By Nathan Willis on April 01, 2008 (11:30:00 AM)
PILTDOWN, UK - High definition HTML is coming to a site near you -- whether you will see it is another matter. An addition to the HTML5 working draft specification was approved by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) working group over the weekend, including several new HTML elements and attributes designed to support output on high definition displays. But due to patent protection, open source Web browsers may not be allowed to implement a significant portion of the standard.
The W3C's HTML working group added the extension set to its Second Public Working Draft of the spec, published Sunday. The HD extension introduces one new head-level HTML/XHTML element, three block-level elements, four global attributes (which can be used with existing elements), and three additional attributes unique to the previously-approved
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Five principles for successful mass collaboration, part 1
By Charles Leadbeater on March 31, 2008 (9:00:00 PM)
Linux has succeeded as a product only because the community that supports it has organised itself systematically to create, share, test, reject, and develop ideas in a way that flouts conventional wisdom. Successful We-Think projects are based on five key principles that were all present in Linux. Here are the first two.
This article is excerpted from the newly published book We-Think: The Power of Mass Creativity.
Core
Everything has to start somewhere. Somebody has to be willing to work harder than everyone else or nothing ends up getting done. Innovative communities invariably start with a gift of knowledge provided by someone, just as Linux started with the kernel that Linus Torvalds slaved over and which he posted on the Internet.
A good core attracts a community of capable contributors and developers around it. The kernel has to be solid but unfinished, so open to improvement; if it were already complete there would be few opportunities to add to it. Jane McGonigal says the core to a successful game like I Love Bees depends on the starting-point being ambiguous and open to interpretation. Both the worm project to decode C. elegans' genome and I Love Bees began with a puzzle that could be solved only with the collaborative efforts of people with different skills. Steven Weber, a political scientist at Berkeley University in California, found that successful open source software projects tended to be 'multi-dimensional' and complex, thus inviting the involvement of people with different skills.' Thomas Kuhn summed up the ambiguous character of the core to a new intellectual community in his history of scientific revolutions. Kuhn argued that the possibility of a new scientific paradigm emerged when a small group of pioneers made a breakthrough that was
sufficiently unprecedented to attract an enduring group of adherents away from competing modes of scientific activity. Simultaneously, it was sufficiently open-ended to leave all sorts of problems for the redefined group of practitioners to resolve.
However, a core will develop only if its creators give away the material on which others can work, to which they can add and which they can refine. Successful innovation comes from a creative conversation between people who combine their different skills, insights and knowledge to explore a problem. We-Think is creating a new way for these conversations to emerge. A good core starts a creative conversation, and invites people to contribute.
Contribute
A successful creative community has to attract the right mix of people, who have different ideas and outlooks and access to tools that enable them to contribute. We-Think takes off only by getting the right answer to each of the following questions: Who contributes? What do they contribute? Why do they do so? And how do they do it?
Creative communities have a social structure. A relatively small, committed core group tends to do most of the heavy lifting: the discussion moderators in Slashdot; the original inhabitants of Second Life. These are the Web 2.0 aristocracy: people who because they have been around longer and done more work tend to get listened to more. There is nothing unusual in this. Most innovative projects, whether inside a company or a theatre group or a laboratory, start with intense collaboration among a small group which shares a particular passion or wants to address a common problem -- as did the worm researchers who gathered around Sydney Brenner at Cambridge. Often, however, such communities can become closed and inward-looking. To be dynamic, they have to open out to a wider world of more diverse contributors who add their knowledge or challenge conventional wisdom.
We-Think projects take off when they attract a much larger crowd, who are less intensely engaged with the project. Their occasional, smaller contributions may in aggregate be as significant as the work initially done by the core. Linux, for example, as well as having 400 key programmers at the core, has close on 150,000 registered users -- akin to members -- who may only report the occasional bug in the program. Yet such a report may provide the starting-point for a much more significant effort at innovation. The make-up of the crowd is as important as the brainpower of the highly committed core. Crowds are intelligent only when their members have a range of views and enough self-confidence and independence to voice their opinions. Scott Page, a professor of complex systems at the University of Michigan, used sophisticated computer models to find that groups with diverse skills and outlooks came up with smart solutions more often than groups of very clever people who shared the same outlook and skills. Groups made up of many people who think in different ways can trump groups of people who are very bright but very alike, Page argues, so long as they are organised in the right way.
Page's explanation is that the more vantage points from which a complex problem is seen, the easier it becomes to solve. A group of experts who think in the same way is probably no better at devising a solution than just one of them, so adding more people who think in the same way is unlikely to improve a group's ability to come up with different solutions. Groups who think in the same way can often find themselves stuck at the same point -- akin to their being at the peak of a foothill in a mountain range, unable to climb to the higher peaks that lie beyond. A group who thinks in diverse ways, in contrast, is more likely to address a problem from many angles, less likely to get stuck and more likely to find a way out if it does get stuck. Diverse viewpoints are likely to generate more possible solutions and evaluate them in a wider range of ways. The right perspective can make a difficult problem seem easy. Innovation often involves trying out many vantage points before finding the one that makes the problem look simple. As Thomas Edison put it, 'We have found 1,000 ways not to make a light bulb.'
Bugs in a software program often become apparent only when the program is tested in many different settings. Better 1,000 people making different tests at the same time than a single person making 1,000 tests one after the other. This explains why open source programs are often more robust that proprietary software: they have been tested much earlier by a much wider group of users. Bart Nooteboom, a professor at Rotterdam University, argues that distributed testing of this kind is vital to most innovation. He examined the development of 17th-century Dutch sailing ships and found that the designs mutated when the community of sailors tested and then adapted them to meet different conditions: first canals, then lakes, larger inland waterways, offshore sailing, the North Sea, the Atlantic and so on. We-Think allows ideas to be tested from a larger, more diverse set of vantage points more quickly and with ideas continually passing between the tightly knit core who develop them and the crowd who test them out.
