The Dutch government is mulling over a tax on ISP’s so that the funds may be allocated to existing pulp print media. I kid you not. Here is the Google translation —

The committee Brinkman, who had to see whether the Dutch government financially ailing newspaper industry needs support, advises an Internet tax. This enables innovative online initiatives funded.

The advice for setting up an internet supplement is now presented to the Board by Minister Ronald Plasterk of Education, as reported daily newspaper Setting a surcharge on each Internet would be levied, the consumer aware that news and news not free.

In the opinion of the committee Brinkman is also calling for the proceeds of a levy in Internet online initiatives with the regional media stabbing. Moreover, publishers want to invest in Internet projects, on the low VAT rate of 6 percent to pay.

The opinion also states that the program of public service broadcasting for all media available to come. This would for example, self-publishing TV guides can spend. The committee does not decide on the partial funding of public broadcasting from advertising, a thorn in the eye of publishers, who argue that the market distorts STER.

The Brinkman committee was established at the request of the Second Chamber. Previously the government did know that the annual 4 percent of STAR revenues in the Stimulation Press will collapse, and that these funds are intended for Internet initiatives.

Can you imagine? Tax one line of business to maintain the status quo in another line of business. Of course it makes sense if you are a politician. You now get cart blanche on the editorial positions of the papers as you control the purse strings of those entities. Pravda anyone?

linky.
HT: Slashdot

A computer engineer has connected his home to social networking service Twitter, enabling it to Tweet him with updates about his residence’s electricity and water consumption.

Andy Stanford-Clark, 43, has fitted wireless sensors onto household items scattered around his 16th Century thatched cottage on the Isle of Wight, according to various online reports.

The sensors feed information to a central hub that, with the help of some specially written software, translates into words a sensor notification that, say, the bathroom heater has been turned on.

[source]

This is the best use I have seen for the Twitter service yet. Most readers know I think Twetters to humans turns all into Twits. Nor do I mean that in a flattering manner. But as a machine based protocol for sending/receiving queries it rocks.

I already have several client’s servers that send me critical messages as to they had to switch over battery power, cooling etc. So the question would be how hard is it to develop an API that handles the Twitter-X10 interface? If that was in place one could possibly build a remote control interface to the home right from a Twit enabled handheld. Possibly a two message format. First message with the intended action. Second with the security code to add that activates it to the hub’s queue.

Twitter really needs to up the message limit to say 2048 characters.

Crowded in the sense of digital entertainment that is. I am talking specifically about video DVD sales. –

Shares of Blockbuster, which has sought to reposition itself in an increasingly digital world, fell over 23 percent to 87 cents a share after-hours, after closing at $1.14.

Keyes said Blockbuster continued to move aggressively with its kiosk initiative, hoping to have 3,000 standalone units by year-end.

Blockbuster rival, Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) recently cited growing competition from the rise of stand-alone kiosks.

Industry leader Redbox, owned by Coinstar (CSTR.O), has more than 12,000 locations, according to its Web site.

Keyes said he would consider closing some of Blockbuster’s 5,000 U.S. stores if kiosks ultimately proved successful.

“It’s possible,” he said. “The kiosks will be satellites and if we can replace two stores in close proximity, with one store and five kiosks, we think that can be favorable,” he said. “We’re in the process of that analysis and it will depend on the success and acceptance of the kiosks and the continued diversification of the stores,” he said.

So Blockbuster is not standing still and is expanding a kiosk operation of their own. The big question is — will being number 3 in a DVD distribution world be a winning strategy? In many cases if you are not the two top dogs it is not worth playing. We will see how it goes.

As it is right now RedBox has 12000 kiosks to Blockbusters 3000. RedBox is not standing still either and expanding like a rocket. The advantage for RedBox is that they are a sub of Coinstar. So I would expect that collocations and service by the same personnel will occur cutting RedBox’s costs of operation. The issue for this whole industry — RedBox, BlockBuster, NetFlix, ISP’s — is that video viewing has to be close to saturation. Americans have only so much free time to use viewing videos. So if we are not there now, we will be soon, then it will be a race to the bottom on pricing to deliver DVD content.

Now it would seem that the ISP’s with just in time viewing would have the advantage. But maybe not. If you look at purchase patterns, most food is bought Thursday/Friday. So if the emporium is served by a RedBox the customer has a choice. Spend $1 with a short return trip tomorrow. Or, spend $2.99-3.99 to do an ondemand viewing. Or do a ‘double feature’ for the same price as the ISP is offering for one. Advantage I believe is to the Kiosk.

