Dan York

Just a guy in Vermont trying to connect all the dots...

Author's posts

Mar 30

Some Quick Thoughts On Periscope, Meerkat And The Era of Simple Livestreaming

Periscope 1Unless you've been offline or ignoring social media for the past couple of weeks you've no doubt seen the dueling "livestreaming wars" between the iOS applications Meerkat and Periscope. Perhaps you've viewed some of the streams... or broadcast some yourself.

Given that I do live streaming as part of my employment, I'm fascinated by these new and emerging apps. They also remind me of what Qik tried to do back in the mid-2000s before Skype bought Qik in 2011 and promptly shut the service down. (Only to have Qik re-emerge recently as a different kind of mobile messaging service from Skype.)

I've been playing with both Meerkat and Periscope and offer a few quick thoughts based on my own experience. I will be exploring these apps more... but want to record some comments for today's For Immediate Release podcast episode and want to use this post as a basis for that report.

The beauty of both of these apps is that it makes it absolutely TRIVIAL for someone to start live streaming. Just login with Twitter and press the a button to start broadcasting live to the world!!!

Here are some thoughts about both apps and then some thoughts on this larger new era of simple live streaming.

Periscope

Periscope was purchased by Twitter and apparently had the app in development for quite some time. Things I like:

  • Polished user interface.
  • The "hearts" that you can give to "like" something are fun.
  • The replay capability is useful... although it seems the stored videos are only available for something like 24 hours.

Things I am not as excited about:

  • The comments appear and then disappear... and there seems to be no way I could find to go back and see them again, without replaying the video. Given that in a couple of trials I was driving with my iPhone on my dashboard, I could NOT read the comments while driving.
  • No horizontal orientation... you have to hold the phone in a vertical orientation. Yes, you can turn the phone sideways and hold it horizontally, but all the comments and hearts still come in the vertical orientation.
  • Several people viewing my live streams indicated they had connection issues.

Meerkat

Meerkat was out before Periscope and captured a great amount of attention at SXSW and recent conferences. Things I like:

  • Comments are scrollable within the stream. You can read them later (during the time of the stream).
  • You can hold the camera horizontally.
  • Comments can be out onto Twitter.
  • You can answer comments by text within the app (although is this really important? I'm not sure).
  • So far no connection issues for me... but I've seen others have issues.

Things I am not as excited about:

  • Comments are gone after the stream.
  • No replay capability.

Changing Our Expectation Around Privacy

I think there is a larger societal question we need to be thinking about - that person walking down the street holding a phone up can be streaming everything they see live out onto the public Internet?

Intellectual Property

To that point... there are a whole host of intellectual property issues that I think we as a society will need to address. Nothing whatsoever technically prevents someone from streaming a concert or any presentation live. There are many artists and speakers who charge for their events and don't want them live streamed.

Cost

People in the mobile telecommunications companies have to be loving this - here are ways that people will generate a great amount of mobile data very quickly! Unless people have "unlimited" telecom data plans, they are going to be running up some good-sized costs. Great for the telcos... not so great for the producers. However, any event with "free" WiFi around could easily attract a good number of streams.

Bandwidth

All of these live video streams will create some interesting additional pressures on the Internet's infrastructure. Particularly in situations where there is "asymmetrical" connections, i.e. you have a faster download than upload speed. The streaming out of events could create a much larger requirement for upload speeds than there has been before.

Digital Divide

All of which feeds into a question about the "digital divide". The Internet users who are in regions with good Internet connectivity will be both able to produce/broadcast and also able to consume all these live streams. What about people in other parts of the world where bandwidth is much more limited? How will they be able to participate in this new era of live streaming?

Similarly, these Periscope and Meerket apps are right now only available on Apple's iOS platform... what if you can't afford an iPhone?

Ephemeral Moments and FOMO

One of the interesting elements of Meerkat is that once the stream is gone... it's gone. It's ephemeral like Snapchat... it's there... it's gone. You have to be there to see it and participate.

This leads to the "Fear Of Missing Out" (FOMO) and the "need" to be part of that.

Periscope allows replays, which changes it a bit. Now it's a recording available for some time. I'm not sure which is better.

[Side note: I don't know how truly "ephemeral" either Meerkat or Periscope is... the streams have to go through some server out there and the server could easily record any and all streams.]

Rich Interaction

What I did find very cool about using both Periscope and Meerkat was the rich interaction I could have with the audience. They were able to leave comments that I could react to right within the stream itself. They were able to guide the conversation... asking questions that I then answered.

