Looking back and forwards (1)

It is the period of looking back and forwards. And this is what I will be doing for the rest of the festive period. I will be looking back at statistics of Buziaulane as they are delivering some insight about the subjects that people interest. But I will also look forwards and look at pointing to future trends.

Let us start with the blog stats. Thanks to Onestat, I am able to get some bearing of the audience. I should note that the Onestat statistics are only of half year and not of a full year. BTW you can check the stats, by going down the blog till you meet the Onestat icon; by clicking on it you will be able to see the stats going till June 22, 2006.











How many people do visit the blog in the past half year? Looking at the stats this morning, Buziaulane had almost 10.000 pageviews, with just over 7.000 visits generated by 5.700 visitors. Projecting these figures over the whole year, one can concluded that the blog has had some 19.000 pageviews, some 14.000 visits and some 11.000 visitors.

How much do visitors read? On average a visitor reads almost 2 pages and 1.4 pages per visit. The conclusion is that visitors are coming to the blog either prompted by remarks in other blogs (Marketingfacts, Villamedia, Redhat, Telereader) or just want to see what the subject is. There is only a small group of regular readers, which make up about 10 percent.


Looking at the months, I see that July, August and September were the busiest months. After that the line goes down. There are two conclusions possible. The subjects were more interesting in these months. Another conclusion can be that people have more time in these months to look around blogs. By the end of next years we will see what conclusion is valid.

Interesting is to see the geographical distribution of the readers. The map next to the blog is an indication of the distribution for the month. It shows that there are readers ranging from Hawaii to New Zealand and from Finland to Brasil. In the past half years we have received visitors of more than 100 countries. Half of the visitors comes from the Netherlands. The other half is divided over 102 countries.

Tags: blogs

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Blog Posting Number: 615

Merry Christmas

The view at the Almere location of Electronic Media Reporting

at Christmas night, 24 December 2006

Merry Christmas
and
a healthy 2007

from
Electronic Media Reporting
Mary and Jak Boumans - Driessen

to all well-wishers
friends
and readers of the blog
worldwide

The Eleven City Tour is on!

The title of this blog is one of the most appreciated, but rare slogans in the Netherlands. When it is used, usually by radio or television, it means that it has frozen in the Netherlands; not just a little for a short time, but really hard and for a long time. The slogan announces the Eleven City Tour, one of the most heroic skating events. The winner receives a medal of 8 grams of alloy and eternal fame.

Professional skaters and amateurs skate for 200 kilometres and have to collect stamps on the road to their much-sought-after medal. The Eleven City Tour is a nostalgic event. The last one was held in the last century, in 1997; as a compensation a similar tour is being organised abroad in Finland or Austria.

Despite the global warming the Eleven City Tour is on again, but now in cross media. The history of this heroic tour will be on radio, television and internet. The launch on December 22, 2006 started with a visualised radio documentary Fata Morgana in a Snow Desert. The movie theatre reports and television broadcasts since 1929 have been brought online; the ones of 1933 and 1942 still have to be brought online.

The project is a cultural heritage project of the Eleven City Tour association, the Skating museum, the skating sports association, , the institute of Image and Sound, produced by the national broadcast companies NPS and VPRO. The project intends to show what has been preserved, but it also aims at user generated content such as photographs and movies.

Memories from participants can be recorded in sound, image or text. Presently the following assets are or become available:
· An interactive Eleven City Tour website (from 22 December 2006 onwards;
· A wiki;
· A quiz on the history website (3 January, 2007);
· A theme week on the History internet channel (24 February till 2 March, 2007);
· The radio documentary Fata Morgana in a Snow Desert (25 February 2007);
· A one and a half hour television broadcast (25 February 2007)
· Newsletter;
· A Participant’s card.

Pinning the culmination of the project on the week of 24 February till 2 March, 2007 is almost tempting fate, as the Eleven City Tour needs harsh winter weather. Happily enough, you can now stay inside with the cross media Eleven tour city and look at the most heroic tour won by Mr Reinier Paping on 18 January 1963. I was in boarding school at that time and a black and white television set was brought in for 150 pupils. This year colour images will be broadcasted for the first time.

BTW Speaking of a harsh winter: no white Christmas for The Netherlands this year.

Tags: heritage

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Blog Posting Number: 614

EU funding for the advancement of ICT

The European parliament has approved the 7th framework programme. The objective of ICT research under the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) is to improve the competitiveness of European industry – as well as to enable Europe to master and shape the future developments of these technologies so that the demands of its society and economy are met. Just before Christmas the European Commission has started the execution of programme and announced the first call for proposals to be delivered in May 2007. There are changes from the 6th program. In this program the information society technologies (IST) were heavily promoted. Now that social term has disappeared and replaced by the technical term ICT – to me a clear indication that hard- and software companies are more getting hold of the process.

ICTs enable us to access, create and share content widely. They also allow us to learn better, and to preserve and enrich our cultural heritage. Every day, however, brings us face to face with the shortcomings of current technologies, and the way they are used. We are often overwhelmed with information. We still have limited eLearning tools. And we are still just discovering the opportunities that ICTs offer for developing our cultural assets and reinforcing our creative potential.














The EU Member States have earmarked a total of € 9.1 billion for funding ICT over the duration of FP7; making it the largest research theme in the Cooperation programme, which is itself the largest specific programme of FP7 (with 64% of the total budget).

FP7 research activities will strengthen Europe’s scientific and technology base and ensure its global leadership in ICT, help drive and stimulate product, service and process innovation and creativity through ICT use and ensure that ICT progress is rapidly transformed into benefits for Europe’s citizens, businesses, industry and governments.

The framework program has several flagships such as European Digital Library; Intelligent Car; ICT for Independent Living in an Ageing Society; ICT for sustainable development. Of interest to me is the research under this Challenge developing digital libraries, enabling us to easily create, interpret, use and preserve cultural and scientific resources, and revolutionise learning through adaptive and intuitive ICTs. The flagship is to make Europe's diverse cultural and scientific heritage (books, films, maps, photographs, music, etc.) easier and more interesting to use online for work, leisure and study. It builds on Europe's rich heritage, combining multicultural and multilingual environments with technological advances and new business models.

On 1 February 2007 the European Commission will hold an information day on European ICT research and development in Cologne, Germany to present the Work Programme in more detail.

Tags: library

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Blog Posting Number: 613

Germans step out of Quaero

The French will continue the European search engine project; the Germans have left the project which was intended to be the European competitor of Google. The German project manager of Bertelsmann and the French project manager on behalf of Thomson could not work together. Germany will continue its own semantic search engine under the name Theseus, while the French will continue with Quaero (Latin for I search).

In April 2005, the German and French heads of State, Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröeder, announced their plans to create and launch this search engine through a public-private initiative in order to rival Google. A year later, apart from the French and German governments, many private corporations (such as France Telecom, Thomson, Siemens AG, LTU Technologies) are participating in the Quaero project, as well as numerous research institutes (such as the CNRS and the University of Karlsruhe) and providers of content (including INA and Studio Hamburg). A budget of 250 million euro had been reserved as a start and was going to be upgraded to 400 million euro. Also European contributions through sub projects were also used. However the co-operation between the bi-national project team did not work out. Only sporadically some news was published and there was an awesome silence about the project.

Unlike the existing search engines, Quaero would allow users to conduct searches by entering images (“query images”) and audio components (“query sound clips”), and not just keywords.

It looks like the European Commission is now betting on another search engine builder Fast as it has granted funding towards the research project the Platform for Search of Audiovisual Resources Across Online Spaces (PHAROS). The project will build a next-generation audiovisual search platform, designed, developed and applied jointly by a global consortium of high-profile academic and industrial players with proven track records in innovation and commercial success.

