NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> WB '97#8: Pushy Packages
ONLINE-ADS>> WB '97#8: Pushy Packages
rhoy_at_tenagra.com
Tue, 17 Jun 1997 11:50:52 -0500 (CDT)
This is the eighth in a series of 10 reports from Richard Hoy
covering the Web Broadcasting '97 conference. You will receive
these reports in addition to your normal Online Ads posts/digests.
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Web Broadcasting '97 coverage
June 15, 1997 / Issue 8
Pushy Packages
session:
Making It So: Building Strong Channels Six Ways
speaker:
Mitch Ratcliffe, Co-founder
Internet / Media Strategies, Inc.; Editor,
Digital Media
This session walked the audience through
six push packages.
E-Mail Broadcaster
------------------
First up was E-Mail Broadcaster, a package for
managing mailing lists. It automates the process
of subscribing and unsubscribing list members
and can be run on any machine running Windows 95
or NT. It supposedly handles bounce messages
automatically.
As one who runs a discussion list, I found
the bounced e-mail handling claim particularly
amazing. The basic problem with any e-mail-based
mailing list is that multiple problems will cause
messages to bounce (not arrive in the recipient's
mailbox). Some of these bounces are transient
problems. But some are due to bad addresses or
full e-mail boxes. In any case, the bounce messages
are so varied that it is extremely difficult to
automate the process. Much of a list owner's time
is spent sifting through bounce messages to
determine which problems will fix themselves
and which problems he or she needs to fix.
When confronted with this, Ratcliffe admitted that
E-Mail Broadcaster's bounce handling was limited
and that this software was best used for lists that
had 1000 subscribers or less.
MetaBridge's NetPodium
----------------------
NetPodium uses Java and RealAudio to allow
a speaker and an audience to interact over a
network.
The speaker can push slides and audio commentary
to a maximum of 5,000 desktops at once. All an
audience member needs is a Java-capable browser
and RealAudio client. Ratcliffe found that it
worked well even over connections as slow as
14.4. The audience can communicate with the
speaker via text. The software even allows you
to poll audience members.
It can run on NT and Linux, and needs a RealAudio
server to enable the audio capability.
Intermind Communicator
----------------------
Communicator enables you to push notification
of updates to a web site. The publisher uploads a
channel profile on the Intermind server. This
profile tells the Intermind client where to go
on the publisher's web site to check for updates.
These updates can be targeted based on
demographics and preferences.
Putting all the configuration on the Intermind
server frees publishers from having to load
any server software on their end. It also
allows Intermind to report statistics about
your subscriber base and monitor how often
they receive and read your updates.
According to Ratcliffe, the CDF standard
introduced by Microsoft has essentially all
the features of Communicator. As a result,
Ratcliffe said, "This is a company that is
not going to survive."
InCommon's Downtown
-------------------
Downtown uses a ticker to push "teaser"
information down to a desktop. A user then can
click on the teaser to get the full document.
Downtown is based on the scripting language
of PERL. Configuring it requires knowledge of
PERL. In fact, InCommon requests that you
contact them so they can create the initial
channel template for you.
Ratcliffe does not recommend Downtown for a
novice user.
BackWeb
-------
BackWeb is a high-end environment that
can push just about any media. It sends down
"infopacks," which contain the actual information.
Through the use of its BALI editor, BackWeb allows
you a build features into infopacks.
BackWeb uses a proprietary algorithm (called
"Polite Technology") to monitor the status
of your network connection so it is only
downloading during idle time. The result is
the download of files (even large ones) without
degrading the performance of other applications.
To let you know that an infopack has arrived,
BackWeb uses infoflashes - fully-interactive
dialog boxes that pop-up on your screen.
BackWeb allows you to set expiration dates on
content, and send content only to people with
the correct plug-ins in their browsers.
Marimba's Castanet
------------------
Castanet is designed for pushing software
applications and as well as any other media (video,
shockwave, sound, etc.). Items pushed via
Castanet can be free-standing applications
that don't require a web browser or
other supporting application.
Castanet has two parts: a transmitter
(the server) and a tuner (the client). It
also has a development tool called Bongo,
which lets you add features. Ratcliffe said
that Microsoft bought Dimension X (a company
that creates Java authoring environments) so
it could directly compete with Bongo.
The software allows you to track subscribers'
preferences. It can also preprocess files
before they are sent to the tuners.
Ratcliffe added that Castanet takes about
the same amount of time to setup as
BackWeb.
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