<nettime> Streaming Media

[adam hyde <adam@xs4all.nl>]

This is a report written for the Xchange (http://www.xchange.re-lab.net) 
community about a commercial streaming media conference I attended in
October of this year. For those unfamiliar with Xchange, its a network of
practioners experimenting with creative applications of audio and video
streaming. 

The first section of this report is a pre-amble specifically for Xchange,
the second section is about the conference I attended, my perception of
streaming media on the net at this time, and some suggestions for
streaming media artists and the Xchange community. 


######SECTION ONE######

Hi All,

On October 19-20 this year I attended Streaming Media Europe a conference
about the commercial streaming media industry. Approximately 500
executives, developers, and speakers came together to exchange ideas and
discuss the direction of the industry in Europe. It was a very
commercially orientated conference and I was representing the Amsterdam
ISP XS4ALL, however I thought it may also be of interest to Xchange. So, I
have also written a report for you all and included some of my own
thoughts about issues that the conference raised for Xchange. Before I
start, many thanks to Honor Harger for her thorough feedback about the
report and her generous contribution of her own ideas. Many thanks also to
Geert Lovink, David Garcia, and Josephine Bosma, for their feedback. 

During the conference it quickly became apparent to me that the Xchange
community is very advanced in its use and thinking about streaming media. 
In fact many of the ideas I heard coming from business people working with
streaming media did not (generally) reflect that same quality of ideas and
breadth of understanding about the medium that I know to exist in Xchange. 
I found this very surprising and exhilarating as I personally was
beginning to think that we (Xchange) were being left behind by industry.
There are however some very sophisticated commercial sites, I have
outlined these throughout the report and commented on them and my
perception on their relevance to us. 

As stated in an earlier email that Zina Kaye and I sent to Xchange, I do
believe that Xchange has to act quickly as a community to crystallise and
finalise some of the ideas we have had for a long time. Janis' email about
the possibilities for updating the Xchange site was very enlightening and
gave good reason to think that we can make our presence on the net more
sophisticated and interesting. I think this is absolutely necessary
because if we don't act together to unify our identity I believe we will
all be lost as individual sites in a mire of horrible commercial content
and 'content portals'. 

It is also very satisfying, and gives me a lot of faith in Xchange, that
Rasa and Raitis have said that they are willing for Xchange members to be
involved in the process of updating the Xchange site. They perceive Re-lab
as being 'another board member' rather than a controlling voice. This is a
great tribute to their vision and sense of community that they have helped
develop since they instigated the mailing list in 1997. 

I am also aware that each idea we have takes time to implement, but I am
not sure we have so much time left to establish ourselves within this
rapidly expanding field. My suggestion would be that the responsibility
for doing everything should not fall just on Janis' shoulders (for
example) but we should consider some kind of co-ordinated effort to
contribute to a further development of Xchange. Specifically I would
recommend setting a fixed date, perhaps on a weekend, where we could meet
online and assign some tasks to work on during that weekend. The more I
think about it the more a co-ordinated open policy for the site
development looks attractive.... 



######SECTION TWO######



****************************
******Keynote Speakers******
****************************

Archived streamed video keynote speeches available at
http://www.streamingmedia.net/streamingmedia/europe/program.html


****************************************************************************
*******
******James Bethell, CEO, Ministry of Sound
(http://www.ministryofsound.com/)******
****************************************************************************
*******

James Bethell was the token European Keynote speaker in this largely
American dominated line-up. His speech was very entertaining and
informative. Essentially James spoke about the successes and failures of
the Ministry of Sounds experiments with streaming media. Ministry of Sound
(MoS) started as a very exclusive dance club that progressed into
marketing and selling a lifestyle, namely the well-known club scene in
London.

