Dancing in the dark,
Feet molding to small points of,
Echoed, shifting light.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
My Opinion on Veoh's Recent 165-Country Lockout
Veoh started out as a decent video site, with very little difficulty in watching what was available on their servers. Then, the problems began.
It began when Veoh started to get into what I like to term the 'Secondary Software Scenario.' This happens when, instead of just linking the video, itself, and letting the user use their browser's own embedded video viewing capability to handle the matter, they just had to have people use 'yet another piece of bloat code' to do what is, essentially, a fairly easy-to-manage operation.
The ads are acceptable, and, although being the usual annoyances that ads are, remain a good source of revenue so that the general public can watch their moving pictures for free.
Now for the improper part. The Internet is just that: 'Inter'. Not Intra (meaning, 'from within') but rather 'Inter' (mutually, together), meaning a collective of computer users from around the globe.
The People of the Internet are not unthinking, uncaring individuals. We are dynamic, broad-minded, and desirous of the countries of the world to foster the ability to foment peace, clean up their collective acts--be they environmental or social--so that they get along and are respectful of their neighbors.
Having to have region codes on DVD's is bad enough. Censorship is bad enough without that kind of nonsense keeping openness from becoming a reality in our collective lifetimes. Too many people want to control others, exclude others from what they believe to be 'their share of the pot' and 'their information.' There is altogether too much of the attitude of "I know what's best for you, you can't watch that, watch this instead."
The People of the Internet are not morons! We are not automatons living in a turn-of-the-century 'Metropolis' vision! We represent the brightest Minds of the Twenty-First Century! We are tired of censorship in the media, weary of media industry associations working to place electronic limitations on digital files--both audio and video--and are equally tired of prejudice of one country over another.
All that said, here is the crux of my comment: Veoh's limiting of it's audience to only 33 countries smacks of disrespect, prejudice, and bigotry! It looks to me as if Veoh's Board of Directors let marketing have 'Carte Blanche' on the management side of the company, something that, if true--although I am not accusing anyone--smacks just a tad bit aloof of the Sarbanes-Oxley doctrine.
If not, then with what are we left? Simple commercial prejudice based on nothing more than ad-money intake? If so, that's a crappy way to run a business, Pure, Plain, and Simple!
Ad-revenue is certainly a major part of any online enterprise, and I see plenty of sites doing it and doing well, without any repositories of bloatware-based video and music players, crappy ad-runs, or region-limiting (Read: IP Address Range Blocking!) practices. Limiting your viewing audience doesn't increase revenue, it limits it.
Limiting a readily-available, worldwide audience is the realm of morons; egos-gone-bad and egotistical marketing practices, throwback, pseudo-idealism--which is not idealism at all, but another descriptive for prejudice!
Veoh, in limiting it's reach within a medium that spans the entire Planet Earth, builds bridges between nations, and fosters congeniality among individuals and groups, is doing nothing more onerous than showing forth it's own limiting--and limited- view of the World.
A view that shows a desire to continue a prejudice that should have long since died out.
My Gentle Suggestion To Veoh: Understand that the Internet is the best hope for peace the Planet Earth has ever had, relative to communications.
Instant translation of web pages into one's own language, the ability to share one's ideas with others of like--and dissimilar--minds, via the advent of audio and video, is a technological masterpiece of innovation that might have fostered less wars and more understanding a long time ago had it then been around.
Remove the limit of what countries can watch your videos. The 'net is made for everyone, not just 'a select few with money.' Even those in smaller countries have 'something to spend' and might just subscribe to your services, should they be available. Even YouTube has a subscription model for premium content and allows that expansion. (Makes you think about just who your competition is, eh? If not, it should!)
I wish Veoh the best of everything in the present, and the near and far future, for as long as this type of medium is present. Technology changes so fast these days, who's to say that we won't be direct-downloading live streams into our noggins by mid-century, with the full realization of just what that means, as well as the ethical and moral understandings to go along with it.
Should that technical advent come to pass, there won't be any room for exclusivity for the type of marketing prejudice in which you--Veoh--are currently engaged.