The mission of PHAROS is to transform audiovisual search from a point-solution search engine model to an integrated search platform paradigm, incorporating future user and search requirements as key design principles. These forward-looking requirements will be defined through collaboration with European and national initiatives, as well as through cooperation with some of the largest and most sophisticated organizations in the media and telecommunications sector. This unified effort will ensure industry relevance and worldwide application reach.

PHAROS involves 13 partners (Ingegneria Informatica SpA, France Telecom, L3S Research Centre at the University of Hannover, Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Knowledge Media Institute of The Open University, Fundacio Barcelona Media Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Technical Research Centre of Finland, Circom Regional, Metaware SpA, Web Model, SAIL LABS Technology and FAST) in 9 different countries (Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the UK), including large European players that will help ensure future project sustainability and subject matter experts who will manage highly focused technology components. The development of this advanced multimedia search platform with partners from multiple European countries supports a continued focus on building a technologically-competitive future for the continent.

Private and public organizations consistently find themselves at a loss over how to handle the exploding volume of audiovisual data, formats and technologies. The growth of audiovisual content is driving demand for new services and making audiovisual search one of the major challenges for businesses today.

The PHAROS Search Platform will create a new infrastructure for managing and enabling access to information sources of all types, supporting advanced audiovisual processing, content handling and management that will enhance the control, creation and sharing of rich media content for all users in the value chain. The PHAROS platform will enable organizations with audiovisual content to strengthen and extend product and service offerings by integrating best-of-breed products with advanced search technologies. Ultimately this will produce competitive advantage by enabling organizations to address the full content management processing chain.

The overall impact of PHAROS is expected to be far-reaching. The platform's support of seamless interaction with ^multimedia, awareness of presence, personality and needs, and responsiveness to speech, multilingual and multicultural access will enable long-sought unfettered access to information. The effects of this fundamental shift will be evident across a range of industries and organizations and will create cross-cultural ripple effects for businesses, professionals and citizens.

Personally I give the Fast project more of a chance of producing an audiovisual search engine rather than the now French Quaero consortium and the German Thesaus consortium. Quaero was a consortium set up by politicians. The Pharos project is set up by a successful search engine manufacturer. And forget for the time being any competition with Google, Yahoo or Ask; besides a fine search engine you need a real business proposition.

Tags: searching

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Blog Posting Number: 612

Flash: Investigation in state-aid for Amsterdam glass network

The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation under EC Treaty state aid rules into the investment by the city of Amsterdam in a glass fibre telecommunications network. This investigation will enable the Commission to determine whether the participation by the city, alongside private investors, constitutes state aid and, if so, whether such aid could be found compatible with the EC state aid rules. The opening of an in-depth investigation gives interested parties the opportunity to submit their comments to the Commission on the proposed measure. It does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.

Tags: glass, fibre

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Blog Posting Number: 611

Flash: sagasnet call for projects

Developing Interactive Narrative Content Seminar
April 29 - May 5 2007
Stuttgart, Germany
in conjunction with fmx/07
Working Language: English

During the Developing Interactive Narrative Content Seminar up to 10 pre-selected interactive narrative projects in development (no limitation on media, genre or target audience) will be provided in parallel with up to ten high-profile face-to-face consulting sessions (on financing, project management, marketing, story structure, game play...).

Consultants will be chosen according to the needs of the selected projects.
Selection board: Greg Childs (ChildsEye, UK), Raimo Lang (YLE, FIN), Anthony Lilley (Magic Lanterns Production, UK), Peter Olaf Looms (DR interactive, DK), Mark Ollila (Nokia, S/AUS), Lee Sheldon (USA), Brunhild Bushoff (sagasnet, D)

Provide your 3-6 page project description (in English) before February 10 2007.
Details + application form: www.sagasnet.de or contact: sagasnet@sagasnet.de
Projects are welcome that are in development, interactive and narrative. Main selection criteria is the potential to reach the -defined- audience /market (commercial, cultural and/or artistic).

Tags: storytelling

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Blog Posting Number: 611

Accidental Love on Boxing Day

Sometimes you wish you were somewhere else and especially at Christmas time. This year I would not mind being in Finland for Boxing Day, despite the snow (if they have any).

On Boxing Day the Finnish TV company YLE will start broadcasting Accidental Lovers, a black humour comedy of a love between a 60 years old woman and a 30 years young man. Broadcast is probably the wrong word as Accidental Lovers will be an interactive television transmission. Viewers can influence the story line by SMS. These texts will be stored and compared with the texts of the various scripts. Accidental Lovers is a part of the EU's New Media for New Millennium (NM2) IST practice-based R&D project running September 2004 - 2007. The broadband IPTV prototype version of the research production was released by April 2006. On Boxing Day a series of 8 instalments will be started. In total some 70.000 text messages are expected.

Accidental Lovers is the latest development in interactive storytelling, which started in the sixties in the theatre and moved to the movies and on television. Theatre companies were experimenting with scripts and influencing story lines with voting. At the Expo in Montreal in 1967 a Czech movie experiment Kinoautomat was tried out. In the movie theater’s seating, viewers found two buttons necessary for making selections; they were confronted with a film whose action could always be stopped. At one point, two principal actors from the screened film appeared onstage and asked the audience how they thought the scene should be continued. The viewers decided; afterwards, the adequate film version, arrived at by public vote, was then screened.

In the nineties the Philips was claiming interactivity as the new territory of CD-i. Hollywood story doctors were invited for CD-I productions, but the productions did not really get further than writing more exits to scripts.

In the movie world Chris Hales is a promoter of interactive movies. He lectures on the subject and he presents workshops and is the entertainer at interactive movie session.

Interesting is that Accidental Love is not called an interactive broadcast, but a participatory series. It has a history since 2003 as it won the Banff Centre New Media CyberPitch, presented by Telefilm Canada as the courtesy of the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, at the Banff2003 television festival. Since that time it has become an EU funded project and has in the meantime deliverables such as a Slide Show, Authors' Design Sheets, Teaser Animation, Demo Animation and a Press Release in Finnish 19 June 2003.

Tags: participatory broadcast, interactive broadcast

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Blog Posting Number: 609

Open Source Software: what's the score?

Yesterday I received a book on Open Source Software (OSS) in the Dutch language. Translated it is called Open Source Yearbook 2006-2007. The book was published last week and the first copy was presented to a Dutch politician Mr Kees Vendrik, who asked the government in 2002 to take open source software seriously.

The yearbook is for software professionals in the public and private sector. The yearbook consists of four parts. The first part deals with the importance of open source software and the government policies in The Netherlands. The second part analyses actual question like OSS in education, municipalities and OSS. And new licence types. Part three looks into the future with a chapter on the OSS policy of the European Union. Part four is a survey of organisations and communities in The Netherlands and abroad.

The idea of a OSS Yearbook started to develop when Hans Sleurink, editor of the News service Media Update, when he read a report of the municipality of Groningen. The writers of the report mentioned that they had executed a orientation round and they had the impression that the OSS wave was over. Was this misreading the signs of the time or a plain lack of knowledge? For Sleurink this was a signal to put together a yearbook, which would present a background to trends.

The question of introduction of OSS is not only a local question of a Dutch municipality. OSS has developed itself to an innovative sector in Europe over the last years. Yet the development of the last years is not due to government support; in fact the progress has been made despite the attitude of governments. This is the opinion of Luc Soete, professor International Economic Relations at the University of Maastricht, who wrote the introduction to the yearbook. He draws attention to the fact that governments and municipalities do not use their influence for the introduction of OSS when projects are offered to software companies. Governments and municipalities profess OSS for use in government and municipality dealings, but in practice they still adhere to proprietary software.

However, proprietary software is closed in such a way that we can not look into the software and re-use for society. In OSS everyone is allowed to look into the code, change it and pass it on. OSS has a record of successes: GNU/Linux, the web server Apache, the browser Firefox and the office software OpenOffice.org. And of course Internet consists largely of OSS as does the search engine Google.

