Broadband Jungle Blog

MediaPost goes SciFi and looks back

Here's a very clever analysis of things to come in a TV Board post dropped by Joe Mandese, editor in chief at the reliable MediaPost. Camouflaged as a report filed in 2009, Looking Back predicts successful TV and Internet video convergence for 6 months from now in all our living rooms.

"Who would have thought when we launched this discussion board of industry thought leaders back in 2006 that television would go the way of the telegraph and become one of the few mass media to actually become extinct?"

Speaking my mind exactly. Here's how Mandese envisions the shift finally taking place:

"The turning point came 18 months ago when Google acquired Gemstar TV Guide and merged the universal remote control with its Universal Search service, once and for all ending the need for channel surfing or dial flipping."

Couldn't agree more. Until these or similarly equipped forces finally merge, all that's left to help us connect video from several portals is GoGooroo, which is why we started the whole thing. Couldn't find anything!

"My right thumb still twitches with phantom muscle memory every time I pick up my Apple iRemote to change the channel — er, video screen platform — even though the nifty new device relies solely on a retinal interface. And I’ll never get used to those Eyebuds. I don’t care how freakin’ cool they look, they keep falling out."

Sounds like a Philip K.Dick novel?  He's not quite done yet:

"Google’s server farms simply spider the content directly from the master control systems of local stations, and the satellite uplinks of networks reroute video programming to the screen of a user’s choice."

A brilliant book waiting to be written. Enjoy!

Authors @ Google

Google continues their quest to make the world a better, searchable place with insatiable appetite for the printed word. Not stopping at their attempt to archive every book ever written with the sometimes controversial online library project, here's an extremely worthwhile foray into contemporary literature. So far, more than 60 authors have participated in taped readings and interviews at Google's Mountain View headquarters, Santa Monica, Dublin and London.

"The Authors@Google program brings authors of all stripes to Google for informal talks centering on their recently published books. Readings of everything from serious literature and political analysis to pioneering science fiction and moving personal memoirs; past participants have ranged from playwright Eve Ensler and Nobel-prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz to novelist Jonathan Lethem and U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton."

Who wouldn't want to be the booker for that series, even though Google staffers insist it's volunteers running the show. Since the appearances continue to live on YouTube into online perpetuity, it's the hot ticket to land for every author's rep to push for their established and up and coming client.

As my friend and Internet guru Michael Mascha frequently repeats, like a new media mantra: It's a Google world, we just happen to live in it.

Here's a part of Chris Anderson's The Long Tail presentation.

Authors @ Google are also archived on GoGooroo. 

geriatric1927 and Team Hoyt – YouTube with a heart

An unlikely star is born among the ranks of teenage YouTube vloggers – Peter, a mild-mannered British widower in his late seventies with a love for the blues, motorcycles and the tongue-in-cheek user name ‘geriatric1927.’ Confessing his ‘addiction’ to ‘all the fascinating videos’ on the broadcast-yourself-site he just went ahead and tried one himself.

He named his first post 'geriatric gripes and grumbles,' and after he managed to upload it successfully (2 attempts), 9 clips followed in the last 7 days, turning him into a particularly prolific commentator.

Introducing each entry comfortably seated in front of the same colorful wallpaper and picture frames with a reassuring ‘Good evening, YouTubers,’ Peter has since turned towards sharing his life’s experiences with a worldwide audience in the form of a ‘telling it all’ memoir that’s currently at ‘Part 4: Marriage and Early Struggles.’

If you don’t have a grandfather anymore – I recommend you make Peter your friend and subscribe to his soothing narrations. You’re not alone: His just became the most subscribed channel this month and the most viewed channel of all these 100 Million clips served today.

CAN is a breathtaking montage of impressions from the athletic triumphs in the life of Team Hoyt. Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete in marathons, triathlons, climb mountains and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

It’s even more remarkable considering that Rick can't walk or talk but communicates with the help of a computer using the slight head-movements that he can manage.
An article by David Tereshchuk on the Team Hoyt website describes in detail how they operate together:

“For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.”