Ministry of Sounds first experiments with audio on the net came selling
music of associated DJs (linked directly to CDNOW an online CD reseller
similar to Amazon.com - http://www.cdnow.com). They also have DJ sessions
available for listening to. They experimented with using Streaming Media
to distribute audio (remixes and DJ tracks), and to stimulate traffic to
the site around which they could sell advertising. They claim that some of
their MP3 tracks were downloaded by so many users that they would have
forced the track onto the charts if the charting system recognized this as
a legitimate gauge of public 'sales'. One of their most successful uses of
streaming media was to put a live camera in the event so those that could
not get into the club could still participate by watching the live stream.

MoS also tried to run a mini-ISP for which they attracted 15,000 users but
the free-service providers brought that investment to a very definite
close. They see the internet as a necessary 'frontier' that they must
absolutely dominate with the MoS brand. The time period they give
themselves for this is about 1 year, if they aren't the most favored
'Club-lifestyle'' site within this time-period they will consider that
they have lost the game. They see online branding and direct ecommerce
sales (of merchandise) as a way to export their brand from one
centralized, locally-controlled point, hence reducing the overheads (and
logistical problems) of setting up international marketing and
distribution offices.  MoS see the net as the only method available for
spreading their brand globally. 

It was interesting to see MoS represented here as they didn't altogether
fit the line-up of 'heavy-weight' commercial developers. From James'
presentation however it was evident that we could begin thinking of
Xchange as a unified umbrella or (in commercial terms) 'brand'. MoS have
achieved a very high profile on the net through developing a very
sophisticated site that enhances (or tries to!), at every opportunity,
their reputation as a leading expert on mainstream dance culture.

Before continuing, to avoid misunderstanding, I must emphasise that I am
not suggesting Xchange or any of its members become commercial. I am
suggesting that there are some interesting ideas that the commercial
sector uses that we could use to increase our visibility on the net. The
first idea is to consider Xchange as having an identity that we can
promote through as many available channels as possible. We must develop
the reputation of Xchange as the place on the net to go to find
interesting creative content.

This involves a more sophisticated development of the site as Janis and
Rasa have discussed and a more active strategy for making people aware of
us. Because we do not have the money to spend as individuals or as a group
to help us with this I think we need a much more 'street level' strategy. 
My first suggestion is for all of us to take the responsibility to ensure
that the name 'Xchange' is taken with us where ever we go. We are infact
all autonomous agents of Xchange (which is an important aspect of the
network), and we should each act to spread the word as far as possible in
whatever means we have available to us. 

For example:
1) developing an Xchange logo
2) using an/the Xchange logo on our sites to state that we are members of
Xchange 
3) distributing Xchange stickers/flyers/postcards at the many and varied
conferences/events etc that we ALL attend (and not just leaving this upto
the Riga crew)
4) asking to be credited wherever appropriate as a member of Xchange
5) linking to Xchange wherever appropriate
6) printing the Xchange logo or 'a member of Xchange' on the back/side/etc
of any printed material we produce


****************************************************************************
********
******Nicholas Butterworth, President & CEO of MTVi (mtv.com and
sonicnet.com)******
****************************************************************************
********

Nicholas Butterworth was one of the heavyweights of the conference. He is
the CEO of SonicNet and MTVi. SonicNet claims to be the premiere online
music network. They are essentially a database site combining daily music
news coverage, live artist events and programmed music channels with a
fully searchable music and artist driven database. They also have
Streamland, a complete music video site; FlashRadio (a very interesting
Flash interface for radio choosing program content, connection speed, and
listening to music while watching a continuous streamed flash animation),
a visual radio station; Addicted To Noise, a monthly music magazine; and
Album Reviews. SonicNet also have purchased ImagineRadio
(www.imagineradio.com) a web-based content scheduling system. 

FlashRadio is certainly an interesting model and I am sure that something
like this could be developed within Xchange for Xchange. A FlashTuner
working with embedded realaudio (see http://www.radioqualia.va.com.au for
an example - this is an experiment only, it requires Internet Explorer
with Flash and RealAudio installed) for tuning through Xchange channels
could be very useful. This is an area that I believe we could all catch
up. I remember when I first saw 'Interface's Pirate Player'
(http://interface.pirate-radio.co.uk/ ) and thinking how fantastic it was,
but the commercial industry is now starting to create customised players
and I believe we could go far to start experimenting more with this
medium...

