Cebit wrap up with lots of pictures. This one passage caught my eye:What is interesting is that voice over IP is becoming just something to add on to broadband. Several ISPs or pure-play VoIP operators were busy signing up people to flat rate telephony. There was also the faint rumblings of voice over WLAN for consumers. In fact, VoIP/WLAN could be sold and designed just like cordless phones: a base station that plugs into the wall (in reality an ADSL router and wireless node) and a cordless (wi-fi) handset. Looking further, video over IP (and video over WLAN) are becoming a not-too-distant commercial reality. The emphasis is mine, and this sounds like exactly what I was asking for here.
More Cebit thoughts. I thought his point number 3 was interesting. And I agree, except that I don't think the server will necessarily be in the home. If your personal entertainment server is in the cloud (somewhere out "there" on the internet) then you can access it from anywhere (whether you are at home or not,) PLUS your friends can access it too!
This is where my thinking is these days. I think this is going to be huge. People's big computers (with terabytes of storage) morph from desktop towers into servers, and the old home tower machines are replaced by multiple portable devices that all sync with the server. Groups of friends then gather around shared collections of digital media. And because of big businesses desire for strong DRM, and their unblinking dedication to monetizing everything at every turn, I don't think they can provide a good experience here.
yeah. I think so too. Point #2 is exactly where I'm at this 24 hours (altho I'm satisfied with the Mac). Point three morphs with dystopia/utopia paranoia for me, likely because I don't understand enough about it. I am dubious (dystopic) about your hypothesis that DRM will make corporate interests irrelevant to our shared digital spaces but hopeful (utopic) that you are right. Also I am a bit scared by the massive scope of fundamental change to societal interaction that is already well underway. But I think I like it.
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- jim 3-27-2004 7:34 pm
More Cebit thoughts. I thought his point number 3 was interesting. And I agree, except that I don't think the server will necessarily be in the home. If your personal entertainment server is in the cloud (somewhere out "there" on the internet) then you can access it from anywhere (whether you are at home or not,) PLUS your friends can access it too!
This is where my thinking is these days. I think this is going to be huge. People's big computers (with terabytes of storage) morph from desktop towers into servers, and the old home tower machines are replaced by multiple portable devices that all sync with the server. Groups of friends then gather around shared collections of digital media. And because of big businesses desire for strong DRM, and their unblinking dedication to monetizing everything at every turn, I don't think they can provide a good experience here.
- jim 3-27-2004 7:43 pm
yeah. I think so too. Point #2 is exactly where I'm at this 24 hours (altho I'm satisfied with the Mac). Point three morphs with dystopia/utopia paranoia for me, likely because I don't understand enough about it. I am dubious (dystopic) about your hypothesis that DRM will make corporate interests irrelevant to our shared digital spaces but hopeful (utopic) that you are right. Also I am a bit scared by the massive scope of fundamental change to societal interaction that is already well underway. But I think I like it.
- sally mckay 3-29-2004 9:56 am