What’s To Come

See the linked blog post on trends in shopping from the “What’s Next: Top Trends” blog. I found this interesting.

How We Now Shop

Below is a video I picked up from engadget.com  in a post titled Canesta gesture controlled TV frees us from the tyranny of the remote. I’ve talked in the past about Gesture Computing seen to an extent with the iPhone and in large part with Surface Computing.  Now we see a use where the television is controlled through gestures. Looks very easy and solves the problem of the lost remote.  I wonder what would happen if multiple people are gesturing at the same time??

Enjoy the video!

An article from marketingcharts.com indicates:

The number of US broadband households accessing web-to-TV content will leap to 24 million - and generate $2.9 billion in revenue from streaming services by 2013

See Web-to-TV Will Penetrate 24M Homes by 2013

This article ties with my last post The Future of Television

Just finished reading a Forbes article by Sramana Mitra titled The Future of Television.  She talks about the future business model for television content distribution. She correctly points to a world of video on demand and visits the challenges for ISPs, cable, phone and satellite companies.

The shift that has happened is that consumers now have the control. Their options have increased dramatically and they don’t have to play by all of the old rules.

Visiting my son in his loft in Lawrence Kansas, I saw the beginning of a new wave of content viewing. He has a high speed broadband connection, a Mac-Mini, a 47″ LCD HDTV, a wireless keyboard and mouse and a mini-remote to interact with the Mac-Mini. He is using Boxee.tv which is in alpha to serve up the content.

From boxee.tv:

on a laptop or connected to an HDTV, boxee gives you a true entertainment experience to enjoy your movies, TV shows, music and photos, as well as streaming content from services like Netflix, MTV, Pandora and flickr. 

What I saw was a very clean interface allowing the user to navigate to various media providers (HULU, Pandora, YouTube, CNet, etc.). Using the mini remote, you can easily go to categories, programs, movies, pictures, music and many other options. The program also allows for a social network where you can see what your friends are watching. The integration of all of these features is quite good for an early stage service.

Netflix interface for Boxee.tv

Going into the video section, especially for TV programs, the list is exhausting. It is in alphabetic order allowing you to select a starting letter on the right side of the screen to see programs beginning with that letter.  There is a search function assuming you know the name of the show.  I found the search and navigation a little overwhelming and lacking. I’m not sure how much of this is my pre-programming to think about channels and not about programs.

Some of the content was not as clear as hoped for, but I suspect this will improve over time.

Video Sub-Menu on Boxee.tv

The dramatic shift is away from channels and to content. The tool needs more refined search and categorization. I do think it offers so much more and gives the user complete control. 

The maturation of services like Boxee.tv and HULU will leave many considering dropping their cable, boosting up their broadband speeds and going to a complete “on-demand” environment.

I look forward to your comments and insights.

-Andy

From stateline.org an article talking about politicians at state and federal levels using Twitter to communicate with their constituents. Twitter becomes political tool.  I like the fact that there are some legislative directories that list those legislators who use Twitter and other forms of social networking. I also like the directories like GovTwit.com and TweetCongress. 

Is this a good way for your elected officials to communicate with you?

Over 55% of adults in the U.S. used the Internet to participate in the 2008 U.S. general elections. 

Says an article from Tradingmarkets.com   Putting Technology Into Politics.  

Candidate research, social networks, online debates all played an important role in the last major elections. These strategies engaged the “under 40″ crowd and contributed to the shift of political power in the country.

What’s next? Likely online voting applications and the use of technology in elections across the globe.  Very cool stuff and quite interesting to watch and participate in as we move forward.

This is a very difficult post for me. My dad died on March 10. It was very unexpected and in the course of 48 hours, he went from healthy to dead, shocking all of us.  I was with him in the hospital from nearly the beginning and, not knowing the final outcome of the ordeal, I thought about how I would communicate with friends and family to let them know what was happening.

Armed with my Blackberry, I decided that the best way to get the word out was to use Twitter feeding into the status of Facebook, LinkedIn and Plaxo. Most of our family around the country are now using Facebook, so this seemed to be the most logical place to convey the events that were to unfold.

My Twitter stream was as follows: I reversed the order so the earliest posts show first which is opposite of what is logged on Twitter.

Friends and relatives were able to follow the updates as this real-life drama unfolded. I didn’t have to make hundreds of calls, people were able to make travel plans and the updates became somewhat riveting to many who were anxious for the newest update and hopeful of good news.  One of my friends back in Lenexa called it “surreal” to follow these events.  Relatives from many places around the country said they couldn’t wait to check for the next update. I compare it to “The Truman Show” where someone’s real life is played out in front of a television audience. The personal connection people gain from this interaction is significant.

Looking back, I used the tools that were readily available to me to reach an audience of people who really cared about my dad and our family and it worked!  With minimal effort on my part, the news was spread and I was able to focus my attention on Dad and his last hours alive. That…. of course is most important!

Interesting article with some stats and thoughts regarding where broadband is headed. See The Future of Broadband - Building it Out, Portfolio.com

Spurred by a new wave of Skype-linked families, Hulu-watching flash mobs, and HD-video downloaders, global internet traffic is likely to quadruple by 2012. That’s an internet 75 times larger than it was just five years ago. It will be generating 27 exabytes—nearly 7 billion DVDs worth—of data each month.

 

The numbers are mind boggling and the technical challenges immense. 

-Andy

They’ve done it! Congress has delayed the switch to digital television from February 17 to June 12.  Ready or Not: DTV Bill Accommodates  I’m not a big fan of this move due to the amount of money and effort expended to publicize the February 17 date and all of the extra costs to local stations to keep both the analog and digital signals available. I think delay will cause even more confusion, but our esteemed lawmakers in D.C. are feeling the heat from their constituents confused about the whole change and unable to get coupons for the converter boxes, so I suppose they have to do what they have to do. 

How long have they had to prepare for this?  This delay was caused by procrastination and lack of attention by the FCC and Congress.  So, they are calling June 12 the “final hard date” for transition.   Yeah, right!

The U.S. Senate just passed a bill to delay the DTV Transition from February 17 to June 12. Senate Passes Bill to Delay Transition to Digital Television  

Seems like a big waste of money for the broadcasters and the Federal Government. So much has been put into publicity for the February 17 date. Can we confuse the public any more???