This testing becomes possible only when people can make the kind of contributions they feel happy with, which requires tools to allow them to get involved. Mass computer games thrive by making it easy for player-developers to pick up tools to create content. Blogging depends on easy-to-use software for writing and publishing online. The camera phone is now a ubiquitous tool for citizen journalism. Such tools are taking to mass scale the self-help ethic of the original computer hackers. The first versions of the Unix operating system, on which Linux is based, were created by lone programmers who could not afford to provide tech support to their users. So when they sent their programs to people, usually on a stack of floppy disks, they included a set of tools that allowed users to sort out problems themselves. When people can get hold of tools that allow them to produce aspects of a service, they start becoming players, participants and developers: newspaper readers become writers, publishers and distributors; bystanders become photographers; the audience can become reviewers and critics.
Perhaps the most perplexing question is not how people contribute, but why they do so -- particularly when they are not being paid and their work is given away. In open source software projects, a few are inspired by a hatred of proprietary software providers, especially Microsoft. A minority are driven by altruistic motives. Some see their involvement as a way to get a better job: by showing off their skills in the open source community they can enhance their chances of being employed. For the majority the main motivation is recognition: they want the acknowledgement of their peers for doing good work that they enjoy, that gives them a sense of achievement and in the process solves a problem for which other people are seeking a solution. Many of the most striking Web 2.0 success stories started when users created tools to solve a problem they themselves faced -- keeping track of all the blogs being created, sharing video and photographs online -- and which quickly got taken up by others who faced similar problems.
Open source gives away intellectual property so other people can freely use it. We-Think requires more than that: it is also an invitation to participate and collaborate in creating something. Open source ownership of a project becomes powerful when it enables mass collaborative approaches to innovation. For that to be possible many ideas have to be combined; contributors have to meet and connect with one another.
Tomorrow: Connect
Linux has succeeded as a product only because the community that supports it has organised itself systematically to create, share, test, reject, and develop ideas in a way that flouts conventional wisdom. Successful We-Think projects are based on five key principles that were all present in Linux. Here are the first two.
This article is excerpted from the newly published book We-Think: The Power of Mass Creativity.
Core
Everything has to start somewhere. Somebody has to be willing to work harder than everyone else or nothing ends up getting done. Innovative communities invariably start with a gift of knowledge provided by someone, just as Linux started with the kernel that Linus Torvalds slaved over and which he posted on the Internet.
A good core attracts a community of capable contributors and developers around it. The kernel has to be solid but unfinished, so open to improvement; if it were already complete there would be few opportunities to add to it. Jane McGonigal says the core to a successful game like I Love Bees depends on the starting-point being ambiguous and open to interpretation. Both the worm project to decode C. elegans' genome and I Love Bees began with a puzzle that could be solved only with the collaborative efforts of people with different skills. Steven Weber, a political scientist at Berkeley University in California, found that successful open source software projects tended to be 'multi-dimensional' and complex, thus inviting the involvement of people with different skills.' Thomas Kuhn summed up the ambiguous character of the core to a new intellectual community in his history of scientific revolutions. Kuhn argued that the possibility of a new scientific paradigm emerged when a small group of pioneers made a breakthrough that was
sufficiently unprecedented to attract an enduring group of adherents away from competing modes of scientific activity. Simultaneously, it was sufficiently open-ended to leave all sorts of problems for the redefined group of practitioners to resolve.
However, a core will develop only if its creators give away the material on which others can work, to which they can add and which they can refine. Successful innovation comes from a creative conversation between people who combine their different skills, insights and knowledge to explore a problem. We-Think is creating a new way for these conversations to emerge. A good core starts a creative conversation, and invites people to contribute.
Contribute
A successful creative community has to attract the right mix of people, who have different ideas and outlooks and access to tools that enable them to contribute. We-Think takes off only by getting the right answer to each of the following questions: Who contributes? What do they contribute? Why do they do so? And how do they do it?
Creative communities have a social structure. A relatively small, committed core group tends to do most of the heavy lifting: the discussion moderators in Slashdot; the original inhabitants of Second Life. These are the Web 2.0 aristocracy: people who because they have been around longer and done more work tend to get listened to more. There is nothing unusual in this. Most innovative projects, whether inside a company or a theatre group or a laboratory, start with intense collaboration among a small group which shares a particular passion or wants to address a common problem -- as did the worm researchers who gathered around Sydney Brenner at Cambridge. Often, however, such communities can become closed and inward-looking. To be dynamic, they have to open out to a wider world of more diverse contributors who add their knowledge or challenge conventional wisdom.
We-Think projects take off when they attract a much larger crowd, who are less intensely engaged with the project. Their occasional, smaller contributions may in aggregate be as significant as the work initially done by the core. Linux, for example, as well as having 400 key programmers at the core, has close on 150,000 registered users -- akin to members -- who may only report the occasional bug in the program. Yet such a report may provide the starting-point for a much more significant effort at innovation. The make-up of the crowd is as important as the brainpower of the highly committed core. Crowds are intelligent only when their members have a range of views and enough self-confidence and independence to voice their opinions. Scott Page, a professor of complex systems at the University of Michigan, used sophisticated computer models to find that groups with diverse skills and outlooks came up with smart solutions more often than groups of very clever people who shared the same outlook and skills. Groups made up of many people who think in different ways can trump groups of people who are very bright but very alike, Page argues, so long as they are organised in the right way.
Page's explanation is that the more vantage points from which a complex problem is seen, the easier it becomes to solve. A group of experts who think in the same way is probably no better at devising a solution than just one of them, so adding more people who think in the same way is unlikely to improve a group's ability to come up with different solutions. Groups who think in the same way can often find themselves stuck at the same point -- akin to their being at the peak of a foothill in a mountain range, unable to climb to the higher peaks that lie beyond. A group who thinks in diverse ways, in contrast, is more likely to address a problem from many angles, less likely to get stuck and more likely to find a way out if it does get stuck. Diverse viewpoints are likely to generate more possible solutions and evaluate them in a wider range of ways. The right perspective can make a difficult problem seem easy. Innovation often involves trying out many vantage points before finding the one that makes the problem look simple. As Thomas Edison put it, 'We have found 1,000 ways not to make a light bulb.'
