Quite a funny story was unveiled here in Las Vegas at Mix. Netflix VP of Web Engineering explained why they deployed a Silverlight-based video player. Netflix wanted to enable their MacOS customers to access their on-line video library. But because the solution worked for MacOS and Windows - and allowed them to use a solution that didn't require an installation of an application from their site, and allowed them to utilize adaptive streaming - dramatically reducing issues associated with "buffering", they've ended up standardizing on Silverlight for their video streaming. I was surprised to learn that they roll-out a new player every two weeks as they continue to try and improve the on-line experience - that's quite a short product development cycle!
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Social BookmarksWould you expect to develop a MacOS application using a platform from Microsoft? With Silverlight 3 developers are able to create applications that run outside the browser on the MacOS. While the idea might sound crazy, and certainly is landscape changing - it's smart for Microsoft. As more applications move to the Cloud, and applications consume Cloud services, Microsoft can continue its role as a big player in the emerging Cloud computing space, in developer tools, and in the platforms used for delivering content.
I saw a great example of this with KEXP developing a media player that works on-line and off-line, with auto-detection of network capabilities. The player is stand-alone (works outside the browser) and I saw it running on MacOS and WIndows. If you are a MacOS developer you can get the Eclipse Tools for Silverlight at www.eclipse4sl.org/mac.
Sometimes you see uses of technology that you've never considered - from vendors you would never expect. That happened today with a totally unconventional use of Silverlight for use with document management and repurposing content - print content.
I thought that Adobe had document management and cross-platform sharing wrapped-up with Acrobat and PDF. After all, PDF is an ISO standard, and Acrobat is on its 9th version. I've written a number of books on Acrobat and managed the largest PDF user's conference for some time - so I'm partial to it... but a short while ago I saw something that is potentially game-changing for publications looking to monetize legacy content. And with magazines and newspapers under pressure - who doesn't want to monetize their digital assets? So I nearly fell out of my chair today when I saw covertocover.com showing past issues of Rolling Stone that include full text search and easy navigation between issues and pages - and it was all leveraging Silverlight. This is a great, unconventional use of the Deep Zoom technology that Silverlight supports - and it solves an immediate business need that publishers are facing - how to monetize legacy content.
Microsoft has made some pretty significant announcement here in Las Vegas today that will impact the way you communicate on-line, develop Web and interactive content - and event how you think about what is on-line and what is a desktop application...
Silverlight 3 was announced here and has some technical features that are useful for developers -things like GPU acceleration and support for additional CODECs such as H.264, MPG 4, and AAC but the real mind-blowing things revolutionize the user experience:
· Live streaming with full DVR-like controls - pause / slow motion / rewind for live streams. This puts Silverlight live streaming miles ahead of anything else. NBC announced they are renewing their use of Silverlight for all streaming of the next Olympics (Vancouver) using Silverlight.
· HD streaming - you'll see this at the next Olympics as they'll be streaming all content in HD.
· Out-of-browser experiences on Mac and Windows - not just a browser plug-in
· Off-line support: Silverlight 3.0 applications can run as stand-alone applications. So they can consume services while connected, and then switch to an "off-line" mode when not connected.
· Support for multi-touch - like the "pinch" - think Minority Report or iPhone
I'll have more updates throughout the event... as I'm at a Microsoft-focused event, most of my posts will focus on their technology this week...
Last week I discussed the Kindle as just the start of electronic distribution. The folks at Amazon have now released an iPhone application, allowing you to view and access eBooks. While this is nothing surprising - the cool capability is something they are calling whispersynch. You can start reading a book or story using one device, and continue it using another. According to a Wall Street Journal story, it supports up to six devices. While I don't think I need six devices to read a book - the ability move between iPhone and Kindle alone is a great advancement.
Collaboration between print and online advertisers takes a set-back from this. Print publications will need to continue to seek out new ways to bring in revenues that have been sapped by the slow economy and the shift to more on-line advertising. The Boston Globe showed the first signs of that shift the day after the inauguration with a movie advertisement running the full length across the front page - something that was never done in the past, but is becoming mroe common. But it will take more than front-page ads to keep revenue flowing into newspapers - they need to find ways to monetize their content, generate revenue from their writing, photography, and other content.
Because we provide training to many newspapers - such as InDesign training and Photoshop training - we hope the business models can be changed to allow them to succeed. And I'm not ready to give up the Boston Globe with my morning cup of coffee each day.
A major, international daily newspaper based here in Boston announced last week that they plan to cease daily publication in the coming months - at least in print format. They'll be shifting to a weekly printed magazine format, and they'll be shifting more of their content on line. The Christian Science Monitor once had more than 300,000 daily subscribers, but that number has been dwindling fast. And the cost to print and distribute coast-to-coast simply can't compete with the cost to push pixels to your desktop or iPhone. Despite its name, the Monitor is an independent, professional publication well known for its detailed international and political coverage.
The generations that grew up on newsprint may be dwindling, and the Monitor is ahead of the curve in moving to reduce its costs and revaluate its distribution model. Monitor readers may be willing to pay for an iPhone application, or other news outlets that are cutting staff may pay for syndicated stories - all ways to make revenue on-line. And pushing more readers to the Monitor site will increase ad revenue - although it won't reach the levels of print advertising.
As a paper respected by journalist, the Monitor's greatest asset is the stories is collects each day. By finding new ways to syndicate these stories, and by reaching a broader audience on-line - an audience in the millions, not the hundreds of thousands - they'll be better positioned to find new revenue sources. The money won't come easily, but by moving On-line, the Monitor is moving in the right direction.