In several cases friends I knew joined into my live streams. In one case this meant I switched to speaking German because I knew a German friend was watching. In another I switched the camera to view myself so that a friend I hadn't seen in a few years could see what I look like today.

It was great in so many ways to have this rich interaction during a stream. I'm looking forward to trying this out in some events in the future.

Final Thoughts...

... I'm very intrigued by these new applications. They make live streaming so incredibly simple and easy for anyone to do. I think we do have some of these larger societal issues and conventions to think through... but our era of ubiquitous live streaming is definitely upon us.

I see great potential for these apps in live streaming of events... for citizen journalism... breaking news... bearing witness to unfolding events... marketing/webinar types of events... indie musicians and artists... tutorials...

The reality of course is that we'll also see a lot of incredibly mundane and boring live streams. We'll probably see a good deal of porn. We'll see other ways to abuse live streams that will appall us. That's what always happens with any new service.

I will continue testing the apps. I want to see what else they can do. I want to explore more of the technical aspects - things such as their actual bandwidth usage. I want to know if any of them work over IPv6. (Sadly, expecting them NOT to do so.) I want to understand how secure they are.

So I'll be writing more... as I have time to do so.

Meanwhile, these are just some initial thoughts.

What do you think? Are you experimenting with either Periscope or Meerkat? Or some other similar app?

P.S. See also "Periscope and live video are changing the internet forever", a good take on how these apps are already changing live news...

If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:

Mar 30

Keeping The Web Open: Dave Winer’s "Radically Silo-Free" MyWord Editor

silosDave Winer is at it again. The creator of some of the original blogging software back in the early 2000s and one of the creators of RSS released last week his "radically silo-free" blogging editor MyWord Editor (MWE) with this purpose:

A shot in the arm for the open web. A way for JavaScript developers to collaborate on a new fun project. A way to escape from the silos that threaten to turn us into commercial robots, consumers and promoters, when we aspire to be thinkers and doers.

Think of it as bringing the ease and beauty of writing of Medium... without being locked into Medium's platform. (Or at least... I would say that is the aspiration... Dave's MWE is still in development.)

The MyWord Editor code is available as open source on Github at:

Dave calls it "radical" for this reason:

These days blogging tools try to lock you into their business model, and lock other developers out. I have the freedom to do what I want, so I decided to take the exact opposite approach. I don't want to lock people in and make them dependent on me. Instead, I want to learn from thinkers and writers and developers. I want to engage with other minds. Making money, at this stage of my career, is not so interesting to me. I'd much rather make ideas, and new working relationships, and friends.

He goes on to explain why MWE is “silo-free”:

  1. There's an open API that connects the in-browser app to the server. So you can replace the app. Or the server. Or both.

  2. Because there's an open API, you can build anything you want at either end. You're not limited by my vision of what's possible. Let a thousand flowers bloom.

  3. The app is provided in source, MIT license. So there are no secrets. And you can use my source as the starting point for your own editor.

  4. The server is provided in source, MIT license. No secrets, etc./p>

  5. The app has a command that downloads all your content in JSON, so you can move your data from one server to another, at any time. If any instance removes this command, alarms should ring out all over the land. It's your content, ladies and gentlemen, not theirs.

  6. Of course every MyWord user has a great full-featured RSS 2.0 feed. We love RSS and it feeds us and we feed it, it's doing great, and anyone who disses it is a mean rotten silo-lover.

He followed this with another post explaining more:

and then he further expressed his view that WordPress is also silo-free... but there is also a need for a better and simpler user experience:

where he made this statement:

Blogging is frozen

There haven't been new features in blogging in a long time. Where's the excitement? It looks to me like there's been no effort made to factor the user interface, to simplify and group functionality so the first-time user isn't confronted with the full feature set, left on his or her own to figure out where to go to create a new post or edit an existing one. Blogging platforms can be both easier and more powerful, I know because I've made blogging platforms that were

You can read more about this at http://myword.io/ ... and you can play with a hosted version yourself at:

(Yes, of course, I had to try it out.) It uses Twitter as an identity provider right now... but of course the code is open source so someone could hack away and look to use a different identity provider.

As someone who has been gravely concerned about "lock in" and the need for us to have control over our own content (think back to my posts about Known And The Indie Web), I am pleased to see this entry into the range of tools we can use for sites. Yes, I do most of my own work in WordPress these days... but I also very much understand Dave's notion that we need simpler tools with an easy user experience.

As I have the time I definitely intend to check out MWE and set up my own instance of it. I'm glad Dave is out there building tools like this... let's see where it goes!

