Editorial
What probably best summed up the changing media landscape in 2006 was Time Magazine's decision to put a reflective mirror on its cover, subtly stating that its annual nomination for “person of the year” was in fact “You”. As its bye-line read: “Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world”. What this sentiment acknowledged, among other things, was the powerful impact that Web 2.0 technologies has had on the internet and the rise of User-Generated Content (USG) during 2006. |
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Of course, the biggest example of the triumph of USG during the year was the sale of Youtube to Google for the princely sum of $1.65 billion making its founders - Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim – the most envied twenty-something entrepreneurs in the world.
But there has also been a number of happy convergences that make 2006 stand out as something of a “tipping point” for digital media take-up. The Hub has decided to list out some of the fundamental trends witnessed in 2006 and examine the profound effects they may have in terms of paving the way for the digital future:
The rise of LCD and plasma screens. Or more alternatively, the displacement of the traditional cathode ray tube television. Televisions went widescreen, flat and most importantly, digital. Anyone in PowerCity or Dixons over the Christmas period can attest to this. With LCD and plasma screen technology, the TV now seamlessly integrates into the wall of any apartment or house – and frequently in any number of rooms. They truly are becoming windows on the world.
With multiple connections on the back, you can easily plug-in game consoles, DVD recorders, PVRs and set-top boxes and the PC and, more importantly, switch between them at your leisure. Finally the TV is not just for viewers, it is for users too. The distinction between monitor and television has become necessarily blurred. |
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The next stage now is for easier and inexpensive networking solutions (like “plug and play”) so that media can be ported around the home from one room to the next from a centralised media hub with ease. Then the dream of the Digital Home may be one step closer to realisation for everyone.
Broadband connectivity nears ubiquity. Ireland has been slow. Very slow. But the rest of the world has moved with the times. Finally, the concept of broadband as a utility – like water or electricity - is getting through. The real killer Web 2.0 applications – like Youtube, Apple iTunes, Second Life or Google Earth – all demand a broadband connection and this has fuelled demand for broadband and also for the applications in turn. The next phase now is higher download and upload speeds through technologies such as fibre to the kerb and Wi-Max. Watch eircom and other players move into this space in 2007.
Laptops outstrip Desktops; go wireless. 2006 was the year that laptops (or notebooks) began to outstrip desktop PCs in terms of sales. Computing has suddenly gone portable, thanks largely to built-in Wi-Fi technology as standard. Increasingly, we are seeing more and more people in coffee shops and libraries with their laptops. In fact, Ireland has one of the highest penetration of Wi-Fi hotspots in Europe and the idea of free city-wide Wi-Fi is being seriously mooted by a number of city councils.
2007 will now see the release of Nicholas Negroponte's $100 laptops to the developing world, complete with wireless connectivity. This could be the ideal stimulus for Ireland (in keeping with its desire to be a leading knowledge economy) to introduce cheap cost-effective laptops into the primary and post-primary education system. Could the government follow the Home PC initiative with an even bolder “Laptops for all” in the education system? |
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Mobiles go multi-media. 2006 was certainly the year when mobiles clearly became more then just phones. It is arguable that post-pay users upgraded to 3G more for the functionality of the new range of phones – with increasingly sophisticated built-in cameras, FM radio and MP3 players - then necessarily for the increased bandwidth and ability to surf the net. However, the rise of the Blackberry and other smart phones was certainly pushed by the killer function of email on the fly. All four mobile operators in Ireland began trialling Mobile TV services with Vodafone launching a commercial service over 3G with Sky.
The next few years will now see the mobile operators steely grip tested by the rapid convergence of technologies that is happening in the handsets. Built in Wi-Fi and DVB-H receivers will offer other avenues of media content and applications (such as VoIP) to users outside the stranglehold of the operators networks. However, the integration of Web 2.0 services into the mobile web may open up new cash cows for the operators as User-Generated Content fuels the changing media landscape. Youtube on your mobile, anyone? |
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Storage gets bigger and cheaper. Lastly, 2006 saw a further precipitous drop in the price of storage as well as the exponential rise in storage capacity. This could be seen right across the board. Ipods are up to 80Gb – few would have a music collection capable of filling that size but with video now an option, iPods are more storage hungry. 1Gb flash and USB cards are available for less then €50 – remember only a few short years ago, 1Gb was standard hard disk memory in a PC!. Laptops and PCs again have much more storage capacity both in terms of RAM and hard disk memory. All this increased storage capacity is fuelling the Web 2.0 application market which support user-generated content. Second Life and Youtube require vast storage capacities. In the home, personal video recorders and media centres can now increasingly cope with the vast storage demands.
