I regret to report that both I and my column are going on a bit of a hiatus, as I’ve been seated as a juror on an extended civil trial in Boston. To fill some airtime, I thought I’d direct you to a few old columns that are special favorites of mine or that have connections to current events.

By the way, if you really have the urge to catch up on all of my past columns, just get a copy of Pixel Nation: 80 Weeks of World Wide Wade, an e-book published by Xconomy last month. You can download a free PDF version here or buy a $4.99 Kindle version at Amazon’s Kindle store. But for today’s installment, I decided to revisit four pieces from the past year or two and offer a few thoughts on each with the benefit of hindsight.

Public Radio for People Without Radios
February 13, 2009

This column was all about the Public Radio Player (then called the Public Radio Tuner), one of my favorite mobile applications. It turns my iPhone into a radio that can pull in a live stream from almost any NPR station in the entire country, not to mention dozens of on-demand shows like Car Talk, Fresh Air, and On Point. The news update is that the fine folks at the Public Radio Exchange (who will be taking part in Xconomy’s Mobile Madness company showcase next week) have recently come out with several great new apps, and are working on more. First, there’s the new, improved 2.1 version of the Public Radio Player itself, which went live in the iTunes App Store last week and has great features such as a sleep timer and a built-in Web browser. Then there’s a dedicated app for This American Life, the cult-favorite documentary radio show from Ira Glass at Chicago Public Radio, which comes with access to the entire 15-year archive of shows. Finally, PRX is working on a dedicated app for my favorite NPR station, Boston’s WBUR. That’s due for release sometime this spring.

The 3-D Graphics Revolution of 1859
December 19, 2008

I was never much of a collector until I started buying nineteenth-century stereoscope views a couple of years ago. We’re used to thinking of 3-D as a recent technological advance—the province of high-tech filmmakers like James Cameron—but these old cardboard-mounted image pairs (taken through separate lenses a few inches apart, like our eyes) remind us that the quest to … Next Page »

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[Editor's note: This Xconomist Forum post is a revised, updated version of an essay contributor Matt Kaplan wrote for the PermissionTV blog on August 9, 2008.]

Every four years I look forward to the summer Olympic Games. It’s not so much that I’ll sit down and watch the coverage non-stop, but there are a few sports that I look forward to watching, and the occasional event that catches my attention by surprise. (Beach volleyball, anyone?) This year, with so many hours being produced by NBC, I waited in anticipation for what could be the defining moment of Video 2.0. Was this going to be the moment when traditional television and the Web fused together to give us a blended experience like never before? An experience that allowed us to both lean back and watch the NBC drama unfold and lean forward to self-produce our own Olympic channels? An experience that provided the right amount of live-action coverage, video-on-demand, expert commentary, tear-jerking athlete profiles, game history and statistics? A personalized experience that made us stop and say, “Wow, now this is what we’ve been waiting for?”

Don’t get me wrong—the sheer ability to watch over 2,000 hours of coverage was great, and the lessons NBC learned from the 1992 Triplecast debacle allowed us to watch it all for free. I was just hoping that the 2008 Olympics would mark the turning point for the online video experience and herald the arrival of a new blended medium. Unfortunately, this opportunity was lost.

In the end, we basically had two distinct experiences: a traditional TV broadcast carefully orchestrated by NBC, and a video site that was essentially a tribute to everything wrong with online Video 1.0—short video clips, a cluttered user interface, and more links than there are stones in the Great Wall of China. I’m sure NBC saw the website as a way to deliver more long-tail video content than what it could handle over the broadcast channels. It also gave the network a way to stream on-demand replays while cramming banners and sponsorships into every nook and cranny of available white space. I’m not against the ad-supported format, and I even enjoy watching creative ads produced for the Olympics. Just don’t insult viewers by turning off player controls such as “Enlarge Video” while pre-roll ads are playing. Believe it or not, users might have wanted to watch ads in higher quality or better yet, engage with them if allowed to. Instead the video ads were mostly repurposed TV spots, but fuzzier, more repetitive and equally static.

Sure, I could have watched hours of live streaming video on the web and swapped between multiple feeds with the ease of a TV clicker. But there was nothing particularly inventive about the online experience, and there definitely was no continuity between it and the broadcast feed. I wanted the online video experience to be an extension of the live broadcast feed, to enhance it with in-depth profiles and timely features that weren’t going to be shown on air. There were in fact, many attempts by NBC to drive viewers from the broadcast feed to the website, but they simply referred us to the main website, NBCOlympics.com, rather than to a specific landing page or URL.

So instead of an online video experience that brought the most important Olympic highlights to the forefront, I fell victim to watching what others deemed as “most popular.” No, it wasn’t Michael Phelps winning his historic eighth gold medal or Usain Bolt smashing his own world record in the 100-meter race. It was the Cuban taekwondo fighter Matos kicking the ref in the face after he was disqualified. I doubt that’s the lasting memory that NBC wants its viewers to have.

