouTube phenomenon, this interview is for you. (Part 2 of 3)
Our guest today is Stan Woodward who is the CEO of Reflect Systems. His company serves two markets: (1) Corporate Webcasting Services and (2) Digital Signage.
In this Part 2 of a 3-Part interview, Stan discusses the digital signage market.
This video is about 7 minutes long.
Today?s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the January 22nd interview at the left.
It is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
January 19, 2007, 09:52 PM If you would like to learn about a company that makes an eyeglass electronic display for use with the iPod video, this interview is for you.
Our guest today Kip Kokinakis who is the CEO of Micro Optical. His company manufactures portable electronic displays. The displays are worn like goggles, or eyeglasses, on the face. They provide a front row Cinemascope type of view which you can enjoy with a portable media player like the iPod video.
The MyVu model, priced at around $300 is designed specifically for the iPod video.
This audio interview is covered in about 14 minutes.
There are two ways to listen.
(1) At the Website here click on the January 19th interview.
(2) Through your iPod or portable player via a podcast. Podcast subscription is available at Apple?s iTunes or here.
January 18, 2007, 04:39 PM If you would like to learn about a company whose business is benefiting from the YouTube phenomenon, this interview is for you. (Part 1 of 3)
Our guest today is Stan Woodward who is the CEO of Reflect Systems. His company serves two markets: (1) Corporate Webcasting Services and (2) Digital Signage.
In this Part 1 of a 3 Part interview, Stan provides an overview of the company and its markets.
This video is about 10 minutes long.
Today?s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the interview for January 18th.
The show is also available as a video podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
January 17, 2007, 05:42 PM If you would like to learn whether successful start-ups normally rely on comprehensive business plans, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Dr. Benson Honig who a professor of entrepreneurship at the Wilfrid Laurier School of Business & Economics in Ontario, Canada.
His research indicates that there is not a good correlation between successful start-ups and the length of the business plan they prepared before launch. The two factors that count are (1) network capital, and (2) prior relationships with potential customers.
This audio interview is about 16 minutes long.
January 16, 2007, 10:25 PM Today our program is a six minute video of me providing my thoughts on the iPhone and the Apple TV.
You can watch it via Windows Media Player by clicking on the icon for the January 16th interview at the left.
It is also available as a podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
January 15, 2007, 07:47 PM If you would like to learn what is ahead for the electronic display market, this interview is for you (Part 3 of 3 Parts).
Our guest today is Chris Chinnock who is the President of Insight Media. His company is a market research firm specializing in the electronic display industry.
This video is about 6 minutes long.
Today?s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the Insight Media icon for January 15, 2007 at the left.
The video is also available as a podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
January 12, 2006, 03:29 PM If you would like to learn what is ahead for the electronic display market, this Part 2 of a 3 Part interview is for you.
Our guest today is Chris Chinnock who is the President of Insight Media Research. His company is a market research firm specializing in the electronic display industry.
This video interview is covered in about 8 minutes.
Today?s interview was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform. It is available for playback via Windows Media Player by clicking on the Insight Media icon at the left.
It is also available as a podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
January 10, 2007, 03:30 PM If you would like to learn how the major record labels are getting started with podcasting, this interview is for you.
Our guest today Jeff Daniel who is the CEO of Rock River Music. His company makes compilation CDs of popular music for retailers such as Williams-Sonoma.
Rock River recently announced a deal to do podcasts with popular music from Sony-BMG and Warner. The podcasts will be sponsored by well-known consumer brands such as Chrysler. They will be distributed for free via iTunes and other online sites.
This audio interview is covered in about 17 minutes.
January 8, 2007, 08:02 PM If you would like to learn what is ahead for the electronic display market, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Chris Chinnock who is the President of Insight Media. His company is a market research firm specializing in the electronic display industry.
This 9 minute video is part one of a three part series.
It was conducted remotely on the WebEx platform and avialable at the left by clicking on the Insight Media interview for January 8, 2007.
The video is also available as a podcast at iTunes, our website, or via other aggregating software.
January 5, 2007, 11:49 PM If you would like to learn what one college student thinks about the new Zune portable music player from Microsoft, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is ?Trent? who is a college student at the University of Florida. He was given one of the new Zune portable music players made by Microsoft as a Christmas gift.
Trent tells us what he thinks about the Zune and compares it to the Apple iPod.
This video interview is covered in about 7 minutes.
