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ToC An Introduction Communication Before Digital The Early Communication

While you can ride the digital media bits in many ways and even create your own roadmap, the table below suggests one that combines the sequence of events with a meaningful story. The suggested reading is organised in 21 chapters each subdivided in a variable number of sections. The structure is mostly sequential in time but also tries to accommodate the evolution of technology.

1 Preface Why I thought that I should document an unusual professional life.
2 Introduction An introduction to Riding the Media Bits.
3 A guided tour A summary of each of the main areas addressed be these pages.
4 The Early Communication
Communication Before Digital How the forms of communication and of the business of providing the means to communicate have evolved in analogue times
Communication And Public Authorities The role of public authorities and international organisations in communication
Digital Communication Is Good The steps that brought digital technologies within the reach of exploitation by the media industries
Compressed Digital Is Better The developments that led to the practical exploitation of digital technologies for the media
5 The Early Digital Communication
The First Digital Wailings The first sample applications of digital technologies to the media
Digital Technologies Come Of Age The first practical cases of exploitation of digital technologies for the media
Electronic Computers A succinct history of the hardware side of data processing
Carrying Bits Solving the problem of storing and transmitting bits on analogue carriers
Telecom Bits And Computer Bits Bits are bits are bits, but telecom bits are different from computer bits
A personal faultline A fault line in my professional life that led to the creation of MPEG
6 Media Get Digital
The First MPEG Project The events that led to the definition of the first MPEG project: MPEG-1
MPEG-1 – Inside The development of MPEG-1: Video
MPEG-1 Development – Video The development of MPEG-1: Audio, Systems and Reference Software
MPEG-1 Development – Audio The first time IT puts media together in a synchronised way
MPEG-1 Development – Systems Software and standards used to be in different worlds. How they first became two sides of the same coin
MPEG – Reference Software Why MPEG standards need conformance and how it can be assessed
MPEG-1 – Conformance An overview of the technical content of MPEG-1
MPEG-1 – Achievements How MPEG-1 has influenced and benefited the media industry
7 Digital Media Get Better
The Highs And Lows Of Television The importance of television, how it was deployed and how it (should have) developed
The Digital Television Maze Why digital television is such a good idea and why using it is so difficult
MPEG-2 – Inside An overview of the technical content of MPEG-2
MPEG-2 Development – Video The steps that led to the development of MPEG-2 Video
MPEG-2 Development – Audio The steps that led to the development of MPEG-2 Audio and AAC.
MPEG-2 Development – Systems The steps that led to the development of MPEG-2 Systems, DSM-CC and RTI.
MPEG-2 – Impact How MPEG-2 has influenced and benefited the media industry
Beyond MPEG-2 Audio And Video Why there was a need for DAVIC, what it did and why it was wound up
8 Standards, ISO And MPEG
The Need For Standards Standards are important but their role must be properly understood
Patents And Standards If standards require patented technology their use must obey some rules
The MPEG Way Of Standards Making The unique MPEG way to develop standards.
An MPEG Meeting A virtual experience of how an MPEG meeting unfolds
Life In ISO A sample of life in an international organisation and how it affected the first phases of MPEG
9 Works, Rights And Exploitation
Craft, Intellect And Art People agree to pay for the work of a blacksmith or an attorney, but some consider it an option to pay for the performance of a singer or an actor
Fixating Works How technology used to help the distribution of literary and artistic works
Rights The rights to a hammer are obvious, those to a book less so, those to a bunch of bits are still waiting for a solution
Protecting Right The need to protect digital content and how it can be done
10 Computers And Internet
Computer Programming The role of software, and particularly operating systems, in IT
Operating System Abstraction Is there a way to remove dependency of applications from the operating system?
Humans Interact With Machines Brief history of how we came to the current Graphical User Interface to enable interaction with computers
Computers Create Pictures And Sound Brief history of a complex business case of IT use in the media space: humans perceive pictures and sound created not by the real world but by computers as well
Internet and the World Wide Web The fascinating story of a technology and how it changed the media landscape
11 Digital Media Do More
Media Meet Computers And Digital Networks The story of a project integrating most of the different technologies we have talked about so far – and more
MPEG-4 Development How MPEG-4 developed to become _the_ multimedia standard
MPEG-4 Inside – Systems An overview of the MPEG-4 Systems layer
MPEG-4 Inside – Visual The story of how we tried to build videos from objects
MPEG-4 Inside – Audio MP3 suggested that everything for audio was done, but AAC shows that was not the case
MPEG-4 Inside – File Format The first encounter of MPEG with files (as opposed to streams)
MPEG-4 Inside – Advanced Video Coding MPEG continues pushing farther the limits of video compression
MPEG-4 – Impact How MPEG-4 has changed the media landscape
12 Software And Communication
Bits And Bytes Bytes are made of 8 bits, but chopping a bitstream in chunks of 8 bits does not necessarily make bytes
