“Google” TV
Background
In May, I figured out how to quote C-SPAN’s real audio clips.
The URLs are hidden behind javascript, but I managed to
discover the querystring syntax. Now it’s August and some of the links are broken because they moved the files to a different server.
Inspiration
Whenever I hear something interesting, I make a mental note,
but when I’m near a computer, I make an entry into my openreferences.
Hearing Lawrence Di Rita describe “anti-american forces” as a euphamism for ‘terrorists'”stuck me as a quotable moment and got me thinking again about how to expand referencing into other media. #
Last week Aaron talked about “google TV.” #
Google hooks up a bunch of their machines to video capture cards and begins recording all the TV channels. Then, they make a full-text available using the closed captioning information.
So, let?s say you’re curious about Howard Dean’s stance of smallpox vaccinations. You Google TV for “Howard Dean smallpox” and get back a bunch of animated GIFs showing key scenes(basically a still whenever the picture majorly changes) from the surrounding show, perhaps with a short textual excerpt from cleaned up closed captioning data. (More)
I entirely agree. Spread the meme!
Hope
We’ve got a lot of work to do to encourage broadcasters to
develop interfaces that don’t break, but I don’t think “ref TV”
is necessarily that far off.
Necessary Conditions
To move forward, 3 things need to happen:
- The Media Companies need to be convinced
that it fits with their business model. (Where Newspaper Stories Go When They Die“: Tim Bray) - Technologists need to promote interoperable standards
- Referencing visionaries need to develop words
to describe the destination
Viral Marketing: misunderstood or misguided
“Viral Marketing”, as a meme, has succeeded in distributing itself but it’s failed to penatrate old ways of thinking. Marketing people now ask software designers to implement the “send this page to a friend” feature or controlled syndication, but they don’t understand the bigger issue:
networks that don’t try to direct the flow of communication make better markets.
When people really “get it”, they’ll start asking for “Cool URLs“, RSS feeds, and permalinks.
Defining the Terms:
Just as webloggers have developed terms and criteria like “permalinks”, “feeds”, “posts”, and “trackback”, referencing advocates need to promote a set of terms and criteria that define openmedia.