Obama, technology and the future - Part Two

Hopefully you all read the first post on President-Elect Obama, technology and the future (if not, it is here) in which I started addressing what Obama’s election means for the world of tech. Having looked at how Obama will work for an open Internet, I will now delve into Obama’s plans for a connected democracy and infrastructure.

The first thing that Obama has promised to do is to create a more transparent government, a policy that has probably been prompted by the manner in which the Bush administration has been very secretive. He will attempt to do this by “creating a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America’s citizens” through the use of technology. Presumably, this will be done by extensive use of the Internet, as well as other technology such as mobile phones, as shown in the selection of Joe Biden as his second man.

Secondly, he will attempt to bring government into the 21st century by using technology to reform the way in which the government works. One of the most obvious example of this is the appointment of the US’s first CTO, or Chief Technology Officer. The CTO (who has yet to be named) will be in charge of ensuring that the government stays in line with 21st Century technology as well as working with chief technology and chief information officers. Another of the CTO’s priorities will be to increase broadband penetration, something Obama has criticized the Bush administration for.

That last point is part of the final major point in which he will work to deploy a revised infrastructure will will keep the US in the modern age. In the same way every American has phone connections, Obama hopes to instigate a program to install broadband connections to all Americans regardless of economic or social status.

In all these policies are (so far) incredibly beneficial to Americans, will help to restart the economy, and boost the technology orientated sector. Look out for part three for more policies and an insight into the future.

Source [barackobama.com]

RevisionG4? Taking a look at the Revision3 shake up

If you’re a fan of online video, you’ve probably heard of Revision3. Plenty of people are calling the company “RevisionG4” in light of the recent changes.

Primer

If you’re unfamiliar with Revision3 here’s a quick primer: The company started as a vehicle to produce podcasts like thebroken, systm, and Diggnation. Many new shows followed and lots of familiar faces were added to the mix. Those of us who missed TechTV were comforted with the arrivial of Revision3 along with TWiT.

The shake up

Recently, there have been big changes over at Revision3. Cancellations of shows, distribution deals dropped and personnel changes.

Shows canceled

The following Revision3 shows are no longer in production:

• Pixel Perfect: A Photoshop tutorial program hosted by Photoshop master Bert Monroy.
• Pop Siren: a show aimed at women covering pop culture hosted by Sarah Lane
• Internet Superstar: an interview program where hosts Martin Sargent and Jay Speiden talk with people who are Internet famous.

Officially, there really is no reason Pixel Perfect was canceled. The other two shows apparently “never really found their audience.” The shows have not been retired to the Revision3 Show Archive just yet, but that is a matter of time.

Other changes

More changes occurred recently. Revision3 had been distributing non-Revision3 shows such as Wine Library and Epic Fu. Revision3 will no longer distribute these shows. These programs had a life before Revision3 and will probably continue on their own.

Some new faces are gone and some familiar faces from TechTV no longer have the same association with Revision3. Heather Frank, Sarah Lane, Glenn Mcelhose, Martin Sargent, and Jay Speiden were all let go from their jobs. Sargent and Mcelhose are supposed to have some kind of new roles with Revision3.

Backlash

The Revision 3 blog post announcing the changes has over 200 comments, most of them quite unhappy with the lineup change. Plenty of folks have some choice words for CEO Jim Louderback echoing statements from a particular “Internet Superstar” promo.

Revision3 must be quite aware of its intensely loyal fanbase. They’ve never shied away from open discussions on their forums or the comment section of their blog. They knew there would be a backlash. Why would they take such a step if they were going to be met with such resistance? It’s really quite simple.

RevisionG4?

The fact is Revision3 is a business. The shows that were cut must not have been producing sufficient returns to continue production. It’s as simple as that. Pushing a show that just does not have an audience after quite a test period just doesn’t make sense.

Shows take time to produce. From coming up with show ideas, to shooting, to editing, to posting the shows online with their RSS feeds – all of these things take a tremendous amount of time and energy. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made.

Revision3 has investors that expect a return. Venture capitalists are not in the business of just giving away money with no expectation.

Opportunity

Revision3 hasn’t turned into RevisionG4. G4 took TechTV and made it FUBAR. G4 didn’t just fire talent, they changed the entire format of the network. Revision3 is still producing plenty of tech programming.

When TechTV finally dropped, TWiT and Revision3 were the new places to find the shows you wanted. Right now, anybody can fill the void left by the departure of PixelPerfect, Pop Siren, and Internet Superstar. It’s easy to grab some screen capture software, a camcorder, and some editing software to put together new shows if you want to.

Are you going to fill the void? Do you think Revision3 sold out? Sound off in the comments.

Read [Revision3 Blog]

MySpace Music logoLook out Apple, there could be a company in town with a player to kill the iPod. In all seriousness, MySpace might enter the MP3

In the last few years there has been an influx of fun/pointless/interesting/small/useful USB powered devices, and you will be hard pushed to find something you can’t power using USB. However, amid the rubbish that you can find (like the USB powered fragrance oil burner) there is occasionally one that is genuinely interesting, and this is one of them.

For those of you who think science is cool and wish you had a microscope or who just like looking at small stuff, the USB Microscope is for you. Although perhaps designed for the younger generations, people of any age can have fun looking at anything under a microscope, and in pretty good quality too. It has a resolution of up to 1600x1200 which is not bad and looking at a screen definitely beats looking into a tiny hole. Naturally, there is a pretty good zoom.

The zoom is in fact 200x, which gives you incredibly detailed images of the microscopic world. This microscope allows for stills and also videos to be taken. Unfortunately, the resolution for the latter will in all likelihood be capped at 640x480. All in al,l this is a pretty neat gadget that any aspiring scientist should have, although there is one major drawback…

When you start getting bored of looking at plants and dollar notes, you will find yourself moving onto your own body, and no matter how clean your hands are they always look repulsive after being magnified 200x. And kids? Let them loose on this and you may find your free 2GB online storage will be filled of horrible pictures of cuts and scars—not nice! But I have to say this is definitely worth the $90 price tag.

Source [EverythingUSB]

MySpace to create an MP3 player?

Look out Apple, there could be a company in town with a player to kill the iPod. In all seriousness, MySpace might enter the MP3 player department, a place where Apple’s iPod has dominated for quite a while now.

At the Web 2.0 Summit meeting on Thursday, MySpace co-founder and Chief Executive, Chris DeWolfe, shed some light on the fact that MySpace could develop a music player, but nothing is set in stone.

MySpace has used music a lot to make their site bigger and bigger. Many small (and large) bands use MySpace as a way to share their music. They even launched a new service, called MySpace Music, which works with popular music labels including Sony BMG Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group.

With this agreement, MySpace is able to offer more services such as music streaming, music and ringtone downloads, ticket purchases, video streaming, and other music merchandise. Since they already offer so much music related content, it would kind of make sense for MySpace to pursue the portable music player industry. However, DeWolfe also added that, “Right now, we’re just focusing on the service.”

An interesting point that DeWolfe adds is:

“If anything, we’ll be accretive to iPod sales as people use MySpace Music to download more music and videos for their iPods. Unless we develop a device.”

If they truly believe all their content being downloaded are making people buy iPods more, then maybe they would develop a player so people who download their music buy their player as well. Now, I can’t say I agree with MySpace making a player because their primary niche is the social networking industry and MySpace Music. For them to create an actual player, it sounds just as crazy as Apple making a social networking site.

Read [Reuters]