The following message is a bit confusing. Here is an explanation.
I was going to send a reply to the list, but decided to let Mt. Greenberg
comment on my comments. What follows is his reponse to my solicitation of
his comments, followed by my comments, followed by the message I was replying
to.
OK ?
-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Greenberg [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 3:46 PM
To: Tom Rauschenbach (E-mail 2)
Subject: FW: NHPR bitcasts
-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Greenberg
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 1:07 PM
To: 'Tom Rauschenbach'
Subject: RE: NHPR bitcasts
Tom,
I love debate. Send it out. BTW, I am fully aware the Real Audio is
proprietary and that Real Audio has cooked its own goose in many respects.
I also know that there are MP3 options and that PI is looking into those.
For purposes of discussion, we should note here that a 75% solution may be
better in the short run than no solution at all. Real Audio is immediately
available on the a la carte menu of PI.
Also, an MP3 option might be totally open source and OS independent but I
know that PI is wrestling with ongoing maintenance costs that they feel they
don't have right now with Real Audio. I have no opinion on the merits of
PI's case, but I know that they raise the issue.
Finally, I wonder how the streaming community wants to handle the cost of
bandwidth? The economics of online audio distribution are the inverse of
broadcast. In broadcast, whether we have 10 listeners or 100,000, the
distribution costs remain the same. In streaming, each listener increases
our costs. We have a pretty good deal with PI, especially considering all
the other online services we get through them, but our overage costs us at
the rate of a penny a MB.
What would you do? What would be fair and consistent with the mission of
public broadcasting?
Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Rauschenbach [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 12:08 PM
To: Jon Greenberg
Subject: Re: NHPR bitcasts
Jon
I'm about to send this to the Greater New Hampshire Linux Users mailing
list.
Care to comment on it.
Your recent email has generated a bunch of mail on the list.
I too sent email complaining about this. I also suggested that they should
look into free software in general. I got an email from Mr. Greenberg and
later a phone call. The man is not clueless or evil, just not yet
enlightened.
NHPR, like many NPR affiliates gets a lot of their web presence from a
company called Public Interactive. PI provides Windows streaming as part of
the default package. Realmedia streaming is available at an additional
charge. You might notice that NHPR archival stuff is available in Real
format, it's just the live streaming that's MS only. But again, that's PI,
not NPR or NHPR.
Mr. Greenberg is only now developing an understanding of the Open
Source/free
software world. (I'm not making all the right political distinctions here
because they are not yet relevent. Give Greenberg a chance to catch up.)
This offer of possible support of a different format doesn't address the
fact
that Realmedia is proprietary probably because Greenberg is not yet fully
aware of the significance of that detail to people in this community.
On Tuesday 06 November 2001 07:10, Randy Edwards wrote:
> A couple of months ago I wrote to NHPR <http://www.nhpr.org>
> complaining that I couldn't listen to their online bitcasts because they
> broadcast using only Windows' bitcasting software. I expressed some
> surprise that they weren't supporting all listeners and by their choice
> were supporting a company convicted of enforcing a monopoly, blah, blah,
> blah.
>
> I got a reply back that they had few complaints about their Microsoft
> bitcasting software, and that they would look into the matter.
>
> Yesterday I received a combination pledge request/answer. They wrote:
>
> - - - snip - - -
> At some point in the past 6 months or so you sent us a request that we
> offer the Real Audio option for our live stream. We'd like to deliver.
> We offer Real and Windows Media for our archived audio; it makes sense to
> do the same for our live stream.
>
> The only catch is a fairly modest amount of money. Steve Bothwick, our IT
> guy, and I figure that it will cost us at least $2,000 to set this up.
> That includes the charges we would pay to Public Interactive, the firm
> that provides our streaming, and our set-up costs here at NHPR, both
> internally and on our web site. The $2,000 is a one-time fee.
>
> I don't know if all of the people on the Real Audio list gave during the
> most recent membership drive but I hope you will see the Real Audio issue
> as the thing apart because quite frankly, we've only received about 20
> requests for Real Audio live streaming.
>
> What I'd like to propose is some very targeted giving. Please let me know
> if you would be willing to contribute to this specific goal of offering
> Real Audio live streaming. Let me know how much you would be able to give
> and whether you would want to pass this note along to others whom you
> think share your interest in Real Audio.
>
> If I see that the response is strong enough, I'll get back to you and we
> will make this happen. If the response falls short, I'll get back to you
> and let you know that as well.
>
> If you can think of a better way to handle this, feel free to let me know.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jon Greenberg
> Senior Editor/Dir. of New Media
> - - - snip - - -
>
> Now, the way I see it, the problem is two-fold: First, I don't like
> the fact that I can't listen to NHPR because I run GNU/Linux. But
> secondly, there's the entire concept of broadcasting this in a proprietary
> format -- IMHO, Real Audio is only a small improvement over the Windows
> bitcasting.
>
> Does anyone have an experience with bitcasting with IceCast, the Ogg
> Vorbis-embraced bitcasting software?
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