This is an interesting topic to get to know more about Drupal core activity. We will be looking into ‘how to use drupal echo on request?’ and ‘how many process it has gone through?’ Basically the process flow of Drupal Pipeline to interpret the steps & finally respond to the end users. Which is called as Bootstrap Process.

Having a little bit of knowledge on bootstrap could help us to develop & customized complicated area of drupal development.

Sample:
When we hit URL in browser: domain-name/node/234. which is a standard node page created under any of the Bundle.

The server responds on the browser request with the output and the same is rendered in the browser.

 

Technically, when a server receives a URL request, for eg: domain-name/article/lorem-ipsum,  drupal instantly takes care of the internal path & separates it from the domain name. Sometimes you will find a url with texts that do not really explain the content of the page for Eg: domain-name/?q=node/234. By enabling “Clean URLs” it help us to give a better suited url and make the it relevant and clean.

In Drupal each page request goes through index.php. You will find the index.php file in the Root directory of drupal.
So before we get started with the actual topic which is bootstrap process, i would like you to explore index.php. 
What does it contain?
Basically it has 4 lines of code that get called on each page request.

1. define('DRUPAL_ROOT', getcwd());
2. require_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/includes/bootstrap.inc';
3. drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL);
4. menu_execute_active_handler();
 
define('DRUPAL_ROOT', getcwd());

The first line defines a constant, DRUPAL_ROOT, containing the file path to the Drupal installation.

require_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/includes/bootstrap.inc';
The second line used is a constant, to load bootstrap.inc in the includes/subdirectory.bootstrap.inc and contains PHP code. Drupal uses the *.inc extension to prevent files from being executed directly. This way, not everyone can plug in example-name/includes/bootstrap.inc and get back a valid page.

drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL);
The third line of code, drupal_bootstrap() does the initialization. It basically checks for a connection to the database, loads modules, loads needed data into memory, and prepares everything for the final line of code in index.php.

menu_execute_active_handler();
The fourth line of code has menu_execute_active_handler() function, which handles the page request. This is the part that takes the ?q= half of the URL and produces a web page for the end users.

Get Started
Bootstrap process has total of 8 phases which initialize the database, set sessions, load libraries and so on.

DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_CONFIGURATION:  This setups configurations, sets error and handles exception. This function is called upon when Drupal encounters a PHP error or exception. attempting to log any errors or exceptions that may occur, and then throw a 500 Service unavailable response. In this process, error handling code is prepared, php settings are modified, settings.php gets loaded and some key global variables that Drupal uses throughout are initialized.

set_error_handler('_drupal_error_handler');
set_exception_handler('_drupal_exception_handler');

drupal_settings_initialize();
drupal_environment_initialize()

DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_PAGE_CACHE: It is used to serve the page from the cache. It checks if the requested IP is blocked or not, if it is blocked then it returns a  ‘403 Forbidden’ response. This depends on whether a user is logged in or not and if caching is enabled to decide whether to try to serve the page from cache (or at all).
If page caching is enabled, and the request is asking for a cached page, it returns the page.

drupal_block_denied(ip_address());
$user = drupal_anonymous_user();
$cache = drupal_page_get_cache();
 

DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_DATABASE: This Initializes the database connection and redirects to install.php if no $databases array has been defined in settings.php yet. If the call is from testing system (in which case it uses a separate set of tables) it loads database.inc, and more.

If we don't have anything in $GLOBALS ['databases'] and we haven't already started the installation process, then we get booted to /install.php since Drupal is assuming we need to install the site.
It registers the autoload functions for classes and interfaces

drupal_autoload_class()
drupal_autoload_interface() 

DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_VARIABLES: This loads variables from the variables table.
It will load all the variables from the database variables table and then overwrite the ones that were defined in settings.php. module.inc and any .module files that are required during the bootstrap phase will be loaded.

few important details:

It tries to load variable from the cache first, by looking for the variables cache ID in the cache_bootstrap table. If cache has failed, it tries to acquire a lock to avoid a stampede if a ton of requests are all trying to grab the variables table at the same time. Once it has the lock acquired, it grabs everything from the variables table and then it finally releases the lock.

DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_SESSION: This Initializes the user's session and
load the user's session from the DB. If the request isn't from a logged in user, it returns an anonymous user.

Drupal registers custom session handlers with PHP:

session_set_save_handler() PHP function allows us to set your own custom session storage functions, As you can see above, Drupal implements its own handlers for all 6 of those.

drupal_session_initialize()

Drupal has 6 session handler:

_drupal_session_open() and _drupal_session_close() Used for opening & closing the connection. both return TRUE;.

_drupal_session_read(): Fetches the session from the sessions table.

_drupal_session_write(): Checks if the session has been updated in the current page request page.

