Stuart Corner
Thursday, 10 January 2008 14:28
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
Cisco has for weeks now been letting information trickle out about its Entertainment Operating System (EOS), but it's rather more than an operating system: it's a software-as-a-service platform that enables content owners to easily distribute and monetise their content, and it's prompting leading commentators to ask if Cisco could be the next Facebook. (updated added at the end)
Cisco is yet to formally announce EOS with a press release but an overall picture can be pieced together from a series of public statements by Dan Scheinman, general manager of Cisco's Media Solutions Group. He made it clear last October in
a posting on Cisco's official blog site that he sees a key role for the networking behemoth in making the connection between content consumers and content owner, in enabling collaboration between consumers and in deploying EOS will be the means to achieve this goal.
"Think about it," Scheinman said, "the digitisation of content and access to broadband is revolutionising how people choose to be entertained...But the network is more than a fire-hose of content. The network can ultimately provide a Web 2.0esque entertainment experience by bridging the gap between consumers and content owners."
He argued that the proliferation of online content had brought with it a new challenge. "This new reality has created the We/Me movement. People still want to have the social experience around entertainment (the 'We'). They want to want to hang around the virtual water cooler watching videos with friends, discussing their favourites, and increasingly adding their own creations to content through comments, mashups, derivative works, etc. But the proliferation of choice has also led to people demanding a more personalised entertainment experience (the 'Me') to help them deal with the volume of content."
He contends that: "The entertainment industry is struggling to deliver the We/Me experience, and still get paid for the valuable content they create." And this is where Cisco comes in. The company envisages a key role for itself in bridging this Me/We gap, and EOS is the means by which it intends to do this.