Book data:
Open Source Jaarboek 2006-2007
Media Update Vakpublicaties, Gorredijk
ISBN: 90 78730 01 9; 210 pages
Price € 29,50.
Online orders: Gopher Publishers

Tags: OSS

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Blog Posting Number: 608

Philips back in content-related technologies

On Thursday Royal Philips Electronics will announce the distribution a content-related technology, protecting copyright on video, according to a press release of AP. The technology will indicate the origin of video or music. Using this technology YouTube could have identified the 30.000 videos Google removed as it was unclear about the origin. For Philips the launching is remarkable as the company had moved away from content and content-related technologies since 1996.

Philips will launch MediaHedge, an anti-piracy tool designed to help sift through the growing volume of online video files. Philips works together with a number of partners. The system works by checking the digital "fingerprint" or unique characteristics of video files and looking for a match in Philips' database of video content. The service can spot a match even if the video file is degraded, altered or amounts to a small slice of the original video, according to Philips Content Identification, a unit of the Netherlands' Philips Electronics NV. Copyright holders can specify in advance whether they want to allow videos containing their footage to be posted on sites running MediaHedge, or whether they should be blocked or otherwise restricted.

The move of Philips has a history. It was after a major study into the future direction of Philips that the Dutch consumer electronic company started to move out of content and content-related technologies. So the company started to sell off all the CD-I technology and assets in 1996, which ended up with Infogrammes, and in 1998 its music division Polygram, which was sold to Universal. The reasoning was that Philips as a consumer electronic company should be a manufacturers and not a content producer. It would give Philips the freedom to manufacture devices regardless of copyright issues. And the policy proved to work when the mp3 music devices became trendy.

From 1996 Philips started to invest heavily in health devices. But it still was producing television, telco as well as video and music equipment. The introduction of the DVD player was typically such an event. And as a responsible company, Philips started to develop content-related technology, especially anti-piracy tools like MediaHedge.

Tags: content

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Blog Posting Number: 608

30 years to change the face of VNU

Today the private investor 3i will sign the acquisition of the VNU Business Publication. The division encompasses business publications, mainly computer industry publications, internet sites and exhibitions. 3i is said to pay 320 million euro for the acquisition. The agreement will mean the end to VNU’s industrial activities in The Netherlands. HQ will remain in The Netherlands for tax reasons.

The division of VNU Business Publications was founded under the management of Mr Xavier Koot, almost 30 years ago in 1977. Assets of the new division consisted of controlled circulation publications and subscription based publication. A money maker was Intermediair, a controlled circulation, publication for students and academics, which had been bought in 1973. From 1980 onwards the division became the lead party to internationalisation. In 1980 the division made its first international acquisition, buying the computer publication part of the UK publisher Haymarket.

With the internationalisation of VNU through VNU Business Publications VNU was able set out its policy to put a more solid foundation under its activities. Up to 1980 the company had been very depended on advertisement revenues. It was great in high economic times, but a disaster for shareholders in low economic times. Intermediair became a barometer; when the publication contained more than 96 pages it meant profit due to job vacancies. In 1980 Intermediair was in fact the first Dutch job vacancy database, running on the videotext service Jobdata.

VNU Business Publication has been thriving a long time on computer information. It was the inventor of computer publications in the Netherlands with Computable. It got a real boost when it acquired the computer publications from Haymarket in the UK and Australia. It became a heavy competitor of IDC in Europe.

The division expanded from Europe to the States, taking over market information companies registering the people’s behaviour on watching radio and television, music and retail. And it bought also exhibition companies, amongst others Learned Information Ltd in the UK from Roger Bilboul. This was a kind of funny. In 1980 I visited Roger’s company in Abingdon near Oxford. I had just joined the new media lab VNU Database Publications International (VNU DPI) and was making an inventory of the online industry. Learned Information organised since 1977 in December the Online Conference, an exhibition well visited by librarians and cybernauts. From the visit I still remember that Roger was almost paranoid about VNU eyeing the acquisition of his company. It was only in the nineties that VNU acquired Learned Information and Roger Bilboul became ad interim manager for VNU.

VNU/Falcon still have one more sale ahead, namely that of the US business publication division with magazine and exhibition titles as Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Adweek and Mediaweek. From that moment onwards the company will exist of market data companies without IMS/Health. What should have been the crown on the work of the expansion policy set in the late seventies, has become a dressing down.

For the time being VNU Business Publications will be parked with 3i and meet there their former colleagues of the VNU educational sector of Malmberg. Eventually these two divisions will be sold on.

BTW For those who read Dutch and want to know more about the development of the VNU, have a look at the book Van Haarlem naar Manhattan: Veertig jaar VNU 1965-2005 (Booom; isbn90 8506 009 5).








Tags: publishing

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Blog Posting Number: 608

Narrowcasting becomes mainstream

Narrowcasting is becoming mainstream. That was the conclusion of the speakers at the conference on narrowcasting in Utrecht. Main companies like the Dutch railways company and the Schiphol Airport company have fine results. And narrowcasting looks like getting a subset: microcasting.

NS, the Dutch railways company. The Dutch railways company NS and Viacom Outdoor will place some 30 big screens of 26 square metres in stations all over The Netherlands. It is a next step in narrowcasting by the NS.NS has been in narrowcasting even before the term existed. Some years ago it experimented with teletext screens intended for departure times, news and advertisements in a few stations. However this experiment, technically supported by TSS, never left the drawing board. Besides this experiment, the NS experiments with screens in trains from Haarlem to Maastricht. But now NS goes big into narrowcasting with big screens in the station halls and LCD screens instead of the analogue indicators. Since July a big screen has been placed in the Utrecht station hall. The first results are announced recently at a conference on narrowcasting. Travellers were positive about the screen and its content. Despite the fact that there is no sound, names of advertisers can be recalled. And a first interactive experiment with Bluetooth and Mp3 downloading music from the record company Universal has been executed with success.

Schiphol Airport. Schiphol Airport placed 2.000 small screens with travel information, advertisement and other content. Compared with the older tubes, which showed only travel information, people are happier with the new ones. The appreciation has grown from 73 to 82 percent.

Rabo bank. The Rabo bank, one of the largest banks in The Netherlands is installing screens above well visited cash points.

Besides public big screens, there are a series of narrowcasting projects in The Netherlands:
- Screen in trams in Amsterdam;
- Shopping centres, e.g. in Utrecht;
- Tabacco shops;
- Electronic sores of Mediamarkt;
- Book shops.

Narrowcasting is spreading fast over Europe. Especially at metro stations LCD screens are becoming common. In London Viacom Outdoor is installing screens, mainly for advertisements. In Vienna advertisements and news is shown. Soon Elf petrol stations will get screens which can generate electronic vouchers.

New is the microcasting, messages directed towards a person. In Utrecht a health kiosk has been set up where in three minutes weight, body mass, body fat, blood pressure and heart rhythm can be measured. The contact with the client is one-to-one.

Tags: narrowcasting, microcasting

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Blog Posting Number: 607

Working on a city of glass

Glass fibre is still hot topic in The Netherlands. Sometime ago many municipalities such as Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht ordered a study about a glass fibre net, the costs, the financing and the organisation from a lobby group, which promoted the investment by the local authorities for the sake and benefit of Dutch economy. In the meantime things are changing. After that the EC ordered the municipality of Appingendam not to use money from the municipality for the network, things started to change. The municipality of Amsterdam planned also a glass fibre network for the city and its inhabitants. It manipulated the process for companies to quote and eventually became a small participant in the project of connecting 40.000 houses in first instance. Last year the first citizens’ fibre network became reality in Nuenen, close to Eindhoven. In this small suburb, a network was installed, officially with private money, but also supported by grants from local and national government. Now more initiatives are undertaken, claiming private financing.

