Paul Schneider's blog

Rochelle Thompson of ActiveVideo Networks talks about the CloudTV™ platform and demonstrates the Friends Mozaic application.

Did you catch that World Series? Apparently, according to the audience rankings, lots of people did. Of course while you were all watching baseball games, I was thinking about the telecommunications industry and how the Yankees and the Phillies are great examples of the opposing sides in that space.

While it’s not necessarily must-see TV—although in some instances it might actually be better, considering some of the stuff that was considered must-see—and it will never compare with Oprah’s book club suggestions, occasionally I feel I should offer up my own must-read opinion.

So here you have it, Edgar’s Report-of-the-Month Club suggestion, for want of a better name. It’s my way of highlighting what I’ve found that reinforces my opinions, of course, and validates the interactive TV space. If you’re interested in interactive TV—and who isn’t?—you really should tap into a report written by TV research firm Nielsen that says (drum roll here) there’s a bond between Web and television.

There’s a “gold rush” to put video content onto multiple screens ranging from televisions (of course!) to PCs to mobile phones with assorted other devices in between. As with any gold rush, some will strike it rich and others will go bust because things just don’t pan out.

One thing is certain: there’s a public hunger for content, and people will go to any available screen to watch what they want. I see it on the freeway -- distracted drivers out there playing with their handheld devices when they should be looking at traffic.  (It’s why I try to take Caltrain to work.)

I love urban legends; the more outrageous the better. It’s always fun to figure out whether there’s actually a grain of truth in stories like penguins falling over onto their backs trying to see airplanes flying overhead or domesticated turkeys looking up at falling rain until they drown or that the daddy longlegs spider is “the world’s most poisonous animal.”

While the United States media community typically winds down a notch or two as those last barbecues of summer approach, there’s no shortage of activity across The Pond.  In Europe, they’re gearing up for IBC, the annual September media event that draws broadcasters, operators and programmers from all over the world to Amsterdam.

So the new FCC boss, Julius Genachowski, thinks there should be restrictions on interactive programming aimed at children. I agree; there’s no reason to let kids run wild with a remote control. I disagree, though, with the idea that some sort of uber parental opt-in device is needed to save the children and their parents from themselves. That’s, unfortunately, the type of overkill that maims and destroys new ideas such as interactive TV before they even get off the ground.

First, some full disclosure:  I wasn’t around when Neil Armstrong made his “giant leap for mankind.”  But I’ve heard my parents’ accounts of the space race; I’ve seen “The Right Stuff” and “Apollo 13” (where would our space program have been without Ed Harris???); and I’ve understood how the public view of space travel has changed since the race to the moon in the Sixties.