IP: A Cybernaut Plans Software for Navigating TV

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

A Cybernaut Plans Software for Navigating TV

By JOHN SCHWARTZ


One of the online world's more persistent innovators is trying to make 
television as easy to use as the Internet.

The sentence is not backward. Carl Malamud, who has helped expand the 
cyberspace roles of institutions like Congress and the Patent and Trademark 
Office, argues that today's television listings make it a chore to find 
interesting programs. And he says that the computer technologies that help 
people navigate the information riches of the World Wide Web should be 
brought to bear on the tube.

<snip>

His advisers express admiration for Mr. Malamud's vision and tenacity. 
"Often, he succeeds at what I think his primary goal should be, which is to 
change the world," said Paul Vixie, the creator of Bind, one of the 
programs that underlies the Internet. "It's going to clear the field for 
real innovation to take place" in organizing myriad streams of information 
coming into people's lives, he said, adding that The public can only benefit.

He applauded Mr. Malamud's willingness to go up against Gemstar. "I don't 
like it when people do warfare with patents," Mr. Vixie said.

Another adviser to the company, the computer scientist David J. Farber, 
said that as were many people, he was frustrated with the limited indexing 
and program search abilities of today's electronic program guides. "I don't 
watch much TV, but I want to watch what I want to watch," he said.

"Marshall and Carl are both prone to try to shake things up if there's 
something they don't like," he said. "Carl and Marshall are just abrasive 
enough to pull it off."

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/24/technology/ebusiness/24CARL.html

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