Bugs in a software program often become apparent only when the program is tested in many different settings. Better 1,000 people making different tests at the same time than a single person making 1,000 tests one after the other. This explains why open source programs are often more robust that proprietary software: they have been tested much earlier by a much wider group of users. Bart Nooteboom, a professor at Rotterdam University, argues that distributed testing of this kind is vital to most innovation. He examined the development of 17th-century Dutch sailing ships and found that the designs mutated when the community of sailors tested and then adapted them to meet different conditions: first canals, then lakes, larger inland waterways, offshore sailing, the North Sea, the Atlantic and so on. We-Think allows ideas to be tested from a larger, more diverse set of vantage points more quickly and with ideas continually passing between the tightly knit core who develop them and the crowd who test them out.
This testing becomes possible only when people can make the kind of contributions they feel happy with, which requires tools to allow them to get involved. Mass computer games thrive by making it easy for player-developers to pick up tools to create content. Blogging depends on easy-to-use software for writing and publishing online. The camera phone is now a ubiquitous tool for citizen journalism. Such tools are taking to mass scale the self-help ethic of the original computer hackers. The first versions of the Unix operating system, on which Linux is based, were created by lone programmers who could not afford to provide tech support to their users. So when they sent their programs to people, usually on a stack of floppy disks, they included a set of tools that allowed users to sort out problems themselves. When people can get hold of tools that allow them to produce aspects of a service, they start becoming players, participants and developers: newspaper readers become writers, publishers and distributors; bystanders become photographers; the audience can become reviewers and critics.
Perhaps the most perplexing question is not how people contribute, but why they do so -- particularly when they are not being paid and their work is given away. In open source software projects, a few are inspired by a hatred of proprietary software providers, especially Microsoft. A minority are driven by altruistic motives. Some see their involvement as a way to get a better job: by showing off their skills in the open source community they can enhance their chances of being employed. For the majority the main motivation is recognition: they want the acknowledgement of their peers for doing good work that they enjoy, that gives them a sense of achievement and in the process solves a problem for which other people are seeking a solution. Many of the most striking Web 2.0 success stories started when users created tools to solve a problem they themselves faced -- keeping track of all the blogs being created, sharing video and photographs online -- and which quickly got taken up by others who faced similar problems.
Open source gives away intellectual property so other people can freely use it. We-Think requires more than that: it is also an invitation to participate and collaborate in creating something. Open source ownership of a project becomes powerful when it enables mass collaborative approaches to innovation. For that to be possible many ideas have to be combined; contributors have to meet and connect with one another.
Tomorrow: Connect
Japan's Plat'Home launching palm-sized Linux server in U.S.
Posted by Dave Rosenberg
Plat'Home, a very early Linux provider in Japan, is bringing back a small, easy-to-use, easy-to-configure solution for growing companies to North America.
Part of the first ecology-friendly line of Linux servers ever shipped in the United States, Plat'Home's OpenBlockS server has been built and tested to provide enterprise-grade reliability in its RISC-based hardware, and has eliminated moving parts including a hard disk drive and cooling fan. It is also RoHS-certified, a European Union directive meaning that it's free of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and other damaging materials.
Plat'Home introduced Linux in Japan in 1993 (yes, 1993!), did a successful IPO in Japan in 2000, and currently ships microservers based on their own mix of Linux and BSD that fit in the palm of your hand.
Plat'Home has a whole series of microservers, but this week's announcement is about its OpenBlockS device, now available to U.S. customers. At 4.5 x 3.2 x 1.5 inches, they can fit practically anywhere. They have no moving parts and can handle pretty extreme temperatures. If you're into hardware specs, here are all the gory details for you.
Plat'Home, a very early Linux provider in Japan, is bringing back a small, easy-to-use, easy-to-configure solution for growing companies to North America.
Part of the first ecology-friendly line of Linux servers ever shipped in the United States, Plat'Home's OpenBlockS server has been built and tested to provide enterprise-grade reliability in its RISC-based hardware, and has eliminated moving parts including a hard disk drive and cooling fan. It is also RoHS-certified, a European Union directive meaning that it's free of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and other damaging materials.
Plat'Home introduced Linux in Japan in 1993 (yes, 1993!), did a successful IPO in Japan in 2000, and currently ships microservers based on their own mix of Linux and BSD that fit in the palm of your hand.
Plat'Home has a whole series of microservers, but this week's announcement is about its OpenBlockS device, now available to U.S. customers. At 4.5 x 3.2 x 1.5 inches, they can fit practically anywhere. They have no moving parts and can handle pretty extreme temperatures. If you're into hardware specs, here are all the gory details for you.
EU pumps €10m into open source privacy management
By Bryan Betts, Techworld
The European Union is contributing 10 million euro (around £8 million) in sponsorship to a project called PrimeLife, which aims to develop open source tools for personal privacy management and protection, and get the community at large to adopt them.
PrimeLife's co-ordinator is IBM's Zurich research laboratory, and it follows on from an earlier EU-backed project into identity management systems, called Prime (Privacy and Identity Management in Europe).
Where Prime was mostly concerned with identity management (see its white paper here), PrimeLife will go beyond that to address privacy management and trust issues across a user's entire lifespan from childhood to old age, said IBM cryptography researcher Jan Camenisch, who is the project's technical leader.
"When we started, the privacy world was still thinking along the lines of Microsoft Passport," he added. "We brought together a group of people who wondered why identity management technologies weren't being used, and now PrimeLife is geared to bringing this technology into the world.
"Prime was concerned with how people did identification on the Internet, only releasing the minimum information and so on. But now with user-contributed content and social networks, people are broadcasting their data - how can we help those people keep that safe, for example from future harvesting?"
