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Viodi View

Viodi View – 12/06/09

One of the things I failed to acknowledge in the Thanksgiving issue of the Viodi View is how I much I appreciate the consistent and quality contributions of Alan Weissberger and Roger Bindl to the Viodi View and ViodiTV. Alan’s insightful articles regularly generate comments from a broad audience. In this issue, he digs deep into WiMAX and the CLEAR network. 


Assessment of Mobile WiMAX and the CLEAR network in the U.S. by Alan Weissberger

In early 2006 we wrote an article titled, Will the Real “Mobile WiMAX” Please Stand Up!

It's now almost four years later, with the Clearwire-Sprint-Comcast-TWC rollouts well underway in the U.S. It's time for a hard look to see if the mobile WiMAX vision has been realized. Unfortunately for WiMAX advocates like Intel, it has not.  Click here to read the rest of the article  


Broadband Grants – the Link to Tobacco

Unlike the federal broadband stimulus, which may remind some of the Carly Simon song Anticipation, a grant program funded by the Virginia Tobacco Commission just awarded $1,514,143 to members of the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative (MBC). These 50/50 matching grants are helping to expand broadband to over 15k residential and business customers who previously only had access to dial-up Internet.  Click here to read more.  


The Austin Electrical Grid – A Smart Enterprise

Click here to watch the videoThe so-called smart grid is more than just putting out smart meters in the network. Andres Carvallo talks about the challenges Austin Energy has faced as they evolved their electrical grid into an enterprise network that today controls over 500,000 devices. Carvallo explains how these devices collectively generate, on an annual basis, hundreds of terabytes of data.  Click here to watch this exclusive interview with Andres Carvallo of Austin Energy. 

Note: This episode was sponsored by and filmed at the Parks Associates-produced 2009 Connections Conference in Santa Clara, CA. Parks Associates is planning a Smart Energy Summit in conjunction with Austin Energy to be held January 25 to 27, 2010 in Austin, Texas. 


Live Broadcast – Courtesy of An Android App

click here to see an example of the Livestream applicationLive broadcast of video keeps getting easier and easier. Last week, USTREAM announced their broadcast and viewer applications for Android. Instantly, my G1 cell phone had yet another cool feature that was not there when I purchased it last year (and the next day it received step-by-step voice navigation, but that’s for another post).

The quality of the above video is obviously not broadcast quality or even YouTube quality (the USTREAM application does allow one to upload directly to YouTube, as well as to the USTREAM site)……….and now, back to tips for producing quality video content from Roger Bindl.  


Using a Monopod as a Steadicom

click here for some good local content tipsMaintaining a steady camera can be difficult for many. This video demonstrates an inexpensive alternative to somewhat bulky, and often expensive steadicams. I've been using a monopod for several years now and find that the counter weight and fulcrum effect of the monopod works well to steady the camera. Propping the pod into your waist also works well, or extending the sections as intended. The video shows a larger camera in the beginning with a short example in the end with a tiny still camera for video. Produced by Roger Bindl HEM Productions for ViodiTV with Creative Commons music by Morgantj "caf connections" from ccMixter.org.


The Korner – Is Content Becoming Dust in the Wind? by Roger Bindl

[Editor's Note:  Roger trades his camera for a word processor in this issue of the Viodi View, as he points out the challenges of social networks.]

Dust Storm PhotoAre we reaching a point where content becomes dust in the wind – like the song by Kansas? Or, is the dust growing with all those memories and dreams recorded forever along with the observers and seekers? It seems like a part of both as people create 1 billion posts per day on Facebook, 12 million tweets per day on Twitter, upload 1.7 million minutes of video to YouTube each day, post over 1 million blogs per day, and that’s just a start to the daily growth.

 That’s a lot of content or dust, but hey… Google is indexing all of it, supposedly forever, so the dreams and memories should continue, and Facebook will help to create more memories as people share their thoughts and get photos of them uploaded and tagged by friends. So, what better way to market your company than to throw more dust to the wind, so long as it’s not forgotten?

