In one of the famous Networking books, the author compares transferring information with a wagon full of data tapes being hauled from one location to another. Surprisingly the bandwidth of the wagon comes out to be much higher.
Clearly, it is not convenient but it is done today in the Movie Rental business. We have Netflix and Block Buster Online, both of which are equivalent to the wagon. While they make it easier to rent, they are not very convenient to use. I have tried them first hand and have ended up with “Long Delay” as the status of the movies.
We all know it makes sense to just “download” the movie and watch it instantaneously, but bandwidth and technology has been a major problem, not to mention the paranoid movie industry with their copyrights.
Today www.vongo.com caught my eyes. Really cool, at least from what they claim. What it does is allows you to download up to 1000 movies for just 9.95/month and start watching them in under 30 seconds. That is instant gratification and one more step towards the power of the Network and its creative use.
Using the network to transfer data (songs, movies, text, etc) is so much more effecient once the infrastructure is in place. Loose copyright can open up such huge market and not to mention revenues, that can lead to the Interent becoming the one stop shop for all your information and communication needs. It is so close..