Your TV, now with the content you want

 

This post is about a curious thing that happened to me when I was still beginning my relocation experience here in Redmond: one day, back home from Microsoft, I turned on the TV of my temporary house and, for my surprise, I just realized that one of the channels was presenting a sort of "learning Microsoft .NET" show! No, it neither was a webcast nor the TV was connected to the internet. It was an actual TV show, but for nerds (like me).

 

That day’s episode was about ADO.NET, presented by David Letterman!
(ok, just kidding, by someone I actually don’t remember)

 

This reminds me of the project some friends are doing at Partec-MyTV, a local start-up in my hometown (Recife, Brazil) which was created after our Imagine Cup Japan 2005 project received funding from the brazilian government. The idea is to make it possible for you to watch the internet in your TV. I mean, to watch your internet content in the convenience of your living room and couch, with family and friends, if you want.

 

For example, suppose that I create a channel for my parents to watch in Brazil. Everytime I upload a new video somewhere/somehow, they’ll be notified and be able to watch it in their home TV, with no need to learn about RSS feeds or similar stuff. I’m just a channel for them. I myself, on the other hand, will be able to subscribe to internet content that interests me, such as a channel similar to the one above (supposing it was broadcasted from the internet) or the Zero Punctuation series, and watch an episode every morning while eating my cereals during breakfast.

 

The possibilities from here are many: imagine how useful it would be to register your specific interests in your TV as personal channels (for example, "news related to soccer in Brazil major leagues") and receive updated content every day! That’s as easy as we can discover new music with Pandora, one of my favorite places to listen to music in the web. MyTV and Pandora are cool because they can deliver to you content you do not know, but which very probably you’ll enjoy.

 

Other cool possibility is that prefences of friends can have a weight in the equation too, leveraging today’s social networks to improve your TV experience! Definitively, the possiilities of a digital lifestyle are fascinating! Hope the MyTV folks keep bringing good news.

 

PS: and which business model supports such kind of things? A cookie to those who answered online advertisement!

 

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— AFurtado

 

The statements or testimonies I offer in this post represent my own personal views.
I am speaking for myself and not on behalf of my employer, Microsoft Corporation.