[opendtv] Re: Digital Trends: ESPN may pull its finger out of the Internet-TV dam, unleash a flood of change

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2014 02:11:44 +0000

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

> It was competition in the electric utility industry that ultimately
> led to the industrialists and politicians getting together to create
> regulated monopolies.

You make it sound like a bad thing, but in fact, *someone* has to create and 
enforce the standard.

For power distribution, it's obvious. First, you can't have half a dozen power 
companies competing with their transmission lines in each neighborhood. Second, 
it makes little sense to have x, y, z voltages DC, and a, b, c voltages at 40 
Hz ac, perhaps a different combination at 50 Hz, something else at 60, or 65, 
or 72, or what have you, all competing everywhere. So something has to step in 
and set the standard.

Mark mentions the telegraph. How useful would it have been if Morse Code hadn't 
been standardized?

Almost as if by magic, the IEEE and the IETF seem to have been capable of 
becoming the regulatory bodies, for layer 2 and layer 3-7 digital 
communications networks. Without government intervention. Point is still, some 
such organizations and standards are needed, and for government to take on that 
role seems logical to me. Better yet is when the players use "enlightened 
self-interest" to do the right thing. Doesn't always work.

Bert
 
 
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