But for the viewing consumer this is all good news. The costs pressures will be forcing distribution channels to realign costs. Nor will Hollyweird go unscathed.

Linky.

There has been a drumbeat over the last couple of years than much content, years old has value if if not many sales. That the ‘longtail’ in the sales cycle have more to offer as a business model than what is sold in the first two years. Last year some economists tested that theory and found it did not hold and that most sales occurred at the ‘head’. -

This really isn’t the upbeat fairy tale message Anderson has spent four years selling on the conference circuit. However, as he took his “message” to Davos and beyond, the Long Tail has gradually developed into a ‘Policy Based Evidence Making’. Having convinced himself of the truth of his hypothesis by looking at one US music service, Anderson widened his search for facts that might fit his theory. But he didn’t examine the numbers closely or critically enough, say the economists.

“You need to consider much more than just some flimsy volume-based Rhapsody data if you’re going to say the world’s changed,” says Page. “For instance, understanding value both in terms of retail spend and then marginal profitability to the artist and songwriter would have been a logical extension”

In another surprise, 80 per cent of the revenue came from 52,000 songs. What’s eye-catching about the number? Well, the typical inventory of a conventional high street record store was around 4,000 CDs. Or … around 52,000 songs.

But that has import to the music business —

“If sellers sell it, it might never be bought. But if the swappers offer it, at least one person will likely take it,” the authors point out.

Polls suggest many music fans would gladly pay for such a service. The University of Hertfordshire last year found over 80 per cent interested in voluntarily paying for services which offered exchanges of sound recordings, and a survey of music fans in Sweden - home of The Pirate Bay - found that over 86 per cent would cough up: over half the sample would pay up to £12 a month.

The world’s first voluntary P2P service was due this spring from UK cable giant Virgin, but the ISP suspended the initiative late in the day due to record company nervousness.

So what’s the uptake? More on Is the Longtail Vapors?

Beeb is trialing a TV service over Wifi for various smartphones. The theming is similar to that found for its ‘on wire’ service. The number of channels offered is however reduced —

Although still in beta, the Live TV service is designed to let you watch a selection of TV channels, including One, Two and BBC News, live over a Wi-Fi connection. It also supports several radio stations, including Radio 1, 2 and 4.

There’s no need to install any applications prior to watching to any of the channels, just “click and go”, the BBC said.

Currently the service only works over a Wi-Fi connection and broadcasts a 176 x 144 image, but the broadcaster hopes to extend Live TV out to 3G networks and to add more channels during the coming months.

Live TV is thought to work with a selection of smartphones, including the Android G1 and Nokia N Series devices. Register Hardware tried to access Live TV using an iPhone, the service wouldn’t work.

An interesting idea. Though you know if I were a dept head leading a bunch of 20-somethings I might want to have the CIO hand me a wireless traffic report every quarter. Why have someone on staff that is watching the latest on the BBC during work hours?

Linky.

Economic conditions have sidelined most Venture Capitalists, and start ups are on the rise. There are several reasons for this. Since the passage of Sarbanes Oxley, there has been and chill on IPO’s leaving VC’s fewer options for cashing out of their successes. The crash high risk derivatives has removed mountains of available capital while further eroding confidence in government oversight.

As we enter the Third Pipe era, many middle managers and senior technologists are finding few opportunities after being laid off. At the same time, more young people are finding self employment more attractive than enduring the hiring process for a job that may not be that secure. Enabling this are the are new, better, cheap or free tools of the Third Pipe world.

The reason startups no longer depend so much on VCs is one that everyone in the startup business knows by now: it has gotten much cheaper to start a startup. There are four main reasons: Moore’s law has made hardware cheap; open source has made software free; the web has made marketing and distribution free; and more powerful programming languages mean development teams can be smaller. These changes have pushed the cost of starting a startup down into the noise. In a lot of startups—probaby most startups funded by Y Combinator—the biggest expense is simply the founders’ living expenses. We’ve had startups that were profitable on revenues of $3000 a month. (Paul Graham)

Beyonf the startup, Self employment will grow exponentially in the coming months. Tasks typically completed by employess if the corporate world will be more frequently done by contractors. As technology changes work functions rapidly, more requlations and requirements for permanent hires will mwke them increasingly rare in the coprorate world.

For those if us who embrace change, the future is bright if less certain. For most of us, the era of exchanging freedom for the security of a position with a big company is gone. The shift is as simple as taking the task that you may have done for the corpzilla, and performing it for a variety of clients on your own. He (or she) who embraces this change gets the gold.