Open Source Software Writing software may be an art and some artists have pretty special ideas about the use of the “art” they create
MPEG and Open Source Software MPEG is a group operating in an industrial environment, but the software it develops uses principles similar to those of the Open Source Software community
The Communication Workflow The role of patents and standards in the creation of new forms of communication
Type 1 Video Coding Sometimes it helps to question the foundations of the way we operate
A Fuller Form Of Communication The myth of real-time communication with pictures in addition to audio
13 Digital Media For Machines
Tagging Information A key technology to add descriptions to other data
The World Wide Web The fascinating story of other internet technologies and how they changed our lives
MPEG-7 – Development The MPEG standard to describe what a piece of content is or contains
MPEG-7 – Inside An overview of the technical content of MPEG-7
MPEG-7 – Impact How MPEG-7 is beginning to change the way people access content
Machines Begin To Understand The World Searching for information out of an image
A World Of Peers If humans can talk to humans, why should machines not talk to machines (intelligently)?
14 More About Rights and Technologies
Technology Challenging Rights Learning from MP3: the many ways technology changes rights and their enforcements
Opening Content Protection Two relevant stories teaching that it does not help to preserve the value of content by protecting it if people cannot access it
Technology, Society and Law If Digital Media Technologies have wrought a revolution in society why should the laws governing it non change? Can changes putting patches to the old be a response?
The World After MP3 MP3 has changed the media world forever. People must stop playing the game their traditions has accustomed them to play.
15 Frameworks For Digital Media
MPEG-21 – Development MPEG-21 contains the components of a global solution
MPEG-21 – Inside The technologies that let users build reasonable digital media systems
The Digital Media Project A project to right any wrongs that users of technologies may have made
Inside The Interoperable DRM Platform A walkthrough of value chains enabled by the end-to-end Interoperable DRM Platform
Inside The Other DMP Phases The DMP mission is not over
Doing Something For My Country If MPEG and DMP provide the tools for rightful use of digital media, why should my country – or all countries – not benefit from them?
16 Putting Digital Media Together
The First Application Formats Standards for multimedia formats
Multimedia Preservation Application Format How can we cater to the long-term future of media
Publish/Subscribe Application Format The media business is about the meeting of demand and offer. A new standard capable of disrupting the status quo
Media Linking Application Format Linking the inside of a document to the inside of another document is done billions of times a day. Let’s do the same for media.
17 More MPEG Triadic Technologies
Generic MPEG Technologies Technology matures and the audio-visual system components have achieved independent lives
Generic MPEG Systems Standards Some words about a bunch of Systems standards
Generic MPEG Video Standards Some words about a bunch of Video standards
Generic MPEG Audio Standards Some words about a bunch of Audio standards
Reconfigurable Media Coding A standard to describe decoders and to build repositories of media coding tools
18 Technologies For Virtual Spaces
Inside MPEG-4 – Graphics Adding 3D Graphics to the media tool set
Interaction Between Real And Virtual Worlds Building bridges between real and virtual worlds
Technologies To Interact With Digital Media Interating with media – but without knobs and switches
Augmented Reality Application Format It is possible to make standards for Augmented Reality, not just buzzwords
19 Systems And Services
Inside Digital Media Devices MPEG is about media but not necessarily only about media formats
Getting Things Done My Way Using, not just developing, standard technologies for a business
Technologies For The Internet Of The Future MPEG-21 and MPEG-M show a practical path to information-centric networks
20 More System-wide Digital Media Standards
Multimedia Standards For An Evolving Market It is time again to provide an integrated Systems-Video-Audio standard
Coping With An Unpredictable Internet DASH – to get the most out of the internet resource
Inside MPEG-H – Systems The need for new transport technologies to cope with a variety of application contexts, especially hybrid
Inside MPEG-H – 2D Video The story of a belatedly successful MPEG-Video standard.
21 Glimpses Of The Future
MPEG Explorations About the – sometimes wild – ideas for future MPEG standards
End Of the MPEG Ride? MPEG has played a major role in creating the new world of Digital Media Technologies. Does it still have a role to play?
The end of MPEG may be coming, soon? If not the end, a very substantial resizing of MPEG
The Future Of Research Research is the basis of human progress and the life blood of MPEG. Are we sure research is in the hands of people who know what research is?
22 Acknowledgements Thanks to the many who made me the human and the engineer and who helped me realise my vision.
23 Support Material The official data about MPEG standards, meetings, and officers.
List of MPEG standards A rather complete list of the standards produced by MPEG in 32 years of activity.
List of MPEG Meetings The full list of MPEG meetings.
MPEG Subgroups And Chairs The hall of fame of those who served or are still serving as MPEG Chairs.
Acronyms In a field where are just too many acronyms, this page provides the meaning of those used in these pages.

 

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ToC An Introduction Communication Before Digital The Early Communication