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Tracy Swedlow and the folks at InteractiveTV always put on a terrific event, and I'll be speaking on a panel at this year's TV of Tomorrow show on March 11th @ 11:30 am (San Francisco, Yerba Buena Center). The topic of our panel is "New Developments in Broadband Video: Can the Internet Keep Up?" It is sure to be a lively discussion - my co-panelists are from BitTorrent, Level3, Brightcove, Thompson, Narrowstep and Tandberg.
Chris Anderson's (also wrote The Long Tail) got a great article posted on Wired today called "Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business." Think about it - Google is one of the most profitable companies of our time, is used every day by everyone you know, yet you'll never see a charge on your credit card bill that says "Google."
Head over to Wired and read the article. It'll make you think.
VeriSign/Kontiki and other market leaders (including Verizon, Pando and others) in the P2P technology and ISP worlds are involved in a DCIA (Distributed Computing Industry Association) working group called P4P. With support and commentary from many involved in this group, the DCIA today sent a letter to the FCC with formal content on potential legislation (see my previous posts on Net Neutrality) surrounding network management guidelines for broadband operators. With Marty Lafferty's permission (Marty is the CEO of DCIA), I've pasted a copy of the letter into the extended portion of this blog entry. To read the letter, skip below the jump.
The DCIA P4P perspective is notable because it represents the interests of technology providers, P2P providers, and ISP's. It's stated mission, which appears below, is to work with each of these interest groups to deliver the best ultimate experience for end user consumers.
2/14/08 ADDITION: Click here to go to the letter as posted on the FCC web site
The DCIA P4P Mission Statement:
"To work jointly and cooperatively with leading Internet service providers (ISPs), peer-to-peer (P2P) software distributors, and technology researchers to ascertain appropriate and voluntary best practices for the use of "P4P*" mechanisms to accelerate distribution of content and optimize utilization of ISP network resources in order to provide the best possible performance to end-user customers."
The letter sent to the FCC on February 13th, 2008:
As readers of this blog know, I have been saying for some time that Net Neutrality would be one of the hottest topics of 2008. Well, it's officially taken center stage again with a flurry of coverage this week (go to Google News and type in "net neutrality"). Yesterday, representatives of Comcast appeared before the FCC to discuss the company's practices around network management. Today, the Washington Post reports Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is expected to introduce a bill calling for an Internet policy that would prohibit network operators from unreasonably interfering with consumers' right to access and use content over broadband networks (he must not be at the Roger Clemens Circus). This is a corporate blog, and thus my position is officially neutral on this subject (as noted by Will Richmond back in November) - but it is a topic I believe is worth following, even for the average consumer, for two primary reasons:
1) The ongoing dialogue, and any legislation tied to this subject, will have an impact on the ability of carriers, cable providers, Internet and media companies to compete for your dollars and mindshare, especially as it relates to rich media (music, video, movies, etc.).
2) The outcome will have a significant impact on what the Internet looks like in 5-10 years time. As the Internet becomes more important to your daily life, you should care about this. Kind of simple statement, but it's a pretty basic concept.
For more on Net Neutrality, here are a few links (and different perspectives):
Today's confirmation by Yahoo of its planned $160M acquisition of Maven continues what has been a banner 12-18 month period for digital / Internet media companies. Although the day to day battles in the trenches are brutally competitive (talk to anyone who's running a digital media startup), the classic Silicon Valley innovation cycle (entrepreneurs found startups, startups rapidly out-innovate big ones to take advantage of new opportunities, small companies get acquired by big ones, founders repeat process) and the broader macro trends towards digital media distribution via the Internet and mobile devices will continue to drive a huge amount of investment and M&A activity for years to come. In addition to the note on Maven, three relevant data points which provide context to this point:
Parks Associates new forecast for "new media" advertising is $12.2B by 2012
AlwaysOn takes a look back at 2007 financings, sales and M&A activity among the OnMedia 100
Media and Information Investment Bank The Jordan Edmiston Group has a great presentation available on the firm's website which outlines "M&A Outlook and Valuations" in the new media sector
I'm often asked "is market pricing for CDN services going down faster than distribution rates are going up?" It's a good question, and while prices for basic content delivery have been going down, encode rates and volume are going up (significantly). In other words more people are watching more high quality video online. Dan Rayburn has a very good post on his BusinessofVideo.com blog today on this topic, along with the basic math required to answer this question. Click here to go to his post.
Ben Mezrich's book Rigged is a fast, moderately entertaining read from the same author who wrote Bringing Down the House - the story of the MIT Blackjack team (a great read). This is my second attempt to read a Mezrich book and get the same entertainment value I got out of House (the other was Busting Vegas). Unfortunately, neither Rigged nor Busting Vegas were as good as House. In short - read Bringing Down the House again and skip Rigged. For more, see below.
Rigged is the story of a young guy out of Harvard who gets a job working at the Merc Exchange, the Manhattan-based oil exchange. To summarize the next 42 chapters, the main character then struggles with his new role, tries to maintain his relationship with his girlfriend while working long hours, partners with royalty in Dubai to set up an oil exchange in the booming country, and avoids getting beaten up by people who don't want to see the Dubai exchange succeed. There you go - I've saved you 288 pages of reading.
It's a light, entertaining read. I picked it up in an airport, where I seem to be a sucker, for light, entertaining reads. This didn't feel like a total waste of time, but I'd go read Bringing Down the House again before I'd recommend Rigged.
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