OK, so enough negativity. The sheer magnitude of it all was impressive—but I thought I’d make some specific suggestions on how to improve the Olympic viewer experience in 2010.

• Use the on-line medium to enhance the live TV broadcast. Drive viewers from the broadcast to specific replays, athlete profiles, and other programming online. Prompt viewers with specific keywords such as “PHELPS” or “GYMNASTICS” to bring them quickly to the on-line video content.
• Let viewers personalize their ideal Olympic coverage. Allow viewers to create a personalized schedule so they know when and where to tune in to watch their events. Let viewers define their sport or athlete “watch list” and automatically build a personalized library of daily video highlights.
• Allow viewers to influence the live broadcast schedule. To maximize the TV broadcast audience, allow viewer voting or preferences to influence what will air on the upcoming live broadcast instead of choosing the coverage for them.
• Combine highlights and full replays into one experience. Allow viewers to begin watching highlights of an event, then extend their viewing to include more of that particular game or match as desired. Likewise, allow viewers to begin watching a full replay then switch modes to see just the highlights.
• Take advantage of low-cost citizen journalism. Invite former Olympians, athletes, entertainers, or even broadcasting students to provide commentary for online videos rather than airing them in silence.
• Give advertisers more value for their money. To enhance the ad experiences, provide an on-line video library for advertisers to tell their stories in more than 30 seconds (not less). Allow for richer, interactive ad formats that engage viewers.

For all the money that was spent on pure video production and delivery, I just wish a fraction could have been spent on transforming the video experience into something more integrated, more personalized, more enjoyable and more remarkable. Perhaps it’s a matter of money, where the advertising dollars for the website are dwarfed by those of the broadcast network. Or perhaps it’s a case of an organizational divide, where the suits who run the network don’t mingle with the jean-wearing nerds who build websites.

Regardless, until viewer needs are put first, we’ll have to put our Olympic 2.0 dreams on hold until Vancouver, 2010.

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Car Exhaust Could Be Turned Back to Power

Several cars companies, including General Motors, are looking for ways to turn the heat that comes out of a car’s tailpipe into electricity that can be used to power systems in the car and improve gas mileage. The Discovery Channel reports that researchers are working on thermoelectric technology, which converts heat to electricity, to meet a challenge from the U.S. Department of Energy. A Chevy Suburban produces 15 kilowatts of exhaust heat energy during city driving, enough to power three or four air conditioners.

21 Cities to Measure Carbon Footprints

In a step toward managing their emissions, 21 cities, including New York, Las Vegas, and Denver, will measure their carbon footprints using a system many corporations use. Reuters says the cities will gather data on municipal buildings, fire and police departments, and the like, to see how much carbon city government produces. They’ll also assess emissions for the whole city. The hope is that cleantech companies will use the data to sell carbon-cutting services in the cities.

Wireless Data Use on the Rise

The market for wireless data is growing, with a revenue increase of 40 percent between the second quarter of 2007 and that of 2008, says a report from Chetan Sharma Consulting. Spending reached $8.2 billion for the quarter, driven by flat-rate plans, increased 3G coverage, and the iPhone. According to GigaOm, the report shows that the U.S. is moving toward ubiquitous broadband but still has a way to go.

Motorola Pushes for Use of White Space

Motorola is hoping the Federal Communications Commission will soon approve the use of unused portions of the television broadcast spectrum – frequencies known as “white space” – to deliver high-speed broadband to mobile devices. The New York Times reports that the company has been working with the FCC to test a system that checks locations for portions of the airwaves that aren’t being used, then tunes a mobile device to those portions. Motorola argues that this technology virtually eliminates that chance of interference with broadcasters, one of the sticking points over the use of white space.

Robots Test Air Quality Over Beijing

A researcher from the University of California, San Diego, is using unmanned aerial vehicles to gather data on pollution during the Beijing Olympics. Atmospheric scientist V. Ram Ramanathan tells Wired that China’s efforts to curb pollution during the Olympics, by reducing the use of cars and curbing industrial activity by as much as 30 percent, provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study how a sudden drop in particulate emissions affects a large region of the atmosphere.

Passport Chips Not Secure, Hackers Warn

A number of governments are implanting radio frequency identification (RFID) tags into passports as a way of making them more secure. But a pair of researchers at last week’s Black Hat conference in Las Vegas showed the Wall Street Journal’s Business Technology Blog that they could hack into the chips and change the data. One said it took about four hours to break the encryption key and get the data contained in a passport chip.

Anthrax Attack Spurred New Branch of Science

If Bruce Ivins, the scientist who killed himself last month as the FBI was closing in, was indeed the person who mailed deadly anthrax in 2001, he at least left a legacy that could help the nation in a future emergency, the Associated Press reports. The attacks spurred a new branch of science, microbial forensics. Investigators used it to identify the unique genetic signature of the spores from the attack and trace them back to a specific flask, which they then linked to Ivins.

