This article is from the Beta News home page at www.betanews.com.  -Steve.

Skype Founders Name TV Startup Joost

By Nate Mook,
BetaNews
January 16, 2007, 12:14 PM

Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have given a name to 
their new Internet
television startup, which formerly went by the code-name The Venice 
Project. Now
officially dubbed Joost, the company intends to combine a TV-like 
experience with the flexibility of the
Web.

Boasting itself as a "secure, efficient, piracy-proof Internet 
platform," Joost hopes
to lure television networks and content providers to distribute their 
videos online,
although specifics of the technology are still under wraps. What is 
known is that
Joost will make use of peer-to-peer streaming.

Zennstrom and Friis helped pioneer P2P distribution with the file 
sharing application
Kazaa, and later brought that technology to voice and video 
communication through
Skype. The two remain involved in Skype, which was purchased by eBay in 2005.
If the pair's past projects are any indication, their newest venture 
should have
no trouble being successful. Kazaa was one of the leading P2P 
networks behind Napster
in the early part of the decade, with millions of users. Skype in 
just three years
has amassed over 100 million users worldwide, and is the world's 
fastest growing
online messaging program.

According to reports, Zennstrom will invest in the company, although 
play a limited
role in the overall product. Much of that work would be left to 
Friis, who would
spend a good deal of time developing the business model behind the 
new service. Neither
would be involved in the day to day operations of the company.

Joost is currently in private beta testing, although users can
sign-up to join the beta. The software, which plays the television 
streams as full-screen video, works only
on PCs, although the company is working to support the Macintosh 
platform as well.
"We've received positive and constructive feedback from our early 
beta-testers and
are now at a stage where we're ready to reveal our true brand," said 
Joost CEO Fredrik
de Wahl. "The Joost name has global appeal, embodies fun and energy, 
and will come
to define the 'best of TV and the best of the Internet'."


Regards Steve
Email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Skype:  steve1963
MSN Messenger:  [EMAIL PROTECTED] 


Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... 
http://www.pc-audio.org

To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Reply via email to