VERTIGO: Find, Enjoy and Share Media Trails across Physical and Social ContextDIGIBIZ – London, June 2009Renata Guarneri, Luca Galli – CREATE-NETJukka Huhtamaki – Tampere University of Technologyrenata.guarneri@create-net.org

OutlineIntroductionBackground and OpportunityThe VERTIGO conceptContextual DashboardContexts and ScenariosOngoing/Future WorkTechnical ChallengesConclusions and Acknowledgements

BackgroundIncreasing pressure on the media industriesBusiness models in broadcasting, movie and music sectors threatened by the success of InternetLimited experience of successful “convergent” servicesNovel approaches to create more interactive media experiences are needed

Window of opportunity - 1Expand and enrich user’s capability in finding, enjoying and sharing media connection “trails” across different physical and social contexts;To transform the “playing” concept into an interactive, effective, pleasurable social experience, taking the best out ofthe highly interactive and involving models of the fixed and mobile Web as well as the immediacy and enjoyment of traditional media consumption, on TVs and audio-centered systems.

Window of opportunity - 2To bridge the gap among the media search, visualization, consumption and social experience offered by the most innovative Internet-based services addressed to PC and mobile users, and the experience typical of broadcasting and living room settings (e.g. TV, audio and home theater systems).To offer a social dimension to the linear consumption of media.To transform “media trails” into a working technology

The challengeTo design a novel media search and retrieval to overcome the limitations of the existing separate domains of software media players, interactive EPGs and entertainment hardware controls, including specialized and universal remotes;The challenge is to enable a new paradigm to access and manipulate media content, managing heterogenous sources, representing it in visually rich, dynamic configurations and adapting it to always changing individual and social profiles and to contexts.

VERTIGO – The contextual DashboardContextual Media Dashboard providing the user with media management and control functionsOpen and Extensible Platform for consumer and providers, enabling multiple user roles and supporting novel forms of relationships between consumer and providersSome keywords / central conceptsMashups and VisualisationMedia TrailsPersonalisationContext

Mashups and VisualisationMashup is a prominent phenomenon of Web 2.0Mashup development as a form of information visualisationInformation visualisation as amplifier of the user cognition

Examples of Visualisation - 1Friends Graph, which allows the creation of a graph showing a user's network of friends

Examples of Visualisation - 2Similar Artists Graph, which allows the creation of a map of similar artists within Last.fm

Mashups, Visualisation and TrailsTrails as hyperlinks connecting pieces of information by association, rather than by indexing, in the same way as human mind worksLevels of association (e.g. geo-location, social ties, personal mood, activities) explicit in social networks: difficult to trace and make use of them in the current scattered multimedia consumption landscapeCrafting of “rabbit holes” through which multimedia consumers are drawn into new multimedia landscapes beyond their imagination to find new, interesting piece of multimedia or a similar-minded fellow consumer

The VERTIGO contexts Three main contextsLiving Room (leaning back)Desktop (leaning forward)Mobile (on the move, handheld)

Living RoomStill dominated by classical mass media, Forms of interactive entertainment are making increasing inroads into it. Traditional strength in creating high-quality laid-back entertainment and information experiences, Focused on consumptionGoing beyond this legacy is the open challenge for those willing to innovate the interactive TV experience

DesktopContext with the highest productivity potentialMost efficient human machine interface for lean-forward media production and consumption. Personal music collections are today often managed with desktop softwareMajor efforts are concentrated on the streaming quality and the social aspects are considered less. These services promote a television consumption model in which the online desktop brings in more interactivity, even though they somewhat diminish the traditional social aspects of TV communal watching

MobileMobile context traditional strength in communication and contextual services Mobile media consumption from mass-market download offers to streaming services most suitable for high-end 3G and Wi-Fi enabled smart phones (YouTube on the Apple iPhone). Promotion of 3G and DVB-H TV channels by broadcasters Modern mobile devices can figure out their geo-location, but this is generally not used for current media applications At the moment, multimedia management is still done with a desktop where smart playlists, multimedia stores and multimedia-ripping tools can be used to connect to different sources.

Convergence and Platform StrategiesTwo general trends: convergence of both devices and service provision, and raising of distinctive platform strategies.Handheld devices, television sets and computers are constantly adding or combining features that were previously reserved for specific devices. The lines between the core functionalities of devices blur: any of them can meet some multimedia consumption (and creation) user’ needs. This evolution goes hand in hand with the convergence of service provision as actors move in into new areas to explore new business models. The convergence of service provision is closely linked to platform strategies. This concept refers to actors in a value network vying for dominance by attempting to attract third-party services, content and end-users to their platform.

Two scenariosUsing Trails as Memory HelpersGeo-locating media and information

Ongoing / Future WorkVery early stage – project proposal for ICT FP4 Set of enthusiast partners keen on working on the development of the concept and not just …Technology challenges At the edge of the value network (users and service/application developers)The platform architecture (starting from MXM currently under development in ISO)

VERTIGO ChallengesFrom a userstand point VERTIGO strives to fulfill the following promises:A unified approach to multi-context content and media service provision;A social network -aware media consumption;An effective personalization and recommendation system;An adaptive, context-sensitive visualization for media consumption.Through the support of a novel architecture and platform

SummaryVERTIGO is an extensible context-aware media delivery, exploration and management platform featuring a rich-media end-user control dashboard. The system taps the power of social networks and ubiquitous computing to change the ways in which media such as movies, video, music and all types of TV content are delivered, explored, managed, and enjoyed.

AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to thank the companies that have taken part in the proposal development effort.Many thanks also to DIGIBIZ for the opportunity to present our idea.