Camenisch said that PrimeLife will involve around 60 researchers from 15 organisations, and will open-source as much as possible of any software and mechanisms it generates. It also aims to co-operate with organisations that are defining identity management frameworks, such as Liberty Alliance.
"For example, Liberty Alliance focuses mainly on how to do identity," he said. "We go a step further and say you should think about how to authorise, not just identify, and how to protect the data used."
The project covers usability, as well as technical mechanisms such as encryption, he said, pointing out that if users don't understand how they can manage their privacy, it's all wasted.
"For example, your browser has a little padlock symbol, but if you click it and all you get is meaningless bit-strings, it's useless to you," he added.
"Another area we want to work on is policy languages. That is about explaining to the user what data is needed and why, and how it will be treated."
The PrimeLife project is not wholly European - one of the 15 organisations involved is Brown University in the US. The others include universities and research institutes in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. On the commercial side, there is SAP, Microsoft's Germany-based European Innovations Centre, and of course IBM.
The European Union is contributing 10 million euro (around £8 million) in sponsorship to a project called PrimeLife, which aims to develop open source tools for personal privacy management and protection, and get the community at large to adopt them.
PrimeLife's co-ordinator is IBM's Zurich research laboratory, and it follows on from an earlier EU-backed project into identity management systems, called Prime (Privacy and Identity Management in Europe).
Where Prime was mostly concerned with identity management (see its white paper here), PrimeLife will go beyond that to address privacy management and trust issues across a user's entire lifespan from childhood to old age, said IBM cryptography researcher Jan Camenisch, who is the project's technical leader.
"When we started, the privacy world was still thinking along the lines of Microsoft Passport," he added. "We brought together a group of people who wondered why identity management technologies weren't being used, and now PrimeLife is geared to bringing this technology into the world.
"Prime was concerned with how people did identification on the Internet, only releasing the minimum information and so on. But now with user-contributed content and social networks, people are broadcasting their data - how can we help those people keep that safe, for example from future harvesting?"
Camenisch said that PrimeLife will involve around 60 researchers from 15 organisations, and will open-source as much as possible of any software and mechanisms it generates. It also aims to co-operate with organisations that are defining identity management frameworks, such as Liberty Alliance.
"For example, Liberty Alliance focuses mainly on how to do identity," he said. "We go a step further and say you should think about how to authorise, not just identify, and how to protect the data used."
The project covers usability, as well as technical mechanisms such as encryption, he said, pointing out that if users don't understand how they can manage their privacy, it's all wasted.
"For example, your browser has a little padlock symbol, but if you click it and all you get is meaningless bit-strings, it's useless to you," he added.
"Another area we want to work on is policy languages. That is about explaining to the user what data is needed and why, and how it will be treated."
The PrimeLife project is not wholly European - one of the 15 organisations involved is Brown University in the US. The others include universities and research institutes in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. On the commercial side, there is SAP, Microsoft's Germany-based European Innovations Centre, and of course IBM.
Panasonic Debuts New LCD Projectors for Fixed Installations
April 01, 2008 09:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time
New PT-F200NTU and PT-F200U Showcase Superior PC and Mac-Compatible Technologies for Outstanding Brightness, Built-in Wireless Connectivity, and Cost Savings
SECAUCUS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Panasonic Projector Systems Company, Unit of Panasonic Corporation of North America, announced today the debut of two new LCD projectors designed for cost-effective, fixed installations. Ideal for small to medium sized meeting rooms and class rooms, the new PT-F200NTU and PT-F200U projectors are excellent for existing system upgrades as well as a first time installations. The PT-F200 series also provide long-lasting brightness and features that reduce installation and maintenance costs. The PT-F200NTU model also sports built-in wireless and wired network capability1. The new models build on the momentum of their predecessors, the award-winning PT-F100NTU and PT-F100U.
Cost Savings
The PT-F200NTU and PT-F200U models ship with cost-cutting features that are particularly beneficial since many organizations have faced dwindling budgets in recent years. The wide ranges of the vertical and horizontal lens-shift and the 2x powered-zoom lens increase installation flexibility and can reduce costs by relaxing placement and permitting the use of existing mounting positions. Projectors can now be placed closer to existing AC power and/or wired network connections than might otherwise be possible. Administrators can therefore avoid the expense of installing new AC power and network connections with the potential difficulty of complying with building code regulations.
Panasonic’s second-generation Auto Rolling Filter (ARF) reduces periodic-maintenance costs and the need for onsite visits to deal with dust build-up and contamination by detecting any reduced air flow from captured dust and automatically exposing fresh electrostatic filter material as needed.
“Our engineers have worked tirelessly to address the economic and design needs of the fixed installation market,” said Thomas Zitelli, president of Panasonic Projector Systems Company. “We know that the keys to meeting those needs are high reliability, flexibility of positioning in the room, and low cost. With PC and Mac-compatible technologies, our new F200 series delivers on all of those items, including excellent picture quality.”
Wireless Capability
The PT-F200NTU model comes equipped with a wireless local-area network (WLAN) capability that allows it to connect to multiple PCs without any cables2. The use of a router or a wide area network is not necessary and up to 128 different PCs can be connected simultaneously.
The unit, which supports the Japanese issued PJLink™ protocol, can stream video and support wired LAN connections, allowing remote control, maintenance monitoring, and e-mail alert messaging functions through a Web browser.
When connected via Wired LAN, users can also monitor and collectively control the Panasonic F200 and other PJLink™ compatible projector brands from a single computer.
Long-Lasting Brightness
To deliver and maintain 3,500 lumens of brightness and reliable performance, Panasonic uses several advanced technologies.
First, Panasonic Projectors unique lamp drive system ensure that maximum brightness is maintained for up to 5,0003 hours, depending on where the projector is installed, the amount of usage and the environmental conditions.