Thanks to Moore's Law, this trend is set to continue. This increasingly will mean the displacement of physical storage such as DVDs and CDs and does put a question mark over the HD-DVD vs Blu-ray battle; might both lose in the long run as digital storage becomes cheaper and studios move towards digital distribution?
So we can see that a number of trends are driving the digital media sector and what's clear is it doesn't look to stop anytime soon. One thing is increasingly clear however. Cheap and fast broadband is a necessity, if Ireland is to stay ahead of the curve. The opportunities that ubiquitous broadband offers in terms of fuelling innovation far outweighs the cost of providing it. Anyone with a laptop, a broadband connection and a basic technical training can now compete on a global scale – whether it is offering an online platform for a traditional business or just selling stuff over eBay. The tools are there.
Virtual Worlds
The film “The Matrix” in many ways was a culturally-defining moment of the 1990's. With its post-modernist smorgasbord of cultural references from manga, video games and graphic novels to philosophy and a litany of 20th century paranoid conspiracy theories, it summed up much of the decade's collective Generation X neurosis. And like all great art, life seems set to imitate it.
As Science Fiction is prone to predict the devastating potential of technology, so too reality seems destined to embrace it regardless, if only to then spin it in a new and wholly unexpected direction. |
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Now that we've turned George Orwell's dystopian future of Big Brother into a gladiatorial-like TV game show contest (both creating celebrities and pitting them against each other), it seems we are well on the road to creating our own Matrix-like entertainment prison courtesy of Virtual Reality.
The Hub first came across online virtual worlds back in 1999 when Roland Emmerich (the director of Independence Day and Godzilla) popped up as producer on a low-budget science-fiction film, “The Thirteenth Floor”. A virtual version of the film was created in VRML (or Virtual Reality Mark-up Language) by Active Worlds (www.activeworlds.com), which allowed the user to download the Active Worlds browser, choose an Avatar and explore the virtual world of “The Thirteenth Floor”. The word “Avatar” is taken from Hindu mythology and is the term for a god that has taken a life form on earth. In a virtual online world, an avatar is the form that you've taken. The Hub remembers being truly spooked when approached by another “avatar” for the very first time and addressed through an Instant Messaging system. There was something of a Dr. Frankenstein-feel to the whole exercise and if there is one thing that literature has taught us, it is that mortals who seek to imitate the gods will inevitably be punished.
In this case, the punishment was being enclosed in a rather unimpressive virtual mall with little to do of interest. The graphics were blocky and slow, you needed a dedicated broadband connection and the site looked like it was going nowhere. As The Hub thought at the time, why would you want to recreate the spatial problems of the real world in a virtual one? Wasn't the whole point about the web the speed and ease of finding things? What's the appeal of walking aimlessly around a virtually barren environment? But that was before the concept of User-Generated Content took off.
Cut to 2006 and newspapers are abuzz with the Second Life phenomenon. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Second Life (www.secondlife.com) is a privately owned, partly subscription-based 3-D virtual world made publicly available in 2003 by San Francisco based, Linden Labs. Its founder was former Real Networks CTO Philip Rosedale. As of December 2006, 10 to 20,000 users are in SL at any one time. On December 14th 2006, the number of registered user accounts reached two million (double what it was on October 18th). This makes it quite an impressive virtual constituency and one which the big brands are starting to get interested in.
And one of those interested is Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of technical strategy and innovation at IBM who have just bought and opened up to the public 12 new islands of real estate on Second Life .
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As he put it in a recent interview with CNET, (conducted virtually from IBM's virtual Almaden Research Center):
“There is something very human about visual interfaces. I almost think of text-based interfaces, including browsers, as "narrowband" into our brains, whereas visual interfaces are broadband into our brains. Our brains are wired for sight and sound--that is what makes Second Life different from chat.”