What do you think?

Image credit: Doc Searls on Flickr

If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:

Mar 30

FIR #801 – 3/30/15 – For Immediate Release

New PR podcast from Philippe Borremans; FIR interview coming with Syracuse University London Millennials; Quick News: Brands flock to Periscope, being seen as innovative is good for the bottom line, Slack is killing IRC, MPs will get iPad Air 2 tablets; Ragan promo; News That Fits: new streaming apps could boost citizen journalism, Dan York's Tech Report, drilling a social media crisis, Media Monitoring Minute from CustomScoop, listener comments, wearable tech will become the norm within 5 years, the past week on the FIR Podcast Network, Igloo Software promo, lots of announcements from Facebook; music from Moon Taxi; and more.

Mar 29

TDYR 235 – Sundays, Churches and the Impact of Youth Sports

TDYR 235 - Sundays, Churches and the Impact of Youth Sports by Dan York

Mar 27

The Intersection of Human Rights…. and IETF Protocols?

Should considerations for human rights such as freedom of expression or freedom of assocation be incorporated into the development of Internet protocols and standards?

That's the key question being asked today in a session at IETF 92 in Dallas, TX, where there is a proposal to create a "Human Rights Protocol Considerations Research Group" within the IRTF. You can tune in live from 11:50-13:20 US CDT (UTC-5) at:

http://www.meetecho.com/ietf92/hrpc

Dan York

Mar 27

Deploy360@IETF92, Day 5: EPPEXT… and we’re done!

Face of IETFOn this  final day of IETF 92 our Deploy360 attention will be focused on only one working group, EPPEXT, that is looking at communication between registries, registrars and other entities working with domain names.   There only two blocks of working group sessions today… and then everyone heads home!  Here’s what this abbreviated day looks like for us…

NOTE: If you are unable to attend IETF 92 in person, there are multiple ways to participate remotely.

The sessions in the first 0900-1130 CDT block are not ones that we typically follow.  I may be monitoring CORE, as it deals with Internet of Things (IoT) issues, or perhaps MMUSIC as there is a draft dealing with IPv4 vs IPv6 connectivity.

Finally, in the very last 1150-1320 session, the Extensible Provisioning Protocol Extensions (EPPEXT) working group will be meeting in the Oak Room.  I mentioned EPPEXT in my Rough Guide to IETF 92 post but at the time the agenda was not available.  The IETF 92 agenda is now available, and it includes:

One of the existing documents of interest to us is one that helps with the automation of relaying DNSSEC key material between DNS operators.  We’re also just interested in general with steps that can help automate the communication among these various entities.

And then… with that… IETF 92 will draw to a close!

Many thanks for reading along this week… please do read our other IETF 92-related posts … and we’ll see you at IETF 93 in Prague in July!

Relevant Working Groups:

For more background on what is happening at IETF 92, please see our “Rough Guide to IETF 92″ posts on the ITM blog:

If you are at IETF 92 in Dallas, please do feel free to say hello to our Chris Grundemann. And if you want to get started with IPv6, DNSSEC or one of our other topics, please visit our “Start Here” page to find resources appropriate to your type of organization.

Image: some of the faces and scenes appearing in Olaf Kolkman’s collection of IETF 92 photos. Used with his permission.

The post Deploy360@IETF92, Day 5: EPPEXT… and we’re done! appeared first on Internet Society.

Mar 27

Deploy360@IETF92, Day 5: EPPEXT… and we’re done!

Face of IETFOn this  final day of IETF 92 our Deploy360 attention will be focused on only one working group, EPPEXT, that is looking at communication between registries, registrars and other entities working with domain names.   There only two blocks of working group sessions today… and then everyone heads home!  Here’s what this abbreviated day looks like for us…

NOTE: If you are unable to attend IETF 92 in person, there are multiple ways to participate remotely.

The sessions in the first 0900-1130 CDT block are not ones that we typically follow.  I may be monitoring CORE, as it deals with Internet of Things (IoT) issues, or perhaps MMUSIC as there is a draft dealing with IPv4 vs IPv6 connectivity.

Finally, in the very last 1150-1320 session, the Extensible Provisioning Protocol Extensions (EPPEXT) working group will be meeting in the Oak Room.  I mentioned EPPEXT in my Rough Guide to IETF 92 post but at the time the agenda was not available.  The IETF 92 agenda is now available, and it includes:

One of the existing documents of interest to us is one that helps with the automation of relaying DNSSEC key material between DNS operators.  We’re also just interested in general with steps that can help automate the communication among these various entities.

