CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Content distribution network Akamai Technologies launched Openvideoplayer.com in an effort to unite the video publishing industry around an standardized video player. The base source code Akamai contributed to the Open Video Player has already been used by customers including Hulu and The NBA. The industry needs a player "that is standard, much like the television is standard, and [...]

Leading third-party measurement firm Visible Measures announced today that it will provide online video metrics for MTV Networks 340-plus video destination sites. I interviewed Visible Measures CEO Brian Shin at the AlwaysOn conference in July and reposted the interview above in light of the news. In the segment, Shin discusses the technology behind tracking video views and audience engagement and the importance [...]

Digital media company ON Networks will begin distributing outside content through its AllScreen Syndication Network, a decision that will open up its market, co-founder Jennifer Grogono says. ON Networks produces and distributes its own content to syndication platforms including iTunes, Adobe Media Player, Verizon, and TiVo. ON Networks will share revenue with the video content creators that use its syndication platform. [...]

ABC's highly regarded online video player will be available for developers outside of Disney's ABC, the network's online video chief Albert Cheng told the Streaming Media West conference last week. CNET's Webware contributor Dorian Benkoil has the story. Developers can use the player to fit particular needs, although the content will be from ABC as will the ads.  Here's how Dorian explains it, [...]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The media-rich environment of the Web, along with desktop applications, will evolve to an even richer experience with HD video embedded into applications and content displayed in 3D, says Craig Mundie in this interview with Beet.TV.  Mundie is Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer.  I spoke with him on Thursday at MIT at the Technology Review EmTech [...]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Views of video clips on Metacafe have increased by 55 percent resulting from a new accelerating technology from Akamai.  On Thursday,  I visited the headquarters of Akamai for a series of interviews with Suzanne Johnson, Senior Industry Marketing Manager. Akamai, the world's biggest content delivery network, with over 30,000 servers around the world, carrying a huge amount [...]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- While cloud computing is bringing enormous power to large and small organizations, the hype around the trend is "over blown," says Forrester VP and Principal Analyst Frank Gillett.  I interviewed him on Wednesday afternoon on the MIT campus. He told me that the whole movement has lead to "cloud envy" with companies branding existing services by "cloud washing" [...]

Global television network Current TV has teamed up with Twitter for "Hack the Debate," a live broadcast of the debates this evening that will display real-time Twitter comments from its audience on the screen. The broadcast visualization and online streaming will be powered by Adobe Flash, and the list of cable and satellite channels that carry Current TV can be viewed here. Twitter users can participate [...]

Break Media has partnered with a number of top brands geared toward 18-34-year-old males, according to SVP of Sales & Partnerships Andrew Budkofsky. Its recently launched web series sponsored by Twix and Dos Equis, and has upcoming campaigns for Doritos and Denny's. The Dos Equis six-episode web series "Behind Interesting" features "The Most Interesting Man in the World" from the brand's [...]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- As nearly a thousand technologists from around the world gathered this week on the MIT campus for Technology Review's annual EmTech conference to learn about emerging technologies and to celebrate the young innovators, the mood was decidedly muted, with the precarious global financial situation clearly on the mind of many. On Wednesday afternoon, I interviewed Jason Pontin, Editor [...]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Dan Lyons, formerly known as the Fake Steve Jobs, and now a columnist for Newsweek,  showed up the Technology Review's EmTech08 conference and wasn't too taken with the panel on social media moderated by Robert Scoble.  Not one to mince words, the curmudgeonly Bostonian declared in his own blog: "It was like watching five college kids with [...]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The focus of clean-tech, or as well-known venture capitalist Vinod Khosla prefers to call it, "main-tech," isn't wind and corn ethanol. "It's about the mainstream things we use in life and essentially reinventing society," he says. Cleantech will impact technologies like engines, lighting, and refridgerators, which have markets worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Khosla has invested in [...]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The create-your-own-social-network platform Ning has now produced nearly half a million social networks, with a new one created every 30 seconds, CEO and founder Gina Bianchini says. The company will launch an iPhone application on Friday. Jason Pontin, Editor of the MIT Technology Review, conducted this interview for Beet.TV on the MIT campus. Bianchini gave a keynote speech [...]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Adobe Systems CTO Kevin Lynch is one of the forces behind the Open Screen Project, a collaboration of 20 companies working to bring rich content, like mobile applications and flash, to any screen. Adobe Flash currently reaches over 800 million devices and expects to reach one billion by 2009, he says.    Adobe announced the Open Screen Project [...]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The current financial crisis might actually have a silver lining for venture capital investing, VC titan Vinod Khosla told Andy up on the MIT campus yesterday. "When we go through a period like this, it's actually healthy in the long run," he says in this clip. Khosla is an affiliated partner at KPCB and the founder of [...]

User-driven news site Digg announced a major expansion today that will include doubling its staff, growing internationally, improving infrastructure and developing new features. The company raised $28.7 million in a new round of funding led by Highland Capital Partners to finance its progress, according to Jay Adelson's post on the Digg blog. Although still unprofitable, Digg has now raised $40 [...]

Yesterday night MySpace launched its Self-Serve Ad Service, which will allow MySpace users to post advertisements directing viewers to their profile pages. Nick O'Neill at Social Times writes that the service seems to be targeted toward musicians, but its a tool companies can take advantage of as well. Major advertisers are creating profile pages for their products, termed branded communities, [...]

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate last month may have helped him attract a wider female audience of online video viewers, according to numbers Nielsen released today. Fifty-eight percent of his website's online video viewers last month were women, compared to 37 percent in June. Barack Obama has had a consistently higher percentage of female viewers [...]

BNET, the business information site of CBS Interactive, has just announced a content sharing agreement with Seeking Alpha, the influential financial site.  Earnings calls and other data from Seeking Alpha will surface on the BNET site, while company information from BNET will appear on the big finance site. Last year I interviewed Greg Mason about BNET when he was a CNET executive.  [...]

Co-founder Tim Shey of Next New Networks, the publisher of micro-television networks such as Barely Political, says his company is making money publishing videos on YouTube. Next New Networks is one of the content producers that has been selling its own YouTube ads and has regularly sold out all of its inventory of overlay ads and companion banners over the [...]