Second, the next-generation Auto Rolling Filter keeps the projectors almost dust-free by detecting any reduction in air flow and automatically advancing clean electrostatic filter material over the air intake port when needed. In addition, the improved internal airflow path and the hermetically sealed, dust-free optical system ensures that the internal cabinet and optics remain clean.
Third, Panasonic’s fourth-generation Daylight View 4 image-processing now includes Edge Enhancement to increase sharpness and Gamma control to improve detail clarity, in addition to optimizing Color, Brightness, and Contrast according to the ambient lighting conditions in the room.
Installation on the ceiling or on a shelf is made easier with the 2x powered zoom and lens-shift features, making these ideal replacement projectors.
The PT-F200NTU and PT-F200U projectors come equipped with Closed Caption capability to meet the needs of the hearing-impaired, to facilitate Assistive Listening Device (ALD) compliance, and for use in applications when it is desirable to deliver program content without audio. Both models also offer a host of standard features, including direct power off, rear-access for easy lamp replacement, numerous connection terminals, and an easy-to-use remote control with a built-in laser pointer.
The Panasonic PT-F200NTU and PT-F200U projectors, made in Japan, buy American (BAA/TAA) compliant; will be available at authorized presentation systems dealers. MSRP is $4,499 for the PT-F200NTU and $3,999 for the PT-F200U. For more information on Panasonic’s complete line of projectors, go to www.panasonic.com/projectors or phone 888-411-1996.
About Panasonic Projector Systems Company
Panasonic Projector Systems Company is a prominent supplier of projectors and presentation systems in the United States. It is a unit of Panasonic Corporation of North America, the principal North American subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE:MC) of Japan, and the hub of its U.S. marketing, sales, service and R&D operations. For more information on Panasonic Projector Systems products, visit the company’s Web site at www.panasonic.com/projectors.
1 NT signifies both wireless and wired network capability; PT-F200U is not network-enabled.
2 Mac OS 10.4/10.5 only on MacBook and MacBook Pro with built-in Intel Core 2 Duo processors.
3 5,000 hours of lamp life is not guaranteed and may vary considerably depending on usage and other environmental conditions.
Contacts
Press:
Panasonic Projector Systems Company
Tara Naughton, 212-798-9831
tara_naughton@cohnwolfe.com
or
Tori Pugliese, 212-798-9860
tori_pugliese@cohnwolfe.com
Smart Multimedia Gallery
New PT-F200NTU and PT-F200U Showcase Superior PC and Mac-Compatible Technologies for Outstanding Brightness, Built-in Wireless Connectivity, and Cost Savings
SECAUCUS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Panasonic Projector Systems Company, Unit of Panasonic Corporation of North America, announced today the debut of two new LCD projectors designed for cost-effective, fixed installations. Ideal for small to medium sized meeting rooms and class rooms, the new PT-F200NTU and PT-F200U projectors are excellent for existing system upgrades as well as a first time installations. The PT-F200 series also provide long-lasting brightness and features that reduce installation and maintenance costs. The PT-F200NTU model also sports built-in wireless and wired network capability1. The new models build on the momentum of their predecessors, the award-winning PT-F100NTU and PT-F100U.
Cost Savings
The PT-F200NTU and PT-F200U models ship with cost-cutting features that are particularly beneficial since many organizations have faced dwindling budgets in recent years. The wide ranges of the vertical and horizontal lens-shift and the 2x powered-zoom lens increase installation flexibility and can reduce costs by relaxing placement and permitting the use of existing mounting positions. Projectors can now be placed closer to existing AC power and/or wired network connections than might otherwise be possible. Administrators can therefore avoid the expense of installing new AC power and network connections with the potential difficulty of complying with building code regulations.
Panasonic’s second-generation Auto Rolling Filter (ARF) reduces periodic-maintenance costs and the need for onsite visits to deal with dust build-up and contamination by detecting any reduced air flow from captured dust and automatically exposing fresh electrostatic filter material as needed.
“Our engineers have worked tirelessly to address the economic and design needs of the fixed installation market,” said Thomas Zitelli, president of Panasonic Projector Systems Company. “We know that the keys to meeting those needs are high reliability, flexibility of positioning in the room, and low cost. With PC and Mac-compatible technologies, our new F200 series delivers on all of those items, including excellent picture quality.”
Wireless Capability
The PT-F200NTU model comes equipped with a wireless local-area network (WLAN) capability that allows it to connect to multiple PCs without any cables2. The use of a router or a wide area network is not necessary and up to 128 different PCs can be connected simultaneously.
The unit, which supports the Japanese issued PJLink™ protocol, can stream video and support wired LAN connections, allowing remote control, maintenance monitoring, and e-mail alert messaging functions through a Web browser.
When connected via Wired LAN, users can also monitor and collectively control the Panasonic F200 and other PJLink™ compatible projector brands from a single computer.
Long-Lasting Brightness
To deliver and maintain 3,500 lumens of brightness and reliable performance, Panasonic uses several advanced technologies.
First, Panasonic Projectors unique lamp drive system ensure that maximum brightness is maintained for up to 5,0003 hours, depending on where the projector is installed, the amount of usage and the environmental conditions.
Second, the next-generation Auto Rolling Filter keeps the projectors almost dust-free by detecting any reduction in air flow and automatically advancing clean electrostatic filter material over the air intake port when needed. In addition, the improved internal airflow path and the hermetically sealed, dust-free optical system ensures that the internal cabinet and optics remain clean.
Third, Panasonic’s fourth-generation Daylight View 4 image-processing now includes Edge Enhancement to increase sharpness and Gamma control to improve detail clarity, in addition to optimizing Color, Brightness, and Contrast according to the ambient lighting conditions in the room.
Installation on the ceiling or on a shelf is made easier with the 2x powered zoom and lens-shift features, making these ideal replacement projectors.