_drupal_session_destroy(): Deletes the appropriate row from the sessions DB table and sets the global $user object to be the anonymous user, and deletes cookies.

_drupal_session_garbage_collection(): Deletes all sessions from the sessions table that are older than whatever the max lifetime is set to in PHP.
 

DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_PAGE_HEADER: It sets HTTP headers to prepare for a page response.
This is probably the simplest of the bootstrap levels. It does 2 very simple things in the _drupal_bootstrap_page_header() function.

bootstrap_invoke_all('boot');
for uncached pages, this is where it happens.

Sends initial HTTP headers
It will sends a couple default headers (Expires and Cache-Control). anything can be called with drupal_add_http_header().

DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_LANGUAGE: It initializes the language types for multilingual sites.
This function is called only if we're talking about a multilingual site. It checks drupal_multilingual() which returns TRUE if the list of languages is greater than 1, and false otherwise. If it's not a multilingual site, it escapes.

DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL: This includes a group of other files and executes a few other miscellaneous setups. The phase name is better thought as "Last", rather than "full". It loads all enabled modules and invokes hook_init().

So now that we already have the database, variable, session and configuration, we can add other miscellaneous .

All those things that we didn't need yet but may be reuired after this, we require here. ajax.inc, or mail.inc, or token.inc, image.inc, file.inc.

Load all enabled modules
The module_load_all() grabs the name of every enabled module using module_list() and then runs drupal_load() to load it.

Conclusion:

Bootstrapping is a self starting process that proceeds without an external input. It is the process of loading basic required software into the memory which will take care of loading other processes if needed.

There is lot of information and practice required. My intention was to provide a fair knowledge on the process. This is a good time to stop for now since each phase in the bootstrap process requires more in depth knowledge & information. Each phase of the bootstrap process contains a lot of code. While I could write an article in summarized way, there is a lot more to cover.

In a short note, How drupal deals with page request ? Drupal bootstraps on every request by going through different phases. These phases defined in bootstrap.inc

To summarize the steps:

When end user request for page.

What Drupal does:

1. Separates the internal path from the full URL.
2. Bootstraps and initialize the database, sessions etc
3. Maps the path to a callback function.
4. Modules can hook into the process and extend functionality and alter the content.
5. The Theme System generates the HTML and styles it.
6. Drupal returns a fully formed HTML page to the browser
7. The browser renders the HTML page for the user

Cloud computing might come across as one of the solutions for industries which are looking to outsource storage and maintaining issues. The world of Digital Media is moving forward tremendously and it has become very necessary to take inventory of what you are working on and what needs change.

In the previous article, we got introduced to Cloud Computing for Media. This article presents us with a broader view about how exactly is the Publishing Industry getting benefited. We also explore different stacks in the Cloud computing domain.

Who uses Cloud?

Time Inc is one the largest Media and Publishing giants, it has an in house data center on the 21st floor, but “it is not on the 21st floor, is IS the 21st Floor” Colin Bodell, the then CTO explains. He understands the limitations of “held capital”. Colin’s main agenda from the time he joined has been to shift TIME’s in house data center to Cloud infrastructure. He says that getting new hardware on board is time consuming. Time doesn’t want to be on data center business, wants to be what time does best - Write, Publish. They no more have to hire or select talent who would maintain data centers or manage a department to look after that.

Moving some of the data centers is cost effective for enterprises. Hosting costs for Time has come down from 70k to 17k and now they have an - enterprise data center it is more agile , has more speed and more power, can handle traffic surge in peak times with ease.

Cloud computing applications brings down the cost for operations and maintenance. It is hassle free and service provider handles maintenance for things beneath the application layer. You choose a vendor and post migration, your work is much smoother and requires far less attention than before. You do not have to get bothered while deciding to invest lump sum into hardware.

What benefits can Cloud provide?

• Handling disruptions

• Handling traffic demand

• No infrastructure maintenance

• Improve infrastructure without people

• No people maintenance

• Reduced Software Costs

• Improved and Fast updates

• Unlimited storage space

• Worldwide accessibility without costs to set up data center

What is the Cloud Computing Stack?

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):

Infrastructure as a Service, sometimes abbreviated as IaaS, is a pack of virtualized computing resource. It contains the basic building blocks for cloud IT and typically provide access to features such as networking, computers (virtual or on dedicated hardware), and data storage space. It is exactly like its name it provides infrastructure. It provides you with the highest level of flexibility and management control over your IT resources and is most similar to existing IT resources that many IT departments and developers are familiar with today. It also covers automation of administrative tasks, dynamic scaling, desktop virtualization and policy-based services.