The FreeB92 Player
(http://www.freeb92.net/freeb92player/freeb92player.zip)  is a good
example. It is a piece of streaming media software, developed as a
response to the events in Yugoslavia which have made it difficult for B92
to operate in a normal way.  It is symbolic as much as it is functional. 
Symbolic because it represents a manifestation of B92 when the conflict in
the region has ceased B92's continued operation. It is also another
example of B92's innovative use of media as a response to a repressive
circumstance

Functionally it does the following: 
1) Has presets for information about Helpb92 and B92 (RealVideo content) 
2) Presets for a playlist (ram file) of B92 music, especially from
musicians from Yugoslavia.
3) Presets for the latest news update RealAudio files about b92. 
4) A preset for audio and video messages of support from artists, media
practitioners and other personalities from around the world. 
5) A preset for the live B92 stream.

All these presets can be updated. 

It is a small application so that it isn't as bulky (physical size) as the
G2 player and hence can sit on the corner of the screen and play away
without dominating your whole screen window. The video screen appears only
when necessary which also keeps the on-screen size down.

The player is only 300k, so it runs efficiently. 

The FreeB92player is coded in VisualBasic. It is not actually a
stand-alone player application but it calls on the functionality of an
installed G2 player, hence you must have the G2 installed for it to
operate.

There is also a SMIL FreeB92 Player Solution for the Macintosh (SMIL =
Synchcronised Multimedia Integrated Language, a tagging language similar
to HTML.  It is like a media rich version of HTML in that it deals
efficiently with Shockwave, Flash, RealAudio/video etc.  It is being used
by many companies including RealNetworks.  In the context of RealNetworks
it is being used to make the G2 player a "Rich Media Browser".  This gives
the G2 player an amazing amount of versatility in integrating media
protocols within the G2 player window). RealNetworks was assisting in
developing an SMIL version of the Freeb92player, so that there is a
cross-platform version of the Freeb92 player. However this development was
stalled near completion due to the war ending and B92 gaining access to
the airwaves again. 

It would be great if Xchange, or someone within the network, could put
some time into developing a similar application for playing Xchange
material. 

More Sonicnet....  The belief of SonicNet is that "Every user can have
their own station". In this context Nicholas Butterworth is talking about
users as consumers (i.e.  listeners) of programs and not as producers.
They very much believe that the future of streaming media is in providing
interactive channels for users. 

Hence they have developed some interesting ways to be able to search and
access content, many of which are ideas we have all had and discussed but
we have rarely implemented. I believe many people within Xchange have
ideas that can be implemented on this level that outstretch the
possibilities of what the commercial industry is doing. We must ask
ourselves why, for example, is content by individual members of Xchange
not easily searchable and locatable through one gateway (i.e. Xchange?). A
creation of a searchable database for content created by all Xchange
members would be great. Radio Internationale Stadt (http://orang.orang.de)
is of course an excellent model for this but a significant number of
Xchange members do not use this facility. Some centralisation of content
information would be a great asset to assist potential listeners/users in
finding our content. 

SonicNet also strongly believe that the great untapped mass of net
consumers is ready for "mass consumption of streaming audio" but streaming
video is still on the horizon. In their terms, the streaming audio
industry is now poised to provide "a soundtrack to the web" (sic). 

MTV.com is of course the online MTV brand. Soon MTV is launching two new
products, "WebRiot" and "Rock 'n Roll Collector", both of which are
television programs broadcast on MTV with interactive audience
participation components on the web. 

Nicholas Butterworth offered some interesting insights into how they
visualize their online branding and how they cross-fertilize television
consumption with online activities. There is at the moment, he believes, a
three tiered system of users/watchers which co-relates to three separate
strategies.  1) High bandwidth users.... In this criteria he places TV and
300k+ users.  He believes that these people want high quality but low
interactivity. 

2) Medium bandwidth users...they are after moderate interactivity and can
enjoy 'medium bandwidth' delivery. 

