Now Playing: Open Media Network

Good news everyone!


The Carol and Steve Show, as featured on Steve Garfield's Video Blog is now playing on the Open Media Network (OMN).

OMN is a free public service designed to help you enjoy a broad selection of movies, public TV and radio, video blogs and podcasts while protecting producer's copyrights.

I just checked it out on my wife's laptop, no Mac version yet.

The groundbreaking feature of OMN is that it lets viewers watch and subscribe to shows without the need for them to know anything about RSS 2.0 feeds with enclosures.

OMN features a grid style program guide divided up into categories that include What's New, Music, TV, Movies, News, Sports and Podcasts.

To watch a show, all you have to do is click on the title. Then you have the option to "Get Item", "Season Ticket" or "Show All Episodes"

Nice job on keeping the descriptions non-techie.

When you select "Get Item" the show is downloaded to yor computer.

If you choose to participate in "The Grid" the download will be faster because it uses peer-to-peer technnology where your computer is added to the network which serves content to others.

Is participation in the OMN Secure Grid Network optional?
Yes. You can choose whether or not you want to participate in OMN’s Secure Relay Network, which enables files downloaded through the Secure Relay Network to be securely relayed to other users of OMN. This increases the speed and efficiency of deliveries for all users. If you choose to participate in the Secure Relay Network, future downloads will be faster than they would be if you do not participate. You can also change this preference at any time.

The default setting is for your computer to NOT be a part of "The Grid."

I've already sent in an email telling OMN that I'd be nice if on the GUIDE when you select a feed, the area on the bottom should have a LINK to the actual blog post so people can go to the blog and read the attached text, follow links and leave comments.

That's a MAJOR requirement for videobloggers.

Also, that ability to link back to the original post should be at the bottom of the page when you watch a video. They already have the information from the RSS feed.

I'll be writing more about this as I start to use it more and see what kind of feedback I get from viewers.