Buzz that is usually reserved for the video game industry's largest event, E3, was in overdrive at this year's Gaming Developer's Conference (GDC). Gaming startup Onlive (http://www.onlive.com) stole the show with its announcement (and inpressive demonstration) of it's cloud enabled gaming subscription service. In brief, instead of using a gaming console (XBox 360, PS3, Wii) or PC to process the enormous amount of data necessary for today's games, Onlive would leave the heavy lifting to its network of computers. Your only requirement to play? A subscription, a speedy internet connection, and a controller (a modem-sized box will also be available if you plan on playing it on your TV). As you traverse the system menus or are playing a game, your controller movements are uploaded to virtual machines and your thumb gyrations are processed. "Pictures" of your game are then sent back at 60 frames per second with no latency. Incredible? Yes! Impossible? Maybe?
I've read up on the requirements of such a service. The hardware required would be massive. The compression software, ground-breaking. Yet if it can be done, the technology will not only rattle the cages of console makers Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. It will also be a game changer for HP, Dell and Apple.
Imagine a day in the not-so distant future when the desktop computer will consist of nothing more than a keyboard, mouse and a display. Your CPU will be "in the cloud". Your files? The same. And imagine what it does for software as a service. Need Photoshop? Run it. Want to switch operating systems? Just a quick configuration change. All of your data, configuration and personalization settings are ready and waiting whenever you need it. Just login and go.
Pricing models for software could be diverse; pay-to-play, monthly subscriptions, or outright purchases are all possible ways of monetizing the model. And of course, an overall user fee or monthly subscription for CPU access and storage.
I'll leave it to the software engineers to debate the compression algorithms and computing power needed to make Onlive a reality, but one thing is obvious. A new era of computing and gaming is right around the corner, and my iMac is a little nervous.
In my "younger days" I used to say that if you didn't know what you wanted to do in life, you got a degree in Communications or Marketing. At the time I was a young, cocky web developer with the world at my fingertips. It wasn't until I got my hands into marketing/advertising that I realized the power (and the extremely broad use) of the "M" word.
At a dotcom in the early 2000's, I considered myself a complete technology guy (my title of CTO even screamed "I'm technology, hear me roar"). I thought Marketeers were Mouseketeers. To me, the marketing department set up ice cream socials and sent out the yearly company branded coffee cup. Yet I had always been consumed by advertising and secretly had a desire to try my hand at it.
After the dotcom I helped create imploded, I moved to a company that needed both my technology and creative skills (since I had been collaborating with the Marketing Director of my last company and secretly enjoyed every moment; I had some marketing chops, I just didn't want to admit I was one of "them"). After nine months, the call came down from the CEO; I was now the Director of Marketing, and the fast growing department that had until that point, been unnamed, was now the marketing department.
I kicked. "Why can't we be the New Media department?". I screamed. "I am *not* a Marketing person like the long list of undecided college grads that I so despised. They were not like me. I was results oriented, they were warm and fluffy. I embraced technology, they needed more branded coffee cups.
And almost like that, I ended up deeply entrenched in International Advertising and Marketing. This blog is mostly self-serving - a way to get my thoughts about everything from alternative energy, to architecture and technology. And like most posts in the blogosphere, it will probably fall upon deaf ears, except for the occasional visit from Slurp or Googlebot.
Marketing is not a dirty word, or a career for the undecided. It is a beautiful collision of business execution and art; product exceeding hype and hype exceeding business expectations. It is where my brain roams and it can be wonderful and frustrating all at the same time. Welcome to my brain. :)