3) Low bandwidth users...people with a 56k modem or below. MTV's strategy
is to emphasize the interactivity of the medium and not the image or audio
quality.

The interesting aspect of this model is that it reverses the commonly held
belief that high bandwidth necessitates high interactivity. High bandwidth
is primarily the domain, as MTV sees it, of those that want good quality
streaming and are not so concerned with the interactive aspects of the
medium.

For each of these tiers MTVi believes they have to develop a distinct
channel for each brand. 

The revenue models for MTVi revolve very much around creating an audience
and then selling advertising to "meet the needs of the audience". Nicholas
Butterworth does not see micropayments (e.g. Pay per play) as being viable
because the user expectations are raised when they pay for content, and
the delivery mechanism (streaming media and bandwidth provision) is not
yet to the standard that any streaming content provider can guarantee
perfect delivery. Nicholas Butterworth introduced 2 ideas that were
re-iterated many times throughout the conference: 

1) The user only considers advertising to users a nuisance if the
advertisement is not useful to them
2) So much information can now be gathered about users through following
clickpaths or requiring user registration that advertising can be very
tightly targeted therefore:
	i) Net advertising is more effective in influencing the user
	ii) Net advertising is more cost effective for the advertiser 

Tightly targeted, user-specific, advertising is the most preferred model
for generating revenue by these businesses. 

Nicholas Butterworth also believes that the idea of "audio logos" is
coming of age. An Xchange jingle, sting or ID would be a great plan. Like
the net.radio jingles that Convex Tv (http://www.art-bag.net/convextv/)
did, for instance. We could turn the audio logo idea inside out and turn
it into a creative networking strategy - tiny embedded midi file stings on
Xchange network member sites, for instance.... 


****************************************************************************
************Anthony Bay, General Manager, Streaming Media Division,
Microsoft Corp******
****************************************************************************
******

Microsoft attended to sell their new WindowsMedia player, codec, and
server software to the streaming media industry. They demonstrated the
ability of the codec through playing RealAudio, MPEG, and WindowsMedia
content side by side. Unfortunately the quality of the Microsoft product
did appear, on first listen, to be much better than the Real codec at low
encoding rates (28.8k) and it competed with MPEG quality at the higher
encoding rates.

They also have a system for encoding that allows the encoder to determine
the 'access privileges' of the content.. For example, you can specify
whether you want the user to view the content directly, view the content
after paying, or view the content after registering your name (thereby
giving away their personal data for which you can do with as you like). 

MS also promise to integrate the player into the OS. 


**************************************************************************
******LarryLux, CEO, Pseudo Programs, Inc. (http://www.pseudo.com/)******
**************************************************************************

Pseudo are a youth orientated 'lifestyle' website. In appearance they
reflect a lot of the attitudes and values of MTV and infact could be
ported to television almost seamlessly.


*******************
******Forums:******
*******************


********************************
******Get Up and Streaming******
********************************

Speakers: Ken Sugarman, New Amsterdam IT Group
Eileen Galoostian, TV on the Web
Jean-Francois Reveillard, Progress TV
Blair S. Fuller, Netcast Incorporated

This discussion was a lightweight look at video production for the internet
for live events and pre-recorded files. The discussion centered on some
basics including the type of cameras recommended in commercial
applications, lighting, and how to deliver clean audio. No really
interesting tips were given apart from the basics:

Audio: keep the audio and encoding apparatus power supply separate from
the lighting power supply to reduce hum. Video : use keyframes often
(keyframes are a 'snapshot' between motion frames that appears much
clearer). Get your lighting right. Use the best camera available to you. 

I think we should put together a cgi script 'database' that Xchange
members can add tips and scripts to for general use. Topics could be
diverse, from "how to find the right Realaudio encoder" (!) ... to
providing adaptable scripts such for randomizing .ram-file contents
etc...this would also help us to share information about new protocols.
MP3, for example, is a protocol that we are all learning from the
beginning. If there was a shared knowledge base we could understand and
adapt to new developments a lot faster. 

