mpeg on limewire. I uploaded an mpeg of the first episode of "Adam's Family" to my machine in Amsterdam, perfect for a node on the GNUtella network. The file is adams-family-1.mpg and I've got it shared with Limewire for OSX. Lemme know if you can download and view it!
[Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
Adam Curry is just about the most famous 'celeb' who's out there blogging, getting nerdy and putting his money where his mouth is. They're producing a reality show in Holland based upon Adam's family and their lives - called "Adam's Family" - which just premiered.
So Adam wanted to share the show with those of us who don't get Dutch TV. He put the premiere up on a GNUtella network - called Limewire.
So get this. Apparently some porno purveyor puts up identical files (named adams-family-1.mpg) which then directs folks to his porn sites. Here's the comments that are pouring into Adam's blog, trying to find the correct files. Some ask "why not just up the files?" Others are suggesting Kazaa Lite over GNUtella and Limewire.
Others are newbies to file sharing and are completely puzzled over why it takes so long to download (some files are streaming at 15kbps.) So here we are - it's 2003 and I think this is a good litmus as to where we are in regards to narrowcasting.
The principle of narrowcasting is that we all become our own radio and TV stations - and that - from our homes - we can 'narrowcast' out our media (whether it be music, video, photos - whatever) to the world. THis would be as opposed to 'broadcasting' - which is what TV and Radio stations do.
By narrowcasting out your own interactive content, the final link in the chain of 'on-line', at-home distribution is complete. As much as the 'bloggers' would like to think everyone wants to 'write' up their feelings, amateur journalism or whatever text they feel like sharing, I bet there's a 10:1 ratio of folks who want to do that with media. We are (after all) the TV generation. Or the videogame generation.
But I don't think you can call us the QWERTY keyboard generation.
So narrowcasting is a key ingreident in our future. THIS is why Excite@Home limited folks' ability to set up their own servers, cause this is where all the bandwidth goes. THIS is why symetrical broadband access (where what you upload is equal to what you can download) is so important. So the next time you read about some new broadband service, make sure to look at what you can UPLOAD as much as what you can DOWNLOAD!
Of course the RIAA and MPAA would prefer it if the files being 'narrowcast' would be NOT their copyrighted materials - but I won't go into that here. That's where the Creative Commons comes in. And let's not forget that in Europe - copyrights only last 50 years, so there's a whole bunch fo cool stuff becoming available for all of us to share and use - right now!
The ISPs and broadband service providers love this concept. It guarentees that their un-used bandwitdh will eventually get used.
But I can't think of a better case of demonstrating how 'f*cked' up everything is - than to look at Adam's situation. He's actually spent money trying to stream media out - via RSS. Great idea - just wrong technology. He's narrowcast radio stations, bittorrents, shared streaming technogies - ANYTHING - that can bring him closer to the ideal narrowcasting world.
He's even produced broadband 'TV' shows, which are models as to where we're going with interactive broadband content. He's also set up his own 'databarns' to store all this stuff. And believe me - he's got plenty of good stories to tell. So he has the RIGHT to narrowcast, he just can't find a technology and infrastructure to do it effectively.
But alas - it's only 2003. The bottom fishing that's going on with distressed broadband assets, is still working itself out and there are still broadband ISPs out there that charge per usage fees, instead of a 'flat rate' - just suck up as much as you want - approach.
So the next time you hear about Woldcomm tubing, or Level II (with Warren Buffet's money) buying up Genuity's assets or Hutchison Whampoa doing the same with Global Crossings underwater cables, THEN you'll know that we're headed towards a world where one day, we'll have true broadband (instead of this mid-band crap they call broadband today or this WildBlue crap - that dribbles up uploads) with symetrical access so we ALL can narrowcast out our own, homebrew reality shows, porno, talk shows, term papers or whatever the hell it is - you wanna do.
