News summary for October 19th by Di Niu

1. "A Virtual World but Real Money" (New York Times C1)

Summary:
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A 3-D online video game called Second Life has attracted big companies to market in it. Second Life simulates the real world and gives each player a virtual character. It melds elements of the most popular forms of new media: chat rooms, video games, online stores, user-generated content sites like YouTube.com and social networking sites like MySpace.com. Now companies begin marketing in this virtual world. For example, Nissan has developed a gigantic digital driving course to let people try its new cars in the game. Sun has put its sign in the cinemas and along highways.

Observation: 
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 Internet is moving toward being a 3-D experience that will become more realistic as computing technology advances. Another trend in Internet is that it grows to involve more and more user interaction. Virtual world let users take part into the activities online in a more vivid way. To attend a CD promotion party in Second Life is fundamentally different from watching a live show online, in that you are there almost in person with all the other audience around you.

Ideas: 
a) Set up laws for the virtual world.
b) Search the virtual world in a multimedia way.

2.  "Music Companies Share in YouTube Sale Proceeds" (New York Times C1)

Summary:
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Warner (Professor Saroiu has mentioned Warner earlier), Universal, Sony BMG struck stakes in Youtube. Now these companies begin to view the copyrighted materials in Youtube as a way for advertising.  It's a sharp turn as compared to 5 years ago, when Napster was shut down after a lawsuit concerned with media copyrights. 

Ideas: 
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a) How to identify copyrighted material in Youtube videos using programs?
b) Advertisement begin to aim at user generated content such as Youtube. Blog is another example.

3. "Not-So Risky Business?" (Wall Street Journal B1)

Summary:
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'Fantasy' Wagering websites let users bet on sporting events but do not risk actual money. Winners earn credits which are converted into prizes such as TV, concert tickets. Although 12 billion online gambling industry cracked down in the U.S., Fantasy Wagering websites still exists as it does not ask users to risk real money.

Implications & Ideas:
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a) Law is way behind the smart online technology.
b) To build a BitTorrent file sharing system, which gives *real prizes* to  users who contribute more.  The current-generation file sharing systems may have incentives to encourage peers to upload more by rewarding in their performance. However, if real money becomes a reward, there will be a huge difference! 

4. "A New Gadget on Campus. Who's It For?" (New York Times C1) 

Summary:
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a) Mylo is a new cell-phone-sized gadget developed by Sony for students. It can make Skype calls and can call real numbers via SkypeOut. Other features of it include picture and web browsing, playing music and video (MPEG-4).
b) It's not connected to the cellular networks, but requires a wireless Internet signal, e.g., Wi-Fi Hot spots which are common on campus.
c) It has an Ad hoc mode: When you are near another Mylo, you can have music on that Mylo streamed to yours.
 
Idea:
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To build a Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) for wireless file sharing. As a start, such a file sharing system could be built based on one hop. Whenever a Mylo is near a data source, which may be an access point or another Mylo, it will download the content it wants. Such a network may be sparse such  that the downloading is frequently disrupted as the user goes away from the source. However, the user should be able to resume download whenever it is near another source. A much more complicated system may involve data transmissions via two hops. In such systems, a user not only downloads from the source nearby, but it also relays packets for other  users which may be far away from data sources.