“According to blog search-engine and measurement firm Technorati, 23,000 new weblogs are created every day or about one every three seconds. Each blog adds to an inescapable trend fueled by the Internet: the democratization of power and opinion. Blogs are just the latest tool that makes it harder for corporations and other institutions to control and dictate their message. An amateur media is springing up, and the smart are adapting.”
— Fortune.com (Why There’s No Escaping the Blog)
“Music Choice and Sprint are launching a music service that allows mobile phone users to view short videoclips and listen to radio-like programming on their handsets. For $5.99 per month, users can listen to a range of genres and formats, including R&B/hip-hop, pop, country and rock. Earlier this year, the company announced Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Services, which delivers streaming audio and video content from NBC, CNN, ABC News, Fox Sports, the Weather Channel, Discovery, E Entertainment, and others.” (Reuters/MSNBC.com)
Brother-in-law Chris reports that Verizon is installing fiber-to-the-home in his neighborhood of South Lake, Texas. According to this Yahoo! story, the company expects to market video services on the new FTTP network next year. DSL? Cable? Shhiiiiitttt. Fiber will deliver “download speeds of up to 5 Mbps, 15 Mbps and 30 Mbps, with upstream speeds of up to 2 Mbps for the first two products and 5 Mbps for the third. The 5 Mbps service sells for $34.95 per month, when purchased with a package of Verizon services, and $39.95 when purchased separately.” Hard to believe I’ll live to see that kind of speed to our home but I’m happy for him. Sort of.
“BBC Radio has for the last month been making some of its radio shows available for MP3 download. Is this news? Well yes, previously they’ve always streamed their content, so you had to be by your computer to receive it. With downloads you’ve been able to take it with you.” [via Scripting.com]
Our networks should be exploring podcasting but when I talk to people about it they think I’m nuts. The fact that BBC Radio is jumping in (and NPR and a shit-load of other pretty reputable broadcasters) is completely lost on them.
Rick Bozich — a sports columnist for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky– isn’t sure he needs radio anymore:
“I followed the final 15 minutes of the Louisville-Florida basketball game while I was in Freedom Hall on Saturday. The game, remember, was played in Gainesville. I was courtside for Kentucky’s annual Basketball 101 lecture against Indiana. I did not have a radio. I did have my cell phone. I connected to the Internet. Clicked to an ESPN site. Another click, and play-by-play from Gainesville flashed on my screen. Stats. Time. The works. Actually, that’s not true no greasy bacon ads. So tell me again, for precisely what do I depend on WHAS radio?
From my perspective, the most interesting part of this story is that the cheif operating officer of our company brought it in to me. He gets it and that’s very important. One more thing… Radio is not going away. I don’t want it to go away. But broadcasters must find a way to embrace new technologies instead of trying to lobby them out of existance or deny that existance.
“Help real snipers get the real gear they need to help keep us safe.” The most amazing thing about this website is that there is a need for it. We send these people into combat without the stuff they need so the folks back home provide it. Update: WRN reporter Bob Hague interview with Keith Deneys, director of Adopt A Sniper. [8 min/mp3]
“At present, terrestrial radio stations tend to structure their playlists to offend the least number of people so that audiences will stay tuned for the next group of commercials. That format has alienated listeners who crave more eclectic, less predictable fare on the airwaves.” [from The Christian Science Monitor via iPodder]
From adrants: “Who needs broadcast television, when podcasting will literally allow for the creation of personalized media channels? In the future, the device referred to as a TV will carry your own personalized podcast that you create and modify to your heart’s content. Looks like growing old might not be so bad.”
Merriam-Webster Inc. said on Tuesday that “blog” was one of the most looked-up words on its Internet sites this year. It tops the list the 10 words of the year. I don’t know how you can read a newspaper or magazine, watch TV news or listen to the radio…and not have heard the word. But hardly a day goes by that I don’t find myself explaining. [Reuters story]
“The Internet will reestablish a more balanced, decentralized lifestyle. In the physical world, you win by being big, with economies of scale in manufacturing, worldwide distribution, and branding. In the virtual world, you win by being good: Automation reduces the benefits of scale, the Internet equalizes distribution, and reputation follows from quality rather than incessantly repeated slogans. The switch from centralization to decentralization goes to the heart of the human experience. And because the switch will drive up quality, it will tend to be a force for good.” [Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, November 22, 2004]
I no longer believe in politicians, large institutions, and organized religion…just to name a few. One thing (?) in which I believe strongly is the Internet and it’s potential for improving (saving?) mankind. I can’t make an intelligent case for that belief but Jakob Nielsen makes a good running start at it.