In 2006 Conan O’Brien was on Charlie Rose and made a comment to the effect of being in “The Golden Age of TV”.  I’ve heard several people in the last few years mention this Golden Age of Television – the idea that  with high competition from a multitude of cable/satellite channels and saturation of the internet, networks are being forced to break out of the mold.  It makes sense, right?

I watch a lot of television, and I think we are in yet another Golden Age of Television*.  However, this might be the last Golden Age of Television on the actual television. And by that I mean the next wave of great episodic, small screen, short format, motion pictures (my new definition of TV Shows**) will be all digital and delivered in a variety of avenues, not just on your TV set.

The networks (finally) realize this, so they’re pushing out the best content in years to keep you tuned in, but I think this latest Golden Age of Television is helping accelerate the migration.  The shows are so good and so discussed – both online and off – that normal viewers are changing their behavior to consume them.  Now, admittedly, I’m not a normal viewer, but I do use several of the outlets that are becoming more commonplace.  I have Tivo, ReplayTV, and Apple TV.  I also “Slingbox” from a DirectTV/DVR and watch YouTube on my iPhone (or Wii ) when I’m bored.  But most recent - and now my most popular choice - is watching shows directly from network websites.

This last outlet is the one I want to discuss in more detail, because I believe it’s the future, and possibly the only place networks will be able to run when TV as we know it goes away.  Now, I mentioned watching shows online as being a recent thing, but it isn’t really for me or anyone else, I just mean that it’s finally a viable option.  Basically, all the other things I mentioned, from Tivo to Apple TV, are crutches, hybrids, mere toys that are helping me along until the inter-web catches up.  It’s close now with the quality of video players that are showing up on network sites and the increase in bandwidth to homes across the land.  At this point we’re only lacking a way to easily put these sites up on our current TVs; my Apple TV*** and Wii get me close but not quite there (and that’s a whole article in itself).

So why are network (and other online) video players the future?  It’s the ability to control content and display sophisticated advertising, as well as other benefits like tracking, ease-of-use, social networking, and instant gratification which the web provides.  On-demand content through cable/satellite providers come close, but lack some of these aspects.  And by the time they catch up, the game will have changed again.

Back to networks. Through my online video player, not only can I serve up specifc episodes instantly, I can incorporate ranking and recommendations from the community, promote other content properties that I own, and pull in complentary content (games, wikis,etc…) that reinforce the brand.

Example: I can watch Burn Notice on USA and sit through all the commercials (12 - 16 minutes worth), I could watch it on AppleTV for $1.99 through iTunes, or I could watch it on usanetwork.com (1 - 3 minutes of commercials, never more than 30 seconds per break).  Even if I Tivo’d Burn Notice (which I do on occasion) assuming I remembered or had it scheduled, I still have to fast forward through 8 or so commercial breaks, which typically equates to more time fast forwarding than the 3 minutes online.  When I do end up watching on USA’s site, I’m served up ads that I usually don’t mind watching because they’re more targeted.  I also get links to a Burn Notice game, Burn Notice character profiles, and I get to see a funny clip for Monk (which I might start watching now).

I’ll touch more on this in the days to come; I’d really like to look at what networks are doing right and doing wrong in the way they broadcast their content on the web.  For now, I would love any comments you have, especially video players and sites you’ve visited.  If nothing else, go watch something: NBC, USA, TBS, ABC.

*All you TV historians will probably classify this as the “Third: Golden Age of Television”.
**Give me some slack, it’s a work in progress. I probably need to take out “small screen” once my new contacts make it irrelevant.
*** If I could bring myself to hack my Apple TV I think I would have the technology part of this equation solved, but I don’t want to risk it and it’s not easy for the average user.

Being a futurist, or attempting to be, I have to constantly change the way in which I think about things. One thing I have been challenging people on of late is the concept of one device with multiple display options. i.e. In 2011 my iPhone will have a normal screen (like it is now), then a screen 5 times the size that I unscroll (via lcd paper) for a more engaging experience … then when I want to watch a movie at home off the same device I’ll just plug it into my projector (or big monitor, or whatever). One device, multiple display options.

Get it? Now that you’re all caught up, trash that idea because it it old news.

I found this on Slashdot a few minutes ago like most of you:

“A University of Washington researcher has developed a contact lens including circuitry and a matrix of LEDs. Although not yet a working prototype, this may be a foundation for terminator/robocop style overlay displays in which computer graphics could be superimposed on your normal vision. ‘Building the lenses was a challenge because materials that are safe for use in the body, such as the flexible organic materials used in contact lenses, are delicate. Manufacturing electrical circuits, however, involves inorganic materials, scorching temperatures and toxic chemicals. Researchers built the circuits from layers of metal only a few nanometers thick, about one thousandth the width of a human hair, and constructed light-emitting diodes one third of a millimeter across.’”

So now I’m rethinking everything, again. NOW how will I design web sites when one pair of contact lens can display anything, at any size (relatively), to any user from any device?