The latest claim comes from Deventer, a city where the publisher Kluwer started its business. The municipality has announced that it will be the first city on glass by 2009, having connected at that time more than 40.000 households at a price of 55 million euro. The construction costs of the network Y-3network are for the company which offers the fast symmetric connections of 20Mbps; the subscribers will eventually pay 49,50 euro.

The chosen economic model has been christened the Deventer model and is unique in as far as it does not ask the municipality for money to lay the network. A housing organisation and Reggefiber will operate the network and lease capacity to service operators.

The Deventer project is also interesting because of its objective. Amsterdam and the other Dutch cities were advised to start glass fibre network as this would be good for the economy and would put The Netherlands at the top of Europe as a knowledge society. The Deventer project has more a social objective. Besides the triple play application of television, internet and telecom, tele-applications for living, working, education, recreation, social and medical care are focussed upon. Glass fibre will make tele-surveillance possible remote education, but especially social and medical care. By 2010 The Netherlands will have 4 million people older than 65 years. This will mean a lot of loneliness for many citizens as their children is living somewhere else. Camera skyping with seniors will undoubtedly be one of the applications (a mobile skype device with built-in camera and simple interface should be developed for senior citizens for daily contact with their children and grand children as well as with relatives and friends!).

The Deventer network will also be connected to the municipal network of the town hall, schools, social and medical institutes; the network will also be linked to firms.

The decision to roll out the fibre network has been taken after a pilot. Here the basic package of internet, telecom and television were offered, but will be extended with a digital platform for digital television, including HDTV quality and for local initiative from churches, sports organisations and care initiatives.

Tags: glass fibre

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Blog Posting Number: 606

One million subscribers cable digital television

The distribution of digital television has gone into a new phase last Sunday night when the television signal went from analogue to digital. Presently there are three distribution networks in The Netherlands: Digital Broadcast terrestrial (DBV-T), which is used for Digitenne; IPTV through ADSL; digital cable television.

Beginning of December the 1 million milestone was reached by the cable distributors. The branch organisation of Dutch cable operators VECAI announced that 1 million subscribers had been booked. CanalDigital did reach the 1 million milestone a few months ago. Digitenne had 245.000 subscribers last September. In total 2,450.000 subscribers. The penetration has gone fast. In 1,5 years the target group grew from 380.000 subscribers to 2,450.000 viewers of digital television.

The most successful cable operator was CaiW, the operator working around The Hague. With an offer of 48 television stations and 24 radio stations, it has been able to convert 80 per cent of its analogue audience to digital television; 88.000 households went digital. The real trick lies in the offer. The analogue package offer was diminished by 20 channels. The digital decoder is offered at delivery costs, while the costs of the digital package are the same of the analogue standard package. Subscribers paid in fact only the delivery costs. The last 20 percent is happy with its limited offer.

Digital television not only offers better quality of image, but offers also more choices. The behaviour changes by the broader offer. Viewers look closer to programs of their interest. Besides they like to put together their television evening using the electronic program guide (epg).

Digital television is important for the cable operators, as they need more revenues. They invest heavily in an triple play infrastructure. The networks have to be upgraded to transmit a stronger signal for digital television and to offer the promised capacity to internet subscribers. Also the telephone infrastructure listens very closely as the competition is on with the incumbent KPN’s fixed network, which is loosing subscribers rapidly. Besides the cable operators will have to compete with the glass network of KPN in two years.

Tags: telephone, digital television

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Blog Posting Number: 605

One mobile per child

Recently Nicholas Negroponte came to the ITU Telecom World 2006 in Hong Kong in order to promote his One Laptop per Child campaign. These days he is not travelling around any longer with a not-working prototype of the $100 computer as the first ones have rolled off the production line. At the conference in Hong Kong Negroponte said that he hoped to distribute between three and five million of these innovative laptops to children in six developing countries in 2007. The project has had its critics, both from the developed and developing world. But Negroponte is certain he is on the right track and makes a very compelling point. This is an education project, not a laptop project. As he said in an interview here for silicon.com: ‘People say if a child is malnourished, he doesn’t have drinking water, he’s sick, why do you want to give him a laptop? Substitute the word ‘education’ for ‘laptop’ and you will never ask that question again.’

The One Laptop per Child has its followers. Presently the telecom company Celtel International, based in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands is looking into a $10 mobile phone. The company is active with telecom and especially mobile in the African continent. Recently I met a representative of Celtel and had a talk about the project. He insisted that the company is looking into the project and has not yet taken the decision to have the mobile phone produced and rolled out. The company is presently researching the production methods and talking to mobile phone and chip manufacturers.

The plan of One Mobile per Child – it is not a project yet – has its advantages and his critics. The advantage would be to stimulate the mobility and the economy of Africa. Despite the fact that a heavy investment will be needed, the mobile roll out would be cheaper than creating a fixed line infrastructure. Setting up a mobile infrastructure with masts takes less time than digging ducts. The plan could also contribute by micro-education, learning by mobile phone. But this plan has also its critics. Of course the plan would upset the growth curve of the mobile phone companies in Africa. Now it still is seen as a growth area. But the companies would also look at the fraud aspect. How do you ensure that these cheap mobiles get to the right people and prevent fraud. The Negroponte project had a solution for that: the colour of the computer. The computer had a kind of green radio-active colour, which made them hard to sell on the market, so the organisers reasoned. A similar idea could be used in this plan.

Tags: mobile

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Blog Posting Number: 604

Google searchers don’t scroll any longer

Google searchers have grown lazy. No longer do they scroll down the page in search of a proper answer. That is the result of a study among a panel, which got 450 search assignments. Using eye tracking the eye movements of the panel members could closely be watched. In 48 percent of 14.000 executed searches the user got no further than the first page. The rest of the pages were not consulted nor were the advertisements looked at.

Researchers blame the users, who are getting lazy. As soon as the first page does not contain relevant information, a new search is launched. This should have effects on advertisement positions as well as on optimalisation of advertisements on pages and on costs.

Since the arrival of Google, searchers have received many references on a simple question. This is caused by duplication of documents and the Boolean search criteria. The search engines have become marketing tools and are no longer search tools. Precision and recall are not exactly the objectives of a search engine like Google.

Recently two Dutch PhD students Bas van Gils and Paul de Vrieze, took the position in their thesis that Google should be like an experienced librarian, who understand what information is adequate at a particular moment. Now Google throws many references to the questioner, but computers systems and algorithms should adopt themselves to the users. Search systems should assist users in finding the proper information at the right time and in the right form. If a users searches for information on a mobile, the search system should understand that it should not return loads of results for a small screen. If there is no media player on a computer, the search system should not return references to audio and video. Also personal characteristics of the searcher (young/old, education, employment or study etc.) should be taken into account.

Bas van Gils developed a method to to evaluate the information better. He used an economic model by seeing the world wide web as an information market, where users spend money for finding valuable information. Search engines are in this model brokers. They have a profile of the party which asks for information. This broker uses characteristics as subject, form, format, language, length of document to evaluate the relevance of a document for this user in his particular situation. He pleads to separate form and content.

Paul de Vrieze developed a model for adapative personalisation which works for all kinds of software. With the adaptation engine various applications, including search engines can work together without the loss of privacy sensitive data. He puts the adaptation engine with the data between the user and the software

Both developments yield more precise and relevant data and let the searcher be in command.

Tags: searching

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Blog Posting Number: 603

iLiad and De Tijd eNewsPaper (close)

Overlooking the summaries of the research and the PDF presentation of De Tijd eNewsPaper pilot, a general picture starts to become clear.

This was a live pilot of a new device, which has been destined for rendering newspapers and books. It has not been a small pilot as 200 people, selected out of a group of 500 interested people, have participated in the pilot. More than 60 issues were published for this pilot during 2,5 months, giving the publisher and the telco the assurance that it worked. What did we learn?