Wake Up! Open Up! Enough is enough!
Warm Regards,
The Humble Fishe
It began when Veoh started to get into what I like to term the 'Secondary Software Scenario.' This happens when, instead of just linking the video, itself, and letting the user use their browser's own embedded video viewing capability to handle the matter, they just had to have people use 'yet another piece of bloat code' to do what is, essentially, a fairly easy-to-manage operation.
The ads are acceptable, and, although being the usual annoyances that ads are, remain a good source of revenue so that the general public can watch their moving pictures for free.
Now for the improper part. The Internet is just that: 'Inter'. Not Intra (meaning, 'from within') but rather 'Inter' (mutually, together), meaning a collective of computer users from around the globe.
The People of the Internet are not unthinking, uncaring individuals. We are dynamic, broad-minded, and desirous of the countries of the world to foster the ability to foment peace, clean up their collective acts--be they environmental or social--so that they get along and are respectful of their neighbors.
Having to have region codes on DVD's is bad enough. Censorship is bad enough without that kind of nonsense keeping openness from becoming a reality in our collective lifetimes. Too many people want to control others, exclude others from what they believe to be 'their share of the pot' and 'their information.' There is altogether too much of the attitude of "I know what's best for you, you can't watch that, watch this
The People of the Internet are not morons! We are not automatons living in a turn-of-the-century 'Metropolis' vision! We represent the brightest Minds of the Twenty-First Century! We are tired of censorship in the media, weary of media industry associations working to place electronic limitations on digital files--both audio and video--and are equally tired of prejudice of one country over another.
All that said, here is the crux of my comment: Veoh's limiting of it's audience to only 33 countries smacks of disrespect, prejudice, and bigotry! It looks to me as if Veoh's Board of Directors let marketing have 'Carte Blanche' on the management side of the company, something that, if true--although I am not accusing anyone--smacks just a tad bit aloof of the Sarbanes-Oxley doctrine.
If not, then with what are we left? Simple commercial prejudice based on nothing more than ad-money intake? If so, that's a crappy way to run a business, Pure, Plain, and Simple!
Ad-revenue is certainly a major part of any online enterprise, and I see plenty of sites doing it and doing well, without any repositories of bloatware-based video and music players, crappy ad-runs, or region-limiting (Read: IP Address Range Blocking!) practices. Limiting your viewing audience doesn't increase revenue, it limits it.
Limiting a readily-available, worldwide audience is the realm of morons; egos-gone-bad and egotistical marketing practices, throwback, pseudo-idealism--which is not idealism at all, but another descriptive for prejudice!
Veoh, in limiting it's reach within a medium that spans the entire Planet Earth, builds bridges between nations, and fosters congeniality among individuals and groups, is doing nothing more onerous than showing forth it's own limiting--and limited- view of the World.
A view that shows a desire to continue a prejudice that should have long since died out.
My Gentle Suggestion To Veoh: Understand that the Internet is the best hope for peace the Planet Earth has ever had, relative to communications.
Instant translation of web pages into one's own language, the ability to share one's ideas with others of like--and dissimilar--minds, via the advent of audio and video, is a technological masterpiece of innovation that might have fostered less wars and more understanding a long time ago had it then been around.
Remove the limit of what countries can watch your videos. The 'net is made for everyone, not just 'a select few with money.' Even those in smaller countries have 'something to spend' and might just subscribe to your services, should they be available. Even YouTube has a subscription model for premium content and allows that expansion. (Makes you think about just who your competition is, eh? If not, it should!)
I wish Veoh the best of everything in the present, and the near and far future, for as long as this type of medium is present. Technology changes so fast these days, who's to say that we won't be direct-downloading live streams into our noggins by mid-century, with the full realization of just what that means, as well as the ethical and moral understandings to go along with it.
Should that technical advent come to pass, there won't be any room for exclusivity for the type of marketing prejudice in which you--Veoh--are currently engaged.
Wake Up! Open Up! Enough is enough!
Warm Regards,
The Humble Fishe
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