Larry Bouthillier

1
New Web Communications Technologies
2
Who am I?

• Larry Bouthillier
• Media Technology Architect, Harvard University
• Contributing Editor, Streamingmedia.com
• Author Consultant, learningapi.com
• Audio/video engineer in the past
• Software developer by background
• Formerly Director of Software Development
  Educational Technology at Harvard Business School
• larryb_at_learningapi.com
• http//www.learningapi.com/blog

3
Outline

• The changing architecture of the Web
• New Tools -gt not just like the old tools
• Blogs Syndication
• Podcasting
• Video
• And for whats totally new
• Mashups
• Example Mapping Photo integration

4
Web 1.0

• HTTP - network protocol to deliver Web pages,
  universal format to address each page (URL)
• HTML - an open, public, device- and
  platform-independent language for creating Web
  pages that can be viewed on any computer
• Online wasnt new
• CompuServe
• AOL
• Prodigy

5
Web 1.0 (continued)

• Online wasnt newso what made the Web so
  different?
• Openness - anyone can play
• Vendors
• Software developers
• Hobbyists
• Motivated (and somewhat technical) individuals

6
Web 1.0 (continued)

• Web 1.0 Interactivity Media
• Streaming (such as it is)
• Threaded discussion boards/guestbooks
• GeoCities
• oFoto
• mp3.com
• Britannica Online
• People looking at Web sites, sometimes posting
  content to web sites for other people to look at

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Web 2.0

• Architectures of Participation
• Tim OReilly, 2004

• Streaming ---gt YouTube
• Threaded discussion --gt Trackback, Blog Comments
• GeoCities --gt Blogging, MySpace, Facebook
• oFoto --gt Flickr
• mp3.com --gt Limewire, Napster (original),
  BitTorrent
• Britannica Online --gt Wikipedia
• People Tools Websites looking at Web sites
• User-generated content by design

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Architectures of Participation

• Value has moved from the Website to the network
• In the end, the value of these sites is derived
  not from content provided by the sites owners,
  but from the emergent relationships among users
  and the content they create and consume. --
  Akamai whitepaper by Larry Bouthillier
• Two key elements
• Explosion in User Generated Content (UGC)
• Technologies for syndication sharing of content
  
• computer-to-computer reading and manipulation of
  site content

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Web 2.0

• User-Generated Content
• 5 of the top 10 Websites (by growth rate) are UGC
  sites
• 5 of the top 10 websites (by site traffic) are
  UGC sites
• 11 of the top 25
• Source Alexa
• Many of these did not exist 2-3 years ago
• YouTube (2005)
• Wikipedia (2001)
• MySpace (2004)
• Facebook (2005)
• Flickr (2004)
• Digg (2005)

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Web 2.0 - What fueled the growth?
Source Akamai Social Networking Whitepaper
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Web 2.0 - What else fuels the growth?

• Broadband
• Faster PCs
• Highly capable Web browsers with increasing
  support for standards
• Javascript
• XML
• RSS
• HTML/DOM model
• Web Services

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Broadband Access by State
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Usage by age
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What do broadband users watch?
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Tools and techniques of Web 2.0

• Some specifics on the opportunities for
  organizations using the Web to reach users
• Blogs/RSS
• Podcasting
• Video
• Geographic/Photo Mashups

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Blogs

• Simple publishing engine
• Content authored by one or several authors
• Posted chronologically
• Categorized
• Host yourself
• Movable Type
• Expression Engine
• Wordpress
• Use a service
• Blogger
• Typepad

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What makes a blog different from any kind of
Website

• Ease of use
• Informal tone
• Conversational, lower barrier to entry
• Conversation runs two-ways due to syndication
  features
• Syndication out
• RSS
• Syndication In
• RSS
• Flickr
• Trackback
• Comments

18
Blog Ecosystem

• Technorati
• MyBlogLog
• Blogrolls
• Feed Readers
• Bloglines
• Google Reader

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Findability

• Links drive traffic awareness
• Links out from your posts
• Links in from others posts
• Google is your friend
• Google indexes pages based on words that appear
  on them
• Write your title and your copy to reflect key
  search words and phrases
• Pick a handful of likely ( useful) search terms,
  and use them a few times in different contexts

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A Podcast is

• A series of audio (or video) programs
• Usually published periodically as individual
  episodes of a series
• Automatically downloaded into subscribers MP3
  players when new episodes are available
• Minnesota DNR http//www.dnr.state.mn.us/news/pod
  casts/index.html

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Podcasting

• RSS is the key thing that makes podcasting
  podcasting
• Users subscribe with a podcatcher, such as
  iTunes

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Effective Podcasts

• Choose a format
• News blurbs or radio storytelling
• Interviews
• Roundtables
• Podcasting is narrowcasting
• Stick to your audiences interests
• Style counts
• Keep it conversational ad informational, but not
  dull or monotonous
• Stick to the point
• people have lots of choices and other things to
  do with their time

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Effective Podcasts (2)

• Engage your audience
• Ask for feedback, ask questions
• Remember text is searchable
• Combine your blog with good textual notes
• Consider offering a transcript
• Inexpensive solutions available
  castingwords.com 0.75/min
• Combine with a blog to handle text, comments,
  trackbacks, etc

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Steps to make a podcast

• Create your Podcast Channel - one-time tasks
• Create an RSS file for your podcast
• Describes your podcast series
• Lists all current episodes
• Place RSS file on your Web server
• Register with iTunes Podcast Directory (optional)
• Add link to web page
• Create your podcast episodes
• Record your MP3 file (http//www.bswusa.com/prodit
  em.asp?itemPODCAST-STARTER)
• Put it on a Web server
• Add an entry to the RSS file that refers to the
  new episode