The research results show many a detail such as a SWOT analysis, activities or better a lack of activities by interactive users and usability points. In general, the results are almost obligatory. The pilot was performed for more than 60 days; it worked and despite some small remarks on the usability of the iLiad, the experiment was successful. However the iLiad will only be used in the remote future.

I personally think that two main questions have been left unanswered. One question is the multi-functionality of the device and the audience. The other question is about the audience.

Multi-functionality
The iLiad however is limited in its purpose. It is a text iPod, storing documents such as newspapers, books and manuals for reading. In surveys taken in the past with electronic books every time the single purpose of the e-book readers was see as a problem. E-book readers were expensive for the single function they performed: rendering the texts and illustrations.
In these surveys the e-books were compared with PDAs, the multi-functional devices, which have been extended with mobile facilities these days.
Granted the iLiad has wireless connectivity, which has not been used to the fullest yet. Also the annotation/writing facility has not been tested in De Tijd experiment. But this writing facility will not turn the iLiad into a PDA.
I have likened the iLiad to an iPod. So far the iPod has proven to be a single music device. And yet, contrary to a PDA, it has sold like crazy. So why should a text iPod not sell like crazy? In an earlier instalment I have indicated that a number of conditions are needed for success: a promoter, reasonable prices of the devices and of the content and ease of distribution. With the iLiad and similar devices (even the Sony e-book) they clearly lack a promoter and a reasonable price for the device so far.

Audience
In an earlier instalment I have indicated that the pilot group of users of De Tijd were early adopters: highly educated business men, who were versatile with computers. So this pilot group of users can be seen as the pioneers of this device; on the other hand they prove that the device is not ready yet for a general roll-out.
So will it work with an audience of a general newspaper? I guess that the versatility with computers of such an audience is lower than De Tijd pilot group. Besides it is clear that the need to know the news is less lower. It will be interesting to see what the results will be of the Dutch consortium, which will be a follow up to De Tijd experiment.

So far the iLiad has proven that it the screen is an absolute pleasure to the eye. But from De Tijd experiment it is also clear that the iLiad is something of the remote future. It is not a break-through for the publishing industry like the iPod was for the music industry. The big question is now how remote is remote: short term, middle long term or long term?.

Tags: iliad, irex, e-book, e-ink, e-reader, newspaper

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Blog Posting Number: 602

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iLiad and De Tijd eNewsPaper (6)

Looking at the summary of the results of the research Group for media and ICT, it can be said that the SWOT analysis at the beginning of the project is basically an obligatory action. The iLiad was compared to the existing printed newspaper on the one hand and had a remarkable screen and wireless facilities. On the other hand it was compared to online ePapers and found equalling in offering new possibilities. I am not as convinced on this point as newspapers delivered through broadband have the possibility of playing out video; a facility not existing on the reading machine presently and most likely not in the immediate future, given the page- and the consequent power orientation.

I personally think that the iLiad is comparable to the printed edition. Yet it is smaller (A5 format), has wireless facilities for delivering and updating (which is not scoring high) and has interactive facilities to be used for navigating. It can also be compared to PDA edition of newspaper.

It is depressing to read that the advertising industry was invited to participate in the project, but did not show up. Only 14 per cent of the 392 invited persons responded and partook. Of course this says something about the Belgian advertising industry. On the other hand it says also something about advertising on the iLiad. Making an iLiad advertisement interactive is not really interesting as the interactivity is only used for navigation; it will for example not be possible to produce an interactive advertgame for the iLiad, given the page and power orientation. Responding to an advertisement would mean that the wireless should be used as a return channel; this could be an opportunity, which would have to be organised by the newspaper.

To me, it is clear that the page and power orientation are a limitation to full interactivity of the iLiad in a such a way that it will not be able to compared with the interactivity of a non-PDF newspaper site. It can be compared with a PDF edition of newspapers, but instead of being delivered online it is delivered offline by wi-fi.


IBBT

IBBT ePaper Project – Media and ICT (MICT)

The Research Group for Media and ICT (MICT) was responsible for two research tasks.

At the beginning of the project, MICT-IBBT conducted a SWOT analysis of the ePaper concept on the basis of a literature review. Concerning the potential of the digital ‘e-paper’ to substitute printed newspapers, the study pointed at the critical condition that the new medium should offer the same qualities and the same ‘look and feel’ as print media, so that it can compete with the old medium in terms of portability, flexibility and usability. The strengths and opportunities of the ePaper concept (‘a newspaper distributed on an e-ink display device’) lay in the combination and integration of the key benefits of print and online newspapers. Like online newspapers, the ePaper has the potential to offer new possibilities for interactivity, customization of content and audience targeting, while equalling the reading comfort of print newspapers (wireless and portable, high readability, flexibility, etc.). An additional major benefit for newspaper publishers would be, of course, the enormous reduction of costs for paper and distribution.

Secondly, MICT-IBBT focused on the expectations and needs of Belgian advertisers regarding interactive advertising in general, and the potential of the ePaper as a new advertising channel in particular. In September 2005, an online survey on interactive advertising was sent out to 392 representatives of the 152 companies, which are member of the Belgian Union of Advertisers (UBA). The respondents were asked about their experiences with interactive advertising, the benefits and constraints, and their expectations about future developments in the advertising market.
Although the response rate of 16% was too low to generalize the results to the whole
advertising sector, the survey confirmed that advertisers tend to remain slow adopters of
interactive media. Only 14% of the respondents believed that iDTV will become a major channel for advertising, and more than 80% did not find mobile applications an important channel for advertising. When focussing on interactive advertising, advertisers seem to prefer well-known channels, such as portal websites and e-mail. It is interesting to note that 60% of the respondents agreed to the statement that advertisers have a rather conservative attitude towards interactive advertising. Reach, return on investment (ROI) and cost-efficiency are still the most important parameters to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Lack of information about interactive advertising and about the return on investment (ROI) was seen as major barriers to invest in interactive advertising. About 40% of the respondents said that interactive advertising is still ‘too new’; a similar group believes that the formats for interactive advertising are still insufficient, whereas a quarter of the respondents find that interactive advertising campaigns are often not creative enough.
On the other hand, the members of the UBA also identified some major opportunities. The
opportunities in targeting and personalization of advertisements, the direct relation that can be built with the consumers and the fact that the effect of campaigns is measurable are the three most important advantages of interactive advertising media. The respondents are less convinced that interactive media will provide more possibilities in multimedia and creativity. In general, the questions about the future of interactive advertising show that new media are a major challenge for all advertisers. 9 out of 10 respondents agreed that it will become more important in the interactive media environment to know where, when and how the target group can be reached in the best possible way.
Tags: iliad, irex, e-book, e-ink, e-reader, newspaper

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Blog Posting Number: 601

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Flash: The Dutch step into the digital era

It is 00.01 a.m. In another half hour the Dutch take a leap into the digital era. From now on Dutch TV will be distributed digitally. Distribution of TV signals on the basis of Digital Video Broadcast Terrestrial (DVB-T) protocol will be 11 million euro a year cheaper, while on the other hand more digital channels will become available.

The Netherlands is one of the first countries going digital TV. This is possible as most Dutch households receive cable TV, inclusing 1 million households are digital TV. All public broadcast companies will distribute their broadcasts uncode, free to air without a smart card or a subscription.

In total some 220.000 households will be unable to receive the digital TV signals: 74.000 households and the rest recreational venues (boats, recreational homes). They will not receive any broadcast, unless they buy a decoder to receive the public broadcasts, a subscription to Digitenne, the KPN digital TV distribution organisation, or digital satellite.

