David May 1st, 2008
I have been impressed with how much Adobe has been utilizing the open source methodology as of the last few years. Just a year ago they released the Flex source code as open source. To encourage porting Flash content to mobile devices, Adobe has started Open Screen Project in partnership with media companies ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless, and leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC.
The Open Screen Project is working to enable a consistent runtime environment – taking advantage of Adobe® Flash® Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR™ — that will remove barriers for developers and designers as they publish content and applications across desktops and consumer devices, including phones, mobile internet devices (MIDs), and set top boxes. The Open Screen Project will address potential technology fragmentation by allowing the runtime technology to be updated seamlessly over the air on mobile devices. The consistent runtime environment will provide optimal performance across a variety of operating systems and devices, and ultimately provide the best experience to consumers.
Specifically, this work will include:
- Removing restrictions on use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications
- Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player
- Publishing the Adobe Flash® Cast™ protocol and the AMF protocol for robust data services
- Removing licensing fees – making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free
Of course video content is not the only functionality that will benefit from this arrangement. FamilySearch Labs have several applications which utilize Flash. Won’t it be nice to use your mobile device to look up scanned census records or browse your family tree using a player designed specifically for your it?
David April 3rd, 2008
I don’t know about you, but I have been surprised lately with the availability of online multimedia content. I’m not just talking about the popularity of YouTube with user-contributed content or downloading music from the Apple iTunes Store. I’m talking about traditional media entities offering professionally written content on their web sites. Radio stations such as National Public Radio (NPR) not only have recorded podcasts of their broadcasts, but regularly suggest additional content for their listeners to find on their web site. Do you hate missing the KSL Greenhouse Show on Saturdays? Like many other sites, you don’t have to miss it if you subscribe to a podcast on the station web site. Offering a mix of traditional and new media sources, here are the top sources for online news, ranked by the number of visitors (from Ars Technica):
- Yahoo News
- MSNBC
- CNN
- AOL News
- New York Times
- Gannett
- ABC News
- Google News
- USA Today
- CBS News
While most of these sites are offering short video and/or audio clips, some media sites are now offering premium content that they normally reserve for television or radio (together with new advertising). Did anyone see the NCAA Basketball finals on CBS.com? Did you miss seeing who was eliminated from American Idol on Fox? (you can also see their recent performances on their web site)
Most of these sites are using Adobe Flash streaming technology (like YouTube), but others are starting to use HD video plugins such as those created by American Fork, Utah company, Move Networks, including ABC, Discovery, FOX, ESPN, and Oprah.com. BYU Television, also using Move Networks’ HD video plugin, is one of the first stations that has around the clock broadcasting content on their site. In comparison, the lds.org site will host transcripts, video, and audio downloads of LDS General Conference once they become available, but BYU.tv promises to include live HD video of for all morning and afternoon sessions. LDS Church members in Utah may not appreciate how rare it is to be able to watch Conference in your own home around the world as it is being broadcast.
David March 26th, 2008
Lindon, Utah based Footnote launched January 2007 and has grown to become a favorite resource for avid genealogists. What makes them different from other sites like Ancestry or WorldVitalRecords is it’s expanded resources beyond traditional records. For example,
Footnote has taken the initiative to digitize all 58,000 names inscribed into the Vietnam War Memorial. It has also correlated them with military personnel records from the National Archives and made this information searchable from within an interactive Flash application.
It is the extra steps that they have taken from public data which we already had access to, but correlating it and indexing it that makes this a unique resource.