It will happen. The contacts will be directly on the eye so they will be able to generate an image appropriate for the situation (a small icon in the bottom left to signify voice mail, or “full screen” to play a movie… at any “size” I choose). Also consider that my contacts can sync up with Bluetooth 6.7 to my phone (which is also my computer by 2017), my home system, “Billy” (that’s what I call the AI that runs my house), or my friends XBox when we are playing Call of Duty 12 in multiple player mode.

One display, multiple display sizes, multiple devices … you caught up yet?

For those of you starting to feel the pain of the writers strike like I am, there are more and more alternative sources for “TV” popping up every day on the inter-web.

Internet TV comes in many shapes and forms, but the latest player (literally) in the game is Miro. Granted it’s not brand new, but the release of Miro version 1.0 (”bug-free”) is hot-off-the-presses.

“Cross-platform, open source video application Miro is now available in a full-featured, bug-fixed 1.0 version. The program formerly known as Democracy Player plays almost any kind of video file, but its real value lies in its content fetching and organizing features. Miro can subscribe to video podcasts, grab from YouTube channel feeds or BitTorrents (letting you make your own season pass) and keep video libraries organized, amongst other features. Miro is a free download for Windows, Mac and Linux.”

I haven’t used it enough to know how it compares to the competition, but it seems to be hitting all the right spots. If you have (or plan to) download it and use it I would love to know what you think.

I would consider myself only a moderate RSS consumer. I use iGoogle (I’m suppressing a laugh at the name… maybe I’ll start referring to my blogging self as “iRyan”) as my default homepage in Firefox. It’s full, as you can imagine, because it doesn’t allow for the bulk that an RSS reader might - even with the tabs (which I rarely use). For someone like me who only reads articles if my surface level scan (a feature built into iRyan 1.0) detects something I like, it is a great tool in a limited capacity.

So I found out about AideRSS today. It’s an intelligent way to filter relevant information into a feed from your favorite sites. Something like this will help me, a moderate user, maximize the limited “front page news” that I consume. It could obviously help power RSS consumers as well, cutting down the hundreds of new articles to just a fraction of the really important ones you want to read.

Check it out here in their demo videos:
http://www.aiderss.com/blog/screencasts/introduction/
http://www.aiderss.com/blog/screencasts/rss-import/
http://www.aiderss.com/blog/screencasts/site-widgets/

From their site: “AideRSS is an intelligent assistant, which continuously monitors RSS feeds, finds the good stuff, creates a PostRank™, and delivers it to you. We do the grunt work of collecting information on every post, allowing you to focus on your agenda and stay on top of the news stream.”

I really like the widget they created as well, however I do not like their creepy little cat-thingy mascot:

I read this on Slashdot this morning because I don’t read the NY Times …

“The NYTimes is running a story about an iPhone flaw that has been found and documented by researchers from Independent Security Evaluators. Attackers were able to gain full control of the iPhone either through WiFi or by visiting a website with malicious code. The exploit will be demonstrated at BlackHat on Aug. 2nd at 4:45pm. Until then, ‘details on the vulnerability, but not a step-by-step guide to hacking the phone, can be found at www.exploitingiphone.com, which the researchers said would be unveiled today.’”

Anyone hacked an iPhone lately? If so, what did you do with it? I would spam people with SMS and call my friend in Thailand for free.

I know many of you have been waiting on this since they canceled the series (Max Headroom) in ‘88. Here is something that just hit on Znet that brings us one step closer:

“Researchers from Illinois and Florida are developing a networking system which will create virtual representations of real people to improve our knowledge. They will use artificial intelligence and natural language processing software to enable us to interact with these avatars. The goal of the project, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is to give us the possibility to interact with these virtual representations as if they were the actual person, complete with the ability to understand and answer questions. We should see the results at the beginning of 2008 — if the researchers succeed.”

Full Article is Here

The concept of virtual teachers is really cool, but I would imagine it’s a stone’s throw* away for more advanced entertainment applications… which, of course, is a hop-skip-and-a-jump* away from advancements in marketing.

*technical terms for iterations in close succession.

What do you do with your Wii?

For the past few gaming console cycles both Microsoft and Sony have been using the concept of convergence as a selling point. I like the idea of only having one box (Xbox or PlayStation) to do all my gaming, DVD playing, TV recording and music playing with… but that’s not the topic of this post. This is about the convergence of my gaming console and the internet.

With the launch of the current generation of gaming consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii) I think we finally have legitimate contenders for converging day-to-day web browsing with our gaming systems. Part of this is from the increasing number of web accessible software (Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Other stuff Google made or bought, etc…), but the rest is in this latest generation’s embracing of the internet. Two of the main 3 players in the space have more advanced navigation and browsing which we’ll look at below. Surprisingly, (or is it not surprising at all?) Microsoft’s Xbox is the only one that leaves out a web browser, and they are the ones that have lead the way in “convergence” marketing.