January 3, 2007, 09:15 PM If you would like to learn what a veteran Internet industry expert thinks about YouTube and MySpace, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Matt Ragas who is the Editor of The Value Raider Report. During the dot-com boom he was a founder of RagingBull which was sold to CMGI. Matt also authored two books published by Random House entitled Lessons from the eFront and The Power of Cult Branding.
This audio interview is covered in about 12 minutes.
December 27, 2006, 04:49 PM If you would like to learn why an ordinary consumer has found the Mac to be superior to the PC, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is ?Diane? who is a middle-aged woman who used PCs until she bought a Mac a little over a year ago. ?Diane? is college educated, but not especially skilled in the use of computers as compared to someone who has a computer science degree.
She liked the Mac so much, that she bought a second one, a laptop this time, for Christmas.
This audio-visual interview is covered in about 8 minutes.
December 22, 2006, 01:26 PM If you would like to learn about the future of computer graphics, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Jon Peddie who is the founder of Jon Peddie Research. His company is a technically oriented marketing, research, and management consulting firm. They have worked in the graphics and multimedia fields for more than 30 years.
JPR provides specialized services to companies in high-tech fields including graphics hardware development, multimedia for professional applications and consumer electronics, entertainment technology, high-end computing, and Internet access product development.
This audio interview is covered in about 14 minutes.
December 20, 2006, 05:36 PM If you would like to learn how the Stevens Institute at the University of Southern California is working to promote entrepreneurship among its students and faculty, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Krisztina Holly who is the Executive Director of the Stevens Institute at the University of Southern California. She is also a Vice Provost of the University. USC-Stevens Institute is charged with promoting entrepreneurship and technology transfer among the faculty and students at the university.
This audio interview is covered in about 16 minutes.
December 18, 2006, 10:42 AM If you would like to learn why some wireless carriers are starting to permit third parties, like Major League Baseball, to provide entertainment content directly to wireless subscribers, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Linda Barrabee who is a program director for The Yankee Group. Her firm is a market research organization and she specializes in mobile entertainment.
This audio interview is covered in 18 minutes.
December 15, 2006, 02:11 PM If you would like to learn the technical requirements for a video podcast, this interview is for you.
Our guest today Jefferson Graham who is a reporter for USA Today. In addition to reporting on technology, Jeff has a weekly video podcast that he does with Ed Baig who also works for the newspaper. Typically, they review new electronic gadgets for consumers.
This audio interview is covered in about 14 minutes.
December 13, 2006, 03:41 PM If you would like to learn what kind of equipment to use for high quality recordings of telephone conversations to be used in podcasts, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Joe Klinger who is the CEO of J.K. Audio. Founded 16 years ago, his company makes high quality audio equipment for TV and radio stations. Increasingly, podcasters are discovering that J.K. Audio has the some of the right equipment for them as well.
This audio-visual interview is covered in about 30 minutes.
December 11, 2006, 04:28 PM If you would like to learn how GPS-enabled cell phones can help you efficiently manage a mobile work force, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Sanjay Shirole who is the CEO of Xora. His company permits customers to easily track the locations of their mobile work force. Employees simply carry their GPS-enabled cell phones with them throughout their regular activities and their location is automatically tracked and recorded.
This audio-visual interview is covered in about 25 minutes.
December 8, 2006, 08:41 PM If you would like to separate the hype from the promise of User Generated Video business opportunities, this interview is for you.
Today?s guest on Inside Digital Media is Paul Palumbo who is the Director of Research at AccuStream which is a market research firm specializing in the content delivery industry. He recently completed a report on the future of User Generated Video.
The audio-visual interview length is 23 minutes.
December 6, 2006, 07:14 PM If you own a small business and would like to learn how to use the Internet to market your company, this interview is for you.
Our guest today Lynette Chandler who is the founder of Tech-Based Marketing.
As a small business owner herself, Lynnette knows how we seem to get the short end of the stick sometimes. Information and knowledge that's available to the big guys should also be available to small business.
That is why she decided to share her knowledge because she knows that if she can show us something that'll catapult our small companies to the next level, we'll remember and regularly return to her website.
December 1, 2006, 02:45 PM If you are a habitual PC user who is considering the purchase of an Apple computer, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is a man pseudonymed Tim who worked for IBM for about 25 years. Prior to joining IBM, he obtained an Electrical Engineering degree from Purdue. In school he built his own computer and at IBM he used PCs. Earlier this year he purchased his first Mac.
In this interview, Tim shares his experiences in making the switch. While he would still purchase the Mac if he had it to do all over again, some of his unexpected experiences can enlighten those of us who are trying to decide whether, or not, a Mac is a better option for us now.