Using the Sun to Stay Cool

The U.S. Navy and a McDonald’s restaurant are testing a new solar-powered air conditioner, the Environmental News Network reports. The air conditioner, made by GreenCore of Rancho Cucamonga, CA, runs on a 170-watt solar panel and can either heat or cool a 600-sq-ft. room. It runs on direct current from the panel, avoiding the losses of converting to alternating current, and has a battery to keep it going when there’s no sun.

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Last Friday we reported that three distinguished Microsoft employees, all formerly of the firm’s Beijing research lab (Microsoft Research Asia), were slated to run with the Olympic torch in the lead-up to the Summer Games. On Saturday, we learned that Microsoft search VP Harry Shum’s run in Lhasa, Tibet, went off without a hitch, and that the other two are upcoming. Now we’ve learned that Kai-Fu Lee, the founding director of Microsoft Research Asia—and currently the founding president of Google China—beat them all to it, by serving as a torchbearer in Shanghai the last week of May.

A bit of backstory: Lee was a Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) vice president in Redmond from 2000 to 2005 before defecting to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), which spawned an infamous non-compete lawsuit that was settled out of court in December 2005. Before all that, Lee was a close friend and mentor to the Microsoft research guys; now he’s a competitor. It’s hard to say whether running with the torch earlier or later is the greater honor, though—either way it’s a big deal. (Ya-Qin Zhang, VP and chairman of Microsoft’s China R&D Group, is scheduled to run with the torch on the final leg of the relay, in Beijing.)

The torch business isn’t just in good fun—it’s also symbolic of the global competition between the tech giants. The game within the game. Whether it’s hiring talent, selling ads, or global branding, whether it’s Seattle or Shanghai, the Bay Area or Beijing, these guys will do almost anything to one-up one another. And we’ll be watching closely to see who brings home more of the real gold from China.

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As the Olympic torch wends its way towards Beijing for the start of the Summer Games, you’d be interested to know that it has ties to the local tech community. It turns out that 12 people from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) were invited to be torchbearers. Among them are three guys that Bob and I know well. Harry Shum, a VP in Redmond in charge of Microsoft’s search business, will run with the torch this weekend in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. HongJiang Zhang, managing director of Microsoft’s Advanced Technology Center in Beijing, will run next week in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province in central China. And Ya-Qin Zhang, VP and chairman of Microsoft’s China R&D Group, will be part of the final anchor relay in Beijing on August 8, the day of the opening ceremony.

No doubt these three were selected because of their long-standing ties to academic, business, and government officials in Beijing. From 1998 to 2003, they were instrumental in building Microsoft Research Asia into a powerhouse that does a lot of academic outreach in China. (You can read all about them in this famous book). The torch running speaks to Microsoft’s continuing relationship-building in China, and makes us wonder whether Google, Yahoo, and other big tech companies are also involved.

Shum is scheduled to run with the torch in Lhasa on Saturday around 10:00 a.m. local time. He will be torchbearer #78, and you might even see him if there is TV coverage tonight. The 6.8-mile relay will begin at the Dalai Lama’s former summer palace and end on a hilltop at the Potala Palace, the traditional seat of Tibetan rulers. The run schedule has shifted around recently, probably because of the devastation from the earthquake in neighboring Sichuan province and security concerns stemming from the Tibetan riots in March (and more recent Olympic torch demonstrations around the world).

All in all, it’s a tense time to be on the streets of Lhasa. Gearing up for the event, the Associated Press reports that there are police on virtually every corner and riot troops in the town center. When we get an update, we’ll let you know…

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Having tackled the Super Bowl, Akamai Technologies is setting its sights on a more global stage—the summer Olympics in Beijing. Back in January, we reported that the Cambridge, MA-based company, which specializes in online content distribution and networking, was helping the New England Patriots and the NFL get ready for the biggest game of the year (turns out the Pats could have used more help with their offensive line and Tom Brady’s ankle).

Now Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM) has announced that it is teaming up with New York-based The NewsMarket, an online video delivery and marketing firm, to enable journalists covering the summer games in China to view and download Olympic-related video clips more quickly and reliably than before. The NewsMarket, which has some 16,000 media subscribers across 193 countries, has set up a dedicated “Beijing 2008″ video channel: the company says it is already being used by the International Olympic Committee and companies like Adidas, Samsung, and Volkswagen (presumably for advertising).

The NewsMarket clearly needs Akamai’s technology for its Beijing channel to handle the huge demand for video of the summer games. Akamai, for its part, may see this not just as a good short-term deal, but also as a way to gain a larger footprint in China, which, according to Akamai’s recent “State of the Internet” report, will soon be connected to the United States by a new “Trans-Pacific Express” undersea cable carrying up to 5 terabits of data per second.

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