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Podcast Recording

• Equipment matters (but does not have to be
  expensive)
• Write a script first
• Keep it short - (unless your content is REALLY
  compelling to your audience)
• Software
• Audacity is a free recording/editing program
• MP3 format is universal
• Hardware - a good mic, a quiet room

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Creating the RSS Feed for your podcast

• RSS is a plain-text list of podcast episodes that
  podcatchers regularly download
• Easy to create
• Tools make it easier to manage feeds
• FeedForAll
• PodPress (for WordPress)

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Publish your podcast feed

• Publish link on your Website
• XML link
• itsc// link
• Add to iTunes Podcast Directory
• 1. Launch iTunes.
• 2. In the left navigation column, under iTunes
  Store, click on the Podcasts link to go to the
  Podcasts page.
• 3. In the left column of the Podcasts page, in
  the Learn More box at the bottom, click on the
  Submit a Podcast link.
• 4. Follow the instructions on the Submit a
  Podcast page.
• Details at http//www.apple.com/itunes/store/podca
  ststechspecs.html

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Video

• Production
• Encoding
• Target devices
• Target platforms
• Target bitrates
• Distribution
• Public, low-tech, no branding, free, ad supported
• YouTube
• Google Video
• Metcafe
• Branded
• Brightcove
• Only Via Your Site
• Video Egg, Vimeo

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Delivery - Downloading vs. Streaming

• Http download
• Also called progressive download or progressive
  streaming
• Can be done with a standard Web server
• Streaming
• Requires specialized streaming server

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HTTP downloading

• Web server accepts request for file
• Web server dumps data onto network
• Whole file sent as fast as the network can carry
  it
• User can usually begin to watch video as soon as
  enough of it has downloaded

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What happens when you stream

• Realtime streaming protocols
• rtsp// rtmp// mms//
• Two-way conversation between server and player
• Measured delivery of bits at the precise rate
  required by the bitstream
• Dropped packets are discarded (no resend
  requests)
• (has codec implications)
• Server can request content from the middle of a
  file - seeking ahead in long content, or begin
  play from the middle of a video

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Streaming vs. http download

• HTTP
• Short clips
• Constant quality, variable time
• Can deliver high-quality content for
  low-bandwidth users, if they are willing to wait

• Streaming
• Longer-form content
• Constant time, variable quality
• Scales bitrate to available bandwidth in realtime
• Random access into content
• Managed bandwidth (benefits infrastructure and
  costs)
• Viewing statistics
• Live video

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Choosing a codec/format/platform
Player Desktop Penetration Installer Size Popular Formats/ Codecs
Flash Player 97 1.31 MB FLV (Sorenson Spark or VP6)
Windows Media Player 84 6.99 MB WMV
Quicktime Player 66 32.30 MB MOV, MP4 (H.264)
Real Player 56 8.08 MB RM
Source http//www.jeroenwijering.com/?itemFLV_Vi
deo_Compression
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Bitrate vs. Bandwidth

• Bitrate determines video quality, while bandwidth
  determines the users experience
• If (bitrate gt bandwidth) user waits
• If (bitrate lt bandwidth) video plays right away
  

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Three dimensions of video quality

• Frame size
• Aspect ratios
• 43 (320x240, 240x180, 400x300)
• Widescreen
• Multiple-of-16 rule
• Frame rate
• Whole factor of original framerate
• 24fps/30fps - (Telecine)
• Image quality
• Codec and bitrate dependent

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Video Artifacts - Blockiness
Source streamingmedia.com Proprietary Codecs
Report, 2006
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Video Artifacts - Mosquitoes
Source streamingmedia.com Proprietary Codecs
Report, 2006
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Video Articfacts - Deinterlacing
Source streamingmedia.com Proprietary Codecs
Report, 2006
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Video Artifacts - Mottled Colors
Source streamingmedia.com Proprietary Codecs
Report, 2006
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Simple Production Techniques

• Get to the point
• Web audiences have lots of options
• Good lighting
• Avoid gradients
• Tripod or Handycam
• Camera motion uses up lots of bits
• Panning and zooming
• Jiggling
• Start with highest-quality originals you can find

41
Tools matter

• Video codecs define the mathematical scheme for
  encode/decode of video
• Video codecs do not define the algorithms or
  processes used to create the encoded bitstream
• Different tools perform very differently, even
  when encoding with the same codec
• Some tools better at some kinds of content than
  others

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Tools matter - 4 tools encode WindowsMedia
Source streamingmedia.com Proprietary Codecs
Report, 2006
43
Creation tools

• First-party vendor products
• RealProducer
• WindowsMedia Encoder
• Quicktime Pro
• Flash Video Encoder
• On2 Flix Pro (VP6)
• Third-party products
• Sorenson Squeeze
• Canopus Procoder
• Autodesk Cleaner
• Anystream Agility
• Telestream FlipFactory

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More info on encoding

• http//www.akamai.com/html/perspectives/whitepaper
  s_content.html
• Podcasting
• Video Encoding Best Practices
• Social Networking

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Hosting

• Destination sites
• YouTube, Metacafe, Google
• High-quality syndication
• Brightcove
• VideoEgg
• CDNs
• Akamai
• NetStorage (On your domain, mirrors local storage
  or can be primary storage)
• Delivery
• VitalStream
• mirrorImage
• Limelight

46
Mashups

• Programmatically combining sites, data, and
  features
• GPS and photos
• Geocoding images - Robogeo
• Flickr
• Google Earth
• Google Maps

47
References

• Links from this presentation
• http//www.learningapi.com/files/acilinks.html