Platform as a Service (PaaS):

Platforms as a service remove the need for organizations to manage the underlying infrastructure (usually hardware and operating systems), it provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app, and allows you to focus on the deployment and management of your applications. This helps you be more efficient as you don’t need to worry about resource procurement, capacity planning, software maintenance, patching, or any of the other undifferentiated heavy lifting involved in running your application.

Software as a Service (SaaS):

Software as a service (SaaS) is another method to standard software installation in a traditional work environment wherein the user has to build the server, install the application and configure it. Customer do not pay for the software itself, they rent it or pay in time or other parameters. Saas provides you with a completed product that is run and managed by the service provider. In most cases, people referring to Software as a Service are referring to end-user applications. With a SaaS offering you do not have to think about how the service is maintained or how the underlying infrastructure is managed; you only need to think about how you will use that particular piece software. A common example of a SaaS application is web-based email where you can send and receive email without having to manage feature additions to the email product or maintaining the servers and operating systems that the email program is running on.

Although Cloud comes with the utmost levels to flexibility and scalability, there is considerable talk about how efficient can cloud computing be to help reduce capital expenses; however is is less likely with traditional Publishing companies to shift completely to Cloud. Cloud opens the doors to the greatest opportunities for media companies where there is is content storage, media processing and distribution services co located. There is a lot to weigh in on this so on our next article we plan to discuss the challenges for working with cloud.

Image Courtesy : ComputerWorld Columbia

Preprocess is one of the methodology used to declared the variable so that it can be placed easily on template files. Why does Drupal follow this approach?  It is to keep the Code clean and structured so that it would be pretty readable and easy to understand for post developer & also easy to extend. 

The preprocessing hook provides front-end developer more control over the output and make it more efficient, clean, markup.  It just needs some basic PHP knowledge, but after reading this blog everything will be more clear.

Before I start I am assuming you have basic knowledge of Drupal template files. If not then please visit drupal.org or Goooogle it. Drupal core / Contributed module produces output in template files. If you haven’t seen till now, please look into it, it will help to understand in a deeper level. These templates usually have HTML markup & PHP variable.

For example:  A template file “node.tpl” is located in “modules\node” folder and  their objective is to print node attributes. As you can see node attributes is bound with

The speed with which Media and Publishing enterprises are innovating and moving on from one technology to the next, keeps us wondering what’s next and on the line for these firms. Over the past few weeks in our articles we have been discussing a lot about some of the new technologies, and how they are beneficial for organizations especially in the Media domain.

In this post we explore Cloud Technology for Digital Publishers.

What are the common issues in the Digital Publishing domain?

Fast Browsing experience

Websites which have viewers from a large variety of viewer base have certain expectations from the industry leaders and are constantly raising their standards higher. No one expects to wait for a few seconds to let a web page load.

Digital Publishing website have known to contain rich media content like videos and images for every article displayed on screen in a single page and there are plenty. We deal with too many links, pop ups and these tend to slow down performance.

The question arises as to how to make the browsing experience better keeping in mind about resources, because let's get real, at the end of the day if the balance sheets don’t show growth you are going wrong somewhere. The teams are bugged with issues and one of the major is ,

Increasing sales by increasing focus on content

Content is widely available  these days and if you are not getting enough traffic on your content, probably someone has already written it better or used strategies that has helped bring more viewership. Which leads us to the consumers, with the above in focus, CEOs are required to

Cut down costs and bring down Manpower

Decreased labour, resources and working capital costs. These organisations are always on the outlook to innovate with optimum utilization of resources and no compromises on content where protection is one of the major issues of concern to any website which deals with data.

Modern day technology is really moving fast and enhancing the content processing software can improve performance of websites, cut down costs and bring down run time charges for a Media organization and solve some of the major issues that Media executives are dealing with. These will augment the core competencies and enable them to thrive.

Cloud computing presents a new hope for the Media industry and which allows Cloud computing represents a fresh approach to these these ongoing issues which aim to manage the issues with outsourced and managed services solutions.

One of the first things that come to the mind when we hear about cloud technology is AWS or the Amazon Web Services. I visited the websites and it featured three videos from some of the leaders in the media domain. They discuss some of the major happenings in their domain. The FT CTO says that they have transformed with focus on being as embedded and as close to the newsroom and business as possible. We see the Comcast solution Architect speak that Comcast is an “Advanced network that delivers some of the fastest high speed internet speeds, high speed videos as well as home offerings” . Businesses are all gearing up for Scalability, elasticity, global availability says Eva, Director at Netflix.

The AWS CEO points out "In the fullness of time, whether it's ten years or 20 years, very few companies will own their own data centers, and those that do will have a smaller footprint than they have now. The transition will lead to qualitative changes in the enterprise, Jassy said.

