What A Dummy!

A few years ago the Press Association paid a fortune for an animated news presenter called Ananova (geddit?). Anyhow, I remember being contacted by the techies behind this virtual newscaster because they couldn't get her to work.

There still seems to be a website of this name - probably to avoid a serious write down for the France Telecom owned mobile operator - but the idea of an avatar presenting personalised news has long gone the same way as Max Headroom.

But, as with many similar ideas, it seems that pretty soon you'll be able to buy lifelike avatars and have them act out and present your Internet TV Channel. This BBC report is worth checking out.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Dear Iolo,

Why are you not writting anymore about Narrowstep? I'm a small stockholder and i'm very upset what is happening right now. McCourt is a big fake!! Please give us some more info or are you not able to talk because you are a mayor stockholder?
Iolo Jones said…
I have, effectively, been censored from commenting on the company with threats of legal action after previous blogs. Talk about rubbing salt into the wound.. It's also galling to have my freedom of speech dictated by US entities considering their constitution...

But an 'Interim CEO & Chairman' who lost 95% of the shareholder value of the company speaks, I believe, for itself. I am, however, hearing good things about the merger with OnStream, although this does not seem to be reflected in either party's share prices.