[LINK] Metadata: the killer application’ for digital broadcasting?

[George Bray]

At 9:36 AM +1100 15/3/02, Tom Worthington wrote:
>This is to request comments on "Metadata: the 'killer application' 
>for digital broadcasting? (or: "Interactive TV?: Its the Internet, 
>Stupid"): http://www.tomw.net.au/2002/mka.html

Tom, great paper.  A few quick comments.

The media franchises in Australia are making the same mistake from 
the early days of the web.  Remember Time's Pathfinder, a "walled 
garden" of content for paying subscribers? It turned out that people 
surfing the web wanted ALL of the web, not a subsection. So today we 
have the government, broadcasters and telcos saying broadband is not 
being taken up here because there is no content, so let's spend up 
big on getting some. But it's the vox populi broadband content that 
people want. It's TomW's website with videos and the ability to 
teleconference with him. And without decent two-way unmetered 
bandwidth Australia will not get a flourishing broadband industry.

Using wireless technology to experiment with high-speed last mile 
connections is how the broadband "hams" of today will teach the 
broadcasters their folly. They'll spend millions learning though.

Metadata? Yes, it could make broadband content more accessible but 
will probably follow the use of metadata on the web.  Great for 
structured, well maintained documents but the effort involved in 
adding it means 95%(?) of web content doesn't use it.

It's interesting to see the problems potential datacasters are having 
with settopbox standards. My guess is the current and next generation 
will go the way of the WAP enabled phone, until a new broadband 
delivery platform comes out.  This could be FlashMX, being released 
tomorrow. It already operates on a variety of OS platforms and mobile 
phones, and covers video decompression, audio I/O, XML etc. This new 
version is more of an application development environment for 
delivery over multiple platforms, rather than a screen rendering 
standard.

>>  High speed wired networks and medium speed wireless ones could 
>>provide the platform for distribution of experimental work, in much 
>>the same way the web started.

For most of the punters though, a local wireless network is going to 
be faster than their restricted ADSL.

cheers from Innes NP, Yorke Peninsula, SA.

George