Networked multimedia: issues and perspectives

In this opinion article, we see digital multimedia communications of the future dependent on business vision, evolving networking and consumer electronics technologies, and public policies regarding intellectual property and investment in communications infrastructure. As always, it is easy to predict a rich networked multimedia future, but difficult to say when or exactly how. These will be determined by social and business understandings on the divisive issues, by still uncertain consumer tastes and willingness to pay, and by resolving some technical obstacles. This brief article gives our personal perspectives on the current status of networked multimedia, the most promising multimedia applications, and the social and technical bottlenecks.