The Open Media Network (OMN) was a
P2PTV
P2PTV refers to peer-to-peer (P2P) software applications designed to redistribute video streams in real time on a P2P network; the distributed video streams are typically TV channels from all over the world but may also come from other sources. T ...
service and application which provided distribution of educational and public service programs. The network was founded in 2005 by
Netscape pioneers
Mike Homer
Michael J. Homer (February 24, 1958 – February 1, 2009) was an American electronics and computer industry executive who played major roles in the development of the personal computer, mobile devices and the Internet.
Life and career
Homer w ...
and
Marc Andreessen.
[John Borland (April 25, 2005]
Netscape pioneers launch free content network
''CNET.com'' After operating for an extended beta period, development ended with the serious illness and subsequent death in 2009 of founder Homer.
The OMN network operated as a large, centrally controlled grid network for the distribution of free radio and TV content over
P2P
P2P may refer to:
* Pay to play, where money is exchanged for services
* Peer-to-peer, a distributed application architecture in computing or networking
** List of P2P protocols
* Phenylacetone, an organic compound commonly known as P2P
* Poin ...
, described as "part TiVo, part BitTorrent file swapping".
[ The Open Media Network client application was available for Apple ]Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
(but not Intel based Macs as of October 2007) and Microsoft Windows (XP and 2000, but not Vista as of October 2007).
The OMN infrastructure was powered by Kontiki
The ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named ''Kon-Tiki'' after the Inca god Viracocha, for ...
grid network technology, a commercial alternative to BitTorrent.
The U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
) launched a "download to own" initiative with OMN and Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
which allowed viewers to purchase episodes of popular PBS programs via the Internet for viewing anytime, anywhere. The fees for downloading videos ranged from about $2 to about $8 (U.S.). Video files were made available in whatever format the producer chose, including WMV
Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: The original video compression technology ...
, QuickTime and Google's GVI format.[Dennis Haarsager (2006-07-27]
OMN vs Google Video comparison
''Technology 360'' blog.
See also
*PPLive
PPTV () is a Chinese video streaming website. Its predecessor, PPLive, was peer-to-peer streaming video freeware created at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei Province. The group of companies that runs the websi ...
*CoolStreaming
CoolStreaming is a P2PTV (peer-to-peer television) technology that enables users to share television content with each other over the Internet. The technology behind CoolStreaming is similar to that of BitTorrent. The viewers upload content at the ...
*Cybersky-TV
*Octoshape
* Miro
References
{{reflist
File sharing networks
BitTorrent clients