Most of the panel agreed that there was very little you could do to a
video signal to improve it before the encoding began. The main reason
given for this is the fact that each organization was using a variety of
codecs and hence each platform (real/windows/mpeg/QuickTime) dealt with
video differentially so it is difficult to optimise one source for 2-4
different formats simultaneously. The really high-technology commercial
sites did actually do some signal processing but they would then do this
for each specific codec. However it was stressed that this was marginally
effective for any output other than high bandwidth production. 

For low or medium bandwidth production (200k or less) the advice was to
use a flat signal and make sure that your lighting was right and you had
the best camera you had available. 


*******************************************
******Encoding Your Streaming Content******
*******************************************

Mathew Trewalla, Webcast.co.uk
Mathew Brown, Encoding.com
Aron Campisano, AXE Digital TV
Yaniv Garty, Optibase

This centered largely on a discussion about which codec was best for
streaming video. 

Some interesting points: 
· Real has 70 million players distributed.
· WindowsMedia (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/) has a codec
called ' MPEG-4 v3 '
(http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/features/Compression/defau
lt.asp ) which is NOT MPEG but is ' Based on ISO MPEG-4 (Motion Picture
Experts Group V4) video coding standard. ' The implication that this is
another Microsoft format subversion strategy similar to VisualJ which was
'based on Java' but was not infact Java. For this later 'innovation' MS
found themselves in court with Sun.
· MPEG 4 (the real one) is going to be scalable for video delivery over
different bandwidths.
· WindowsMedia is going to build into all future Microsoft Operating
Systems, hence no additional downloading of a player and more
interestingly, the player maybe able to play content in the background of
the desktop.
· The WindowsMedia encoder will be apart of the standard NT server, at no
additional charge.

Nice quote:
"A PC is your typical attention deficit disorder box" ...from one of the
panel members.

There was some discussion about Java and the Java Media Framework
(www.java.sun.com/jmf). The advantage of JMF is that customized players
can be built for different applications, however the codecs supported by
JMF are limited at this time. Additionally the JMF APIs are not part of
the core Java packages (hence a user has to download a 4mb file to use A
JMF player). 

It was generally acknowledged by content producers that WindowsMedia is
now becoming popular and is taking a large share of the market away from
Real. 

30 frames per second was generally the agreed target for full motion
streaming. 

For low bandwidth encoding the advice was to stay with a crisp image
rather than trying to capture movement. This evolved into a discussion
about different strategies for video content production. This was a very
interesting discussion and focused on the strategies needed to produce
interesting content for low bandwidth delivery. The most insightful advice
was to forget about the 'main event' if it featured motion (sports events,
theatre etc) and focus on 'behind the scenes' activities which have less
motion and can be portrayed more effectively over low bandwidth video
streaming. 

80k audio was generally accepted to be so close to CD audio that a large
percentage of the public would not be able to discern the difference
between 80k audio and CD. 


***************************** ******Show Me the Money******
*****************************

Phil Wilson, CMN.com MJ Rauch, The Auto Channel Marc Lewis, Web Marketing
Ltd David Chester, HotelView Corp. 

"Ownership of customers (Marketshare) is the ingredient for success"

The basic strategy:
1) develop your content
2) distribute your URL

This session was surpassingly lightweight but some interesting facts were
highlighted.

http://www.wordtracker.com/freereportex.htm report that the most commonly
searched keyword on the net is MP3, replacing 'sex' for the first time as
the most frequently searched word.

MP3 : 16149 requests out of 30 million
Sex : 13431 requests

Another model for ensuring that site traffic is increased is to form
alliances with 'portal' sites. The phenomenal increase in streaming media
content on the web has inevitably lead to some of the most successful
recent commercial enterprises are now streaming media 'portals'. 