Does it change anything? We will not notice anything as our household is on the cable with UPC. The present cable signal is lousy and snowy since a week. A complaint to the customer service of UPC a week ago and a visit of an engineer, who checked the in-house situation, have not changed the situation, as the block signal has gone weak (most likely due to some fiddling of a UPC engineer on the blockhead). In short, things change when UPC has the intention and time to do so. Service to the customer; forget it.

BTW This is the 600th posting since May 1, 2005. Every day one or more postings have been launched ever since.

Tags: digital TV, UPC

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Blog Posting Number: 600

iLiad and De Tijd eNewsPaper (5)

During the iLiad trial, the ePaper project DuistriNet was launched; basically it investigated the management of digital usage rights. The press release starts with the statement that Digital Rights Management is the main challenge for publishers. The research focussed among other things on the right to read tye news paper for a certain time. DRM systems can set a time limit for readers. In practice it means that a reader can be granted permission to read the newspaper for 24 hours after which deadline the edition deletes itself.

The press release is unclear about the area of DRM. I take it that it DRM as protection has been of the entire edition has been the subject of study. I guess that the researchers have not looked into saving for example a series with instalments; saving the articles of an series, could have been a marketing exercise. I was wondering whether the advertisers had also been involved ion this part of the study. Of course they could have experimented with an offer for a limited period.
DRM has developed since 1996 for text products. So far protection has been the main driever in the usage of it. The marketing facilities have hardly been experimented with on a large scale in emagazines, enewspapers and ebooks. From this experiment the newspaper publishers can conmclude that it seems more efficient to reuse generic DRM building blocks, and it is unrealistic to dream of a single ‘complete’ DRM system.


IBBT

IBBT ePaper Project – DistriNet
In the context of the ePpaper project, the DistriNet research group of the K.U.Leuven has realized a study that investigates how to extend the software platform of the publisher in order to facilitate management of digital usage rights.

What is digital rights management?
Managing and enforcing digital usage rights (Digital Rights Management or DRM) is a complex task to achieve – think for instance of illegal downloading of mp3 music files from the Internet.
DRM systems allow for instance to specify a usage model that enables consumers to read a digital news paper for an indefinite period of time, but only on a specified set of devices. DRM techniques make use of digital watermarks that identify the consumer what enables to trace abusers.

Main challenges for publishers
It is, by consequence, crucial for publishers like De Tijd to ensure protection of copyrights associated with digital content of high commercial value. Such content should only be consumed as prescribed by the subscription of the consumer.
Given the rapid evolution of DRM technologies, it is not preferable and still too early to decide once and for all which DRM technology is most suited to be integrated in the ICT platforms of the publisher. By consequence, publishers do not want, and cannot bind to one specific DRM technology.

DistriNet contribution
DistriNet has analyzed the design of current DRM systems. Many of them support the same or similar features next to a number of specific extensions. It seems more efficient to reuse generic DRM building blocks, and it is unrealistic to dream of a single ‘complete’ DRM system. Combining is the key message.

Based on this analysis, DistriNet has designed a software architecture that isolates common building blocks and that documents how they can cooperate. This study has resulted in a blueprint for DRM systems that facilitates to compose DRM systems from available software components. The proposed software architecture has been further refined to support the development of proof-of-concept prototype implementations.

Tags: iliad, irex, e-book, e-ink, e-reader, newspaper

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Blog Posting Number: 599

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iLiad and De Tijd eNewsPaper (4)

The release on usability indicates that there were a number of requests for improvements which have come to light.
- visible feedback, when an action has been taken;
- the icons have to be undertstandable internationally;
- it must be possible to change the keys of the virtual keyboard from qwerty to azerty;
- representation of photographs and graphics have to be improved;
- integration of a help-function.
Also the functioning of the devices has been tested. I guess that the researchers mean that they have looked how people handle the device. They do no say anything about the hidden place of the on/off button or the wi-fi button in the right hand corner, which can mistaken for the on/off knob. Also in the design the device is not square, as the top part is supposed to symbolise a physical page. In some cases, especially with PDFs, which were not the subject of the usability test, it looks like the PDF is projected skewed. I still miss a cover/flap as protection of the screen.

I have been unable to test a newspaper myself. I received two newspaper editions by mail, but have been unable to load them due to the file structure. I would have loved to see how the newspaper itself worked. How the interactions are performed such as leafing through the pages.

I like also to remind the readers of the fact that the device was only intended to represent a newspaper edition as is. There were no extras such as sound.

IBBT

IBBT ePaper Project – Centre for Usability research (CUO)

The Centre for Usability Research was responsible for the testing, evaluating and improving the user
friendliness of the content and interface developed during the epaper project.

Usability is defined as “the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in specified context of use” (ISO 9241-11). Users have to be able to achieve their goals and required tasks easily and fast using the developed product. Different focal points can be defined in function of the evaluation, depending on the product. A few examples of these focal points are: Can the user find the right product? Do users like to work with the software? Can users recover from their mistakes? Do users understand the used terminology?

Usability evaluation is best situated as early as possible in the development phase of the product and has to be seen as an iterative process.

In the first stage of the evaluation a user and task analysis was conducted. The task analysis was supported by three pillars, the user (not only the newspaper reader, but also the advertisers), the tasks (e.g. reading, leafing through the newspaper, searching for information,…) en the environment (at home, on the road,…).

The main intentions were not only to acquire insight in the way tasks have to be executed, but also to define the complete set of tasks and subtasks. The user’s characteristics and the different environment factors were also taken into account.

User tests were conducted for the usability evaluation of the ePaper device. Not only the functioning of the prototype was evaluated, but also the personal experience of the test users. A few focal points were e.g. the mobile characteristic of the device, the organisation of the information, the level of difficulty of the data delivery, the attractiveness of the interface,…

Through the different test situations, interesting observations arose, a few examples given below. It is necessary that the user has visible feedback when an action has been taken, e.g. when a new screen is loading. This increases the user friendliness of the device, and the user’s feelings of frustration and confusion will decrease considerable. It is also very important that an indication is given of the life expectancy of the battery on the screen. The user has to have the feeling of complete control and knowledge on how full or empty the battery is. Unclear terminology also has a negative effect on the user. This results in frustration and doubt, which then will result in the fact that users will not utilize certain functionalities, because they are not clear. The used icons and labels on the buttons have to be unambiguously understandable, and the placement of the buttons on the device has to be logical. If the device is developed for international use and a keyboard is integrated in the interface, the user has to be able to choose to have the keyboard labelled in qwerty or azerty. The photo or graphic accompanying an article was too small, not very visible and disappeared when selecting the article. This was a real bottleneck for the users, and had a very negative effect on the surplus value of the device. The possibility of viewing the photo or graphic in detail has to be offered. A help functionality has to be integrated in the device, this because the user can try to solve their problems and answer any questions they have. These are a few observations and suggestions to increase the devices’ user friendliness, which is an important factor that is directly linked to the success of any new device.
Source: IBBT, 2006

Tags: iliad, irex, e-book, e-ink, e-reader, newspaper

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Blog Posting Number: 598

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iLiad and De Tijd eNewsPaper (3)

The Belgian research institute IBBT has produced short notices on De Tijd eNewsPaper project, especially on the usability research, the DRM software, a SWOT analysis on e-paper, expectations of the advertisers and the business modelling.

Having read the releases, I selected the release Positive, but remote future as the most relevant one. I will first discuss the main thrust of the release and attach the full release.

De Tijd e-paper project researched by the IBBT revealed in what way readers want to read their daily newspaper on a digital device. Of course readers should realise that it was a study of 2,5 months and as such a snapshot, limited to the iLiad e-reader, a reading device based on the e-ink technology.

The e-reader was tested in a living lab setting by 200 test users during 2,5 months. (April-June). Each day “De Tijd” could be downloaded and read, and personal documents could be read in PDF. Some other functionalities that will be accessible in the device, e.g. the ability to take notes and to play music, were not yet available during the trial. So, during the trial the basic e-Reader was used for receiving and reading the newspaper. Lacking the sound and taking notes facilities is not a disadvantage, as it makes the print newspaper compare 1:1 with the e-newspaper.

