Streaming Media & Rich Content

I just got a copy of the Streaming Media magazine and thumbed through it yesterday. What really strikes me as odd, is the fact there were no names of contributors that I recognized. I'm not saying I know much about the streaming business any more, since it's been nearly 5 years since I did any webcasting. What I find odd is that none of the brightest people in the early infancy of the industry are still around.

I'm talking about the group of people that I used to work with at webcasts.com. That group pioneered much of what is commonplace today in the streaming industry. In my opinion we were 5 years ahead of our time when we started...and now to look at what the industry is doing I would say that statement is correct. We had the products to deliver rich media and were working on several areas to really make it effective...until the unthinkable. That's topic for a whole other post, so I'll save it.

The "last mile" has come a long way since the days of webcasts.com and many more people are on broadband connections...even cell phones are starting to come into play. I can't help but to wonder how many of the current streaming (webcasting) companies out there got their ideas from the products created by the most talented group of people I've ever had the pleasure of working with.

It saddens me to think that their zest for the industry was ripped away from them only to have them seek other endeavors. The only thing I can say to that is the streaming industry is at a loss...and has no idea what advances could have been.

Here's to those great days (albeit long stressful days and nights getting things working) at webcasts.com and to pioneering spirits paving the way for things to come.