An interesting discussion topic was the rise of video banner advertising on
websites. One claim by Marc Lewis is that PC consumption time is now
surpassing television consumption in the United States. Hence web
advertising is becoming vastly more sophisticated. Video banners are the
latest development in online advertising. The advantages of video banner
advertising over television advertising are:
1) video banners are cheaper to produce than television commercials
2) click information is recorded and complied for later use
3) more individual-specific data is accumulating and hence tight targeting
of markets is becoming more effective
4) video banners can be deployed, altered, and removed extremely quickly
5) it is possible to make several video banners for advertising the same
product depending on the characteristics of each target market
6) it is possible to accumulate histories of individual users and display
user-specific 'customised' or value-added advertising


***************************************
******Streaming Media and Portals******
***************************************

Tom Britt, ChannelSeek
Robert Shambro, StreamSearch.com
Brian Heuckroth, Starlight Networks
Per Sjofors, ISLISP
James Rupp, Streamedia Communications
Dela Quist, Excite.co.uk
Gayle Essary, Streamedia
Jeff Morris, Yack.com

This panel focussed on the need to create streaming media portal business
models.  Nothing surprising here, the portal sites main source of income
was through gathering click traffic and then displaying advertising in the
form of banner ads. Most agreed that 'instream advertising' (playing
advertisements before, during or after content similar to television
advertising strategy) was intrusive and generally not tolerated by most
users. However it was admitted that there is, in many cases, an unspoken
'user contract', where users do recognise that they are being delivered
something for 'free' and hence may tolerate some advertising with its
delivery. There was some contention about how far this 'user contract'
extended but generally most of the panel were careful when considering
advertising strategies that might be considered intrusive. 

It was apparent from this discussion however that the streaming media
portals are on the rise as their is a huge amount of streaming content
being created for the internet. One problem faced by portals is that none
of the main 4 streaming protocols (real, windows, MPEG, QuickTime) have
searchable indexes embedded in the file. Hence content must be manually
catagorised and indexed.

It was also interesting to note that Excite do not have a sophisticated
streaming media search system and that there seemed to be no strategy for
them to implement one. Dela Quist from Excite was loath to discuss the
reasons why, and gave the appearance that Excite is reluctant to enter
into this business. He did however mention briefly that Excite intend on
developing a children's version of Excite and an SMS search system
(searchable using a mobile phone). 

Portals for streaming media are very definitely on the rise. 


*******************************************************
******Developing and Managing a Streaming Network******
*******************************************************

Mark Desvaux, UUNet
Chris Framton, Mediawave
Jim Hall, Pseudo
Dan Rayburn, Globix
Floris Van Den Broek, MD

Many ISPs are now considering Streaming Media as a necessary part of their
long-term business strategies. It is acknowledged that in many countries
average available bandwidth is getting higher. Hence the demand for high
bandwidth content is rising. At the moment streamed audio is considered
ready for mass consumption, in fact it is already one of the most popular
mediums on the internet. However, while streaming video is not yet widely
consumed the panel for this session agreed that codec improvements and the
growth of high bandwidth connections will mean streaming video will
eventually follow the same path as streaming audio.

Globix (http://www.globix.com) is an American ISP that is beginning to
introduce streaming media services to its customers. They consider that,
as demand for rich media increases, the ISPs that can deliver
uninterrupted delivery of rich media content will have a major advantage
over those limited to low bandwidth connectivity or hindered by net
congestion. The first part of the strategy for Globix is to educate their
users and their company about the possibilities of streaming media,
therefore sowing the seeds for demand of these services. This stimulates
the need for high bandwidth and encourages users to upgrade their
connection. 

Another discussion topic centered on the need to develop sophisticated
caching servers for the delivery of streaming media content locally. 


*****************************************
******Content Management Strategies******
*****************************************

Paul Lego, Virage
Joe Frost, Inktomi
Tom Gerstel, CNN Interactive
Stephen Condon, INTERVU

This session really focused on one topic : indexing and organising content.
 There is an entire business sector that earns income from categorising and
indexing content for media developers. CNN, for example, require extremely
fast encoding, cateegorising and indexing of their television news segments
for placement on CNN.com. Hence they employ the services of an indexing
business. These businesses have sophisticated voice and face recognition
software for creating searchable databases of content information, they
also manually classify content. 

