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Re: DW Web Link

{contextual note: Jeffrey Edalatpour web designer at KQED asked me to
put a link to the Digital West site on my web site and I declined
saying, I'd be happy to put a link if KQED/DW would give me approval to
publish a streaming media version of the webcast.  As usual, the
response was "we can't do it because rights are difficult/impossible to
clear."  My response is as follows.}

Hi -

I readily understand the rights problem.  But, consider it from another
perspective.  As best as I can tell almost nobody watched the two shows
over the weekend. Have you gotten the local ratings yet?  If so, what
were they?  Moreover, few people outside SF saw/know anything about the
show. My sense is that numerous people would like to see the show, but
until it is published on the web, few people will see it. 

Now what would it take to get approval to publish the streaming web
version.  Seems to me you need releases from the following
people/organzations:

1. KQED
2. Cringley
3. the panel guests
4. the ligos folks
5. the respondtv folks

I'll bet I could get the releases signed by 2-5 in less than a week. 
Now, you get KQED to approve it and we're done. I'll publish it within
24 hours.

As a practical matter, I understand KQED doesn't want to do it for one
or more of the following reasons:

1. The digital asset is worth too much to give it away free on the web.
2. We don't want the DW show to be seen outside SF Bay area until we
sell it to other PBS stations.  This particular show might not be the
best representative of the show for sales purposes.  We want to control
the marketing information we use and how we present it.
3. The quality of Internet streaming media is too poor for a high
quality production from a major television station.
4. We don't understand the Internet and we're uncertain how to proceed.
Until we know what to do, the best course is to do nothing.
5. We have to pay rights fees to someone (RR?) when the show is
broadcast.
5. <put your excuse here>

Sorry to be hostile, but Bob Cringley's pejorative comment in the green
room in response to Scott's statement that KQED is still trying to
figure out it's web strategy was right on - you don't have one.
	Larry
-- 
Professor Lawrence A. Rowe          Internet:  Rowe@BMRC.Berkeley.EDU
Computer Science Division - EECS       Phone: 510-642-5117
University of California, Berkeley       Fax: 510-642-5615
Berkeley, CA 94720-1776            URL: http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/~larry

-- BEGIN included message

Title: RE: DW Web Link

Lawrence,
I'm sorry but I do not have the authority to give you permission to encode and publish the show. Giving out the rights to do so are actually quite complex but thanks for the offer. I'll let you know when we're streaming our shows.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey

-----Original Message-----
From: Lawrence A. Rowe [mailto:Rowe@bmrc.berkeley.edu]
Sent: Friday, November 24, 2000 8:53 PM
To: Jeffrey Edalatpour
Subject: Re: DW Web Link


give me permission to encode and publish the video of this show.  i have
a server and capacity to do it.  i would do it since i was on the show,
but not for the station generally.  in terms of cost - there are real
costs and i don't have an obvious way for kqed to make money on the
material, unless you do a pay-per-view or advertising model with obvious
free access to members.
        larry
--
Professor Lawrence A. Rowe          Internet:  Rowe@BMRC.Berkeley.EDU
Computer Science Division - EECS       Phone: 510-642-5117
University of California, Berkeley       Fax: 510-642-5615
Berkeley, CA 94720-1776            URL: http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/~larry

-- END included message

-- BEGIN included message

Title: RE: DW Web Link

        Larry,
        Our IT department has been looking into an affordable solution for streaming for some months.
        If you have a proposal in mind, please email our IT director
            Edward Chen, at echen@kqed.org.
        Thanks,
        jse

-- END included message