Part of IBM's desire is to promote standards and inter-operability across virtual environments. This is something they did previously (and to great effect) when they got involved in e-commerce and open source platforms such as Linux. The rationale is that if they help build a sustainable free economy online, IBM will see a return on investment by selling more systems, software and services to support that economy. Virtual Worlds seems to them like the next step in the online evolutionary process.
However, Virtual Worlds are nothing new. They have long been a mainstay of the gaming community where they are more fashionably called Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (or MMORPGs for short). Games like World of Warcraft have over 5 million subscribers and are hugely popular in Asia and are gaining more and more credibility in the Western world. The rise of MMoRPGs has also been noticed by the movie industry – especially Sony – and now fans can immerse themselves in the world of Star Wars (www.startwasgalaxies.com), The Matrix (www.thematrixonline.com) or Middle Earth (http://lotro.turbine.com/).
But Second Life is different. Although it has taken a lead from the MMoRPGs (and they in turn no doubt will be influenced by it), it’s not a game and as such its appeal is much broader demographically then the avid gamer. It is a community where social interaction is the central activity – and this has lent itself to entertainment and business functionality. IBM, for instance, are opting for meetings online in Second Life as opposed to conference calls.
Even in Ireland, the Second Life phenomenon is apace. An Irish man, John Mahon (whose virtual handle is Hans Rambler) is a 48-year-old Dubliner and part-owner of a private airline (Astraeus) in London. He has developed a virtual Dublin within Second Life, containing contains two bars, a re-creation of Trinity College, The Ha’penny Bridge, Temple Bar and St Stephen’s Green.. He has even built a website dedicated to it at www.dublinsl.com |
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Mahon originally came across Second Life two years ago when he read a newspaper article about a woman in the US who hired a Private Detective to spy on her husband in Second Life where she suspected he was having a “virtual” affair. Mahon went online to see what the fuss was all about and a hobby was born. Except now it is more then a hobby - it is set to make him money too.
“I’m close to breaking even right now — I’ve spent about €3,600 in total and I’ve put a lot of work into building virtual Dublin. The rent I make from all my properties averages about €800 per month. But there are other income opportunities which I hope to make far more from. For example, I’ve recently signed a contract with a real-life mortgage lending firm who want me to do some Second Life-style promo for them in real life. Then there’s sponsorship. You can’t quibble with 8,900 people passing through the Blarney Stone each night. We’re about to start approaching drinks companies to sponsor the bar.”
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The Blarney Stone’s proprietor is Miss Zeeblebob from Yorkshire who works for tips (in Linden Dollars – Second Life’s virtual currency).
And in fact, apart from buying up and renting real estate the other main source of revenue in Second Life is in the buying and selling of “virtual” goods and services. You can learn how to dance. You can buy virtual clothes. Now, you can also pay to go and see gigs.
“We’re also looking at bigger music events (the bar hosts real-life gigs channelled by audio link up). We’re talking to people about linking up to a live UK event which will have nine top-name bands taking part. We hope to have them performing in the Blarney Stone.”
 Virtual Halfpenny bridge |
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But Mahon has a long way to go before he gets into the big league of virtual property speculation in Second Life. It is estimated that 17,000 of the 1.3m members of Second Life are landlords.
The wealthiest, by far, is Anshe Chung, the avatar name of an investor who owns $250,000 (€194,000) of virtual land, generating an income of $100,000 per year. Chung has recently moved her real offices from Frankfurt to China where she has programmers and developers developing her properties at a far lower cost then in Europe.
With IBM entering the fray, there is a good chance that we will quickly see interoperability between software tools that allow for the creation of these virtual worlds. It is clear from Second Life that empowering the user creates results. In some ways that is the failing of the MMoRPGs – the “walled garden” approach they take. But then again, this may change if a company called Multiverse Networks (www.multiverse.net) have anything to do with it. Multiverse are the makers of an MMORPG construction set that aims to lower the development and deployment cost of multiplayer online games.
