Re: [kSum] The Kendra Initiative - Media Addiction, LLC

[Daniel Harris <daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 15 Mar 2007, at 14:55, Ed Bates wrote:
> It was a great pleasure to meet you and the other members of the  
> Kendra Initiative and learn more about the various perspectives  
> regarding metadata standardization.  After all the discussions I  
> truly believe your organization's membership will greatly benefit  
> from our platform and tools.

I think you're probably right. However, bear in mind that there are  
probably (if I understand what you do correctly) a number of Kendra  
members that have built their businesses around providing similar  
solutions to yourself. So, we need to make sure they all play together.

It is Kendra's mission to foster an environment where yourselves and  
all these other companies interoperate by using standard/open  
protocols and transaction methodologies. So, what Kendra is  
interested in is the interfaces that you and others have to the  
outside world.

It's important to note that Kendra is not a trade association,  
lobbying for member benefits. It's raison d'être is to drive  
interoperability into the marketplace. Of course, one would hope, all  
of the members will benefit from a more interoperable marketplace.

> If anyone needs additional information regarding TV-Anytime it can  
> be located at http://www.tv-anytime.org.  The various Moving  
> Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standards such as MPEG 7 & 21 may be  
> referenced at http://www.mpeg.org

I've added them to the list, thanks.

> Please keep in mind that I am sensitive to the fact that the Kendra  
> Initiative is a non profit organization and that you would  
> ultimately like to see open source, royalty free solutions come to  
> market.

Just to clarify, Kendra is source code agnostic, meaning it cares not  
if applications or operating systems are open or closed sourced.  
Kendra is not pushing for either a world of closed or open sourced  
applications. The vision is, no matter what the source, that all  
applications interoperate using openly published protocol  
specifications. Yes, and I think we're all agreed that these open  
protocols should be royalty/patent free a la TCP/IP, SMTP, POP3 and  
HTML.

Kendra may foster/develop reference tools/models and these will  
certainly be open source to aid understanding and adoption by others.  
But one would hope that players in the media marketplace will  
incorporate interoperable open protocols into their various  
applications, plugins and devices - be they open or closed source.

> Given our discussions during the Cross Media Summit it was  
> suggested by Ron Eagle and others that perhaps Media Addiction  
> could provide a limited version of our metadata registration  
> software for free use by the user generated content community.

Sounds good to me. Could be to your advantage too.

> I really appreciate the opportunity you and the other members  
> provided.  I believe the Summit was extremely worthwhile and our  
> collective efforts will yield many great developments for Internet  
> users worldwide.

That's a great quote. I've set up a little section in the Summit  
minutes for quotes and added it in. I hope that's OK:

http://www.kendra.org.uk/wiki/wiki.pl?KendraMeeting20070309Minutes

Cheers Daniel