screen capture of innertube asking user to select windows media or real player.

Have a question about a design/development aspect of Innertube, the new online video service launched last week by CBS.

When you visit Innertube it requires you to have the Flash 8 plug in loaded in order to view the site. No problem there. Strong argument to be made that Flash is still the best tool to use for building a rich media application.

I understand and respect the argument of those who don’t want to force users into a Flash site, but if you are over that hurdle and have committed to building on a Flash 8 platform that requires the user to have the Flash plug in, why then force the user into using additional plug ins like Windows Media Player or Real Player to view the video as Innertube appears to do? Why not just seamlessly keep it all in Flash, including the video codec and delivery, and save the user the hassle?

Since the On2 VP6 codec available in Flash 8 is competitive, one might then think that maybe there are some DRM issues in the mix guiding the choice, but after looking at the limited viral options the user has for viewing the video, maintaining control of distribution appears relatively straight forward.

Overall Innertube is a nice step forward by CBS, and the team that made it happen deserves praise. But that development decision is a little puzzling though.

During a recent talk with Charlie Rose, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg listed content developers as a rationale for Verizon’s aggressive last mile strategy. In the interview, Mr. Seidenberg suggests that delivering fiber speed all the way to the home should yield much as of yet undiscovered value, including new opportunities for content developers, as opposed to the AT&T fiber strategy which is cheaper to implement but will not run that last mile and as a result deliver less bandwidth.

Investors in VZ may be a little nervous over such a large cap ex bet, but this week’s release of Verizons first quarter earnings might help ease at least some of that concern. Highlights like revenues up 25 percent from first quarter 2005 and low churn can do that.

Not sure that is enough performance to totally quiet the CEO compensation backlash that is brewing and time will tell who made the correct call, but for now I’m giving Verizon a fresh look. From their recent pact with Adobe, to their mobile platform deal in Europe with Danger, to their iptv rollouts across the country, these guys seem to care about content developers.

On a related note, if you’ve ever wondered about the actual impact on a neighborhood that comes about from laying new fiber, Dan Bricklin has documented the experience of what happened when FIOS came to his neighborhood.

El Escape de los Santos, a San Antonio based ultra low budget indie film production, recently secured a US distribution deal with Venevision International. More details about the project and the distribution deal from writer/director Ricardo Mendoza Wheeler at filmsa.blogspot.com and at Digital Works Studios.

Congrats to their team.

To celebrate their 10 year anniversary, The Wall Street Journal is making their normally paid subscription site wsj.com free for the next 10 days. For Content Developers who don’t subscribe, the next 10 days offers you a chance to sample and get some insight into one of the few paid subscription web content sites that have succeeded.

Just for fun, check out how Hollywoods portrayal of the internet has evolved in the movies. This piece includes a video retrospective that’ll take you from 1983 and Wargames through 2005 and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

As far as current reporting, the story on MSpot‘s latest deals with CBS and Clear Channel to get sports radio programming on mobile phones is worth noting as well as the recent article on Creative Financing which talks about the merging of hedge funds with Hollywood.

Eyespot is holding a 72 hour mobile video contest this weekend. Company founder David Dudas also says a new version 1.5 update is coming soon.

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enclosure

United 93 opens wide today. The marketing of this film probably deserves to be a case study. The challenges presented by constructing and executing a media campaign for such a raw and sensitive topic took some special skill to pull off.

When first seeing some of the early teasers for the film, my initial reaction was “You’ve got to be kidding”. That all started to change for me when I saw a particular trailer featuring Paul Greengrass giving a sort of personal testimonial about how and why he made the film. The touch and tone for that piece felt right on target. (Haven’t seen that particular trailer on line. I believe I saw it run during an episode of The West Wing.)

Part of the appeal of that approach for me might be an appreciation for the work Paul Greengrass did on Bloody Sunday, one of the few films that I’ve tagged as five stars in my Netfilx account. The marketing team must have discovered that the appreciation for that film was greater than the box office it generated as Bloody Sunday is now mentioned in most all the trailers and spots that I’ve seen in rotation.

If you are at all a student or fan of applying a documentary style to a narrative fiction feature then I would suggest that Bloody Sunday is a must see for you. You might find it even better at executing that documentary style than The Constant Gardner.

Not sure I’ll be heading to the theaters to take in United 93, but the DVD will be a must see for me, due at least in part to the perfect match of talent and subject matter that Mr. Greengrass brings to this topic.

Using mobile devices to develop and consume content took a couple steps forward today as Nokia unleashed a series of press releases.

If the Nokia N93 official announcement wasn’t enough for you then be sure and learn about the Nokia mobile movie studio, the new Nokia partnership with Adobe and a new agreement with flickr.

If you’ve ever been part of a team that’s tried to raise early stage money from a traditional banking institution then you may be slightly skeptical of the term Venture Banking. SATAI and Bridge Bank are offering a seminar this Thursday that suggests times are changing and some banks are offering innovative solutions for financing early stage companies.

Bridge Bank CEO Dan Myers is the featured speaker. Complete details here.

The team from the University of Texas at San Antonio‘s blossoming Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security will have the home court in the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition finals taking place this weekend at the San Antonio Airport Hilton.

With support from the Department of Homeland Security, the competition brings together earlier regional finals winners to test their online security skills.

The CCDC site describes the competition this way:

Unlike traditional “hack and defend” or “capture the flag” contests, this competition tests each team’s ability to operate, secure, manage, and maintain a corporate network. This competition is the first to create, as closely as possible, a realistic corporate administration and security experience…

The rules of the competition are worth a read if you are interested in the tools they will be using and the skill sets they will be challenging. More good info also in an article in the San Antonio Business Journal and a press release from Acronis, another event sponsor.

Good luck team UTSA.

From Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere