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From Internet-on-a-Disk #15, January/February 1996
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One theme I keep returning to when I speak and write about the Internet is "just enough quality."
Creative people can often find good uses for innovations that don't meet traditional standards of quality, that aren't yet ready to be full-fledged products. This is true of low-resolution audio and video and software that still has bugs.
If you have an innovation that isn't ready for prime time, then
Remember, it's the early adopters who use the beta software. The company that waits and only releases finished goods never gets the valuable feedback and insights from them and never gets their word of mouth (and never sells to them)
This is an important element of the Internet culture. (Netscape plays it beautifully.)
And the same principle holds true not just for software, but also for books and courseware.
Attached are some related thoughts I sent out in response to reader reaction to an article of mine in Internet-on-a-Disk #14.
In response to your Article, "VIDEO & THE INTERNET" (Disk 14), if we are working towards high quaility digital TV and Radio via a broadcast medium, why is there so much effort being put into low quality "on demand" services over the Internet? The only real market for such technology might be in the developing counties, where the computer is a general purpose tool for connecting into the information rich First World.
Gordon Joly || http://www.tecc.co.uk/gordo/ || gordo@dircon.co.uk
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 16:19:51 +0000 (GMT)
I believe that large corporations sometimes lose sight of the value of "just enough quality". They are used to a monopoly position or a position in which the barriers to entry are very high and they play a big-stakes game with their peers. And one of the unwritten rules that they all abide by is -- you aim for maximum quality and don't release a product until it's completely done (with all the i's dotted).
Take a look at what is happening with telephone service. Vocal Tech (Internet Phone) and maybe half a dozen other outfits are offering phone-like service over the Internet. Right now it's a bit like ham radio. But it's very intelligible and very usable as a social medium and even for business. Which am I going to opt for -- the kind of quality that lets me hear a pin fall in the background for about $100 an hour to talk to someone in Europe, or just enough quality at no charge beyond what I pay my Internet access carrier (about 30 cents an hour).
The same applies in the video marketplace. I don't think that in the foreseeable future video over the web (at 14.4) is in any way going to compete with delivery of Hollywood blockbuster movies on cable or through broadcast or VCR. But there are very interesting things that can be done, where the video image (and sound in synch) add to the information you are trying to convey or the experience you are trying to create. For instance, what's there today would be very acceptable for many in a picture-phone kind of environment.
On the Internet, small, basement operations are coming up with interesting ideas and instead of waiting until they have completed products, with quality that's ready for "prime time," they are making the software available in beta form for free and hence are rapidly determining if there is a market. This means that users have an opportunity to experiment to see what they can do with it. The innovator gets valuable feedback (through a free extended laboratory of volunteers). And the state-of-the-art moves ahead at lightning speed.
In short, I don't see video over the Web as competition for high quality TV images. Rather I see it leading to a slew of new applications.
I'm looking forward to the day (which should be soon) when everyone can be a broadcaster (as well as a publisher).
For the most part, video on the Internet has been a curiosity, not a business tool. You show it to impress newcomers that this medium is in fact "multi-media", but you don't really use it much. This was especially true for the first generation kinds of video that were the best available a couple years ago. These were silent mpeg video clips. It took about 5-10 minutes to download a one minute video, and you had to wait for it to download before you saw anything. And what you saw was a tiny low-resolution image, with jittery movement. But there was a whole artform based on that technology, which flourished for about a year -- there was great stuff, including such classics as "Fred's Nightmare" and fractal images and supermodels. Then Quicktime became available for the PC, and it was possible to get audio in synch with video. My first reaction was once again that there's no real use for this. Who is going to want to spend that long downloading something that's that short? Then my five year old found the Disney site, and we downloaded a Quicktime clip from The Lion King -- the song Hakuna Matata. Timmy played that back hundreds of times -- both forward and backward -- and delighted in it every time. And it finally occurred to me that there are market niches for quality of this kind. Just because the quality doesn't match other media, doesn't mean there isn't a market. Open your imagination to the opportunities.