It would be great to develop a cgi script for Xchange that could be used
to create ram files but that contained other information which can be
searched. Ram files can contain "comment" fields that do not effect the
functionality of the ram file but can be used to include keywords for
searching or content descriptions. If anyone has the time to do this and
could make it available for all members of Xchange then we have the basis
of a searchable system for Xchange content. The next logical step would be
to have one centralised location for all Xchange ramfiles and create a
simple cgi search mechanism. The cgi would search all the ramfile comment
fields and return pnms directing the user to that content. 

Interestingly CNN stated that they prefer to work in both Real and Windows
but Windows was definitely starting to bite into Reals marketshare. 
Additionally CNN hits are 50% 80k streams and 50% 20k streams, indicating
that average bandwidth availability is rising. 

One problem CNN also faces is the problems with buffering of streamed
content and they recommended that real (etc) should consider the "caching
of personalised add content to play during buffering". 


*******************************************
******Streaming copyright and the Law******
*******************************************

Gerd Leonhard, Online Music Company
John Ousby, Virgin radio
Gavin Robertson, MCPS - PRS
Anthony Berman, Lawyer

This was an extensive discussion on the need to develop coherent and
appropriate copyright protection legislation for the internet. The
consensus was that there are no appropriate models for copyright protection
on the net at present. The problems that copyright protection organisations
face include:
1) traditionally copyright protection has been legislated on a geographical
basis, but the internet does not know these boundaries. Hence localised
copyright organisations are now faced with the extraordinary task of having
to communicate with each other on a global scale, and initiating a global
strategy,  before any advances on this issue can be made.
2) the copyright organisations do not have the resources to address this
issue quickly
3) the copyright organisations acknowledge that traditional copyright
legislation does not fit the new paradigm of the internet and they are
struggling to find a new model.

The final advice on this issue was that because copyright legislation for
the internet is a very vague issue it is important for commercial
enterprises to get a good legal insurance policy incase they inadvertently
become a precedent case in court.


*******************
******Summary******
*******************

As stated above I think Xchange is at a very important crossroads, we have
the opportunity to affirm our place as one of *the* places to go for
artistic and creative approaches to streaming culture. 

Generally I think that Xchange could develop more into a 'portal' for
creative streaming media. I also believe that we need to develop more
mechanisms for sharing expertise about streaming media, to develop our own
skills and to help others. To assist these developments I would like to
suggest the following additions to Xchange: 

1) A tips and Scripts database/ezine, this could possibly be in
collaboration with Rachel Bakers' Tmselector <http://www.tmselector.net>,
which is already the embryo for this idea.
2) A database/listing of all Xchange members with name, url, description,
contact details etc.
3) A flash (or similar) interface for tuning into Xchange stations (used
with embed realaudio).
4) A Xchange player similar to the FreeB92 player.
5) The development of a cgi ram file creator, a centralised server for all
(or many) Xchange ramfiles, and a cgi search mechanism for searching the
comment fields.
6) Links from the frontpage to Orang, TMselector, World Service, Frequency
Clock etc, etc, etc and similar community projects.

Plus we need to promote more through:
1) Development of visual logo and audio 'jingles' for Xchange
2) Using an/the Xchange logo on our sites to state we are a member of Xchange 
3) Distributing Xchange stickers/flyers/postcards at the many and varied
conferences/events etc that we ALL attend (and not just leaving this upto
the Riga crew)
4) Asking to be credited wherever appropriate as a member of Xchange
5) Linking to Xchange wherever appropriate
6) Printing the Xchange logo or 'a member of Xchange' on the back/side/etc
of any printed material we produce

In addition I believe that we all have to consider diversifying our
practice more and more into streaming video, or invite people to join
Xchange that are already doing this. 

I hope that you find this report interesting. I would love it if this
could provide a basis for discussion either on the Xchange list or
personally with me. Please feel free to critique and comment! 


Adam Hyde 
adam@va.com.au
adam@xs4all.nl
http://www.radioqualia.va.com.au


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