I walk home from school after a long day of discussing Web 2.0 and its impact on the future of internet applications. At this point, I no longer want to think about anything computer related and sit back in my recliner, ready to watch a mindless old movie. I turn on my Comcast cable box and pick a movie from the On Demand FearNet menu. After about 15 minutes of catatonically watching Day of the Living Dead, it hits me: Web 2.0 has spread to my T.V.
FearNet is a sector of Comcast’s On Demand Digital Cable package subscribed to by millions of people. Besides allowing me to watch horror movies when I want to watch them, FearNet also is also a website incorporating several tenants of Web 2.0. Any user visiting the site can watch horror movies, review and discuss horror films, as well as suggest new films to be added to the FearNet lineup. The site allows for user generated video content, which can be downloaded by users of the website. Some of this content, can even be downloaded by users accessing FearNet from their cable box. In true Web 2.0 form, most of the data of the site, including wikis, blogs, and even video content, are user generated. The content is stored on the server side and is therefore accessible to a large variety of platforms, including cable boxes and even cell phones.
This is not to say that the users of a cable box alone truly gain the benefits of FearNet. While users of cable box can access all of the available films stored on the server at any time as well as some of the user uploaded video content, without a computer console the Web 2.0 experience ends here. A computer is still required to add content as well access much of the user generated video and written comment. Given the success of the FearNet site with its focus on user interaction, it would make sense for Comcast to go Web 2.0 all the way with the project. This could involve anything as simple as allowing users to give a FearNet movie a thumbs up, thumbs down rating to allowing a user to tag a film, all through the use of only a remote control. This use of Web 2.0 lead to a more user specific FearNet and an overall more engrossing, experience. Maybe then users like me, Brian D. will be able to upgrade their scare level to 2.0!
Ref: http://www.news.com/Phone,-cable-companies-embracing-Web-2.0/2100-1033_3-6133451.html
Tags: Comcast, CS 292, FearNet, horror, Movies, On Demand, Reviews, Web 2.0