The PT-F200NTU and PT-F200U projectors come equipped with Closed Caption capability to meet the needs of the hearing-impaired, to facilitate Assistive Listening Device (ALD) compliance, and for use in applications when it is desirable to deliver program content without audio. Both models also offer a host of standard features, including direct power off, rear-access for easy lamp replacement, numerous connection terminals, and an easy-to-use remote control with a built-in laser pointer.
The Panasonic PT-F200NTU and PT-F200U projectors, made in Japan, buy American (BAA/TAA) compliant; will be available at authorized presentation systems dealers. MSRP is $4,499 for the PT-F200NTU and $3,999 for the PT-F200U. For more information on Panasonic’s complete line of projectors, go to www.panasonic.com/projectors or phone 888-411-1996.
About Panasonic Projector Systems Company
Panasonic Projector Systems Company is a prominent supplier of projectors and presentation systems in the United States. It is a unit of Panasonic Corporation of North America, the principal North American subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE:MC) of Japan, and the hub of its U.S. marketing, sales, service and R&D operations. For more information on Panasonic Projector Systems products, visit the company’s Web site at www.panasonic.com/projectors.
1 NT signifies both wireless and wired network capability; PT-F200U is not network-enabled.
2 Mac OS 10.4/10.5 only on MacBook and MacBook Pro with built-in Intel Core 2 Duo processors.
3 5,000 hours of lamp life is not guaranteed and may vary considerably depending on usage and other environmental conditions.
Contacts
Press:
Panasonic Projector Systems Company
Tara Naughton, 212-798-9831
tara_naughton@cohnwolfe.com
or
Tori Pugliese, 212-798-9860
tori_pugliese@cohnwolfe.com
Smart Multimedia Gallery
Citrix Unveils Groundbreaking New XenServer Pricing Model Making Virtualization Easier and More Affordable for Customers Everywhere
April 01, 2008 08:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Innovative New Licensing Model Allows Unlimited Virtual Machines Per Server at a Single Low Price
New Data Shows Rapidly Growing XenServer Installed Base and Channel Momentum
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS), the global leader in application delivery infrastructure, today announced the general availability of Citrix XenServer™ 4.1, the product line’s first release since Citrix completed the acquisition of XenSource in late 2007. With the new release, Citrix also unveiled a groundbreaking new pricing model that allows customers to deploy an unlimited number of virtual machines per server at a single low price. The new simplified pricing applies to all editions of XenServer, including the recently announced XenServer Platinum Edition that brings the benefits of the dynamic datacenter to both physical and virtual servers for the first time ever. These enhancements, together with a rapidly expanding list of resellers and strategic infrastructure partners are making virtualization far easier and more affordable for customers of all sizes.
“Server virtualization technology is tracking to be equally as ubiquitous as the system BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), with embedded hypervisors being an assumed server component in coming years,” said Chris Wolf, senior analyst, Burton Group. “As organizations increasingly virtualize their data centers, they are consistently asking virtualization vendors for simple, predictable pricing and licensing policies. Vendors who work to simplify licensing and pricing in a time of virtualization ubiquity are showing leadership by demonstrating that they are clearly putting their customers’ interests first.”
Most server virtualization solutions on the market charge incremental license fees based on the number of CPU sockets on each server. Not only does this model significantly increase the overall cost of virtualization, it adds complexity for customers who must constantly track the number of deployed CPU sockets across their entire datacenter to ensure licensing compliance. With the new 4.1 release of XenServer, Citrix has removed this roadblock by offering a simple per-server licensing model across the entire XenServer product line. As a result, customers can now deploy an unlimited number of virtual machines or guest operating systems on each physical server for a single low price, regardless of whether it has one, two or four CPU sockets. The new pricing applies to the Standard, Enterprise and Platinum editions of Citrix XenServer. A free Express Edition of XenServer is also available for unlimited use on a single server.
“By introducing this new, streamlined licensing model, we’re taking yet another step toward friction-free deployment and continuing to make Citrix XenServer the easiest virtualization solution to own and deploy,” said Matt Fairbanks, VP of product marketing, Virtualization and Management Division for Citrix. “By combining the robust, high performance, and easy-to-manage XenServer product with this simplified licensing approach, we’re able to bring the benefits and ROI associated with virtualization to more customers across more segments of IT – from the smallest shops to the largest enterprises.”
Rapidly Growing Customer and Partner Communities
Since acquiring XenSource a few months ago, Citrix also continues to dramatically expand the XenServer partner community and customer base. The number of reseller partners trained and authorized to sell XenServer has grown over eight-fold from just 300 in October 2007 to more than 2500 today, while the customer installed base has more than doubled. In addition to this rapid expansion in customer and reseller demand, Citrix has recently announced new strategic OEM agreements with Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC, resulting in XenServer now shipping embedded on more than 50 percent of all 64-bit x86 servers sold worldwide. Citrix has also recently unveiled partnerships with leading storage vendors like NetApp, enabling customers to manage their virtualized server and storage environments in a simpler and more integrated fashion (see yesterday’s announcement at: http://www.citrix.com/English/NE/news/news.asp?newsID=1340336). These enhancements and partnerships have all furthered Citrix’s goal of making end-to-end virtualization far easier and more accessible to customers of all sizes.
Citrix XenServer Platinum – Available Soon
Citrix XenServer Platinum Edition, which will be available in April 2008, includes powerful new capabilities that dynamically provision both virtual and physical servers, extending the product’s value to servers running native workload images and assuring server consistency within silos by provisioning simultaneously from a single standard workload image. The result is increased IT responsiveness and agility by enabling capacity on-demand, and the ability to dynamically manage provisioning for disaster recovery and business continuity.
