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iTV Standard v1.1 Released
mbstone writes "The iTV Standards Initiative this week announced the release of version 1.1 of its proposed iTV Production Standards, an open XML-schema-based scheme for interactive TV. In other words your set-top box or PC TV card would use the proposed standard to let you click on something displayed on your TV screen, for example, to answer a poll or buy the product featured in a commercial."
Notice how easy it is to just change the channel when commercials come on? Now notice how few people actually change the channel when commercials come on.
People watch TV to be totally passive. They don't WANT to interact with the news channel. They just want to sit there and absorb information.
So how long until ITV (The TV channel) in the UK decides to let their lawyers loose?
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Interacting with things by clicking on it, voting in polls, isn't that called slashdot?
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
Interactive Television is the granddaddy of vapor. It has been in the works in one form or another since long before the internet. Before computers probably. It just is never going to happen.
There is a primetime war right around the corner and you can't think of anything to tune in to? These folks are working hard to bring us sound bites and live flaming footage and streaming laser-guided-bomb nose camera content and fluctuation infantry biometrics during night raids and collateral damage spreadsheets and body count projections and you're not excited?
Click on the little landmine at the bottom of your screen to see the 'Explosion of the Week [TM]! Direct from the battlefield. A CNN exclusive!!
if you want to do surfing-type stuff, the web is much better (there's more content out there, pc monitors have much higher resolution, etc.), if you want sports highlights then watch ESPN, and if you want to learn something either go to the library, use the web or watch The Discovery Channel :)
it seems that many parties are pushing for interactive TV, but that the closest thing that seems to be successful is TiVo.
i just don't think people want to *think* and watch tv at the same time, that's kind of the point.
>> Do people dress/think/act more similarly in large cities than in smaller ones?
I'd say its just the opposite. You go out to the small rural towns and everyone knows each other, looks and acts the same, and for the most part still shun ousiders to a degree.
In an urban setting you have more of a clash of all different cultures and whatnot, and a general aura of diversity that lets people feel more comfortable doing what they want.
The 'freak' with the goofy clothes, piercings, crazy music or whathaveyou looks out of place in the tiny towns, but noone bats an eye to see him in New York.
I think the smaller towns are more under the thumbs of the big media corps. I couldnt name the characters on "friends" or know who sings the mallcore ballad to the latest comic book turned into a feature film. But I bet everyone in this suburban neighbourhood I live in can.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Why doesn't the TV industry spend more effort figuring out what people actually like, instead of trying to convince us we want something that we really don't?