Thursday, August 11, 2005
Technology360: File-swap TV comes into focus
Technology360: File-swap TV comes into focus: "File-swap TV comes into focus
John Borland writes: 'Jeff Clarke, president of San Francisco's KQED Public Broadcasting, is a fan of Internet file swapping. � For the last several months, Clarke's television and radio stations have been putting content online using a four-month-old peer-to-peer service called the Open Media Network, which gives public broadcasters an affordable way to distribute high-quality versions of their work on the Net. � For now, KQED is doing this with only a few programs--documentaries about San Francisco history or a local park, among others--but more content is on the way. KQED has long experimented with putting video and audio on its Web sites, and the peer-to-peer service now makes it much more affordable to distribute its TV programming online, Clarke said. � 'Public broadcasting has always been about citizenship and having universal access to what we do,' Clarke said. 'This is using 21st century technology to do that.' � Clarke's KQED is at the leading edge of the mix of TV programmers trying to reach people online--a process that's just beginning to do for video what blogs have done for print media, and podcasting has done for radio. By putting professional programming a mouse click away from independently produced content, these tools are democratizing media in still-unpredictable ways. ...�... But public television companies are moving into this peer-to-peer world much more quickly than their commercial counterparts. � Many of the public broadcasters are working with Kontiki founder and Apple veteran Mike Homer's Open Media Network. Launched in April with the aim of collecting public television programming such as KQED's in one place online, the nonprofit network now has more than"
John Borland writes: 'Jeff Clarke, president of San Francisco's KQED Public Broadcasting, is a fan of Internet file swapping. � For the last several months, Clarke's television and radio stations have been putting content online using a four-month-old peer-to-peer service called the Open Media Network, which gives public broadcasters an affordable way to distribute high-quality versions of their work on the Net. � For now, KQED is doing this with only a few programs--documentaries about San Francisco history or a local park, among others--but more content is on the way. KQED has long experimented with putting video and audio on its Web sites, and the peer-to-peer service now makes it much more affordable to distribute its TV programming online, Clarke said. � 'Public broadcasting has always been about citizenship and having universal access to what we do,' Clarke said. 'This is using 21st century technology to do that.' � Clarke's KQED is at the leading edge of the mix of TV programmers trying to reach people online--a process that's just beginning to do for video what blogs have done for print media, and podcasting has done for radio. By putting professional programming a mouse click away from independently produced content, these tools are democratizing media in still-unpredictable ways. ...�... But public television companies are moving into this peer-to-peer world much more quickly than their commercial counterparts. � Many of the public broadcasters are working with Kontiki founder and Apple veteran Mike Homer's Open Media Network. Launched in April with the aim of collecting public television programming such as KQED's in one place online, the nonprofit network now has more than"
