Cablecos, Web editions, x-mas e-retail, Internet study

Cablecos

My Internet Service Provider (ISP), Montreal-based cable giant Videotron, is expressing its concern over bandwidth costs and who should pay.

From the Hamilton Spectator: "With video and music downloads gobbling up Internet bandwidth at an ever-expanding pace, cable company Videotron is pushing for content providers such as movie studios to share some of the cost to expand broadband pipelines.
Videotron boss Robert Depatie said yesterday his Quebecor-owned telecom company will invest $300 million in 2006 because the average Videotron customer uses four times more bandwidth than just a year ago. He wants the federal government to impose a transmission tariff on content providers. He called it unfair for studios and companies such as Apple and Amazon.com to use that extra service without cost -- which he compared to free shipping."

Web Editions

According to a Washington Post article, the newspaper industry frets about its future but finds revenue growth in online web editions. The consumer web is splitting: content creators and content distribution. Soon it won't really matter how--that is, which media you will use--to read your news. That will change. But content creation will remain a constant. There will always be a need to create comprehensive, in-depth, analytical content.

X-Mass e-retail

With the Christmas / holiday season upon us, retailers, particular e-retailers, are preparing their wares to respond to customer needs, some better than others, it appears. From the Montreal Gazette, there are still some bricks and mortar retailers who still don't get e-commerce. Nevermind the technology part. It's the customer experience that needs re-working. Amazon.com (as usual) was cited as an ideal model for other retailers to follows.

Internet Study

Sir Tim Berners-Lee (aka Sir Tim), inventor of the WWW, made some comments that reflect comments I made in a recent Letter to the Editor. Berners-Lee argues that the impact that the web is having on technology, communication, society should be critically studied in order to insure the safe survival of the medium he invented.

I agree. Compared to television, the Web is a relatively new form of media whose impact on society has yet to be examined. I brought up this matter in a Letter to the Editor I wrote in the aftermath of the tragic shootings at Montreal's Dawson College, where a gun-totting maniac, obsessed with his own online ranting and ravings, shot several students, killing one. We don't know how the web is changing us as society, as individuals when access to almost anything is available one or two keystrokes away.