Perceptric Forum

P2P Data

Chris Gilbey — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:37:26 +1100

A new report on Internet traffic has been released.

Here is something interesting on P2P traffic:

Peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic remains dominant in the upstream direction totaling 61 per cent of network traffic and is also responsible for more than 22 per cent of downstream bandwidth consumption worldwide

Music 2.0

Chris Gilbey — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:58:51 +1000

A tip of the hat to Steven Noble for sending me the link to a video by Gerd Leonhard about Music 2.0.

Gerd has a really interesting take on how the music industry needs to focus on what the consumer wants to buy and how and where she wants to engage, rather than the music industry focusing on how they want to sell their products to the consumer...

The problem that remains of course is that the ecosystem in the music business is much more complex than people generally realize. And the key area which is not easily understood is the role of the songwriter. The songwriter assigns his or her rights to a publisher and often the publisher assigns some limited set of rights to a collecting society. Somewhere in there one of these organizations license the record producer to enable the production and replication of the master recording. Its at this point that it becomes seriously difficult, and nowadays more than ever.

The reason for this is that when the music business was young and pre-digital, there was a significant cost associated with manufacturing, warehousing, printing, distributing product. With the advent of digital that cost goes virtually to zero. But the regulatory structure that is in place means that publishers (and through them, songwriters) are still being paid as if the record company had all that overhead.

The result is that the margins going to the record companies have increased massively. The publishers - I imagine - want a bigger slice of the cake....

The reality of course is that they should all move their focus onto how to make a transaction easier for the consumer. And that is the focus of the video and book by Gerd. Definitely worth looking at.

Its A Digital World.

Chris Gilbey — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:49:28 +1000

There is a heightening awareness of what may become a cost to society of our reliance on technology. An article in New Scientist explores the issue.

It is only available to subscribers, so I googled the headline to try to find out who might have posted it. Within nanoseconds I had found a full version of the article at this blog which I then blogged about at the GRMP blog.

Isn't it remarkable - the very technology that makes things so easy to find, also makes it incredibly easy and perhaps inevitable, that the material that is available by subscription is available free. And I think that it makes the point that the business model of subscription is one that is at risk because of the googleization of media.

But the important point of the article is that the more complex systems become, the more potential there is for system failure.

What is the value of content?

Chris Gilbey — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:23:27 +1100

This is the question that the LA Times posed in a story about the writers strike.

First the music industry was disintermediated by the internet, and now the movie and TV industries are waking up, courtesy of the writers, to the fact that the only game in town is Google.... and perhaps Microsoft.... or Apple.

These are the companies that make money out of free content, where of course 'free' is a proxy for ad supported.

I was in the music business for 30 years give or take a year. And I left the business partly because there was no sense of magic anymore. Back when I first was signed to CBS Records in the UK in 1967 and then when I came to Australia and joined the business side of the deal there was a fine sense of madness about what we did. The people who had the zany ideas for the promotion, for the song, for the record, for the gig... these people came to the fore.

Then as adult supervision took hold, the business was dominated by marketing metrics. And out of marketing metrics you get a monoculture of profit now at any cost.

I remember saying here in the early 90's when the record companies were resisting the government's efforts to have them drop prices, that the internet would do for the record business what the ACC failed to do. The fact that the record industry thought that they could hold back the tide was an act of supreme arrogance. The same thing is happening to the other parts of the content industry in Hollywood now. It is a sad indictment on the intelligence of man that some people think that they can control price points in a world that wants content to be free, and now is able to make it so.

That is the legacy of digitization.

Google is in control. Essentially by saying, "we don't want to be in control of anything... except the ad insertion".

How Should I Vote

Chris Gilbey — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:14:01 +1100

Facebook is a brilliant way to virally distribute memes.

I was invited to install an app called How Should I Vote

It was created by Get Up and is really a totally brilliant product for everyone in Australia going into the election.

What it does is to filter your beliefs via a number of questions and then matches your answers with the various candidates in your electorate.

The result is that you are provided with your optimum match which means that you get past the clutter of ad spend and rhetoric and get to what would be best for the country according to you!

This is the sort of thing that gives you hope for democracy. And it mush drive the major parties totally mad.

Here is a thought for you...

Chris Gilbey — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 17:27:01 +1100

Here is a thought:

Media and religion supply the white noise that interrupts our ability to think with clarity.

And now because of the incredible power of YouTube the option is ther to find material that will enable clarity. This has got to keep a lot of people in politics up at night trying to figure how to harness the power of YouTube.

Web 2.0 In Australia

Chris Gilbey — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:26:19 +1000

Ross Dawson's Web 2.0 event was, by all accounts, a tremendous success. Well done, Ross!

And you can see a whole lot of video from the event as his blog. One Minute World shot individual pieces with each of the presenters.

Here is Brad Howarth from the conference:

Tivo pulls itself togther

Richard McKinnon — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:26:30 +1000

Tivo had a rocky start as a company. Great technology that not enough people used. But they're changing. Recognizing a world that wants to make entertainment and the Internet easier Tivo have pushed idea after idea that builds off fast broadband, wifi and the Tivo box. Personal photos, movies, podcasts, info, games etc etc.

Some things are still rough. Download from Amazon, view a movie and 24 hours later, the movie is deleted. Why? "Rights-holders demands" Tivo says. But wait. That's not the way people live. Two or three different in a house or family might watch at different times and different ways.

Tivo, moving fast some ways, needs to explain how the real world is today; if it is indeed "rights-holders". Then their push to make the technology consumer friendly and in tune with the times will really gain the traction it deserves.

Mark Bradley's New Business

Chris Gilbey — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:26:43 +1000

Mark Bradley is one of the leading podcasters in Australia. And he really knows technology. Mark has just announced that he is moving from ATP Innovations, the early stage investment company that has been his main gig. He has started a company called APTUS. The company is going to be providing strategic advice on how to use the web for more effective corporate communications.

Amazon and Tivo take on movie downloads.

Richard McKinnon — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 09:09:27 +1000

Tivo signed up with Amazon to provide movie downloads. Amazon via the internet to computer then wireless to Tivo. Finally. An easy not the Blockbuster experience. I hate Blockbuster. They must have the worst customer service. Doesn't seem to matter which outlet you go to either.

Now I don't have to leave home. And because the first step is the hardest, getting people signed up crosses a major hurdle for the companies.For Tivo it makes them relevant as a home entertainment hub. For Amazon it takes them deep into entertainment territory.

New things are always slow. But Tivo/Amazon have built foundations for growth.