For the test 200 trial users were selected who constituted a representative sample of “De Tijd” readers. This implied that the majority of the panel consisted of higher educated men, with high computer skills and a busy job. This statement is interesting as the profile of the trial users shows them to be early technology adaptors. This must lead to the main conclusion that launching this type of electronic newspaper and newspaper device is still too early. In the press release it is said remote future. In some of the notes there is talk of the long future.

Between long and remote there is some light for manoeuvring. Given favourable circumstances (user-friendly equipment, easy-to-download network, reasonable prices) the use of the eReader can change in a matter of a year to one and a half years. Look at how the iPod changed the music world. When did you see someone listening to his/her walkman in the last two year? The same could happen to the eReader as it no more than an iPod.

So the main question is whether the eReader is already a user-friendly device? The question about the distribution network is less important; yet the wi-fi connectivity is essential. Reasonable pricing of electronic editions (free, subscription, pay per article) is still a knotty subject in the newspaper world. Besides the newspaper companies will not make it on their own account. They need a respected promoter like Apple was for the audio iPod. Question is who that will be? As the eReader is produced by a spin-off of Royal Philips, one could think about that company as the promoter; yet despite its status as a respected multinational, it does not have content and media-affinity like Apple has. What about Apple, Google, Yahoo or Microsoft (no order of preference intended)


IBBT ePaper Project – SMIT

Positive, but remote future: The digital version of the newspaper is promising, but still has not beaten the traditional paper

In the context of the IBBT e-paper project, SMIT-IBBT1, a research centre at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, studied in what way readers want to read their daily newspaper on a digital device.

The eReader, a reading device based on the e-ink technology with an excellent screen quality, was tested in a living lab setting by 200 test users during 2,5 months. (April-June). Each day “De Tijd” could be downloaded and read, and personal documents could be read in PDF. Some other functionalities that will be accessible in the device, e.g. the ability to take notes and to play music, were not yet available during the trial.

The 200 trial users constituted a representative sample of “De Tijd” readers. This implied that the majority of the panel consisted of higher educated men, with high computer skills and a busy job.

Especially the screen quality and the good readability was highly rated by the test clients. In contrary to normal computer screens there is little eyestrain when using the eReader for extented periods of time.

The eReader is found to be particularly handy in specific situations in which people are mobile, but in which it is not easy to read a real newspaper. The test users used their eReader for example while using public transport (rain, tram, bus) in the car (in traffic jams) and even on foot. The eReader was also seen as an ideal travel companion, with which people can download their daily newspaper abroad, and where books and travel guides can be stored on the eReader device instead of in people’s suitcases.

Despite these new uses, the test users did hold on to their old habits. Especially on weekends, the look and feel of the traditional newspaper is preferred at the breakfast table. And although the eReader is practical on holidays, people still prefer to read a real book at home. A fully stocked library does remain a status symbol. People stick to traditions, therefore it is important that the paper on the eReader delivers the same level of comfort people are used to with the traditional paper.

It is important to start from the present reading behaviour of the newspaper reader, who looks for recognisable formats. This means that the epaper should be offered in a similar layout with clickthrough articles. Next to that, an additional search function and the option for personalised information, like stock markets, can be considered as an advantage.

Most of the respondents do think that a bug free eReader could replace the traditional newspaper in the long run. Obviously, a few technical limitations with which the trial was confronted have to be solved. The eReader has to be stable and fast, and the e-paper has to be easily downloadable.

The eReader also has to have the ability to enable some of the old habits associated with newspapers, like saving and archiving articles. When in time several titles (books, magazines, ...) become available at a reasonable cost, this device will become a worthy adversary for the printed paper.

The eReader will undoubtedly offer a contribution to a paperless society. But, as any evolution, the transition from a printed to an electronic paper on the eReader will be a gradual one.

Source: IBBT, 2006

Tags: iliad, irex, e-book, e-ink, e-reader, newspaper

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Blog Posting Number: 597

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iLiad and the De Tijd eNewsPaper (2)

On November 24th, 2006 there was a seminar in Maastricht on “The Daily newspapers entering the network society”, organised by the European Journalism Centre (EJC). I was unable to attend, being abroad. But I was very anxious to hear what the report was on the experiment of the iLiad by the users of the Belgian financial daily De Tijd. So I started to surf and I found two reports, one in Dutch and one in English.

The English report is a summary by the chairman of the seminar, Mr Jan Bierhoff. It reads:
This summer, a fairly large field test has been conducted by the Belgian financial paper De Tijd, using the Iliad, an e-ink mounted reading pane produced by Philips subsidiary i-Rex. E-reader devices are mobile to start with (A5 folder size), have the look and feel of normal paper, don’t require a lot of energy and show superior reading quality in daylight conditions.
Nico Verplancke of IBBT summed up some final results delivered by the group of 200 test users. Feedback is positive, in general. Half of the group would consider buying a device provided the delivered content is sufficiently compelling. A strong recommendation was to speed up the refresh time and improve layout of content. Meanwhile, i-Rex has issued improved software with better performance characteristics.
Further development is required though, to promote the device from the present e-book to the aspired e-newspaper status.

To my surprise, I read also: De Tijd will not continue with the experiment, but five Dutch newspapers have meanwhile joined forces for a continued research effort, more focused on the creative part of the venture, the development of the right editorial formats. IBBT will join this consortium as well. I tried to find a reference to the five Dutch newspapers, but I will have to guess that it will be a consortium of De Telegraaf, PCM, Het Financieele Dagblad, Wegener and VBK/NDC.

From IBBT, the Belgian research institute, which accompanied the experiment, I received notes on various aspects of the study such as usability, distribution and the business model. I will come back on these notes in the coming days.

Tags: iliad, irex, e-book, e-ink, e-reader, newspaper

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Blog Posting Number: 596

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TTA 2006: Top Talent Content Fusion Award

For the third time the EUROPRIX Top Talent Award has selected an award winner for the content fusion award. The Award was instituted to focus on the emotionally captive audio side of new media. Multimedia has too much been understood as visual content. Immersion into cross-media and content-fusion worlds should be stressed. Integrating sight and sound is proving to be an exciting and necessary development in the multimedia industry. Why listen to silence, or the clicks and beeps of your computer when e-content could be invigorating the senses with new expressions of multimedia creativity? In addition to the general contest, the expert jury evaluated all entered projects for a Special Award on the best fusion of multimedia and music, on the use of audio components in multimedia projects

The UnseenVideo (Germany) is a weather controlled dynamic music video. It is affected by the weather and local time from the position of the viewer. The video’s background, images and main animation change and there are additional animations of snow, rain, pollen and clouds that dynamically alter in position and scale according to the environmental conditions. The system localises the viewer through their IP-Address. All information about the weather from each city is updated daily and stored in a MySQL database. By creating synergies between the music, the video and the natural surroundings of the viewer, local changes in the environment mean that
the viewer will never see the same video twice. While it may change only slightly in an hour, it will have a different character within a few months.
Team: Ferdinand Weinrother, Daniel Scheibel

Tags: europrix

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Blog Posting Number: 595

TTA 2006: Digital Video and Animations

This category is always worth a discussion in as far as interactivity in the digital video entries. So again this year. The movie if( ) then( ) else( ) did draw discussion on two points: interactivity and its content. The movie was captured on a home video the images redefined on a computer. Yet the contents was heavy as a dichotomy was present between reality and an actor attempting to recreate convincingly the predicament.