PlayStation 3

• The PlayStation 3 uses a version of the NetFront browser by Access Co. as its internal web browser. It is the same browser used in the PlayStation Portable (Sony-branded NetFront 2.81) with the same interface, menus and virtual keyboard.
• Some of the unique features are that you can have six browser sessions active at any given time, you can punch in addresses and text using the controller, a usb keyboard or a bluetooth keyboard.
• Still uses regular game control pads to navigate, but will emulate a mouse with one control stick and let you scroll with the other. See video of it in action.

Nintendo Wii

• The “Internet Channel” is a version of the Opera web browser for use on the Wii by Opera Software and Nintendo.
• The Wii browser allows users full access to the Web and supports all the same web standards that are included in the desktop versions of Opera, including CSS and JavaScript.
• Opera Software designed the Wii browser to suit a “living room environment”; in contrast to the appearance of the Opera web browser on computer monitors, fonts are larger and the interface is simplified for easier use.
• Uses Wii remote to control mouse, but does not currently have drivers to support a full keyboard.

After seeing these two browsers and looking at the price tag of my Wii ($250) vs. the price of my wife’s Dell Laptop ($700), I started to think we may actually be close to a better, cheaper alternative. If she is only using the computer for communication (email, IM), photo viewing, and money management, then a “terminal” with usable controls (not there yet) and full browser capabilities is all she would really need. I haven’t seen stats on how much browsers are used in gaming consoles, but I have to believe that with 1.5 mill PS3’s and 1.8 mill Wii’s and counting, that eventually we are going to see other moderate web users do the math I did above and realize they can get everything they need from one outlet.

As web marketers we will have to continue to watch the way in which users actively browse through these (and future) gaming systems. From a technical point of view it will be important to understand the browser’s rendering capabilities. Looking at usability we’ll have to understand the input devices better (joysticks, wands, etc). And from the behavioral aspect we’ll have to grasp how the user is transitioning from their gaming environment to our web sites.

For months now we’ve been ramping up on Second Life (and other virtual worlds) to explore its full offerings and potential. We have our own SL island (Spunlogic Island), are starting to build environments for client projects, and are even conducting some experiments. It’s taken a lot of work and playing around to get to the point where we have felt comfortable enough to educate people on this phenomenon, especially how it can relate to an interactive marketing plan.

So, you are asking yourself, “Self, how do I get up to speed on SL just like those Spunlogicians?”. A simple Google search will yield you more than you bargained for if you’re just looking to find out the basics… and the Official Second Life Handbook will cost you $20+ from Amazon. You could always log in and experiment for yourself, but can your first life spare the months of research time?

Assuming none of those were good options, we decided to put a document together that is essentially an overview of virtual worlds like Second Life.  Our “ebook” is an easy read, and less technical than a white paper or user guide. So, for those of you trying to wrap your arms around Second Life and virtual worlds, this ebook might be for you.

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? It’s why we use emoticons and avatars in our social media endeavors. These graphical representations help us define aspects of our communication intent that might have been lost, or at the very least saves us from writing a ton of text that it might take to clarify our attitude, meaning, tone, etc..

And I really hate typing

So things like Second Life that have the highest form of graphical representation are increasing in popularity, but there is a lot of middle ground to cover. That’s where Meez fits in the picture. Meez is sort of a more evolved, shared source avatar. They allow you to build and animate a representation of yourself and host that representation to be used across multiple social-networking sites. Here is a link to a press release from a few days ago that talks a bit about where they are going with this business, and below is a best attempt to create my Meez, although it is severely misleading. I’m not really a golfer but it was a close as I could get to the digital me… till they upgrade with the father-of-two, comic/computer nerd skins (I don’t think I’m the target demographic).

First let me say that I am by no means a Second Life junky, many would be surprised at how little I log on for someone who seems to only post blog entries about virtual worlds. It’s not that I’m obsessed with Second Life, it’s just the only thing I have found interesting of late. There are a lot of things popping up here and there, but Second Life is holding my attention for now… at least till Google launches GoogleOS next year.

I got the phrase “Incubator for the Future” from Warren Ellis, a well-known comic book author, who often writes about his discoveries, experiences and the social aspects of Second Life on his blog. His blog is actually a good source for those wanting to get up to speed on Second Life as he often posts of new finds or events he discovers. His social commentary on Second Life is so colorful that he has been hired to do a weekly commentary for Reuters (It just started last week). For those of you that don’t know, the international news giant, Reuters, has an entire sub-site devoted to Second Life.

Warren Ellis often points out the way in which people are using Second Life as a testing ground (consciously or unconsciously) for what the internet may become. He is looking at how people behave and interact (with each other and the environment) and what that will mean as technology progresses. I continue to watch Second Life to see how all of this will unfold as well and wonder what you think. Leave a comment if you have some thoughts on what might be the next step in this “Incubator for the Future.”