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Joe please explain again how you are listening to what other people are saying in their posts. You keep saying that there is no motivation for stations to gather this information and provide to us, even if we don't charge any money - that they won't do anything that isn't profitable. Yet everyone disagreeing with you says that these "unmotivated" stations already gather and provide this information, and ironically have to pay Tribune and other data consolodation providers for the privilege of performing this "tedious" work, as you say. None of your posts address the assertion that the stations already do this work. What is there to motivate them to do? They are obviously already motivated, so much so that they pay someone to do the work, then pay Tribune again!<BR>
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These stations WANT TO GIVE AWAY THIS DATA. They want you to have it, so you know whats on their channels, so you will tune in. THEY WANT THEIR PROGRAMMING TO REACH THEIR TARGET DEMOGRAPHICS.<BR>
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Don't you think if we make life easier for them by providing work reducing tools to gather the data, and then we provide the consolodation and rebroadcast service for free, that they won't be even MORE motivated to go along with our plan? Let's see, it saves them money in work effort to gather the data - that's additional profit. Oh, and they don't have to pay direct subscription fees on the order of $12,000 a month - that drops directly onto the bottom line too. Wow, did you see that?<BR>
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The only barriers as far as the stations are concerned are a provable solution and an audience for the data.<BR>
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Stop trying to convince the people on this thread that creating and advocating a more robust, free, and better solution than provided by Tribune is a poor use of their time. If you don't like this thread, stop posting to it. Stick to the threads that ARE focusing on the "life threatening injury" as you call it, and let us focus on future state if we want to. Stop being such a negativist, and let us dream our little dream, let us live in our fantasy land, and give us the chance to surprise you.<BR>
<BR>
On Mon, 2007-25-06 at 09:16 -0400, Joe Borne wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
<PRE>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"> > On Fri, Jun 22, 2007 at 07:37:17PM -0400, Joe Borne wrote:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > [deletia]</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> ></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > >> You really aren't following the logic here. Every action is in some way</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> ></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > > Sure I am. I am merely not fixating on the distance between where</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > > we are and where we want to be and despairing because that gulf seems</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > > insurmountable.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> ></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > Actually you're not. If you were you wouldn't keep citing examples and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > metaphores that don't even remotely apply. So far: you've tried to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > compare a for-profit to a charity, assumed an entire industry would</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > embrace an idea they already know is unprofitable, and now below you</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> They "know" no such thing.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> They also already provide the data we're interested, at no</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> cost but not in a format that's easily digestible for our purposes.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > presume that someone who makes his living predicting technology and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > sociological trends cannot see past the next 90 days (also wrong, as I</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > said "60 days".)</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Futurologists are like weathermen.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> [deletia]</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> I need to put that on a bumper sticker.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">I swore I wasn't going to wade back into this debate, since the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">original author of the idea in question posted such a lucid, and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">polite response. So I wont' respond to the above jabs that really</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">don't serve to move us in a productive direction.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">But I can't let the whole "futurology" comment pass, as I really don't</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">want to be lumped into that camp. I am oft quoted as saying that</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">weatherman are one step up from crystal ball gazers. Futurologists</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">are, with a few notable exceptions, one step up from weatherman, IMHO.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">But what I do is wholly different in that it applies more to the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">"micro" than the "macro" prediction field. IT business analysis and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">outcome prediction is a discipline that's wholly grounded in sound</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">science. There is always room for interpretation of the data, but</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">proper application of post modern psychological techniques has a high</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">success rate. Every corporation in America utilizes these tools to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">varying degrees.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Apple Computer (just "Apple" now, as I understand) is a great example</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">of a company that uses BA work with incredible results. They examine</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">the psychology of the desires of their customers and then work</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">backwards to a solution. The results speak for themselves. You may or</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">may not like their products, but their success is undeniable.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">The RIAA and more recently the MPAA is a great example of the reverse.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Rather than look into the needs and desires of their customers and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">finding a way to satisfy them, they instead looked for the best way to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">serve themselves and exploit their customers. They have since then</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">attempted every tactic in the book to convince people that DRM is</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">good. Once again, the results speak for themselves.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">So how does that apply to us?</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Well, the problem we face here is neither strategic, nor tactical</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">(another bizarre fallicy voiced by my logic challenged detractor), but</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">motivational. None of the ideas voiced here have provided enough</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">motivation for the station owners to perform this task for us. In</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">addition , it would require tremendous effort to gather, organize and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">control this data. Our erstwhile brothers overseas have tried this</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">with a meager 13 stations and have found it a daunting task.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">I am all for ambitious ideas and for the creation of something better</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">than the Direct Data solution. However, we have a patient with a fatal</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">wound. Before Vietnam, doctors used to treat critically injured people</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">by patiently going about repairing every single problem. Quite often</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">the result was a perfectly repaired corpse as the body simply could</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">not endure the trauma. During Vietnam doctors started treating the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">most life threatening issues first. They gave the patient time to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">recover and then addressed the remaining issues in descending order</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">over several surgeries. This improved survival rates dramatically.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">We have a similar situation here. Unless we fix this in the next 60</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">days, our guides will go dark. There are those who would argue, but in</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">essence the PVR abilities of MythTV would die. This cannot be allowed</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">to happen.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">So my goal with the original post was to try to pull us out of the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">folly of envisioning a perfect solution, and get us focused on fixing</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">the life threatening injury. Since even the most cursory analysis</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">shows that perpetuating Data Direct, or inserting a new commercial</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">provider is the most viable solution, we should focus our efforts</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">there.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Once we are past September, and we are all still scheduling our</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">favorite shows for time-shifted viewing, we can look to the future.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Then I will be more than happy to see any and all ideas, no matter how</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">far-fetched, be entertained. The beauty of open source is it's mimicry</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">of the evolutionary process. The best ideas will thrive and the others</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">will die off naturally.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Best Wishes.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">_______________________________________________</FONT>
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