[mythtv-users] Mooting architecture for a DataDirect replacement

Jay R. Ashworth jra at baylink.com
Fri Jun 22 13:41:58 UTC 2007


On Fri, Jun 22, 2007 at 12:45:29AM -0400, Jason Spears wrote:
> On 6/20/07, Jay R. Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
> > Thoughts?
> 
> I did read (most of) the thread. :)
> 
> I haven't seen the data source(s) itself addressed.  I think if you're
> talking about the community providing the data, the usenet idea seems
> sound, thought that presents plenty of problems with accuracy,
> timeliness, etc.  Otherwise, I think the source of the data, how
> authoritative they are, and how high that entity's "what's in it for
> me" factor runs must inform the choices made in architecting the data
> distribution service.  I'm assuming these will be corporations, so
> assuming they'll be inclined to altruism seems a bit optimistic.

Well, there's precession going on on that topic... but my current view
was this:

Those program schedules -- the *real* version, the one that actually
means something -- live inside the heads of automation software at each
program source that does the playout.

That's the data we need.

The most productive approach to getting it (note: not necessarily the
easiest) is to sell the idea to *the people who manufacture the
software that does it*, so their package has a built in facility to
wrap the public portions of each schedule event in a standardized
format, and post all changes to the newsgroup in question on the
server specified.

The only real issue is making sure that the PROGRAM primary key matches
all the way through; that will require help from several people, most
notably the program producers.

It *might* be necessary to apply some centralised AI to that task,
though I really don't want to.

Perhaps a Linux box at each station between automation and the net, and
they all collaborate.

But if the curent listing data aggregators are charging the stations by
the month, the sales pitch might be a bit easier...

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates     http://baylink.pitas.com                     '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA      http://photo.imageinc.us             +1 727 647 1274


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