[kNT] How the BBC plans to save your ISP...

[Daniel Harris <daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a really interesting article from The Register:

How the BBC plans to save your ISP
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/19/ 
iplayer_content_delivery_networks/

It talks about how the BBC will/could (?) create a CDN.

My concern is that they'll just be handing the cash over to a company  
that will install a bunch of proprietary boxes** when they should be  
backing an open protocol. In an open scenario ISPs (and anybody else  
that complies with the BBC's content caching/mirroring policy) could  
set up their own servers and cache/mirror BBC content.

Think of it like this... You know how you hate that there are  
multiple telcos and cable operators digging up the road to get to  
your house. Ideally the pipe and the content should be de-coupled -  
that's the theory of LLU (Local Loop Unbundling). Even mobile  
operators are talking about sharing their mast infrastructure. So, we  
should be doing the same with the whole idea of content caching/ 
mirroring.

Now that we have the ear of the BBC (and specifically the team that  
works on iPlayer) through P2P-Next could it be worth us nudging them  
in the right direction?

I'd really be interested in your comments/support to the list!

Cheers Daniel

Feel free to also use: http://www.kendra.org.uk/wiki/wiki.pl?BBC

** I hope this doesn't offend CDNs on this list that maintain a  
"bunch of proprietary boxes"! ;-)