Understanding Interactive Television Newsletter - June 2003

June 2003

UNDERSTANDING INTERACTIVE TELEVISION
Academic and research resources about interactive television
http://uitv.info/


What's new
http://uitv.info/updates/

UITV.INFO
In this issue, we celebrate one year from the publication of the first
pilot issue of the Understanding Interactive Television (UITV)
newsletter, which dates back in June 2002 and was distributed to a few
people in the ELTRUN research laboratory. Since then, the mailing list
has grown to 200 people --most of them academics, researchers and media
industry people from all over the world. The Web site has grown to
accommodate more than 100 papers focused on interactive television,
while the servers handled five thousands (5.000) requests just for the
papers section, during the past three months --which means additional
readership and visibility to paper authors, who have their papers
included in the library. In order to reflect the international and open
character of this medium we chose to put a new name. But changes are not
only skin-deep; Begining with the next issue, we welcome everyone
interested to contribute content. You can find more about contributing
articles, news, opinions at http://uitv.info/about/authors/. Finally, we
kindly ask you to spread the word to your colleagues who might be
interested in receiving or contributing to this publication.



Editorial
http://uitv.info/editorial/

*Your TV is watching you*
Keeping detailed user activity logs is a common practice among
interactive television researchers. Personalization and targeted
advertising designers are analyzing and exploiting user profiles,
channel zapping and viewing patterns in order to build detailed models
of television viewers. This area has been so active to host a series of
conferences about personalized TV --TV01
(http://uitv.info/topics/ah02tv02/), TV02
(http://uitv.info/topics/um01tv01/). In the commercial domain various
companies have been collecting customer viewing data for quite some time
now. Despite the slow growth of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs)
(http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/29/technology/circuits/29stat.html),
market leader TiVo has begun to sell customer viewing data
(http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/5997093.htm). This
decision comes at a time of heightened public awareness and criticisms
regarding the use of these data
(http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/05/08/future_tv/index_np.html).
Of major concern remains the location of storing television viewer data
and whether data analysis can reveal the personal identity of a viewer.
Both of these issues have been tackled in a personalized advertising
system (http://uitv.info/papers/chorianopoulos03b/).



Articles
http://uitv.info/articles/

*Is interactivity the most important element of interactive television
content design?*
http://itv.eltrun.aueb.gr/articles/2003/06chorianopoulos/
The introduction of interactive television has been promoted and
attributed to the interactive content of the new medium. It often goes
without much thought, that if something is interactive then it is also
better and it will be preferable. However, the passive uses of the
broadcasting and entertainment media are either desirable, or have an
implicit interactive dimension that takes place outside the medium
itself. An example of the latter is the social interaction that takes
place in groups of TV viewers, or the virtual-competition with the
televised players of quiz programs. In addition to interactivity, there
are several other and equally important factors to be considered when
designing content for interactive television.



News
http://uitv.info/news/

Sony unveils hybrid TV-DVD-games console 
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993779
Called PSX, it combines the hardware of the PlayStation2 games console
with a television receiver, hard disk and DVD recorder. Some analysts
say, it could bridge the graphical gap between gaming and interactive
television.

TiVo to sell customer viewing data
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/5997093.htm
The leading maker of digital video recorders began offering advertisers
and broadcasters second-by-second information on the television
commercials and shows its users are watching --or skipping.

Computer games degree 'not Mickey Mouse'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/2932488.stm 
A university degree which focuses on computer games is not "Mickey
Mouse", an academic has claimed. 



Events
http://uitv.info/events/

Special Issue on "Video Technology and Interactive Broadcasting"
Computers & Graphics, An International Journal of Systems & Applications
in Computer Graphics
http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/cag
Guest Editors: David Shrimpton (d.h.shrimpton@xxxxxxxxx), Dirk Balfanz
(dirk.balfanz@xxxxxxx)
Deadline: August 16th, 2003
Email expression of interest (short abstract): ASAP




Edited by Konstantinos Chorianopoulos
ELTRUN, EBusiness Center, Athens University of Economics and Business
http://www.eltrun.aueb.gr/





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http://uitv.info/newsletter/


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