November 29, 2006, 09:51 PM If you would like to learn about a WiKi project involving Wharton and MIT that will lead to the publication of a business book, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Barry Libert who is CEO of Shared Insights. Barry persuaded London-based Pearson, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School to help develop a new book entitled We Are Smarter, which will be published under Pearson's Wharton School Publishing imprint.
The WeAreSmarter.org Web site, co-founded by Mr. Libert and Wharton vice dean Jon Spector, went online a month ago with initial content they shaped along with MIT management professor Thomas Malone, among others. They chose chapter headings and then wrote a few pages to create a starting point. For instance, a chapter titled "We Can Research It," tells an anecdote about an Australian man who started a mail-order brewery based on votes by 20,000 cellphone users on what makes an ideal beer. Other participants can then edit the contents or add anecdotes.
The wiki leaders expect business consultants and executives to contribute to the book site, which, like Wikipedia, doesn't pay writers for their work. The site is open to anyone, but does ask contributors to supply information.
WeAreSmarter expects to close submissions to the book wiki by the end of the first quarter next year and turn it over to paid ghostwriters to turn it into a 120-page business book aimed at the fast-growing airport bookstore market. It will go on sale next fall. Despite the free labor of the original authors, the list price will be $25.99, says Tim Moore, publisher of two of Pearson's business imprints, Wharton School Publishing and FT Press. Authors will vote on a charity to receive any profits.
November 27, 2006, 04:54 PM If you would like to learn how Telcos can deliver ultra-broadband services, like those in South Korea, to homes in America, this interview is for you.
Telephone companies like Verizon and AT&T are starting to deploy IPTV and ultra-broadband services to in selected neighborhoods of certain cites in the United States. Today?s guest company provides gateway equipment that can be installed at the home to enable those services to be distributed throughout the residence.
Our guest today is Frank Galuppo who is the CEO of Amedia Networks. His company recently announced a Broadband Entertainment Center designed to enable Telecom carriers to deliver triple-play services throughout the networked home
November 20, 2006, 07:30 PM If you would like learn about the controversy involving increased fees the stock exchanges are requiring for Internet feeds, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Markham Erickson who is the Executive Director of Net Coalition. His organization serves as the public policy voice for some of the world's most innovative Internet companies on the key legislative and administrative proposals affecting the online world.
The stock exchanges are starting to charge sharply higher fees for stock quotation feeds to Internet websites.
November 17, 2006, 03:41 PM If you would like to learn why some business school students are pursuing Financial Engineering degrees instead of the MBA, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Dr. Linda Kreitzman who is the Executive Director of the Masters in Financial Engineering Program at the Haas Business School of the University of California at Berkeley.
November 15, 2006, 02:28 PM If you would like to learn what one Google executive has to say about Internet video, this interview is for you.
Anybody not been stranded on a desert island during the past year knows that Internet video has come into prominence in 2006. Not only has Google paid $1.6 billion (in stock) for YouTube, but nearly every important media company is increasing their focus on Internet video. For example, the trend is obvious to even the most casual visitors to such online newspapers as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Our guest today is Gokul Rajaram who is the Product Management Director for Google AdSense.
November 3, 2006, 02:25 PM If you would like to learn how to start making money on Internet video, this interview is for you.
Last week an Advertising Age article about the Brightcove CEO stated, ?One day this guy?s company is going to be worth more than the $1.6 billion that Google will pay for YouTube?. While that?s a bold statement, after we first interviewed Brightcove a year-and-a-half ago, we felt that their focus on the B2B aspects of Internet video looked promising. Now they?re doing even more and can enable many of us to make money with Internet video.
Since our first interview Brightcove raised $32 million in venture funding from the likes of Allen & Company, AOL, Hearst, and IAC and has become an important vehicle for media companies to publish their video to the Internet. One of the best examples is The Wall Street Journal.
Both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times create good Internet videos. But the Journal does a far superior job of distributing them because it uses the Brightcove platform. The Times approach is downright annoying and damaging to the newspaper?s own interests.
Re-distribution at the Times is badly flawed. A viewer desiring to send a friend a video link via email is required to use a form at the Website. The form does not permit anyone to copy and paste an email address into the appropriate blank. Instead it must be key-stroked, in an error-prone laborious process, one recipient at a time. Also Times videos prevent the viewer from copying the url so that viewers cannot post the links to their own blogs and Websites. Basically the Times ignores the powerful viral re-distribution techniques that have made YouTube and MySpace paragon examples of rapid and low cost audience growth.