As far as the animation entries there was no problem for the jury. The nomination was a star product. Given the origin it had to be. The nomination Tadam was an entry from students of the Paris Ecole d’Images de Gobelin. This school has had winners for the last three years: such as ,261001, (2004), DVD-Maxi edelweiss Müller juicy panic (overall winner of 2004) and Non-violence (2003). The education method of this school , a combination of school labour and internships in a company, generate beautiful multimedia projects. Besides the students do get into industry. With this year’s entry the students brought puppeteering to multimedia. Virtual puppeteering has been done before. In this case it was digitising the art of puppeteering.

Here are the laudations of the jury.

Tadam (France) is a multimedia puppet show which brings computer animations to life and stages the animation film in a traditional theatre. Users initially build up a plot scene by scene through the director module and can select different well-designed graphic environments and themes. The show can be pre-cut in several parts. Using software similar to moviemaker, static sequences (e.g. transition, fade or text) or sound effects can be added, edited and saved. The puppeteers are free to manipulate 3D marionettes in real time by interacting with a wooden cross lever which is equipped with movement sensors. The puppet’s mouth can even be animated by speaking through a microphone. Once the show is performed, it can be burned on DVD. Hand-crafted and fully customisable for beginners or professionals, Tadam continues the reinvention of this ancient art.
Team: Jonathan Da Costa, Jean-Kanora You, Nicolas Rajabaly, Mathieu Allemand

Cinema trades off its fundamental claim on authenticity, its power deriving from this basic capacity to capture reality 24 frames a second. However, digital media redefines the very identity of cinema because data is processed through a computer. if( ) then( ) else( ) (Ireland) utilises some aesthetic issues arising from recent developments in image technology. It uses a home-video aesthetic and the experience of encountering multiple streams of different media through the computer interface. This film explores the link between cinema and reality by portraying the problem of expressing the reality of terrorism on film. if ( ) then ( ) else ( ) asks the viewer to think about what is more real and convincing: home video footage of an actor expressing his frustrations of not being able to act authentically enough, or the apparently real documentary footage of a terrorist hostage which inspired him?
Team: Francis Heery, Carole Holohan, Mike Liffey
(Unfortunately, there is no link available)

Tags: europrix

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Blog Posting Number: 594

TTA 2006: Content Tools & Interface Design

The category of content tools and interface design is an area for innovation. In the past I have seen interface design of islands instead of files. Some of those islands contained audio files and the closer you got, the louder the music was. This year there were three innovative nominations.
Recreating Movement is an interesting content tool for analysing film and movements in films. I saw some 3D pictures of a movie in the past, present and future. It is interesting for analysing, but also for using creatively in a movie itself. The FlashFilterLab is clearly a content tool which make it easy for a developer to create complex flash effects without writing a line of code.

Shgared Design Space is a continuation of a projects which was entered last years by the same team. Roughly you can say that the team aims at producing an electronic, interactive office space. They use the latest technologies like electronic paper with fountain pens equipped with a small camera. Although the office spaces are still not fully compatible, Shared Design Space gives you a good insight in new office developments.

Here are the laudations of the jury.

Recreating Movement (Germany) allows users to analyse the evolution of film movement in vivid detail – frame by frame. A host of useful features can be controlled via the keyboard and menu bar. Single film frames can be extracted and rendered onto a set of tube-like frames which ‘freeze’ a particular time span in a film and offer a unique overview. Users can therefore simultaneously see present, past and future can also be rearranged in any order and scaled in 3D space. The structural details of a film’s content can be studied by either analysing the film according to its volume level or by analysing specific colour ranges. Colour can be isolated, deleted or made transparent. Recreating Movement could be used by film analysts, coaches hoping to analyse a player’s technique or even car crash testers.
Team: Martin Hilpoltsteiner

FlashFilterLab (Hungary) helps users to create complex flash effects and movies without having to write a single line of code. It is an intuitive visual programming environment that can be “wired” together to build complex visual filters, effects and Flash movies. Users create graphical flowcharts to perform real-time effects on their content. The simple interface allows the creation of rapid prototypes or complex projects by building a tree of boxes. The number of filter and omponent combinations is unlimited. The software’s website also provides users with their own storage space where they can upload and share their Flash movies and pictures. The website’s community can then grade and comment on other people’s work, share ideas and exchange techniques.
Team: Gabor Levai, Balazs Serenyi, Balazs Kovari, Aron Mezei

Shared Design Space (Austria) enhances meetings and presentations by making them interactive through intuitive collaborative tools and a tabletop environment. By integrating physical and digital paper, data can be overlaid on a table-top surface and modified by a touch-sensitive interactive wall. Using a digital pen, participants can annotate virtual paper or pick up digital data from the table (e.g. video, image) and drop it on real paper. Users can scroll through the documents by simply touching the interactive screen or zoom in on documents by changing the distance between their hands. A timeline on top provides a map-like overview that can also be used for quick navigation. The display menus are simple to customize for other software and can distinguish between different pens, allowing flexible functionality for various types of users.
Team: Aron Mezei, Thomas Seifried, Doris Zachhuber, Jakob Leitner, Peter Brandl, Doris Bernert, Daniel Leithinger

Tags: europrix

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Blog Posting Number: 593

TTA 2006: Interactive Computer Graphics

The category interactive graphics has proven a difficult one over the years for the juries. Where does interactivity of computer graphics start and where does it end. The three nominees prove exactly the point. The first nominee Ball of Bastards is computer graphics with an interactive menu. The Robotic Dance proves the interactivity in computer graphics in a different way: interactivity of the robots. Neigbours proved its interactivity in the interface and its database.

The Ball of Bastards has to be placed into the framework of the soccer championship. It is a cynical take-off on the championships. Robotic dancer is nice technical project. Neighbours is a very charming project from a technical point of view, but also from a story telling point of view.

These are the laudations of the jury.

Ball of Bastards (Germany) allows football fans to punish the football monarchy through entertaining interactive online games. The website can even be enjoyed wearing 3D glasses. Developed for the 2006 World Cup, this website addresses the aggression and violent tendencies of fans and athletes in football culture. Users can fire a free-kick into David Beckham’s sensitive areas; let Frank Rijkard’s llama help them spit into Francesco Totti’s mouth; or even scream at a referee through a microphone and drive him insane. Users can also humiliate the “Bastard of the Week” or solve a puzzle and its secret message by wearing 3D glasses. The interactive menu itself acts as a humorous critique of iconic German images and personalities. Ball of Bastards aims to transfer real violence into a virtual space through parody and crude humour.
Team: Jan Philipp Behrens, Ingo Feisthamel, Franz Blach

Robotic Dancer (The Netherlands) is a highly interactive game which contains a playful combination of rigid body dynamics and musical synchronisation. The user can experiment by linking the instruments from a musical score directly to forces and torques on the body parts of a 3D model. An innovative user interface visualises all the musical elements and is perfectly linked to the robot’s physical motion. If users choose the right instrument at the right time in the music, the user will see an applied force visualised either by a purple arrow or a purple fan. Users simply press ‘play’ to watch how the robot dances to the beat. Key features include the possibility to use a wide variety of robots, to load models directly from an Internet community or even build a customised
robot.
Team: Edwin Jakobs, Jorik Blaas

This online interactive comic works on a theme that everyone knows about: nosey neighbours. Neighbours (Hungary) presents its own little-big world where everyone is somehow connected to everybody else. Users must work out that connection themselves and piece the narrative together by exploring each room in the five storey apartment block. Users can also search through various buildings in Green Tree Street and view a photo gallery, the producer’s work or find out details about the characters. Created in Macromedia Flash using hand drawn characters and backgrounds, users will find themselves becoming curious about each character. What is Margaret Pepper doing in the middle of the night? What is the strange noise on the roof? Who is Cecile’s secret lover? What is the favourite tale of little Lily Cube? Users will be intrigued into finding out the link between all of them.
Team: Adrienn Szekacs, Szilard Szell

Tags: europrix

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Blog Posting Number: 592