Technology Intelligence Group

Bandwidth Caps, Streaming Media and Virtual World Architectures

There has been abundant debate lately about Comcast's impending implementation of a 250GB/Month bandwidth cap on it's users in the United States.  Time Warner had started capping in June of 2008 by limiting subscribers to 40GB/Month, and many international ISPs regularly implement bandwidth limitations for their users. 

The reason behind this is simple, the majority of providers of Internet access come from a metered-service background, be they telephone calls or cable channels.  Now they want to apply the same model to Internet Access.  This is going to work out badly for many emerging Internet application classes.

Welcoming contributor Prof. Edward Castronova

It is with great pleasure that the Technology Intelligence Group welcomes Edward Castronova.  Professor Castronova is a noted expert in the field of virtual economies and gameplay within massively multiplayer games and virtual worlds, directs the Synthetic Worlds Initiative at Indiana University, is the author of two key books on the subject Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games and Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality.  His research paper, Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier exploded on to the scene in 2001 with it's breakthrough conclusions on the implications of virtual currencies and real-money-trade.

Dr. Castronova's penetrating insights in the areas of gameplay, game design, virtual economies, are a welcome addition to the emerging-technology analysis of the Technology Intelligence Group.  His postings to the blog Terra Nova, and the ongoing development work of his Indiana University game development effort Arden, are a wealth of information for this emerging field of study.

Welcoming contributor Dr. Richard Bartle

The Technology Intelligence Group is very pleased to announce Dr. Richard Bartle, the noted gaming and virtual world industry expert, in-demand speaker, professor, author, and industry consultant in the development of massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds.  Dr. Bartle is the co-author of the first virtual world, MUD1 (1978) and countless subsequent industry innovations.  He is a visionary with extensive experience in the industry, having consulted on nearly every major MMOG and virtual world project. In addition, Dr. Bartle is the author of 'Designing Virtual Worlds', the industry reference in the development of MMOGs and virtual worlds.

Dr. Bartle will be writing on the current and future challenges for the massively multiplayer gaming and virtual world industry from his wealth of knowledge on the subject. His personal blog, his postings to the blog Terra Nova, his seminal book and the reference works on his personal website are considered required reading for those in the gaming industry.

We are honored to welcome Dr. Richard Bartle.