Mark Evensen, CTO of Entone, articulated what I have been trying to say for years. There is a difference between fidelity and quality. I contend that many viewers generally care more about the quality of the content than the fidelity of how well it is reproduced.   I look no further than my sister and brother-in-law as a proof-point to this assertion. A few weeks ago, during the height of the San Jose Sharks 2008 playoff bid, I stopped by my sister’s and noticed the game was on in standard definition.* Having not only one, but two HD DVRs in her house, I asked why this was and both my sister and brother-in-law stated that they preferred the local announcers to the those who were on the high definition feed. Granted, they probably would have preferred a high definition picture with their local announcers, but the lesson is that content is more than just the fidelity of the picture and sound reproduction. The most important thing is the quality of the content. 

* This is the same sibling whose husband and son were convinced that they had HDTV, even though they weren’t paying for it and didn’t have a set-top from their cable operator. Eventually, they got HD as an incidental feature of the cable-operator supplied DVR. 

Google documents are available now in both online and off-line versions.  They automatically synchronize to the online version and tracks revisions, just like the pure online documents have.   The following video shows how it works, although I can’t find the offline option in my Google documents account.  Maybe it will be there in a day or two. 

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/offline-access-to-google-docs.html

Built on the AIR and Flex platform, Adobe’s Buzzword is another new alternative and it seems to be very good with regards to layout, comment capability and formatting.  It also works in both online and offline modes, like the Google documents.  With Adobe’s announcement of an online, no-cost version of Photoshop, integration between text and print (and eventually video) may never be eaiser.

At the Spring 2008 VON Conference in San Jose, I saw a very impressive demonstration from Communigate that is also built on the Adobe Air and Flex programs.  Communigate replaces the Microsoft Exchange server and makes it real easy to drag and drop files between different social applications, such as Instant Messaging and photos.  Since, it is all integrated, it makes for a single log-in for multiple applications.   From my limited knowledge of this space, it looks like a much easier to use, more capable and lower cost solution than the traditional mail-server applications.

The real interesting thing is that the Adobe platform can work on Linux platforms.   Google’s product, based on Open Office, has the advantage of bundling spreadsheets and presentations and it should also work on Linux, although I haven’t confirmed my conjecture. 

Once these applications have grammar checking I would be all set, as it is one feature I need.  The other issue I have seen is formatting between Google Docs and Microsoft Office products.  I haven’t used Adobe’s Buzzword to understand whether formatting is an issue with their product. 

If these small inconveniences can be fixed, then there may be some viable alternatives to the Windows/Office monopoly.  

Walters stated that the content side of the newspaper business has never been more robust. Implicit in his comments was the idea that it is easier than ever to create content, given the proliferation of low-cost tools, such as the web for research, digital photos and electronic publishing.

He cited how he is creating more content than ever and how some of it never actually reaches the printed newspaper. This conveyance of news and advertising is the other part of the equation that is rapidly changing as consumers are increasingly consuming media in an electronic form. This electronic publishing allows thoughts to flow from author to reader with little or no intervention by third parties (e.g. elimination of typesetting).   

The challenge for newspapers is that dis-intermediation is taking what used to be a 30% margin business and dropping it to 15%. As a result, we continue to see newspapers cut their operating expenses any way they can, such as through layoffs, consolidation and reduced page count. 

In response to my question, Walter stated that he thinks newspapers will still be around in printed form in 5 years. I wish I had re-framed the question to be, at what point will the printed newspaper cease to exist?  With new screen technologies and the promise of electronic paper, this reality the "paperless newspaper" is probably closer than we think. 

Seibert suggested it would take awhile before Internet video advertising catches up with other media. He likened the challenge that Internet video faces to that of the cable television in the early 1990s as it went against the established broadcast television industry. 

Seibert pointed out that the new money will come from selling different ads to different people; in other words, targeted advertising. He also suggested that the networks would have to create new content tailored specifically for the Internet medium. 

“Chaos is the enemy of advertising,” stated Seibert. This statement was made in the context of the Internet video and the perception that advertisers want to associate themselves with consistent and appropriate content. This has been a problem for some of the User Generated Content sites, as they try to monetize their billions of views. 

There is a converse to Seibert’s point. That is, many of UGC video producers do not want certain advertisers for their content. Just like the advertisers, these UGC video producers want control of their content and the associated advertisements. 

Jim Wuthrich, SVP Electronic Sell Through & Interactive Marketing of Warner Brothers Digital Distribution, pointed to the studios’ efforts to stay at the forefront of business model changes when he indicated that now it is, “Time for experimentation and try to figure out how to make content more accessible in the form they [consumers] want.”  Wuthrich went on to say that, the challenge for the studios is how to make the various models co-exist.   

He pointed out that theatrical release window is a very important part of the marketing for particular properties. He agreed, to a degree, with panel moderator, Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal, and her assertion that, at some point, producers could effectively bypass the studio system and go directly to the consumer via the Internet. He didn’t think it would necessarily happen with the bigger producers, like a Lucas, but that it would probably happen with smaller producers.    

Warner is working with many channels to get their content to the consumer, especially via the Internet. He suggested that consumers do not want to be locked into one service and there has not been a good solution for getting content from the Internet to the TV. He believes the ultimate solution will integrate broadband video directly into the television, eliminating the set-top. He emphasized the only way to unlock the value of the studios’ content is to make it easy for the consumer to discover and consume.

He stated that, “people are running out of time.” The studios are competing with so many ways to spend time that never used to exist; from gaming to social networking, that extending beyond the living room is important. Thus, portability and mobility is important to Warner Brothers going forward. 

Dan Simpkins, CEO of Hillcrest Laboratories, made a suggestion for a new kind of cross between mobility and video, when he envisions the possibility of using a cell phone as a television remote. Hillcrest has been thinking of this that the integration of their motion sensing navigation technology (think Wii) into cell phone is possible and would not affect form factors. When coupled with an iPhone-like user interface, the cell phone could serve as a search tool, meta-data screen and remote control, while the television does what it does best. 

A virtual living room may ultimately reside in a virtual computer; the so-called cloud computer. Ron Ferguson, SVP and GM of North America of Archos, thinks it is a matter of time before people rely on cloud computing, but for the time being it will be on a hard-drive. Archos finds that they cannot keep up with demand for storage; people want more and more storage on their personal media devices. Bryan Burch, Director of HP’s Managed Home Business unit, thought that consumers will always want to have some level of tangible ownership of content, so some of it may always be stored in the home. 

If Pandora, with 11 million registered users, is an indication of the direction of media, then the virtual living room is already here. Pandora knows the kind of music you like. It allows you to play your music in the living room, pause it and continue it on your cell phone. It streams through the Internet. Jessica Steel, VP, Business Development, says that their goal is, “to beat Clear Channel.” If that comes to pass, repercussions will go well beyond the living room. 

It looks like it does an automatic embed of content from sites like Hulu.   They haven’t published how they will monetize this service, but it looks to be advertising based.  One of the things I notice is that an ad for Pulver TV that could be sold to others. 

The "cube" navigation provides a 3-dimensional view of the content.  A user rotates the cube and to find a particular program on a given network or by category.   By becoming a member, one can customize the navigation to their liking.  The cube is only used for the first level of navigation.  After a show is selected, the navigation reverts to a 2-D view.  The navigation cube may be embedded on other web sites, as shown below.  

This is only an Alpha release, so it may not be perfect, but it points to where things are going with regards to broadband video.  

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/entertainment/15453816/detail.html?rss=bos&psp=news