At present, they are involved in developing a number of MMoRPGS, including one based on Joss Wheedon's Firefly sci-fi series. Like Star Trek, Firefly has gained an even bigger cult status since it was taken off the air. So the idea of exploring the Firefly universe through an MMORPG makes a lot of sense. |
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The company plans to contract out the majority of the game's development work to a yet-unnamed third party. A playable beta of the game is scheduled for release some time in 2008.
This approach – as with Second Life – opens the way for innovation and new ways of story-telling that were unimaginable only a few short years ago. For example, Film Producers who are making sci-fi or fantasy films, could potentially create their own games quite easily by sharing assets between the post-production suite and the freelance game developer. The thing about Sci-Fi and fantasy literature is that it is so immersive. Which fan of J.R.R. Tolkien or J.K. Rowling hasn't dreamt of exploring Middle earth or Hogwart's all by themselves? Well, MMoRPGs and Virtual Worlds give readers that opportunity and - as Second Life proves - it doesn't necessarily have to be a "game". So it seems virtual worlds are finally being added to the arsenal of those who want to tell and share stories. We might be building “The Matrix” but at least we’re in control of it - for now.
News
Dec. 22nd : Digital Hub Reveals Record Growth in 2006
- 44% increase in number of companies
- Significant expansion of existing Digital Hub companies
- Increasing number of international companies expected over coming years
The Digital Hub project, located in the Liberties area of Dublin, continues to go from strength to strength.
Issuing its end-of-year statement, the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA) revealed record growth in the number of companies locating in The Digital Hub, with 72 companies now located in the project, up from 50 at the end of last year.
According to DHDA Chief Executive Officer, Philip Flynn, “2006 has been a significant year in the development of The Digital Hub. The past 12 months have seen a 44% increase in the number of companies located here. This is the strongest growth that the Digital Hub project has witnessed to date and it proves that delivering not only the right office choice for digital media companies but the right business opportunities is setting us apart in the market.
In addition to attracting new companies, The Digital Hub has facilitated the significant expansion of a number of longer term tenants in the past 12 months.”
Enterprise
“The Digital Hub is delighted at the continued expansion of a number of tenant companies. Of particular note in 2006 was the graduation of three companies, Kavaleer, Blinck Mobile Ltd. and Zamano from our incubation space to other locations within the project. Between them these three companies now employ over 80 staff. Another company expanding strongly is DAFT.ie which now has 18 employees with further expansion planned for early 2007.
“The growth of The Digital Hub in 2006 has consolidated our reputation, in Ireland and abroad, as one of Europe’s most desired locations for companies in the digital media sector. Approximately 25% of companies currently located in The Digital Hub are foreign direct investment. We expect this to rise significantly in the coming years as the business benefits of locating in The Digital Hub continue to attract international digital media companies.
National Digital Research Centre
We look forward to working with the National Digital Research Centre, (NDRC), which will operate from The Digital Hub from 2007. The location of a world class research entity has always been central to the vision of The Digital Hub and we look forward to partnering with them to facilitate the commercialisation of research concepts.”
Dec. 19Th: The Digital Hub Development Plan
Digital Hub Development Agency is pleased to announce that it has formally adopted a “development plan” in accordance with Section 9 of the Digital Hub Development Agency Act 2003. It outlines the future vision of the agency and the implementation plans to realise that vision, under five main headings - Enterprise; Property; Heritage; Community and Education & Training. The plan sets out 28 overriding principles, which will guide the project's future direction.
The completed plan is the result of an extensive consultation process – the Community, Public, Private, Partnership (CPPP) process - through which all stakeholders are engaged. This process is ongoing and is chaired by DHDA Board Member, Peter Cassells. The CPPP process was recognised with a Merit award in the ‘Best Partnership’ category at the Eircom/Inside Government Innovation through Technology Awards in 2006.
Download a copy of the Development Plan in English or Irish
For further information please email info@thedigitalhub.com
Nov. 22Nd: DHDA Chief Executive Officer welcomes new Board for the Agency
The Chief Executive of Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA), Philip Flynn, has welcomed the announcement of a new Board and Chairperson of the Agency. The new Board – which includes seven new appointments - was announced by Noel Dempsey TD, Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources.
