Towards a Smarter Combination of Broadcasting and the Web

1.1 Core Information Service and Core Information Media

• Core Information Service is a universal service for a region or a community that disseminates both essential information for daily life and vital information before, during and after regional crises to help maintain the safety and security of the region or community in the event of man-made and natural disasters.

• Core Information Media is a holistic entity, or a complete information system that creates the core information service in a region or a community. The core information medium consists of numerous entities: ex. radio waves, telecommunications, optical disks, web servers, television stations, news editors and reporters. How these entities are actually combined differs by how core information media is implemented. However, all implementations have the same two-layer, large-scale structure. The upper layer consists of activities performed by humans such as information gathering, creation, selection, edition, etc. It also includes the activities of news agencies, collective-intelligence curators, and public-opinion influencers. The lower layer includes activities performed by computers and machines with the objective of not only distributing information but also helping people work effectively and efficiently. Of course the boundary between the upper layer and the lower layer is blurring as technology advances.

1.2 Broadcasting, and Broadcasting Media

• Broadcasting is a method of distributing content via mass-communication infrastructure using radio waves to a dispersed audience; in which the transmissions are intended for direct reception by the general public.

• Broadcasting Media is a type of core information media that uses broadcasting as its foundation. In many countries, broadcasters have taken the responsibility to build, maintain and develop broadcasting media under the law prescribed in each country.

1.3 The Internet and The Web

• The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks from local to global in scope consisting of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks that are connected by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.

• The term the Web is short for 'the World Wide Web', and is an immense information space of interlinked hypertext documents written in web standard languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and is accessed mainly via the Internet. The content of the Web is primarily text, images, videos, and interactive multimedia viewed with a user agent, such as a web browser, and navigated via hyperlinks.

1.4 Television Defined

• Traditionally, Television is a device that displays video signals received from video broadcasting sources. A more up-to-date definition would include video signal sources provided by broadband technology, internet technology and recorded media. In this document, we recognize that television is defined as a device that can display any video signal from any media.

2.1 Broadcasting and the Web

The first viewpoint we would like to raise is 'Core Information Media using Both Broadcasting and the Web as Its Foundation', in short, 'Broadcasting and the Web'.

What Core Information Media can we build with 'Broadcasting and the Web' as its foundation? What standards are necessary to achieve that? How does the diversity of core information media over regions or communities fit into a single global standard with well-considered architecture? These are not issues from the viewpoint of 'Web and TV' but from the viewpoint of 'Broadcasting and the Web', and we have not discussed these topics thus far in W3C Web and TV activities.

It's obvious that broadcasting and the Internet are the two most important global infrastructures in delivering audio and video content today. While the Internet and the Web have already been fully integrated, broadcasting and the Web continues to suffer from poor integration. So the question is how do we design a better interface between broadcasting and the Web to create core information media using them.

2.2 Fundamental Value Proposition

The second viewpoint we would like to raise is the 'Fundamental Value Proposition of Core Information Media for a Region or a Community'.

When we consider the value propositions of market players regarding 'Web and TV', a suitable approach for them is to let the market decide. However, when you look at the value proposition of core information media in a region or a community, market forces may be applied in some ways but are insufficient in others. Core information service is a universal service and must cover at least 97% of a region or a community. Additionally, core information media should contain services for regional risks such as natural disasters and wars. However, making a service universal is costly and does not allow companies to maximize profits, and so decisions made by the market do not serve the long-term safety and security interests of a region or a community well.

3.1 Bias in HTML5

As clearly stated in W3C's "Hyper Text Markup Language Version 5" working draft, HTML5 is biased towards HTTP as its transport protocol; and since HTTP is standardized as an internet application-layer protocol in IETF, it's clear HTML5 is biased towards the Internet as its transport layer and system. HTML5 is a document markup language, which means it is theoretically free of a tranport layer from a layered architecture point of view.

We, the contributors, are not dissatisfied with the bias. It has been relevant in the development of the history of the Web and will remain relevant in the development of standards going forward. Historically, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web on top of the existing Internet in 1989. Additionally, he published the specifications of both HTML and HTTP. In terms of developmental efficiency, assuming a specific protocol for adjacent layers is a good way to develop a standard while at the same time avoiding excessively abstract discussions on the standard.

3.2 Reassessing the Bias to Unleash the Potential of the Web

Generally speaking, once a good standard has been developed by assuming specific protocols for adjacent layers, it is time to eliminate the bias and take into account other protocols to improve the standards. However, HTML5 and HTTP have been so strongly bound that eliminating the bias is counter productive. Nonetheless, reassessing the scope of the transport layer would help unleash the full potential of the Web.

Because broadcasting is currently the other large transport infrastructure, we should not ignore it, nor should we avoid it. We need to recognise that 'Broadcasting and the Web' is a key concept that both web and broadcasting people should always bear in mind when considering media. Therefore from the viewpoint of standardization, the two important objectives are, 1. HTML5 interfaces for broadcasting and, 2. broadcasting specifications for HTML5. Setting these two standards will lead to a smarter combination of Broadcasting and the Web that will, once again, help us unleash the full potential of the Web.

4.1 A History of Universal Service

The concept of universal service appears to have originated with Rowland Hill and the Uniform Penny Post which he introduced in the United Kingdom in 1837. Though Hill never used the term "universal service", his postal system had the hallmarks of early universal service; postal rates were reduced to uniform rates throughout the nation which were affordable to most Britons, enabled by the postage stamp (first introduced here) and a General Post Office monopoly on mail.

The term "universal service", on the other hand, appears to have originated with Theodore Newton Vail, president of American Telephone & Telegraph (the original AT&T) and head of the Bell System, in 1907 with the corporate slogan "One Policy, One System, Universal Service".

Universal service in telecommunications was eventually established as U.S. national policy by the Communications Act of 1934, whose preamble declared its purpose as “to make available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States, a rapid, efficient, nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges”.

The U.S. national policy has changed twice so far and will change in the future, mainly to follow the advance in technologies and partly to avoid monopoly. However, the purpose declared in the preamble has been kept and never changed.