First Look:

ManyOne Networks plans PBS-like multimedia Web service

By Bernard Cole
iApplianceWeb
(1/20/05, 12:54 PM GMT)

Scotts Valley, Ca. – ManyOne Networks Inc. has just released a pilot version of a next generation Web-based multimedia content delivery system that it claims has the potential of becoming the “zone of high-quality, advertising-free content for the public.”

Called Digital Universe, the ManyOne platform is designed to provide reusable -- or syndicated -- Web content and Internet services to partner organizations of all kinds, ultimately equipping them to serve their constituencies with superior information services at lower costs.

Revenue from subscribers is shared around the partner network, enabling a new democratic financial model for content and services based upon syndication.

"Today's Web is working very well for advertising-driven media and commerce, but it can do so much more than it does now to serve the public at large and the thousands of non-profit organizations that are working for positive social and environmental change," said Christy Carpenter, former Vice Chair of the Corporation for Broadcasting also serving on the ManyOne Board of Directors.

Organized within a socially responsible financial and ownership model, he said ManyOne's vision is to realize the original potential of the Internet as an open, democratic medium that inspires creativity, communication, collaboration and education. It will accomplish this mission by providing a next-generation

Web content and Internet services platform, and then syndicate it through other organizations to constituencies around the world.

“It can become a wholly new kind of Internet medium -- a genuinely Public Internet Media System,” he said.

Carpenter said a team of executives and staff from USWeb, Microsoft, UTStarcom, HP, Sony, AOL/Netscape, Nokia and Lockheed have joined forces over the past three years to the Digital Universe service, carefully designing it with a socially-responsible ownership, governance and advisory architecture.

Chaiman and CEO of ManyOne Networks is Joseph P. Firmage, founder and CEO of USWeb, while Joseph Lapolito, formerly an executive at UTStarcom, heads operations for the company.

In addition to Carpenter, the company's Board of Directors includes Paul Irwin, former President of the Humane Society of the United States; and Robert Richards, a member of the team that founded the telecommunications giant Sprint.

Underlying the Digital Universe, ManyOne offers a portal service that may be syndicated -- or "private-labeled" -- by socially responsible organizations, companies and even individuals.

In the first half of this year, partners will be able to quickly create specialized portals for their members, complete with all the multimedia capabilities of the Digital Universe as well as Internet access, world class e-mail, Universal Instant Messaging and 24/7 customer and technical support.

“They can also add specialized multimedia or ordinary website content, if they choose,” said Carpenter. “Future services built into the platform will include IPTV and online game capabilities. Partners as a group then receive 50 percent of the net received from subscribers they bring into the network.

"Today, the Web is a playground of commercial interests, yielding a medium lacking depth, devoid of privacy and filled with ads, pop-up offers and transaction fees," said ManyOne CEO Firmage.

To learn more, go to www.manyone.net  or http://digitaluniverse.net.

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