The new members are: Joyce O’Connor, President, National College of Ireland; John Tierney, Manager, Dublin City Council; Frank Ryan, Chief Executive Officer, Enterprise Ireland; Ruth MacPartlin, CEO, Fluid Rock, (Digital Hub based-company); Rosemarie Gunne, Gunne Residential; James Boylan, Casadh (community representative) and Michael Kelly, Higher Education Authority. Six of the outgoing members of the Board of Digital Hub Development Agency have been re-appointed. They are: Sean Dorgan, IDA; Jackie Harrison, IBEC; Attracta McMullin, Former School Principal; Jack Fagan, Chartered Accountant; Joe Murphy, Publishing Businessman, Philip Flynn, CEO, DHDA.
Joyce O’Connor has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Board.
According to Mr Flynn, “This Board will preside at a very exciting time in the project’s development. We will launch our Development Plan in early 2007, and this sets out our ambitions for the project to 2012 which will see the original vision finally realised. The plan also sets out a number of principles which we have agreed with our community, public sector and private sector partners. These principles will guide us over the coming years in all of our objectives across enterprise, community, education & training, heritage & property.”
The Digital Hub is an Irish Government initiative to create an international centre of excellence for knowledge, innovation and creativity focused on digital content and technology enterprises. The core campus is located on two sites on Thomas Street, in the Liberties. To date 69 companies are now based in the Digital Hub. There is a vibrant community of almost 500 highly skilled, creative and technological, workers engaged in delivering world class digital media products and services to a World market. Over the next six years the impact of the success to date both on the Digital hub campus and surrounding area will grow, providing high value employment, education, residential, retail, learning and civic space.
Early Feb, date TBC: Dare to be Digital 2007
The Digital Hub is pleased to announce an event to launch the biggest ever Dare to be Digital competition in early February 2007, date to be announced shortly. Dare to be Digital is an international games development competition open to 3rd level students and recent graduates, where they have the opportunity to design and build their own original video game and receive funding and mentoring in order to do so. The winning Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland teams will enter their resulting ProtoPlay into the Edinburgh Festival in August.
Industry speakers will also attend this one-day event, at which places will be limited. This event is a must for current 3rd level students and eligible recent graduates, that are interested in representing Ireland at Dare to be Digtial.
For further information contact daretobedigital@thedigtialhub.com
Keep updated with developments on www.daretobedigitalireland.com
Tune into Digital Hub FM
Digital Hub FM will be broadcasting on 94.3FM across inner city Dublin from its studio in The Digital Hub. Tune in every Friday from 10th November to 15th December 2006 and 26th January to 22nd June 2007.
Digital Hub FM will also broadcast live on the Internet. For more information on the wide range of programmes in Digital Hub FMs schedule and to listen live online visit: www.digitalhubfm.com
Events
Jan. 18th: Introduction to Online Marketing
Location: Engineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Rd, Dublin 4.
Time: 9am
Price: EUR145 Members (EUr195 Non Members)
The IIA and Online-Marketing.ie present an introductory seminar on Online Marketing. This seminar will help all organisations make the most of their online presence and show them how to make the Internet work for them as part of their marketing mix.
More info: events@iia.ie Tel: 087 292 3333 http://www.iia.ie/events.asp?eventid=113
Jan. 31St: Writing for the Web
Location: Engineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Rd, Dublin 4.
Time: 9am
Price: EUR220 Members (EUr195 Non Members)
The IIA and iQ Content present a full day Masterclass on Writing for the Web. You will learn the skills, tips and processes to create better content for your organisation, faster. The Masterclass is designed for both public and private sector and will be of particular interest to Marketing Managers, Communications Managers, Content Writers, Editors, Webmasters and Online Sales personnel.
More info: events@iia.ie Tel: 087 292 3333 http://www.iia.ie/events.asp?eventid=119
Feb. 1St: Digital Media Awards 2007
Location: The Burlington Hotel, Dublin 4.
Time: 6.30pm
Price: EUR220pp
The Digital Media Awards were established to raise awareness of the emerging digital media sector in Ireland and, more importantly, to act as a showcase for the many pieces of dynamic work being created by companies and third level institutions across a broad spectrum of categories. This year's awards will be attended by over 600 of the leading lights from the digital media sector
More info: helen.connolly@ashville.com Tel: 01 432 22 00 http://www.digitalmedia.ie