And then… with that… IETF 92 will draw to a close!

Many thanks for reading along this week… please do read our other IETF 92-related posts … and we’ll see you at IETF 93 in Prague in July!

Relevant Working Groups:

For more background on what is happening at IETF 92, please see our “Rough Guide to IETF 92″ posts on the ITM blog:

If you are at IETF 92 in Dallas, please do feel free to say hello to our Chris Grundemann. And if you want to get started with IPv6, DNSSEC or one of our other topics, please visit our “Start Here” page to find resources appropriate to your type of organization.

Image: some of the faces and scenes appearing in Olaf Kolkman’s collection of IETF 92 photos. Used with his permission.

Mar 26

Jim Courtney Discussing His "Experience Skype To The Max" Book on March 27 on VUC at Noon US EDT

Vuc534 skype to the maxWant to learn more about what's up with Skype right now? Tomorrow, March 27, 2015, at 12 noon US Eastern, my friend Jim Courtney is going to be discussing the new second edition of his "Experience Skype to the Max" on episode 534 of the VoIP Users Conference (VUC) podcast.

As noted on the VUC page, Jim will be talking about:

  • New features over the past three years and why they don’t have the “buzz” impact that new features used to have. Are we becoming calloused to anything new?
  • The challenge of innovating with a product that has built up a legacy and familiarity
  • The challenge of educating users about features beyond free voice and video calling (and it’s also a challenge for smartphones – to make users realize there is value in all those applications available beyond voice calls and SMS messages).
  • The feature set to consider when evaluating other alternatives
  • The directory issue
  • Skype vs Skype for Business
  • Asynchronous vs real time comms (migrating to IM backend has allowed more “persistence” with chat messaging, for instance)
  • Anytime communications Rooms

It should be a good session. I've known Jim for many years through his blogging about VoIP and he has a great amount of knowledge about Skype. Sadly, I'll be occupied with IETF 92 activities during the live broadcast so I will have to catch up with the recording of the session.

It's probably best to also join the IRC backchannel where links are shared, questions are answered and other comments occur. You also can visit the Google+ event page for the VUC #534 session today where there may be additional links and info.

If you won't be at your computer, you can also call in via:

  • sip:200901@login.zipdx.com
  • +1 (646) 475-2098
  • Skype:vuc.me

The session will of course be recorded so you can listen/watch later. Here is the YouTube live video stream:

If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:

Mar 26

Deploy360@IETF92, Day 4: More IPv6 Operations, TLS, and much Security

IETF 92 - Kathleen MoriartyThis  fourth day of IETF 92 has a heavy focus on security for us on the Deploy360 team.  While the day starts with the second of two IPv6 Operations (v6OPS) working group sessions, the rest of the day is pretty much all about security, security, security!

NOTE: If you are unable to attend IETF 92 in person, there are multiple ways to participate remotely.

In the 0900-1130 CDT block this morning, the second IPv6 Operations (v6OPS) sessions continues with their busy agenda in the Gold Room. Here are today’s topics:

A number of those should generate good discussion.

Meanwhile, over in the Oak Room, the TLS Working Group will be discussing improvements to this incredibly critical protocol that we are using to encrypt so many different communications over the Internet.  As my colleague Karen O’Donahue wrote:

The tls (Transport Layer Security) working group is actively working on an update to the TLS protocol. They recently conducted an interim meeting in Seattle, WA, on 10-11 March 2015. Agenda items for IETF 92 include backwards compatibility, rekeying, and client authentication.

After lunch the 1300-1500 CDT block has the Security Area Open Meeting in the International Room. The current agenda is this:

  • Joe Bonneau/HSTS and HPKP in practice (30 mins)
  • Adam Langley/QUIC (15 mins)
  • Jan Včelák/NSEC5 (10 mins)
  • Ladar Levinson/Darkmail (20 mins)
  • Paul Wouters/Opportunistic IPsec update (1 minute)
  • Eric Rescorla/Secure Conferencing (5 mins)

Several of these presentations tie directly into the work we are doing here.  The HSTS/HPKP is “certificate pinning” and very relevant to TLS, as is the QUIC presentation.  The NSEC5 is a new proposal for DNSSEC that, judging by the mailing list traffic, should get strong debate.

The 1520-1720 CDT block doesn’t contain any of the working groups we usually track, but there will be both a Routing Area Open Meeting as well as an Operations Area Open Meeting.

In the final 1740-1840 CDT block the Operational Security (OPSec) Working Group will be meeting in the Far East Room with a number of IPv6 and routing issues on their agenda.

