The well-attended/packed 1 day conference consisted of a series of 1 hour and 15 minute panel discussions and audience Q & A. Panelists, comprised of some of the brightest in the ITV industry, discussed topics during panels which included "Lessons Learned: From Europe and the U.S.," "Data-Oriented Programming: News, Sports, and Weather," "Long Form Programming, Entertainment, and The Future." Unfortunately, only cursory attention could be paid to the topics in discussion because most of the panel was taken up with introductions.

The most controversial and lively panel, however, was its earliest. The Early Bird discussion on Privacy and ITV presented at 8 AM (coffee, required) was lively and full of debate. While panelists agreed ITV privacy issues and policy-making should be addressed now rather than later (lessons learned from the effects of data collection, intelligent "cookie" agents, and 1-to-1 targeted marketing on the Internet), it seems a consensus on how to approach this thorny issue has yet to be established. Comments ranged:

• Saul Hansell, technology reporter for the "New York Times" - "This technology is sitting in a very intimate place in our lives"
• Ilario Pantano, a senior partner at Filter Media - "Could positive competition amongst companies evolve to provide customers with the best privacy policies?
• Executive director, Jeffery Chester, from the Center for Digital Democracy, passionately addressed the problem of the Walled Garden. In his argument Chester stated that the new convergence platforms should empower customer policies rather than reduce them. For further interest on his views, read the latest ITV Privacy Report (linked below). Also read a response to the report by Ben Issacson (also, panelist) from the Association of Interactive Media.
• Jules Polonetsky, chief privacy officer of Double-Click said the main privacy issue can be solved by "building an infrastructure that will allow privacy to exist." But, without pre-defined roles and regulations, its difficult to build a software application that will protect "viewser" privacy to their liking. Chester supported this by saying if the default of the software we all have today is to collect information, it "should be changed to default to not-collect." Polonetsky also stressed the importance of creating a balance between the customer's needs and industry demands.
• Ben Isaacson, Association for Interactive media, claimed that the industry is still simply looking to define what kind of commercials the viewer wants to watch. He went further by stressing that quality content cannot be created without supporting revenues. In general, the question was: will "quality" programming be forgotten?

Panels "Data Oriented Programming: News, Sports and Weather" and "Long Form Programming and Entertainment" were a show-and-tell of past and current experimental and real-world projects including ample advice on the do's and don'ts for content creation in these genres. Special attention was given to long form programming, documentaries, dramatic narratives, and storytelling, as this type of programming seems to be the most challenging to tackle. With no surprise the consensus on how to exactly approach interactive, long-form narrative is still up in the air; however, it was repeatedly advised that a successful ITV show is one where interactivity is integrated into the program from its inception. During "Data-Oriented Programming: News, Sports, and Weather," though, panelist Scott Newman, CEO of Gold Pocket, said he prefers to create ITV content that will enhance the show rather than create shows from scratch. There is real difficulty when trying to reach networks about ITV shows. Representatives from ABC and NBC responded that it will simply take time and that it's still a big risk. Ken Papagan, from Delmar Media, who has much experience working in ITV, posed the necessary agenda forward: "We are not yet accustomed to fully exploring convergence, yet. We know it works for games, sex, sport, gambling, but what is the real next generation for ITV content? Today, of course, narrative and documentary are poorly represented on the ITV platform. Content driven navigation is paramount in order to produce those genres in the future. Clearly, due to the fact that the MSO controls the gateway for now, we may have the experience of 2 boxes instead of 1 for a long time. We must be pragmatic instead of looking for the glamorous." Frank Barbieri, of Filter Media, suggested that ITV will depend on the "four musts:" make money, make them feel successful, make them interact with their own community, and make them have fun.

The final forum was called the "Future of ITV" where panelists brought to bear the under-performing predictions of the past (…by now millions of homes should be reveling in the ITV experience…). Panelists discussed how to get past the challenge of the current lack of consumer interest by doing nothing less than continuing to create and distribute content on whatever platform currently is available - be it one-screen, two-screen, or both. Rob Davis of Spiderdance stated: "TV has been around for the past 50 years, I think ITV will be successful. But, it is about time to stop talking about technology and change. To succeed we must create business models that can be used by the industry. Curtis Wang of Microsoft stated that in his opinion digital video recorders are the wave of the future. [itvt] agrees that mass DVR deployment with applications to manage recorded video content in new ways will drastically reinvent the paradigm. Programmed shows may or may not take advantage of that use of those boxes. We'll have to see. Graham Cannon, of BNNTV-Camera Planet said we must change the phase we are in today from an experimental phase into a real production stage for ITV to be successful. Yet the path was not laid as to how this shift will provide a catalyst for ITV's future.

While Columbia University's ITV Content E-mergency event was full of insightful analysis, hopeful commentary, and innovative content examples, ITV is still in its infancy. The discussions at the conference proved this point. Though the conference succeeded in providing a comprehensive understanding of interactive TV, we are left with more questions than answers. Questioning is a productive part of that process. We applaud this event's organizers for taking on controversial topics such as privacy as well as opening up discussion to original content programming.

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