Streaming Video Viewers Are Impatient

Posted December 11th, 2009 by Albert Banks

A new study by TubeMogul reveals that 4 out of 5 users abandon a video if it rebuffers during playback. Most people seem to expect the initial buffer, but rebuffering is a deal killer.

The study references the five CDNs covered, with Limelight having the least amount of slow loads. The study does not appear to factor in factors out of a CDN’s control. Time of day, video encoding and client connection speed certainly influences the play back experience.

But one thing is clear. Video viewers are a demanding bunch. They expect video to start quickly and continue without interruption.

Augmented Reality. What?

Posted November 18th, 2009 by Albert Banks

If you haven’t heard of Augmented Reality, here’s the scoop. AR is a live view of the physical world merged with virtual digital information and/or imagery. The concept has been around in the military and industrial applications for years.

You’ve probably seen the technology in use without realizing it. Those first down lines on field during the television broadcast of football games? Yep, that’s AR!

Recently, this technology has gained popularity in many consumer settings.

Advertisers are using it to promote new products via cool interactive experiences. Service providers are using it to present relevant location aware information. Many cities, museums and theme parks are using it to add virtual objects to their existing  physical environment.

Like any technology of the brink of popularity, we have to question if it is fad or future. Fast Company recent addressed this exact question. Myjive believes this one is here to stay. All you have to do is look at the many potential applications already being explored.

Yelp’s iPhone App Monocle feature
Augmented Reality Contact Lenses
Canon’s MR Aquarium
Jack’s Links Living Sasquatch

As we like to say here at the office, “The future is going to be so cool.” And with AR, the future is here.

HTML 5: Game Changer

Posted June 24th, 2009 by Albert Banks

This year, the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) released it’s HTML 5 proposal. HTML 5, is a significant update to the prominent web presentation specification. The changes focus on web application development, ones that might even make proprietary plug-ins such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX irrelevant.

Below are the most significant new features and their current browsers support:

Video and Audio Tags

The long awaited video and audio tags that would standardize how we include these elements in websites. With HTML 5,  including video to your webpage would not require utilizing third-party plug-ins (ie. Flash, Quicktime) or video codecst.  Developers would also be able to manipulate videos and built-in video controls.
Browsers: Firefox 3.5

Continue Reading Post »

Workplace Technology Generation Gap

Posted April 24th, 2009 by Albert Banks

Baby Boomers and Generation Y are now cohabitants in the workforce. As Sarah Perez notes in her recent article, the technology gap between the generations at work is “Oh So Wide.” The results of a study released by business information solutions provider LexisNexis are quite illuminating.

Gen Y spends 10.6 hours per day browsing social networks, news sites, blogs, forums, and multimedia sharing sites while Boomers clock in at only 5.6 hours.

A majority (62%) of Gen Y employees interact with a social network while at work, but only a fraction of Boomers do (14%).

A majority of Boomer feel PDAs and mobile phones negatively affect workplace etiquette and don’t believe laptops should be used by participants of in-person meetings. Less than half of Gen Y agrees.

As the complexion of the workplace evolves, will the Boomers change their views or will the younger generations continue to frustrate their bosses? Time will tell.

Pics from Ron’s CAMA Social Media Marketing Presentation

Posted March 23rd, 2009 by Lindsey Reminga

If you missed the presentation, check out the slides @ blog link. Here are a few images captured at the event:

US Broadband Still Woeful

Posted February 19th, 2009 by Albert Banks

Here in the United States we like to think of ourselves as a modern technological society. The truth is we lag behind the rest of the world in a very important facet of technology – broadband. High Speed internet access (broadband) has continued to grow in this country, but not nearly as fast as other nations.

Penetration

The US has continued to drop in the broadband penetration rankings worldwide – we are now 19th. This means a greater percent of people in countries such as Luxemburg, Australia and Canada have broadband access than Americans.

Speed

We also lack when it comes to broadband speed. The latest CWA Report has the US ranked 15th with an median download speed of 2.35 Mb/s. Compared to Japan (63 Mb/s), South Korea (49.50 Mb/s), Finland (21.70 Mb/s) and France (17.60 Mb/s) our speed is pitiful. Even neighbor Canada ranked ahead of the US with an average download speed of 7.60 Mb/s. Now comes the news that Koreans will have 1Gbps connections by 2012.

Cost

After hearing these stats, you might wonder how our costs compare to other countries. This is the one list we do top. The US has the highest cost of broadband among industrialized nations.

Where do we go from here?

The government is ready to influence the situation, citing productivity gains from an improved infrastructure. The economic stimulus package should include a $10 billion to $15 billion investment.

US internet service providers have fallen into a stagnant situation. Hopefully, this influx will energize the market. Otherwise, we will continue to drop behind the modern world in broadband…