Data won't just inform decisions, it will drive decisions, Jassy said. That's already happening with enterprises that have already gone all in on cloud”

Whether Cloud can be a solution to a particular firm will depend on the way the business and technology is. Each each Media and Publishing enterprise function differently and Cloud computing will not necessarily be a game changer on its own. But together with the integration and experimentation will emerge out to be one of the forerunners in scalability and match the speed with which consumers are absorbing experience.

Over a series of articles we plan to discuss about Cloud Technology and its Potential for the Media domain.

For further reads visit -

• http://www-935.ibm.com/services/multimedia/fr_FR_Cloud_Computing_for_Media.pdf
• https://www.accenture.com/us-en/~/media/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/LandingPage/Documents/3/Accenture-3-LT-9-How-Cloud-Computing-Changes-The-Game-in-Media-and-Entertainment.pdf
• https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/enterprise-it/?hp=tile

In the last week I wrote about how the Media industry is getting affected by Adblockers. We saw that there has been an estimated loss of global revenue of $21.8B due to blocked advertising. On finding out the same we planned to do a survey of how the top 10 websites which appeal to most of the audience in the world fight against AdBlockers.

It gives us a brief idea how the giants respond to Adblocking. Given the nature and size of the business these businesses are set out to lose a good chunk of money due to Adblocking.

To get a non-biased view of the industry we took help of the Alexa ranking which gave us a list of the top ranking websites according to traffic. These websites were then chosen based on the fact that they are all news websites which display a lot of ads.

I for one always use Adblocking, simply because it is very annoying to browse a website or read something with distracting ads, not that they are irrelevant and at times when they appear in a browser I even happen to click, but for regular use I prefer a clean view. I cut it out, and I do not visit the site anymore.

This site for one, has a rigid policy on adblocking and would not allow to read the news without disabling Adblocker.

There are several types of ads which are displayed on the websites that we have documented here. I have used AdBlocker Plus extension in Google Chrome and have taken screenshots of the pages with and without ABP.

The difference can be spotted between the two images below. The one without AdBlocker has ads marked out in red.

1. BBC shows traditional ads mostly with the inclusion of ads of other products of the website. They mostly keep it clean othwerwise.

 

2. Forbes

They have the regular adsense ones which are on display and very nicely blend in with the website and makes it totally bearable.

 

3. Fox News have a lot of ads and they are mostly promotional from the website itself

 

4. The Guardian - They have a super nice panel at the bottom of the page which says “We notice you are using Adblocker. Perhaps you will support us another way? Become a supporter for less than $1/£1”

Without the AdBlocker installed you will get to see ads linked with online shopping sites via Google Ads. They also ask you for a one Year subscription request similarly using a nicely placed pannel at the bottom of the page.

 

5. The Huffington Post

They show you Google ads and also some others, not necessarily based on searches.

 

6. Indiatimes - The stark difference with and without AdBlockers is very noticeable.

Look how clean it looks without the ads on the left side of the image below.

 

7. The New York Times have very much blend - in and soothing ads which ask us for buying a subscription based version of the website for viewing. No other ads whatsoever are shown.

 

8. Reuters have minimal ads and they are from Google again. Using AdBlockers have little effect on the site, out of two ads that are being displayed, one of the ads remain. It is not annoying, and Reuters are doing it in a way that should be acceptable to the mass

 

9. The Weather Channel have local traditional ads and some Google ones. A little too colorful

 

10. Yahoo! Has found out ads from searches I did a few months back! Also contains traditional ads. And a hell lot of ads of Yahoo itself. We can SEE it Yahoo, you couldn’t have been more prominent!

And we have one important thing to notice that AdBlocker doesn’t have much effect on the Ads

 

Not all ads are annoying and not every publisher is throwing the reader down the gutter. Publishers need to understand the reader base. Of Course publishers need ads to survive and we understand that.

But Publishers need to understand why AdBlockers block ads. A report by Adobe and Pagefair presents the statistics.

They find that,

• (45%) of adblock users expressed a complete lack of desire to view any advertising and wanted as many ads as possible removed from websites.

• 17% of respondents cited that privacy concerns were the reason for using an adblocking plugin.

• 30% of current adblock users were open to some types of advertising. Intrusive ad formats were the key reason why they chose to block ads.

And there lies an opportunity here which is the key, as we have seen above ads which are less annoying and distracting do not necessarily have to be omitted out except for a few users.

The report validates our finding, that the majority of adblock users reject only distracting (animations, sounds) or intrusive (popover, interstitial, non-skippable video) ads. Adblock users can be respected by serving them non-intrusive ad formats.

Disclaimer : The Websites have been arranged alphabetically and not according to the Alexa Ranking. Also, respective screenshots, logos and other identification belong solely to the companies they represent.

