This is great being able to watch the first conference live online ever. Many thanks, guys. This is really the first real online hi tech start up conference, you make them guys at TC40 and Demo look prehistoric.

Great stuff..

What is great is that you can watch live and tweet it at the same time. http://slandr.net/index.php

Sterling

Being a Linux desktop user I can't watch this feed. Why do you use Silverlight, a closed source non standard Microsoft solution. Why don't you offer a platfom independent solution? TheNextWeb is NOT an MS event, no matter how much they would like you to believe this.

yeah stupid silverlight.... not available on xp1...

Hmm, didn't know there were availability issues with Silverlight. I will go and see if they can offer Flash at the same time...

I'm a flash Developer and I have never seen live Flash at this quality, it's a real shame you cannot see this live stream as the quality is very high

It's more because of the high bandwith delivered by the NOS.

I am experiencing difficulties watching the stream as well. It simply won't show anything in Firefox although I installed the latest version of the Silverlight plugin and verified it on the microsoft page. Also my Safari browser seems to have a lot of difficulties with the Silverlight plugin. I guess it's time to fire up my old pc again. Flash would have been a better option indeed...

@Wietse Veenstra: I dont see any problems with the silverlight player on either pc or mac using IE, FF, or safari on the various platforms.

@Digiplace.nl: The high bandwidth is delevered by us (crossmediaventures.com) and not the NOS :-)

@James: XP1? what is that?

Cheers

Matthijs

Delivered ofcourse :)

Are these going to be online for later viewing?

Silverlight and Microsoft only?? And that is what you call the next web?? You guys kill the web.

I think this is another stream from the event. Dutchcowboys is linking to this

http://www.nos.nl/static/tmp/thenextweb/index.html

Hey Catharina,

Name one stable platform for streaming a webcast for a stream of this magnitude other than windows media?

Cheers

Matthijs

@Matthijs : Silverlight doesn't run on XP SP1 or Linux for example

Why would you still run XP SP1???
Agreed on Linux, still, look at my previous reply to Catharina

@Steven Carrol: We are running an archiving stream, so probably yes :)

@Matthijs
This is not about the best.. it is about not excluding people who do not be want to be locked in, in the world of Microsoft. Even the keynote speaker Khris Loux at the confercence pointed out the importance of open standards.

So shame on the organization for not practicing what they preach.

Stream works great. Go Next Web and NOS!!!

@Catharina
You are not answering my question..
(oh by the way, silverlight is an open standard, hence the quick implementation of a mac plugin..)

the problem is not about being 'locked in a world of microsoft', it is about
if (microsoft)
{
it_suxx();
}

Matthijs

@Matthijs: I do not have to answer your question; I know and you know that there are alternatives that are available for everyone. You on the other hand have not explained to me why the choice has been made to lock Linux users out.

@Matthijs : don't know about SP1, I'm on OSX and it works great !

Will the videos be available for later viewing? (eg Downloadable?)

The video is available in several formats. We chose one that was available, high quality and affordable. Nobody is spending time on coming up with ways to screw Linux users here.

On Dutchcowboys the video is available in different formats:
http://www.dutchcowboys.nl/event/2

@Catharina: No need to get hostile.. I honestly do NOT know any streaming platform that would be able to handle the load the organisation predicted to us (50k concurrent viewers) The only cross platform 'alternative' would be real video.. but real video is quite 1999 and not 'the next web' now is it?

By the way, we did not lock linux users out... as far as i know, you should be able to look at the regular wmv stream (http://www.silverlightstreaming.eu/tnwc2008/wmv...) using a proper player (vlc, or something similar with the right plugins installed)

@Francois good :-) good to hear you use OSX :-)
(the only reason why you would still use XP SP1 is bacause you are using a pirated version and can't install SP2 :-P)

@Robert Yes :-) clips will be available on demand later

Cheers

Matthijs

The quality of the start-ups presentations is really pathetic, sorry, great products, but I expected much more from the presentations.

Let's face it. Where would the web be today without Open Source software? Apache webservers, PHP, Mysql, Perl, Linux webservers and so on. It is one, if not the major force behind internet. It is a shame that someone thinks about "thenextweb" and just happens to forget that Silverlight stands for..well..you get the picture.

And another thing. Someone is repeating a mantra like "OH woopsie look...what a bright picture this Silverlight delivers". If everybody was to use the source of this kind of technologie (that's including Adobe btw) there would have been a much better picture AND it would have been available for everybody. That's is what I would call TheNextWeb.

@Boris
I am not saying you are screwing Linux users, but I would like very much to see that organizations like yours are aware of not locking people out, especially not the people that care about openness of the web.