Conversely, videos from www.wsj.com play through the Brightcove platform. Significantly, Brightcove makes it easy for consumers to capture urls specific to each clip. That way, viewers can redistribute them via email, or by posting them to one?s own blog or Website.
November 1, 2006, 02:15 PM If you would like to learn about work that the University of California at Santa Barbara is doing to advance the state-of-the-art in light-wave electronics, this interview is for you.
As noted in our Webcast last week, UCSB announced jointly with Intel the development of a way to place III-V semiconductor lasers on a silicon substrate. This development is potentially so significant, that we now make the story available to you as an audio-only podcast with the leading researcher at UCSB. For a streamed audio-visual presentation by Intel, see our interview last Friday (10-27-06).
Breakthroughs in electronic component technology can be profoundly important; much more so than and a mere advance in the state-of-the-art of a computer of an electronic system. That?s because a true advance in component technology will inevitably induce price/performance advances for all electronic systems.
Consider, for example, how transistors replaced vacuum tubes. If made with tubes, a computer to match the performance of today?s laptop PC would be larger than a city skyscraper. It would also be subject to an enormously higher failure rate since each of the tubes generates considerable heat and requires repetitive wiring. Nature abhors a vacuum tube.
Another example is the development of the Integrated Circuit to replace discrete transistors, which had much the same quantum effect on system design as did the transistor replacement of the vacuum tube.
Similarly, the development of semiconductor lasers enabled fiber optic communications. The Intel-UCSB breakthrough could take it to the next level. When multiple lasers are fabricated with silicon ICs a new era of low-cost broadband communications, far beyond anything we experience today, can become a reality.
October 30, 2006, 01:47 PM If you are interested in learning what kinds of new media skills that advertising agencies and media buyers are looking for, this interview is for you.
Last Monday?s Wall Street Journal carried an article explaining how advertising agencies, media planners, and media buyers were having a hard time finding people with the right skills to be effective in the World of new media.
They need people with a combination of artistic and technical talent to create effective ads for Internet media. They also need people who understand where the ads need to be placed and what kind of ads will appeal to the targeted demographic. Additionally they need people who know how to make the interactivity endemic to the Internet lead to ads that will engage the targeted demographic with viewer interaction.
October 27, 2006, 02:53 PM If you would like to learn about how Intel and the University of California at Santa Barbara have fabricated laser components on silicon, this interview is for you.
Breakthroughs in electronic component technology can be profoundly important; much more so than and a mere advance in the state of the art of a computer of an electronic system. That?s because a true advance in component technology will inevitably lead to price/performance advances for all electronic systems.
Consider, for example, how transistors replaced vacuum tubes. If made with tubes, a computer to match the performance of today?s laptop PC would be larger than a city skyscraper. Nature abhors a vacuum tube.
Another example is the development of the Integrated Circuit to replace discrete transistors, which had much the same quantum effect as the transistor replacement of the vacuum tube.
Similarly, the development of semiconductor lasers enabled fiber optic communications. The Intel-UCSB breakthrough could take it to the next level.
October 25, 2006, 01:28 PM If you would like to learn about a public company that is seeking out independent record labels and music artists in order to distribute their music over the Internet, this interview is for you.
Digital Music Group is essentially an independent record label that is focusing primarily upon the digital distribution of the content it licenses from artists. It is a lot like The Orchard.
One way that Digital Music Group originally distinguished itself from The Orchard and other competitors was by getting the digital rights to popular ?oldies? rock & roll from independent labels. One example is Johnny Cash. Now, however, the company is anxious to take an all qualified independent artists.
After licensing the content, Digital Music Group will then make it available to the online stores like iTunes, Rhapsody, eMusic, Napster, and Yahoo Music Unlimited.
October 23, 2006, 03:05 PM If you would like to learn how you might attend conferences and educational classes as an avatar in at an online virtual campus, this interview is for you.
Once limited to the imagination of science fiction writers like Neal Stephenson, avatars have already become realities in computer entertainment for online communities. Presently they are also becoming a reality for business and educational purposes as well. One example is the Second Life online virtual world.
As explained in last month?s Popular Science magazine:
Like the computer game The Sims, Second Life is software that enables you to guide your avatar through a 3-D landscape, chat with other avatars, and build objects with tools. But SL, as it?s known to its 300,000 members, or ?residents,? isn?t a game. It?s more like an animated version of real life.
SL counts among its largest backers Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Today a session in SL usually means play: meeting new people (everyone who?s logged in is somewhere in the SL landscape), building a rocket, even having sexual liaisons in specially marked adult areas.
