Episode 0017, 09/30/2007
Title: AmazonMP3, Free with Ads, AI Cameras in Chicago
Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the WEEK, Episode 17, recorded September 30th, 2007.
This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information.
This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.course.com for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.
Story 1 - Amazon takes on iTunes
Amazon has gone online with a new Music download service it calls AmazonMP3. The service is sure to challenge iTunes with its lower prices, DRM-free formats, and convenience. All music at the site is provided free of digital rights management technology, so you can play it on any player. The top sellers are priced at 89 cents, with the highest price in the library set at 99 cents. This is significantly lower than the buck 29 that iTunes charges for its DRM-free songs. Albums at Amazon MP3 are priced from $5.99 to $9.99. Also, Amazon MP3 provides a software download that will automatically load your purchased music into iTunes or Windows Media Player. This certainly illustrates the benefits of competition in a market.
Source: Amazon's MP3 store brings more DRM-free music at lower prices than iTunes Store (ars technica), Amazon launches music download store (computerworld)
Story 2 - Free with Ads
Last week I warned of the coming tsunami of cell phone ads. This week provided several more stories about advertisements on cell phones. UK-based company, Blyk, is offering 16 - 24 year old cell phone users free text messaging and cell phone minutes in exchange for having to view advertisements on their handsets. Also, MySpace is rolling out a mobile version of its Web site that will include ads targeted at users based on information in their user profile. As society migrates from using mass media platforms such as television, newspapers, and magazines, towards on-demand media such as online video, television, music, and news sources, marketers are radically changing their approaches. As marketers move from mass marketing to personalized marketing, and migrate to the Web, and our cell phones, it is likely that we will be subject to more advertisements and marketing than ever before. The ads shown to us will more likely be for products and services that appeal to us, since marketers will know more about our individual interests than ever before. Services like the free cell phone minutes from Blyke, and free music downloads from Spiralfrog.com point to a future where content and services are provided for free only to people willing to sacrifice time and attention to advertisements. It is easy to imagine a future where data and communications network are offered in multiple tiers: the first tier being free and saturated with ads, and the last tier being costly with no ads, with perhaps varying degrees of ads and fees in between. Such an approach, however, seems counterintuitive. Why would businesses want to market products to people with no money?
Source: An Ad-Supported Mobile Plan Launches in the U.K. (ClickZ), MySpace's Ad Supported Mobile Site to Target with Profile Data (ClickZ)
Story 3 - AI Cameras in Chicago
Chicago police department is proud of its thousands of surveillance cameras that have helped reduce crime significantly in its roughest neighborhoods. The department employs retired officers and others to monitor the thousands of displays connected to those cameras. As you can imagine this is tiring and tedious work. The past few weeks Chicago has been installing thousands more cameras in what it calls Operation Virtual Shield. The system is designed to keep Chicagoans safe from the dangers of terrorists and criminals by watching for suspicious activities. The challenge of video surveillance is finding the human power to monitor the video. IBM has come to the rescue with software designed to evaluate the incoming video streams and flag suspicious activities. Software that is designed to interpret video input is called a vision system and falls under the category of artificial intelligence. It is no surprise that AI software is taking control of surveillance systems, but it is disconcerting for many who fear an invasion of privacy. Also, many feel that the software is not yet ready for implementation and will turn up too many false positives. Kevin Smith of Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, however, is excited by the new system stating that it will "throw our camera network into hyperdrive".
Source: Big brother may be
watching you in Chicago (ars
technica), IBM software aids in vast surveillance of Chicago streets
Sweeping video program aimed ultimately at "suspicious behavior" (computerworld)
Story 4 - A National Broadband Strategy
This week FCC commissioners testified at a senate hearing that the country is in need of a national broadband strategy that would supply universal access to high-speed Internet service to all citizens. Commissioners Copps and Adelstein pointed to several surveys that show the US falling way behind other countries in broadband penetration. They are calling for government and private telecom companies to come together to create a system that provides universal access.
Sources: FCC commissioners: US in dire need of "national broadband strategy" (ars technica)
News Briefs
That's it for this week's CourseCasts. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCasts Web site at www.course.com/coursecasts. Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!