@Matthijs:
I was not meaning to be hostile and I´ve tried several of the suggested options now but ran out. I am not the most technical user, but normally these streams work. The plugins that are needed are not available for Linux. Also I think it should not be up to me to waist my time on sorting this out, but to the organization, before the event starts.

@catherina: sorry, but I feel like I brought you (and 49.999 others) a bouquet of flowers and you are complaining you don't have a vase to put it in. ;-)

I also understand that you feel like I have given you a Beard & Mustache Trimmer which obviously you have no use for.

The stream we offer is sponsored by NOS and Cross Media Ventures. We only paid them a small amount of money to cover some expenses. I can't go over them now and demand that they use Flash or some other technology. They are doing me (and you) a favor by being here.

But I promise, for next year I will make sure we have more technologies available. For this year: sorry.

@all

By the way, it is not impossible to run silverlight on linux, its just not easy:

http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight

Matthijs

What a pitty: Silverlight - Here we go again, we linux users. Open up, guys!

@Herman You should be able to watch here: http://www.silverlightstreaming.eu/tnwc2008/wmv...

I certainly do not think that anyone is deliberately excluding people here.

But from a large organisation, involved in software, discussing about future development, I expect as a matter of course that you would use a proper supported, free, open source standard.

It is not that I think you are against all the people who cannot or do not want to use Microsoft products, it is just that this should be the nr 0 criteria, not just an unexpected inconvenience.

@ Matthijs: It is not "by the way". I think you just searched for a solution :-) Unfortunately Moonlight is not ready yet and let' face it, it shows how things are working in this crazy business.

The big thing in this discussion is not the "we are better than the others" but it is about the fact that Microsoft is trying (again!) to "invent" technologies because others beat them to it (i.e. Adobe). They are now trying to set a new standard (again) and we all know how they deliver their standards, don't we?! It is not only with Silverlight, think about open XML, Internet Explorer, ActiveX, WMV, etc. etc. etc. etc. In other words, it is very good for their shareholders (let's profit from updates) but it is now way good enough for everybody else.

what about my mobile phone?

Hey guys the stream is breaking up and starting to get bitty, can you lower the quality of the stream to increase the stability?

Must be reaching the limits on your bandwidth?

@Boris
You say that you gave me flowers but the problem is not the vase, but that I can not see nor smell your flowers.. :)

Happy to hear that you will take care of the problem for next year but worried about the fact that the NOS - our public tv channel- is supporting this in this way.

This stream is more stable
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-next-web

and works on all systems

secondary livestream (different cam with embedded tweets): http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-next-web

Silverlight? How come in my Linux¿

I was hoping that they would stream this via BitGravity seeing how Diggnation uses them for their content distribution. With BitGravity there is no software for the end user to download other than Flash and the stream is in HD.

http://www.bitgravity.com/technology/livebroadc...

@Ryan,

afaik BitGravity is for Video on Demand only?

This is a live stream all day long?

Cheers

Matthijs

@ Matthijs

Did you even click the link I posted? They have a live HD broadcast service now too.

@Ryan: i did click the link..

the thing is, we provided the videostream, we have a clustered platform for windows media streams for up to 80k concurrent viewers.. there would've no chance we could have done this (also within the timespan) with flash video..

I like the bitgravity concept though and will look into it.. just not for this occasion i'm afraid..

cheers

Matthijs

Awesome to follow, but this buzz is annoying as...

Ahh, buzz is gone, much better :-)! Thanx.

If you are on mac or linux (or windows for that matter) you can use VLC to watch the stream, just enter the url: http://www.garnierstreamingmedia.com/asx/Stream... in the "Open network" field and u're good to go :)

see the image below:

http://img.skitch.com/20080404-erfjkaep7mbbfh3k...

Downright embarrassing to see many people re-presenting their company being unable to explain the most important things like their USP's. WEb 2.0. bubbble..

Seeing as I previously commented with my first name 'Jaap', I'd like to point out that the comment posted directly above this one, isn't mine :-)

@JaapStronks & @jaap: Jaap posted the same thing at Techcrunch but spelled his name "Joop" there. These start-ups might not have mentioned their USPs but at least THEY spelled their names right ;-)

shame the feed is going bitty again and continues to rebuffer, I really wish you would lower the streaming quality and increase the stability.

Hi Steven: where are you based? Send me a mail on boris@bomega.com with details.

Ok I have worked out this link
http://www.garnierstreamingmedia.com/asx/Stream...
works at lower bit rate but is better stability.
it should work straight from the url in firefox 2

Many slowdowns suddently. Unfortunately the conference is not viewable any more here in Greece. FYI ,the problem started when the 17year old blogger was in the scene.

Looks like the stream ended a little too soon. I was really looking forward to the discussion between the public & filmmakers...