But increasingly, people are logging on to work, shop, or go to class. Of course, the same thing could have been said about the Web 10 years ago. Like the Web, all but the basic infrastructure in SL is built by the people who populate it. Want a conference room where you can swap blueprints with a team around the world? Create one, and other avatars can come inside. Want to sell your band?s music? Build a jukebox, fill it with MP3s, and charge SL residents in Linden dollars (SL?s currency) to download them.
October 19, 2006, 01:46 PM The Wall Street Journal may reverse its opinion on Network Neutrality.
So far the year, the newspaper published at least two editorials and one Op-Ed opposing Network Neutrality.
For the uninitiated, the concept advocates a regulatory environment prohibiting network operators to discriminate against independent websites and consumers. For example, ISPs would not be allowed to throttle the speed of content delivery for websites refusing to pay them a priority, or metered traffic, fee. Some telephone and cable TV ISPs are considering the adoption of such charges.
The Wall Street Journal editorial staff thinks this is fine. They argue that additional charges are necessary to justify the infrastructure investment required for rich-media transport. While seemingly appealing to fundamental capitalistic ethos, the argument overlooks two points.
First, ISPs already collect incremental fees in the form of broadband access from both the originating websites and viewing consumers. They already hold the authority to raise those rates.
Second, as newspapers create ever-more Internet video, The Wall Street Journal is likely to become sensitively aware of the merits of Network Neutrality. They?re probably not going to want their online subscribers to pay the ISP an incremental fee to watch Wall Street Journal videos. Neither is wsj.com likely to welcome the idea that it should pay a metered fee, in addition to the broadband access charges already assessed, for the traffic it generates. Presently, there are about 50 video clips daily at the online Wall Street Journal. That number is almost certain to grow, as is the audience.
In short, the ancient wisdom, ?Opinions are changed by experience, and not by argument?, may soon come to apply to the Wall Street Journal.
October 18, 2006, 02:04 PM If you are interested in understanding the future of the Blogsphere and Digital Media, this interview is for you.
Do you think a blogger could win the Pulitzer Prize? Someday I think it will happen.
Our guest today is Brad Hill who is the Executive Editor of WebLogs. He has also written about 20 books, many of which are about the Internet and Digital Media. He was writing seven blogs for WebLogs before he became their Executive Editor.
October 16, 2006, 05:03 PM If you would like to learn why WebEx is opening-up its Media Tone platform to 3rd party developers, this interview is for you.
Today?s guest is David Knight who is the Vice President of WebEx Connect. He tells us how developers can use the Media Tone platform to come up with their own collaborative hooks for their conventional software packages.
October 13, 2006, 02:03 PM If you would like to learn the latest research on consumer Digital Media Habits, this interview is for you.
Parks Associates recently completed a survey and market study of consumer Digital Media Habits. So if you would like the latest information on how consumers are using Digital Media, from YouTube to iTunes, this interview is for you.
Today?s guest is John Barrett who is the Director of Research at Parks Associates. His company is a market research firm focused on consumer electronics markets.
October 11, 2006, 01:10 PM If you would like to learn about the future of Online Collaboration, this interview is for you.
Today?s guest is David Coleman who is the Managing Director of Collaborative Strategies which is a market research firm. He shares with us his vision of the future for Online Collaboration.
October 9, 2006, 06:31 PM If you would like search about a technology enabling you to search inside of audio and video clips to find the content you want, this interview is for you.
Today?s guest is Alex Laats who is the President of BBN?s PodZinger subsidiary. PodZinger enables you to search the words within the audio and video files on the Internet. That way you can find recordings that mention topics of interest to you.
October 6, 2006, 04:37 PM If you would like to get up-to-date on the Web Conferencing industry, this interview is for you.
Today?s guest is Mike Gotta who is a market research analyst with the Burton Group. His specialty is Web Conferencing and Online Collaboration.
October 4, 2006, 09:27 PM If you would like to watch briefing and interview about the latest Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec, this interview is for you.
Today?s guest is Dean Turner who is the Executive Editor of the Internet Security Threat Report that Symantec prepares every six months. The report will tell you the latest developments in the field of viruses, worms, Trojans, and all sorts of malware.
October 2, 2006, 07:34 PM If you would like to learn about an important record label that enthusiastically uses the dot-MP3 format, this interview is for you.
Naxos is the leading classical music record label in the United States. We estimate that the classical genre represents about $400 million a year in domestic sales. That represents only about 3% - 4% of the entire recorded music market. H |
