Friday, January 24, 2003

"All Your Next-Generation Secure Computing Base Are Belong To Us" Microsoft is changing the name of its controversial Palladium security technology to "next-generation secure computing base."  CNet's news.com has the sordid details. Apparently there there was a trademark conflict and just by coincidence a name change had been planned anyway: "The official story--and it's true--is that we intended to change the name for a long time," said Mario Juarez, product manager for Microsoft's Windows Trusted Platform Technologies Group. "The fact that it was something that got a lot of attention and gave rise to a lot of misunderstanding" was also a factor, he said.   (CNet) You can trust him -- he's from Microsoft. Seems to me the name is a little more nebulous, soft and cuddly even. Who wouldn't want a next-generation computing base, especially if it was secure. Thank you, Uncle Microsoft! The name doesn't give us pundit types an easy label to attach our vitriol to, as in: Palladium Sucks!  or: Microsoft, We Wave Our Genitals in Your General Direction -- no wait, that one still works. Dan Gillmor quotes part of the MS press release, then goes on to add: They can call it whatever they want. But it's still, in the end, a tool that has some potentially good uses but which inevitably will be used for controlling what do with our own computers. Microsoft's increasingly obvious tilt toward the entertainment-cartel side of the copyright issue makes Palladium a danger as much as a potential benefit. Changing the name doesn't change the mission. You can put makeup on a pig. It's still a pig. 11:45:21 PM    comment [] Transmedia Storytelling   (Henry Jenkins) "This past month, I attended a gathering of top creatives from Hollywood and the games industry, hosted by Electronic Arts; they were discussing how to collaboratively develop content that would play well across media. This meeting reflected a growing realization within the media industries that what is variously called transmedia, multiplatform, or enhanced storytelling represents the future of entertainment. Let’s face it: we have entered an era of media convergence that makes the flow of content across multiple media channels almost inevitable. The move toward digital effects in film and the improved quality of video game graphics means that it is becoming much more realistic to lower production costs by sharing assets across media. Everything about the structure of the modern entertainment industry was designed with this single idea in mind—the construction and enhancement of entertainment franchises. And the push isn’t just coming from the big media companies. The kids who have grown up consuming and enjoying Pokemon across media are going to expect this same kind of experience from The West Wing as they get older. By design, Pokemon unfolds across games, television programs, films, and books, with no media privileged over any other. For our generation, the hour-long, ensemble-based, serialized drama was the pinnacle of sophisticated storytelling, but for the next generation, it is going to seem, well, like less than child’s play. Younger consumers have become information hunters and gatherers, taking pleasure in tracking down character backgrounds and plot points and making connections between different texts within the same franchise. And in addition, all evidence suggests that computers don’t cancel out other media; instead, computer owners consume on average significantly more television, movies, CDs, and related media than the general population." (Technology Review, via The Shifted Librian, via her dad) 11:28:07 PM    comment [] Do What Thy, Like, Wilt   (William Gibson) Else I be any further mistaken for the Pyschotropic Temperance League, let me stress that I'm not telling anyone not to do drugs. I've only said that I don't believe that drugs actually make you more creative. I believe that if drugs seem to you to make you more creative, you're already creative, and might want to look at why you believe you need to pay someone in order to access it. (In that light, you might also want to consider the agenda of whoever is telling you that you need to buy a ticket first.) Those pygmy Grays, though, the ones who keep trying to lasso you with piano-wire whenever you do ketamine? Those little guys are bad mojo. (William Gibson, in the 01/13/03 entry of his blog. I couldn't agree more. Stay away from the grays) 7:46:31 PM    comment [] Towards Constructing a Rich Media Future (Andy Oram) The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have careened from one horrendous legal collision to another, like sociopathic drivers in a movie chase scene. After getting a free ride from Congress and the courts for several years, however, these aging syndicates have been slowed by three recent legal decisions: the acquittal of Dmitri Sklyarov's employer ElcomSoft in the Adobe eBook case, the acquittal of Norwegian programmer Jon Johansen in a DeCSS case, and the refusal of a U.S. federal judge to issue an injunction for the immediate removal of DeCSS from Web sites. With the public clearly voicing its opinion, the music and movie studios are quietly being forced into retreat. An early signal is this week's announcement by the RIAA that it will not seek legal backing for copy protection in consumer devices, pursuing private means to the same end instead. Perhaps this is the right time to defang the debate on both sides and work jointly to construct a rich media future. * * * How about recording and promoting more music that sounds different from that which was released 30 years ago (a time that was by no means a golden age in recording)? Suppose that a movie studio, seeing a competitor release a successful film, said, "Good for them, we'll find our own way to compete" instead of, "We have to base our next 20 films on the formula that worked for that other guy?" Everybody talks about generating excitement, but the most fulfilling types of excitement take time to build. Eventually, studios may relinquish their controlling roles, in which all creative artists are reduced to puppets, and act more like services that can be chosen freely by the artists. * * * Recording companies start out here with all the cards: initial access to the material, access to the performers and writers, and access to the media outlets and reviewers who publicize the material. In fact, to have all these advantages and not be able to beat Napster or Morpheus on their own turf is undeserving of pity. But success in this new media has to be measured along different scales from success in the old media. Perhaps studios will have to stop relying on mega-sales for a few popular artists and learn to promote a variety of acts. The old pay-per-unit model (which was always complicated by such institutions as libraries, video stores, and used book vendors) will probably have to be abandoned; funding through subscriptions might replace it. A big challenge for studios will be abandoning the standard target customer--the middle-class, 12-to-15-year-old male--and serving everyone. * * * Most of the ideas presented in this paper have been circulating among commentators for some time. New technology always presents a range of possible new practices. Risk-takers will discover the successful ones eventually, given the legal freedom to try. ("Media is Ripe for a Convergence of a Different Sort" by Andy Oram, O'Reilly Network) 2:19:15 PM    comment []

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