John McGowan's AVI Overview: Business and Economics


Business and Economics of AVI


Practical Business Uses of AVI

ADVERTISING

Probably the most practical use of digital video on computers is for
short advertisements such as movie trailers on Web sites and packaged
with other materials.  Short means in the range of 30 seconds to a few
minutes.

Bandwidth restrictions and the discomfort of watching video on
computer monitors at short distances for extended
periods of time probably insure that relatively short video clips that
contain a recognizable story will dominate the successful use of
digital video on computers and especially Web sites.

The common practice of putting movie trailers on promotional Web
sites for motion pictures provides a good illustration of this trend.
Movies have tended to use QuickTime, most prominently with the highly
successful trailer for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, rather
than AVI or ASF (Windows Media).

Such advertisements could also include product demonstrations.

Talking Heads video is rarely interesting and entertaining although
inexpensive to produce.


Business and Economics of Standards

AVI is a de facto industry standard.  Standards in general, and 
de facto standards in particular, play a big role in the business,
economics, and politics of information technology and 
Microsoft and Intel (WinTel) in particular.  

GTW Associates is
a consulting firm specializing in standards and related issues.
As of May 6, 1999 their Web site contained many excellent papers
and resources on business, political, and economic issues of
standards.  GTW Associates clients, according to the Web site, include
Microsoft, the colossus itself.

http://www.gtwassociates.com/"

W. Brian Arthur is an
economist who has written extensively on increasing returns for
adoption, standards, and related topics.  

http://www.santafe.edu/arthur/

Standard Based
Monopolies and Near Monopolies: The WinTel Example 
(in the Adobe Acrobat PDF format) is my personal
opinion about how Microsoft and Intel, and many other computer
related businesses, function as near monopolies.  




Antitrust

Reason Foundation
which publishes Reason magazine has substantial coverage and links
on the Microsoft antitrust saga.  Reason is a libertarian
organization with a distinct anti-antitrust or pro-Microsoft
bias, depending on how one looks at it.  

http://www.reason.org/


The Consumer Project on Technology
maintains an extensive Web site with extensive information on the legal,
political, and economic issues of technology.  This includes 
a large section on Microsoft and the antitrust cases against Microsoft.
Despite an obvious political agenda, this is a very comprehensive site.

http://www.cptech.org/

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