A Vanderbilt professor’s research into a new approach to peer-to-peer multimedia streaming has gained funding from the National Science Foundation. A University press release says engineering school professor Yi Cui has received a NSF “Career Award” for his work to make “it possible for centralized multimedia streaming servers to route video and audio signals through a vast network of subscribers, all with varying capabilities in terms of connection speed and processing power.” According to Milt Capps, in an (paid-subscriptioin-required) article at NashvilllePost.com, Professor Cui’s grant could total $400,000 over five years.

According to the press release, “(Cui) intends for his system to allow entrepreneurial Internet streaming video services to succeed without huge investments of capital on hundreds of gigantic computer servers. His plan will involve the computers of the subscribers, themselves, who will share video streaming data with other subscribers through an automated system.” Says, Cui, “The NSF sponsorship will enable us to assess networked computers; ability to transmit multimedia data, based on the customary use of the computer, the inferred bandwidth available to the computers, and a variety of customer usage patterns,” Cui said. He will test his system through the Open Source Teaching service, using his system to deliver multimedia educational materials freely.

Sounds cool. But I’ll keep using BitTorrent (which is P2P, but not streaming) until he figures it out. And despite my being all for Vanderbilt professors getting government money for research, if I had an extra $400,000 sitting around, I think investing in these guys might provide a better ROI.

Technorati Tags: bittorrent, conversational media, video

Since I’ve already been asked three times this morning whether or not I am related to the young man mentioned in this article who has started a petition for those who don’t want to see a privately owned Nashville area music venue, Starwood Amphitheatre, close, the answer is no. I’m not related to the young man.

He does share the name of my late father, and my brother and nephew — who do not live in the Nashville area.

And two, I’m not related to the cause. However, on a few occasions, I’ve had an enjoyable evening at the Ampitheatre sandwiched between two traffic jams: one entering and the other leaving.

Another question raised by the story in the Tennessean. Why don’t they link out from stories? They include a couple of URLs in the story, but don’t link out. I know there are some among the readers of this blog who can answer the following question: Doesn’t the Tennessean miss out on some valuable Search Engine Optimization mojo by not adding a href tags to those links?

Update: Brittney and commentors at Nashville is Talking think Starwood is better off dead. As there’s nothing historically, acoustically, aesthetically or artistically significant about the place — I think I agree with them. While we at it, I suggest the old Municipal Auditorium be torn down also.