 

Ad blocking is a technology through which end users can block ads, using extensions which are installed in browsers. These extensions are generally open source and acts as acts act like a firewall between the web browser and all known ad servers. Most ads are blocked by open-source web browser extensions, installed by end users. The database of blocked ad servers is curated by a large and active open source community. The most popular ad block extensions are "Adblock Plus" and “AdBlock”. Once installed, these extensions automatically block ads on all websites and are effective against almost all ad formats.

Technology is moving fast and if publishing industry is not gearing up to strategize the moves, someone else will eat up the piece of cake.

Where do we stand ?

According to a survey conducted by Adobe and PageFair, a company that sells publisher technology to publishers to fight against adblocker, the user base for adblockers is on a continuous rise

The report further claims that the worldwide number of users  of adblocking software has increased by  41% every year and 48% last year in the US. While in Europe the usage was up by 35% In quarter 2 of 201 there were 16% of the US online population who blocked ads.
 

How is adblocking affecting the advertising sector in Media?

With the increasing number of users, there has been an  estimated loss of global revenue of $21.8B due to blocked advertising.

Increasing revenue is the need of the hour with the least amount of resource drainage.

How did adblocker come into the scene?

The Adblocker controversy has been there from a long time now, and companies like the New York Times have tried venturing into experimental projects like ad-free digital subscription . Thompson, the CEO of the Times said marketers "need to think like programmers rather than as traditional advertisers," by "offering consumers content which actually has value to them. While paid subscribers still remain upset over ads in the paid versions too, Thompson condemns adblocker and called Eyeo 'unsavory' Eyeo is the which owns leading ad-blocking technology Adblock Plus to which some publishers pay to exempt from blocking their ads and says it wasn’t founded by concerned citizens and said it was founded by an advertising exec coming from the 'cynical' side of digital advertising.

How is the world dealing with Adblocking ?

The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA,) proposed plans to that could see the creation of a global advertising watchdog that would regulate internet ads.

Instead of fighting adblocking usage, the WFA plans to use data to create better ad. This is similar to other companies in the industry like the internet advertising trade group the IAB.

Which means the companies will use more of data to find what kind of ads are a tip off for the consumers.

What is the Publishing Industry telling us?

I happened to come across a very interesting article from the horse’s mouth. It has been written by an insider from the Publishing industry and he says “I don’t have the answer to the problem but I do know one thing: more people are going to install ad blockers if sites keep abusing their readers by overloading their pages with ads.”

Asking users to turn off ad blockers, blocking content when ad blockers are present, asking users to pay for content and, finally, gating content until users watch a video or choose what kind of ads they want to see.

What ways can we counter adblocking technology?

Publishers are gearing up to counter these technologies, A Bloomberg spokeswoman said,

"Our site and our pages were built with sophisticated and dynamic advertising logic that shapes the user experience. When users block ads, it can disrupt the design and packaging of the content and video experiences that render for each individual. We have strict guidelines on the number and type of advertisements we allow across our platform, and since we deliver premium value to our advertising clients, and produce high-quality journalism for tens of millions of global executives, we are simply asking users with ad blockers to whitelist Bloomberg."

Apart from the approaches taken by adblocker there are other agencies who are giving a thought on going lightly on the path and displays ads which are less sensitive to users and there are ad-recovery which display the ads without filter. These tools are developed to surpass the the block list  Adblock Plus, the most popular of the most popular of ad blockers.

There are other tools like ad recovery which makes ads look like content to Adblock plus.

Instead of taking a tough stand against Adblockers, the media industry needs to come up with a plan to coexist in a healthy ecosystem or completely let go. Pissed off readers will happily let go of there favourite brands because there is no dearth of content. There should be a choice or other ideas with effective solutions.

For further reads visit Crunchbase

Image Courtesy : cyclingtips

With the price for storage of digital media and bandwidth hitting rock bottom and the vast number of digital devices and ease of accessing data online, there is a growth in employing big data strategies and implementations. There are a number of ways drupal can be used for custom big data strategies. Drupal is quite big technology now on CMS as well as a CMF front. Latest technologies are always worked upon and adapted to, by the Drupal community. First, let us have a look at how reduce in cost for data storage and technology has influenced media industry.

The data storage costs globally have crashed to almost 100% through the years 1992 to 2013, which is from $569 to $0.02 per GB of storage and global bandwidth costs dropped by 99% from 1999 to 2013, i.e. from $1245 to $16 per 1000 MB per second, according to Deloitte research reported in Mary Meeker’s 2014 Internet trends report.

 
The average costs of smartphones globally has dropped from $430 to $335 through the years 2008-2013 which is a 22.1% decrease. Some cell phone manufacturers are producing ~$100 smartphones to enable affordability which is in turn driving the global average of smartphones and similar devices even lower. These steep decline in prices of technology has made it more affordable and given rise to the big data explosion, connectivity like never before, cheap access to multimedia news and information. This has created a multitude of possibilities for new businesses.

