M e d i a

As of this writing (January 2000), broadband is about two years away from being the standard “pipeline” for the majority of those accessing the World Wide Web, taking the form of either cable or DSL (or ADSL) while the promise of ISDN seems to be fading away. What this will mean to the average consumer, in terms of cost (modems, access fees, and system requirements), remains to be seen, but what is significant, to those of us in the Web development profession, is the dramatic increase in bandwidth (speed of data transfer) that broadband will bring. We can expect increases in speed anywhere from twenty-five to over a hundred times faster than today's standard 56k modems.

It is imperative to understand that these developments will go well beyond the average Web surfer's ability to “just” download pages faster. For the providers of Web content, this means increased capabilities for audiences to access files that were once considered too large and too time-consuming to download: specifically those files containing audio and video, in another word, media.

Streaming media has provided intermediate solutions but at the expense of clarity and quality. The next decade will bring a convergence of computers and broadcast television where, not only will we be able to send e-mail and publish Web pages, but we will have the capabilities to actually broadcast (or Webcast) audio and video live from our own homes. Neat!