Pricing and Availability
Customers can download a free 30-day trial of the new Citrix XenServer 4.1 starting today at www.citrix.com/xenserver. XenServer product suggested retail pricing starts at $600 per server for an annual license and $900 per server for a perpetual license. XenServer Express also remains available as a free download from the same web site. The new pricing applies to all industry standard 64-bit servers with up to four CPU sockets
About Citrix XenServer
Citrix XenServer, a member of the Citrix Delivery Center™ product family, is an enterprise-class solution for virtualizing application workloads across any number of servers in the datacenter as a flexible aggregated pool of computing resources. With the new Platinum Edition, XenServer becomes the first and only solution on the market to address both virtual and physical servers, making the entire datacenter more dynamic.
About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS) is the global leader and the most trusted name in application delivery infrastructure. More than 200,000 organizations worldwide rely on Citrix to deliver any application to users anywhere with the best performance, highest security and lowest cost. Citrix customers include 100% of the Fortune 100 companies and 99% of the Fortune Global 500, as well as hundreds of thousands of small businesses and prosumers. Citrix has approximately 7,680 channel and alliance partners in more than 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2007 was $1.4 billion.
For Citrix Investors
This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with revenue growth and recognition of revenue, products, their development and distribution, product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, the Company’s key strategic relationships, acquisition and related integration risks as well as other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.
Citrix®, Citrix XenServer™ and Citrix Delivery Center™ are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Contacts
Citrix Systems, Inc., Santa Clara
Julie Geer, 408-790-8543
julie.geer@citrix.com
Innovative New Licensing Model Allows Unlimited Virtual Machines Per Server at a Single Low Price
New Data Shows Rapidly Growing XenServer Installed Base and Channel Momentum
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS), the global leader in application delivery infrastructure, today announced the general availability of Citrix XenServer™ 4.1, the product line’s first release since Citrix completed the acquisition of XenSource in late 2007. With the new release, Citrix also unveiled a groundbreaking new pricing model that allows customers to deploy an unlimited number of virtual machines per server at a single low price. The new simplified pricing applies to all editions of XenServer, including the recently announced XenServer Platinum Edition that brings the benefits of the dynamic datacenter to both physical and virtual servers for the first time ever. These enhancements, together with a rapidly expanding list of resellers and strategic infrastructure partners are making virtualization far easier and more affordable for customers of all sizes.
“Server virtualization technology is tracking to be equally as ubiquitous as the system BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), with embedded hypervisors being an assumed server component in coming years,” said Chris Wolf, senior analyst, Burton Group. “As organizations increasingly virtualize their data centers, they are consistently asking virtualization vendors for simple, predictable pricing and licensing policies. Vendors who work to simplify licensing and pricing in a time of virtualization ubiquity are showing leadership by demonstrating that they are clearly putting their customers’ interests first.”
Most server virtualization solutions on the market charge incremental license fees based on the number of CPU sockets on each server. Not only does this model significantly increase the overall cost of virtualization, it adds complexity for customers who must constantly track the number of deployed CPU sockets across their entire datacenter to ensure licensing compliance. With the new 4.1 release of XenServer, Citrix has removed this roadblock by offering a simple per-server licensing model across the entire XenServer product line. As a result, customers can now deploy an unlimited number of virtual machines or guest operating systems on each physical server for a single low price, regardless of whether it has one, two or four CPU sockets. The new pricing applies to the Standard, Enterprise and Platinum editions of Citrix XenServer. A free Express Edition of XenServer is also available for unlimited use on a single server.
“By introducing this new, streamlined licensing model, we’re taking yet another step toward friction-free deployment and continuing to make Citrix XenServer the easiest virtualization solution to own and deploy,” said Matt Fairbanks, VP of product marketing, Virtualization and Management Division for Citrix. “By combining the robust, high performance, and easy-to-manage XenServer product with this simplified licensing approach, we’re able to bring the benefits and ROI associated with virtualization to more customers across more segments of IT – from the smallest shops to the largest enterprises.”
Rapidly Growing Customer and Partner Communities
Since acquiring XenSource a few months ago, Citrix also continues to dramatically expand the XenServer partner community and customer base. The number of reseller partners trained and authorized to sell XenServer has grown over eight-fold from just 300 in October 2007 to more than 2500 today, while the customer installed base has more than doubled. In addition to this rapid expansion in customer and reseller demand, Citrix has recently announced new strategic OEM agreements with Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC, resulting in XenServer now shipping embedded on more than 50 percent of all 64-bit x86 servers sold worldwide. Citrix has also recently unveiled partnerships with leading storage vendors like NetApp, enabling customers to manage their virtualized server and storage environments in a simpler and more integrated fashion (see yesterday’s announcement at: http://www.citrix.com/English/NE/news/news.asp?newsID=1340336). These enhancements and partnerships have all furthered Citrix’s goal of making end-to-end virtualization far easier and more accessible to customers of all sizes.
Citrix XenServer Platinum – Available Soon
Citrix XenServer Platinum Edition, which will be available in April 2008, includes powerful new capabilities that dynamically provision both virtual and physical servers, extending the product’s value to servers running native workload images and assuring server consistency within silos by provisioning simultaneously from a single standard workload image. The result is increased IT responsiveness and agility by enabling capacity on-demand, and the ability to dynamically manage provisioning for disaster recovery and business continuity.
Pricing and Availability
Customers can download a free 30-day trial of the new Citrix XenServer 4.1 starting today at www.citrix.com/xenserver. XenServer product suggested retail pricing starts at $600 per server for an annual license and $900 per server for a perpetual license. XenServer Express also remains available as a free download from the same web site. The new pricing applies to all industry standard 64-bit servers with up to four CPU sockets
About Citrix XenServer
Citrix XenServer, a member of the Citrix Delivery Center™ product family, is an enterprise-class solution for virtualizing application workloads across any number of servers in the datacenter as a flexible aggregated pool of computing resources. With the new Platinum Edition, XenServer becomes the first and only solution on the market to address both virtual and physical servers, making the entire datacenter more dynamic.
About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS) is the global leader and the most trusted name in application delivery infrastructure. More than 200,000 organizations worldwide rely on Citrix to deliver any application to users anywhere with the best performance, highest security and lowest cost. Citrix customers include 100% of the Fortune 100 companies and 99% of the Fortune Global 500, as well as hundreds of thousands of small businesses and prosumers. Citrix has approximately 7,680 channel and alliance partners in more than 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2007 was $1.4 billion.
