[opendtv] Re: Democrats Air Concerns About Analog Switchover
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:24:44 -0800
I see the issue framed quite differently than you. You call OCAP and MHEG
as proprietary tools, and put them in the same sentence as OpenTV.
I see OpenTV as a proprietary system, and I believe that OCAP, MHEG, et al
are as "proprietary" as TCP/IP or "the Internet."
I think you might want to refer to a dictionary to see what the definition
of proprietary is.
I've somewhat consistently said that the Internet is another way to permit
interactivity, and I've become more positive about ACAP, OCAP and GEM as a
subset of all emerged that appears to work on all three.
Do television or radio stations in you area offer prizes to real viewers by
putting out a "code word" that you enter into a web page (or call in to a
telephone number)?
ACAP, et al, could overlay this type of feature (or supplant it) and limit
those eligible to people actually watching the program, who would only have
to "click" and not remember a code word. A code word that could be a
128-character hex string combined from a unique public key created live in
the broadcast and, say, appended with something from the make/model of the
receiving device, or a GUID that could only be used once.
Caching would be counterproductive in this application, were the broadcaster
interested in only getting live viewers. Even if cached, the prize would go
to the fastest, not the lastest.
Oh. I see why you might believe that OCAP, ACAP et all are proprietary,
based on the Java base of all.
Is javascript proprietary?
John Willkie
> -----Original Message-----
> From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> On Behalf Of Craig Birkmaier
> Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 6:23 AM
> To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [opendtv] Re: Democrats Air Concerns About Analog Switchover
>
> At 11:18 AM -0800 11/21/06, John Willkie wrote:
> >
> >So, they won't be interested in buying something by clicking on their
> remote
> >versus getting up from the tv set, going over to the computer, and
> working
> >there? I see these as two different 'markets' and don't think that one
> >forecloses the other.
>
> Not what I was saying.
>
> One of the reasons that the Full Service Network failed was that they
> wanted any entity using their system to use their proprietary tools
> for interactivity. There was this handy book that TW would sell you
> defining the way the system worked and the tools that would be used.
> Other cable companies were talking about the same concept, however,
> each had its own proprietary tools. Furthermore, with the Full
> Service Network, TW set up toll booths for everyone; if you wanted to
> get in the T-commerce business, you had to pay Time Warner a
> percentage of the transaction, as well as using their proprietary
> tools.
>
> Needless to say this never happened, nor have there been any real
> successes in the realm of interactive TV in the U.S. Instead,
> something interesting happened on the way to the digital age...
>
> The Internet.
>
> The Internet allowed anyone to set up their own storefront using
> extensible standardized tools. The infrastructure for networked
> commerce happened via the Internet, rather than walled gardens. OCAP
> is yet another attempt to build cable industry standards for
> interactivity, tools that hardly anyone has an interest in using.
>
> This is not to say that people do not want to interact with TV or buy
> things. T-commerce is already a huge business, depending mostly on
> the telephone as a return channel, and now increasingly the Internet.
> What any advertiser wants is to be able to close the loop with a
> potential buyer. What they do not want is to have to pay for the ad,
> then share the revenues from the transaction too. And there is no
> need for this.
>
> Most cable systems today already provide the back channel technology
> - not the upstream signaling used for VOD, but rather the broadband
> IP channels, over which the cable company has no "content" control.
> And many homes now have persistent Internet connectivity, either from
> the cable company, the phone company or alternative broadband
> providers. When the STB or integrated TV is connected to the
> Internet, you have almost everything needed to support T-commerce,
> even for broadcasters who do not have a return path.
>
> By the way, John. I described all of this in detail in the Data
> Broadcast papers I presented at SMPTE conference in the mid to late
> '90s.
>
> There is one other thing that you need in the TV to do this: support
> for interactions and a GUI to control them. You can do this using any
> number of proprietary schemes like OCAP, OpenTV, MHEG, et al. OR you
> can use a web browser...
>
> Now that virtually all new TVs are use progressive scanning and have
> addressable rasters, adding a browser is a no brainer.
>
> So the long answer to you question is thus: The consumer will have
> several options in terms of closing the loop with content that is
> pushed to the receiver via DBS, Cable, or broadcast. IF properly
> implemented, the receiver can keep a list of URLS for everything that
> was offered during the period that someone is watching. Think of this
> like the history function in a web browser. The viewer could then
> access this history list, either directly via the TV, or indirectly
> via a PC to handle potential transactions, or to simply gather more
> depth info about a program.
>
> Or the viewer could interact immediately using the browser built into
> the TV. If they did this during a program the program would be
> cached, and they could pick up wherever they stopped viewing before
> they paused for the interaction.
>
> I could keep going, or just send you one of the SMPTE papers John.
>
> >In the 'personal people meter' context, there is some and perhaps a
> >significant amount of value to be gained by tying viewing into
> purchasing,
> >versus off-line 'click when you want' purchases.
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