Introducing Joost
Widgets
Dan Brickley
danbri@joost.com

Joost overview
• “Best of Internet & best of TV”
• Streaming video distribution system
• Branded, high-quality TV content
• Interactive social experience
• Engaging advertising delivery platform
• Public beta since October 1st

Joost: Bringing TV into the Web
• Joost as platform: dev.joost.com
– Balancing viewer, owner and advertiser needs
brings stability for creative \"extras\" and
mashups
– Mix professionally-produced content with user
ratings, blogs, annotations, add-ons
• Joost Widgets: a social TV platform
• Web 2.0 +/- 1
– Built and extended with modern Web
technology, modern Web attitude

Quick look at Joost (videos)
• Full screen video
• Search, navigate and customise channels
• Interactive overlays

Quick look 2 ('My Joost' video...)
• Widget themes...
– software-style extras (eg. alarm clock,
games)
– communication-oriented (IM/chat)
– “DVD Extra”: annotations, subtitles, blog
posts
– Finding and sharing (invite, share,
bookmark, rate)
• Not rigid categories – fun to combine
all 4:
– 'Coke Bubbles' widget lets you chat, find,
share and annotate...

Widgets and their World
• Where TV really meets the Web
• Widgets are bundles of Web technology running
“inside the TV”
• Tech: HTML, ECMA/Javascript, CSS
• & more: SVG, E4X, Canvas, RDF, XMPP...
• Various Joost-specific APIs
• Opened up for 3rd party development (including
commercial widgets)
• Built using same technology as Joost

Platform details
• Core of Joost UI is a highly customised Web
browser
• We added swooshyness, a growing set of TV-
related APIs, and streaming video content
• Widget API targets the \"Web 2.0\" skillset (Ajax
etc...)
• Joost APIs lets you navigate EPG,
play/pause/rewind shows, draw things on screen
• More APIs and data interfaces on the way -
feedback welcome!

Example: annotation & subtitles

“TV meets the Web” revisited:
• Whose annotations do you want to see?
• Just from friends / family?
• Or from famous bloggers?
• Use reputations from external systems?
• TV isn't the Internet...
• Widgets can bring as much Internet to your TV
(and living room) as you want – or as little.

Example: Krabbel (“scribble”)

Engage with friends...

Engage with content...

Guess who?

(that was Audrey Hepburn)

(Richard Gere) (you get the idea)

Widgets – not rocket science
• 2-3 pages of HTML
& Javascript
• dev.joost.com for
this code and
more...

Inside your Widget
• config.xml, main XML or HTML file,
javascript code and any image
• UI: mini-Web pages, sprites, subtitles,
platform APIs
• Brains: Javascript, remote services
• Packaged as a .zip file
• Install from file or URL

Joost Links: Bridging to the Web
• There's more to Widgets than Widgets... (“what if I
don't like writing Javascript...?”)
• WebArch 101: “To benefit from and increase the
value of the World Wide Web, agents should
provide URIs as identifiers for resources.”
• All Joost videos and channels have a Web page
URL e.g http://joost.com/0440005
• Bloggable, linkable, shareable ...
• Browser plugin connects page to desktop app
• Deep linking into desktop TV: #start=123000

Data Interfaces
• RDFa, Atom/RSS feeds – pages and
search
• Microformats/GRDDL
• Listings and channel data
– for Widgets (see Widget API)
– for Websites (eg. Onthetoob.com, TIOTI,
joostlist, ...)
• User-created extras: blogs, channels, tags

Custom channels (via XML)

“Web 2.0” themes & Joost
• Standards and APIs - help users find stuff
• Community data - helps users find stuff
• Mashups, data integration, cross-site
linkage - many paths into content
• Blogs, social networks, user profiles
• Better tagging – beyond “tiffany” and
“paris”? who/what/where/when...

“paris, texas” or “paris hilton”?

Standards and dev community
• Built on and with W3C standards
• Extended with “Joost platform” APIs
• Generic widgets don't make the most of TV
• Code mobility vs coder mobility, we need
“widgetarians”...
• “Fun” issues:
– Signed widgets
– Storage APIs (local, remote)
– Interwidget communication
– Usable, clear privacy models

Become a Widgetarian!
• Developers site and blog:
• http://dev.joost.com/
– Join email list: joost-dev-
subscribe@googlegroups.com
• Stay in touch!

Thanks...
• Questions?