For Citrix Investors
This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with revenue growth and recognition of revenue, products, their development and distribution, product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, the Company’s key strategic relationships, acquisition and related integration risks as well as other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.
Citrix®, Citrix XenServer™ and Citrix Delivery Center™ are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Contacts
Citrix Systems, Inc., Santa Clara
Julie Geer, 408-790-8543
julie.geer@citrix.com
DivX Certified® DENON Blu-Ray Disc Player Offers Consumers High-End Video Experience
April 01, 2008 08:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time
DENON Next-Generation Blu-Ray Player Available This Month in Japan and US Markets
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX), a digital media company, today announced that the latest Blu-ray Disc player from DENON, the high-end audio/video brand owned by D&M Holdings Inc., has achieved DivX® Certification. The DivX Certified® DENON Blu-ray Disc Player (model: DVD-3800BDCI) will go on sale in the Japan and U.S. markets at the end of this month. This is the second DENON Blu-ray player to receive DivX Certification, joining a family of DENON DVD players that also guarantee reliable playback of high-quality DivX® video files.
“DENON is a world leader in high-quality home theater systems and audio products. By extending the DivX standard into next-generation Blu-ray devices, we’re further delivering on our strategy to provide consumers with a high-quality video experience on any kind of device, from the PC to the living room and on the go,” said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. “DivX is just as relevant as a feature on a Blu-ray player as on standard DVD players and we expect more and more Blu-ray players to incorporate DivX technology.”
Products that bear the DivX Certified logo have undergone a rigorous testing program to ensure interoperability, security and visual quality. DivX Certified products enable consumers to create, play and share high-quality video content across a range of devices and platforms. Over 100 million DivX Certified devices from a variety of manufacturers have shipped worldwide.
About DivX, Inc.
DivX, Inc. is a digital media company that enables consumers to enjoy a high-quality video experience across any kind of device. DivX creates, distributes and licenses digital video technologies that span the “three screens” comprising today’s consumer media environment — the PC, the television and mobile devices. Over 100 million DivX Certified® devices have shipped into the market from leading consumer electronics manufacturers. DivX also offers content providers and publishers a complete solution for the distribution of secure, high-quality digital video content. Driven by a globally recognized brand and a passionate community of hundreds of millions of consumers, DivX is simplifying the video experience to enable the digital home.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature constitute "forward-looking statements." Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding DivX's visibility within the investment community. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause DivX's actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to: the risk that customer use of DivX technology may not grow as anticipated; the risk that anticipated market opportunities may not materialize at expected levels, or at all; the risk that the Company's activities may not result in the growth of profitable revenue; risks and uncertainties related to the maintenance and strength of the DivX brand; risks associated with DivX's ability to penetrate existing and new markets; risks regarding the effects of competition; DivX's dependence on its licensees and partners; the effect of intellectual property rights claims; and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of DivX's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 17, 2008. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. DivX is providing this information as of the date of this release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Contacts
Media:
DivX, Inc.
Tom Huntington, 858-882-0672
thuntington@divxcorp.com
or
Investors:
Karen Fisher, 858-882-6415
kfisher@divxcorp.com
DENON Next-Generation Blu-Ray Player Available This Month in Japan and US Markets
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX), a digital media company, today announced that the latest Blu-ray Disc player from DENON, the high-end audio/video brand owned by D&M Holdings Inc., has achieved DivX® Certification. The DivX Certified® DENON Blu-ray Disc Player (model: DVD-3800BDCI) will go on sale in the Japan and U.S. markets at the end of this month. This is the second DENON Blu-ray player to receive DivX Certification, joining a family of DENON DVD players that also guarantee reliable playback of high-quality DivX® video files.
“DENON is a world leader in high-quality home theater systems and audio products. By extending the DivX standard into next-generation Blu-ray devices, we’re further delivering on our strategy to provide consumers with a high-quality video experience on any kind of device, from the PC to the living room and on the go,” said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. “DivX is just as relevant as a feature on a Blu-ray player as on standard DVD players and we expect more and more Blu-ray players to incorporate DivX technology.”
Products that bear the DivX Certified logo have undergone a rigorous testing program to ensure interoperability, security and visual quality. DivX Certified products enable consumers to create, play and share high-quality video content across a range of devices and platforms. Over 100 million DivX Certified devices from a variety of manufacturers have shipped worldwide.
About DivX, Inc.
DivX, Inc. is a digital media company that enables consumers to enjoy a high-quality video experience across any kind of device. DivX creates, distributes and licenses digital video technologies that span the “three screens” comprising today’s consumer media environment — the PC, the television and mobile devices. Over 100 million DivX Certified® devices have shipped into the market from leading consumer electronics manufacturers. DivX also offers content providers and publishers a complete solution for the distribution of secure, high-quality digital video content. Driven by a globally recognized brand and a passionate community of hundreds of millions of consumers, DivX is simplifying the video experience to enable the digital home.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature constitute "forward-looking statements." Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding DivX's visibility within the investment community. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause DivX's actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to: the risk that customer use of DivX technology may not grow as anticipated; the risk that anticipated market opportunities may not materialize at expected levels, or at all; the risk that the Company's activities may not result in the growth of profitable revenue; risks and uncertainties related to the maintenance and strength of the DivX brand; risks associated with DivX's ability to penetrate existing and new markets; risks regarding the effects of competition; DivX's dependence on its licensees and partners; the effect of intellectual property rights claims; and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of DivX's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 17, 2008. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. DivX is providing this information as of the date of this release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Contacts
Media:
DivX, Inc.
Tom Huntington, 858-882-0672
thuntington@divxcorp.com
or
Investors:
Karen Fisher, 858-882-6415
kfisher@divxcorp.com
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