Let's look into some key strategies that top media companies employ using big data management:

• Huffington post  uses big data and small data to improve their user experience. They employ the use of real-time dashboards, social trends, recommendations, moderations and personalization to improve user experience using big data. Their use of small data is to  improve UX from reporting, headline optimisation, SEO, content efficiency and consumer research. 

• Dunnhumby has collected 10+ years of Big data and use it to improve customer loyalty and sales. This applies directly to the nascent Big Data strategies in the media industry. Tesco’s clubcard scheme enables a customer view of retail and other data, which inspires greater customer understanding and in turn driving better business decisions, which grows loyalty and brand value. Media companies can learn from the systematic approach from dunnhumby, the force behind the Clubcard.
• Financial Times build customer “signatures” of each individual customer’s digital consumption of data and use that information to understand the customer’s preference. This helps them create relevance of their communications and personalize what they have to offer. They employ intelligence to customer touch points, such as customer service, website, mobile apps and third parties.
• CNN uses Big Data as an early warning system for breaking news. They map what their audience listen to using big data technologies and it helps them summarize how their users consume news in real-time and how major data sets are filtered and presented as stories.
• BBC uses data journalism to provide insightful, personally meaningful and shareable visual explanations on the BBC’s biggest and most momentous stories
• Channel 4 is currently working on innovation of the television business model using big data by connecting to their millions of already registered viewers. This helps them to segment viewers into groups, create personalised emails, suggest tailored content recommendations and serve relevant advertising. 
• Archant regional newspapers take into account the prevention of data leakage and give it a high priority as targeting advertising through a third party becomes more common. They believe that Data collected from users on media companies sites should belong to those media companies, not third parties like Google. There are techniques to stop the data leakage, and strategies to leverage the data for media companies who own it.
• Magazine is in the early stages of employing big data strategies, their ultimate goal being making their sensor data, images, databases, location based data, email, HTML, social and clickstream data more actionable in the future.
• Sacramento Bee have developed their big data strategy in such a way that it includes technology systems, business models, cultural issues and tracking issues. They are working with consultants and academics to refine their plans for the future. 

Many companies are already employing Big Data strategies to fit their revenue models and making it scalable to match the fast pace of this changing world of technology. Every company has their own strategies and ways to implement them that cater to their own specific needs. First step of employing big data management strategies is to understand your own current processes and customer behaviour on which further actions can be mapped out. 

Insights on Big Data from Beyond the Media Sector will help us understand the power of big data and possibly new innovations in your brilliant minds.
 

Zuckerberg didn’t just invest ‘cuz its fun when he bought Oculus with $ 2Billion. VR existed in some form or the other but was either making people sick or was too costly and then Facebook bought Oculus and it changed everything.

But the question remains as to with all these investments for VR technology and the startups, how will that give an ROI and what is in it for the Media industry?

This article explores and analyses the possibilities of Virtual Reality. We also ponder as to how Media industry can make the most out of such a transition. In a previous article, we find answers to the five most basic yet important questions for VR and its Timeline.

Subscription Purchases

Comcast Corp. is leading a $6.8 million investment round in Felix & Paul Studios New York Times has been very prominent with VR investments and According to an article by Politico , NYT has made around $8 million with VR up till now, a fraction of the Times’ overall annual digital revenue of $400 million. PitchBook analysts said that there have been 119 VR-related deals totaling roughly $602 million in 2015. The report mentioned  a $65 million funding led by Disney in VR camera maker Jaunt as one of the year’s top investments.

With all these set in place, what needs to be thought about is producing enough content that cover up the production costs.

Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, managing editor of digital for The Washington Post said “No newsroom has the resources to simply add all the slots and equipment needed to start a VR team. Unless we achieve mass scale quickly, which seems unlikely, monetization as a ‘revenue stream’ will be years away.” Why? says, SpaceVR founder Holmes that the main challenge to monetizing VR content is the lack of data about consumer preferences.

Advertisement and Sponsored Content

The ad industry is eyeing for an opportunity to leap into VR because selling an experience has become an integral part of advertisements. One of the best examples of what sponsors might be looking to spend in is the kind of ad Volvo has given a taste of. The company has paired up a Google Cardboard  and produced an ad "Volvo Reality". You can experience a full 360 degrees view from the driver’s seat and also lets you take a Virtual Test Drive with the help of the video. It is immersive. Although needed a lot of improvements and also this isn’t gonna be the buying decision. But the experience is different and it fixates the idea of XC90 and etches it in people’s minds.  

