Saturday, December 7, 2013

Escaping the next Murdoch domination

Has been a bit of twitter traffic recently about how to ensure that we don't get stuck with Murdoch's FoxTel in the same way that we have been stuck with his newspapers.

To my mind it is all about ensuring independence and diversity.  We will be royally f*cked if we allow ourselves to be controlled by the man again.  Our aim should be to have multiple sources of supply.  Unfortunately signing up to FoxTel isn't good for that.

So I have been thinking about what I want in a alternative interface between my loungeroom and its devices and the outside world - some initial thoughts follow.

* I want to control the key inputs of my video and internet signals.  All inputs (free to air TV, internet, hard drives, memory sticks, anything else) are identified, tagged and secured with appropriate protection.

* I want to see what is happening in any of these input streams by double clicking them and having them maximise in a windowing environment displayed on my TV - that responds in the normal fashion.

* I want to be able to re-direct, store, transcribe, translate or otherwise modify any of these incoming video streams - for re-play later or perhaps even to save internally or externally and play on a different device.

* I want the whole thing to be *open* - or at least open in the sense that we can hack into it to see what is actually going on internally.  Plus I want to be able to add features and reconfigure things as my wants and needs change over time.

Am guessing this may already exist - and all that is needed is some more brainpower and capital to turn it into a top little consumer device - that also gives us freedom from the mogul.

What do you reckon?