That's partially what some social media “experts” are preaching now day. Create more and more content so your company will be found on the net. Your home page is no longer enough, you need posts on Facebook, Tweets, more video on YouTube, and blog posts with relevant and valuable information – as if you’ve got time and relevant information to regularly blog about.

So I sound a bit skeptical? Well, not really. But I am wondering where this is taking us. Will information become so diluted by it’s own mass that finding relevant information will be akin to finding a quark in the universe? Is this really a long term, effective way to market your company? Or will people just get tired of it all – which is already happening. Many long term users of Facebook are leaving it, and people are getting more concerned with personal data becoming public or kept forever in that large search engine of dust.

I wrote a few weeks back on how people are leaving social networks for the real world and I continue to read more about that trend. Do a search for “why I quite Facebook” and see how and why people are leaving, but keep in mind that your search results will also be kept forever in a database by Google – possibly with your name or address. Watch the program “Inside the Mind of Google” for an eye opener, or a piece from the New York Times on the program. Keep in mind that even if you aren’t logged into Google they could get your street address from the IP address on your computer – I have proven that to myself from more than one location, and it was eye opening.

My conclusion from all of this is to recognize potential pitfalls and make a plan to use the web wisely. I really don’t want to visit Facebook to learn more about your company. The fact is I get frustrated when companies send me away from their website. Even for video… don’t send me away to YouTube. Upload there if you want but embed the video on your own site. It doesn’t take any of your bandwidth, and there are lots of other options with BlipTV, Vimeo, and other video service providers.

Experiment with Facebook and Twitter before you jump onto the bandwagon. You might just learn why it's easy to get tired of it, and the current hype could be just that. There may be situations where I’m totally off with my observations, but I don’t think it’s the win for all that’s being sold to all. To some extent a lot of this is about getting information on you for selling to you… remember when we worried about that with television.

Sources: #

You Can’t Friend Me, I Quit” On Facebook’s fifth anniversary, a not-so-fond farewell by Steve Tuttle, Newsweek Web Exclusive, Feb 4, 2009

Facebook Exodus” by Virginia Heffernan, The New York Times, August 26, 2009.

How to Quit Facebook” on Wikihow.

Tweeting, texting render avid users ‘present yet absent’ by Olivia Baker, USA Today, Aug. 3, 2009.

Marketing Mecca and Business Panacea?" By Roger Bindl, Viodi View.

"Inbound Marketing," VideoBlog by Roger Bindl on HubSpot.

"Facebook Chat: 1 Billion Messages Sent Per Day," by Ben Parr, June 15 2009, Mashable The Social Media Guide.

Tweets Per Day” Social Media.

Zoinks! 20 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute” YouTube Blog, May 20, 2009.

Inside the Company That Mistook Itself for a verb” Neil Genzlinger, Dec 2, 2009, The New York Times.

49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 And Internet Stats”, Adam Singer, TheFutureBuzz, Jan 12, 2009.

Dust Storm Photo" WikiMidea Commons, George G. Marsh Album. April 18, 1935, Texas.

Author Ken Pyle, Managing Editor

By Ken Pyle, Managing Editor

Ken Pyle is Marketing Director for the Broadband Forum. The mission of this 25+-year-old non-profit “is to unlock the potential for new markets and profitable revenue growth by leveraging new technologies and standards in the home, intelligent small business, and multi-user infrastructure of the broadband network.”

He is also co-founder of Viodi, LLC and Managing Editor of the Viodi View, a publication focused on the rural broadband ecosystem, autonomous vehicles, and electric aviation. He has edited and produced numerous multimedia projects for NTCA, US Telecom and Viodi. Pyle is the producer of Viodi’s Local Content Workshop, the Video Production Crash Course at NAB, as well as ViodiTV. He has been intimately involved in Viodi’s consulting projects and has created processes for clients to use for their PPV and VOD operations, as well authored reports on the independent telco market.

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