It is almost like using the product before actually shelling out the cash

Events & Live Streaming

Streaming live events lets the viewers have a first row kind of experience which can also be charged for although a lot lesser than original tickets but gives a similar experience. NextVR has already received $ 80 Billion in series B from. Next VR has already gone with on-site streaming of events from the NHL, NASCAR, a European league exhibition soccer game, and more. These events were then viewed remotely in New York, Los Angeles and Vancouver.

CNN’s 2015 edition of the Democratic Debate was not a very comfortable experience but sure did let viewers get hooked onto being more immersed in this debate than before. You could feel as if you are on the stage with the candidates.

Movies and Stories

“You’ll have premium experiences like a movie theater with high-definition headsets. And then there’ll be at-home experiences where you can buy content on iTunes and Netflix or subscribe to services like Hulu,” Holmes said. He runs SpaceVR, and plans to bring space travel in one’s living room.

  

This, much hyped Mr. Robot VR trailer has been doing its rounds in the internet for its immersive experience. This 13min storytelling isn’t just another VR demo. It captures the atmosphere and its sensitivities and passes on that feeling to the viewers. And this, would have never been possible on a Television.

“I think every studio that knows the power of storytelling has a huge, vested interest in using virtual reality,” said Haidamus, nokia technologies president.

The market size is still unpredictable which makes it difficult for investors to analyse since Vr is in its infancy and there are yet to be concrete data to reveal comparable results.

Image Courtesy : TechCrunch

2016 will be the first Billion Dollar year for Virtual reality which is set to change the course of history in Technology. Data driven decisions are going to make way for immersive experiences. Last year we saw Google distributed over a Million card boards and ”People are consuming video voraciously on mobile,” and it's time for content creators to take a step into the future with VR supported contents because without content technology will just be in theories and over 300 Million is expected to be invested in content, predicts Deloitte.

What?

Just an year ago Ken Perlin, NYU computer science professor wrote in his Blog I’ve been struggling with the terms “Augmented Reality” and “Virtual Reality”. Science fiction has treated us with visions of Virtual Reality since the days of Matrix and even before in comics. Headsets from Sony, Jaunt and Oculus have taken a huge leap from there but technology in its current form is evolving.   

We might find it hard to believe but there has been creations in history before in the mid 20th century where Ivan Sutherland and Bob Sproull had reportedly created what is supposed to be the first virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) head-mounted display system .

There are broadly two categories of VR in for now, high screen resolution ones which have built in display like the forthcoming Oculus, HTC Vive and Sony Playstation VR which cost around $ 350 to $ 500 while the other one is a head mounted setting with a high end smartphone which costs an average of $ 100 or lesser and is yet to evolve.

Why?

Virtual reality is going to have more of an impact than TV or 3D is what is supposed to be believed. It can be hooked onto your smart phones and you get to experience something else all together sitting right where you are. It is more natural and the reality is more relatable. But the question remains "Why in media?".

“At the basic level, virtual reality is a new thing and you always want to give something new to your consumers,” said Sanjay Macwan, Chief Technology Officer of the NBCUniversal Media Labs. “This is more of an intimate experience of the consumer to your content.”.

It is like on of the “I felt I was there” kind of experiences. Media companies are on of those who believe in creating media ecosystem across multiple channels from websites to social media and beyond. And now the media industry can also include VR as a platform for advertisements. Imagine sitting on a hill top with blue mountain coffee on a work break and as you turn your head you can almost feel the freshness and see yourself among the trees.

Where?

The groundwork has been laid for immersive experiences. The New York Times and ABC News plunges into Virtual Reality news gathering, Verizon’s AOL purchase startup RYOT to bring VR news to its Huffington Post property, the VR “movie” . Netflix releases Gear VR app; Hulu and Twitch to follow, and ABC takes viewers to the streets of Damascus with 360 Degree videos in VR. With a lot of things in place, it’s the content that is yet in contemplation now.

 

How?

The technology is not rocket science but needs to evolve to be able to produce a larger audience. “By far the most important quality is rock-solid tracking, low latency, zero drift,” said Ken Perlin, director of the NYU Media Research Lab. “You have a nine degree of freedom [inertial measurement unit] that’s doing orientation and acceleration that’s telling you where to render the next frame and you use cameras to do anti-drift so that it doesn’t drift over time. And that kind of two-part solution is now, in 2015, coming out in consumer devices. By 2020 that will be something that everyone takes for granted.”

Content & VR 

Content can be downloaded and streamed in an app library

Content can be browser based

Content can be viewed over a web page

Content can be downloaded

Content can be stored in clouds

Who?