Bits-and-Bites

The day will end with the Bits-and-Bites reception from 1900-2100 CDT  where attendees can get food and drink and also see various exhibits from sponsors and other organizations.  As I wrote in my Rough Guide post:

 I’m told that one table will be from Verisign Labs where they will be showing demonstrations of the getdns API being used with DNSSEC and DANE.  I’m not exactly sure what will be there, but if you are going to Bits-and-Bites you may want to stop by their table and see what it is about.

I understand there may be some cool demos from other vendors and groups as well. (I’m looking forward to seeing photos!)

For some more background, please read these Rough Guide posts from Andrei, Phil and Karen:

Relevant Working Groups:

For more background on what is happening at IETF 92, please see our “Rough Guide to IETF 92″ posts on the ITM blog:

If you are at IETF 92 in Dallas, please do feel free to say hello to our Chris Grundemann. And if you want to get started with IPv6, DNSSEC or one of our other topics, please visit our “Start Here” page to find resources appropriate to your type of organization.

Image: a photo from Jari Arkko of Kathleen Moriarty and Lisandro Granville at the IETF 92 Administrative Plenary

The post Deploy360@IETF92, Day 4: More IPv6 Operations, TLS, and much Security appeared first on Internet Society.

Mar 26

Deploy360@IETF92, Day 4: More IPv6 Operations, TLS, and much Security

IETF 92 - Kathleen MoriartyThis  fourth day of IETF 92 has a heavy focus on security for us on the Deploy360 team.  While the day starts with the second of two IPv6 Operations (v6OPS) working group sessions, the rest of the day is pretty much all about security, security, security!

NOTE: If you are unable to attend IETF 92 in person, there are multiple ways to participate remotely.

In the 0900-1130 CDT block this morning, the second IPv6 Operations (v6OPS) sessions continues with their busy agenda in the Gold Room. Here are today’s topics:

A number of those should generate good discussion.

Meanwhile, over in the Oak Room, the TLS Working Group will be discussing improvements to this incredibly critical protocol that we are using to encrypt so many different communications over the Internet.  As my colleague Karen O’Donahue wrote:

The tls (Transport Layer Security) working group is actively working on an update to the TLS protocol. They recently conducted an interim meeting in Seattle, WA, on 10-11 March 2015. Agenda items for IETF 92 include backwards compatibility, rekeying, and client authentication.

After lunch the 1300-1500 CDT block has the Security Area Open Meeting in the International Room. The current agenda is this:

  • Joe Bonneau/HSTS and HPKP in practice (30 mins)
  • Adam Langley/QUIC (15 mins)
  • Jan Včelák/NSEC5 (10 mins)
  • Ladar Levinson/Darkmail (20 mins)
  • Paul Wouters/Opportunistic IPsec update (1 minute)
  • Eric Rescorla/Secure Conferencing (5 mins)

Several of these presentations tie directly into the work we are doing here.  The HSTS/HPKP is “certificate pinning” and very relevant to TLS, as is the QUIC presentation.  The NSEC5 is a new proposal for DNSSEC that, judging by the mailing list traffic, should get strong debate.

The 1520-1720 CDT block doesn’t contain any of the working groups we usually track, but there will be both a Routing Area Open Meeting as well as an Operations Area Open Meeting.

In the final 1740-1840 CDT block the Operational Security (OPSec) Working Group will be meeting in the Far East Room with a number of IPv6 and routing issues on their agenda.

Bits-and-Bites

The day will end with the Bits-and-Bites reception from 1900-2100 CDT  where attendees can get food and drink and also see various exhibits from sponsors and other organizations.  As I wrote in my Rough Guide post:

 I’m told that one table will be from Verisign Labs where they will be showing demonstrations of the getdns API being used with DNSSEC and DANE.  I’m not exactly sure what will be there, but if you are going to Bits-and-Bites you may want to stop by their table and see what it is about.

I understand there may be some cool demos from other vendors and groups as well. (I’m looking forward to seeing photos!)

For some more background, please read these Rough Guide posts from Andrei, Phil and Karen:

Relevant Working Groups:

For more background on what is happening at IETF 92, please see our “Rough Guide to IETF 92″ posts on the ITM blog:

If you are at IETF 92 in Dallas, please do feel free to say hello to our Chris Grundemann. And if you want to get started with IPv6, DNSSEC or one of our other topics, please visit our “Start Here” page to find resources appropriate to your type of organization.

Image: a photo from Jari Arkko of Kathleen Moriarty and Lisandro Granville at the IETF 92 Administrative Plenary