2012:

Oculus raised more than $2M on kickstarter

2013 :

April - Google launched Google Glass with a little head mounting for AR display costing $1500

May - Oculus started shipping the first development kit, opens Oculus Dev Center

2014 :

March - Facebook buys Oculus for $ 2B

April -  “Use of force” VR documentary based on real events, featured at Tribeca Film Festival

June - Google Cardboard announced at Google I/O

October - Magic Leap a VR and AR company gets $542M in series B by Google

December - Samsung Gear Innovator Edition, smart phone powered head mounted VR display using Oculus Technology priced at $199

Rothenberg Ventures announces Virtual Startup Reality Incubator

2015 :

January - Google announced will stop producing Google Glass

Sundance film festival featured VR immersive content by Vrse, Empathetic Media

Microsoft announces AR headset - Holo Lens

April - Htec and Valve announced Vive Partnership

May - “ Clouds over Sidra” a VR film premiered at World Economic Forum and

September - Sony announces VR Headset for PS4

Oculus Connect 2 Dev Conference, announces over 200,000 sign ups for Oculus Dev Center

Jaunt receives $65M in series C by Walt Disney

October - CNN aires 360 degree VR Presidential Debate

November - Gear VR Edition released by Samsung and Oculus

The New York Times launched NYT VR, in collaboration with Google cardboard distributes 1 Million Cardboards to Sunday Subscribers.

2016 : Oculus consumer edition

Once in while some form of technology come in our way which revolutionizes the way we deal with Media, how we communicate, how we advertise, how we present ourselves and how we explore. A major chunk of developments in Media has been technology driven, in fact it is the technology that has crafted our experience and given shape to what has evolved today from handwritten to print media to digital.

Virtual and Augmented Reality are but something that hold extraordinary promise of experience and the time to experiment with it is now. Although it has a lot to be developed from whatever raw form it is in today, it sure will open doors an unforgettable experience. Technology and Media will merge to create this and the challenge lies in front of us to us to make a leap beyond our boundaries.

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Big data analysis involves a variety of strategies and tactics that make sense out of large amounts of data. The Big data analysis trend has impacted industries like never before as new applications and technologies are being developed to automate the process of data analysis and to cater to specific requirements based on types of industries and information.

For media industries/companies, Big data analysis strategies mostly covers end-user/audience analysis to understand the behaviour of the target group of potential customers.

• Tools to examine public and private databases
• Tools to manage search
• Tools to manage visual/graphic content
• Tools for advertising and ad campaigns
• Tools to automate texts, video stories etc.

Big data for media industry can be summarized in four words: Volume, velocity variety and value

Volume: the volume of data you will be working with

Velocity: the speed with which the information needs to analyzed

Variety: the diversity of structured and unstructured information and data formats

Value: the potential value of the information and data in terms of quality writing and business revenue and insights

The report published in Big Data: The Organizational Challenge by Bain and Company in their 2013 survey, businesses that lead the way in using data strategically are:

• 5x as likely to make decisions faster than market peers
• 3x as likely to execute decisions as intended
• 2x as likely to be in the top quarter of financial performances within their industries
• 2x as likely to use data very frequently when making decisions

The benefits for media industry using big data strategies are many, including more targeted news and advertisements with a more engaged audience, relevant and socially engaging content, easily discoverable visual media like videos and photos, and last but not least, the capability to compete with the many refined online media companies who are usually ahead of the traditional media industries, with advance technology and applications at their disposal.

One of the main things any media establishment does is collect heaps of data every minute, both from within or outside the organization. This can include data on advertising and sales, memberships, content, accounting and so much more. Apart from collection, they also produce huge bundles of data which can be videos, photos, graphics and text. This media and entertainment related data itself constitutes about 70% of the internet’s data storing and sharing, which is also growing at an exponential rate according to Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report, published in May 2014.

The digital universe has grown by 50% from the year 2012 to 2013 and is expected to grow about 40% year-after-year (IDC Digital Universe). So how much data is really being stored? The digital universe was measured in petabytes till the year 2005. One million gigabytes is equal to one petabyte and one million petabytes is equal to one zetabyte. But with the age of rapid consumption of information we have moved from petabytes to zetabytes.

To illustrate with better examples let us consider a 7min HD video which requires 1GB of storage but one petabyte can store about 13.3 years of continuous running HD videos. Google and Youtube process more than 24 petabytes of Big data everyday!

The above examples show the copious amount of contribution a well designed Big Data management can give to a media company in the world of internet. Online data is growing exponentially and this data includes videos, pictures graphics to simple tweets, no of facebook posts, the number of shares and likes and popularity etc.

Although producing and collecting data are the first steps in the development of Big Data management, the art of analysis and making the data structured and useful to the end user are the new melody for media companies

In the articles that will follow, we will cover how we can employ big data strategies into media and entertainment industry to save costs and increase revenue.