Parser for XMLTV format and SchedulesDirect data
Image via Wikipedia
For a long time now, I’ve been a paying customer of SchedulesDirect, and by that token their parent company Zap2it (now a Tribune Media Services company).
Recently, I’ve started publishing my own personal Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) here on BCmoney MobileTV in an accessible format:
BC$ EPG
One of the secondary goals of my MobileTV project has always been to be able to provide all XMLTV users a venue to easily access and conveniently plan/schedule their TV viewing via the web, on a variety devices (i.e. mobiles/tablets/desktop computers).
Soon I’ll be adding in a User Management feature that allows you to signup for SchedulesDirect and synch your account through BC$, and most importantly, protect your EPG and viewing data by your username and password (this is required to meet the SchedulesDirect usage terms and privacy policy).
I found that GET requests are not supported so technically the Tribune Web Service must still be following the SOAP 1.1 not SOAP 1.2 standard which specifies both GET and POST are acceptable as long as the SOAP request enveloppe is passed via URL.
Since that is not supported, you have to use POST and it also has to have the BASIC authentication information included in the header in the exact pattern:
Read the rest of this entry »
BCmoney MobileTV turns 1 YEAR OLD!!!
- Image via Wikipedia
Title: BCmoney MobileTV turns 1 YEAR OLD!!!
Location: Worldwide
Description: It is the 1-year anniversary of the Public Beta launch of BCmoney MobileTV.
Technically speaking, the official 1-year birthday of the founding of BCmoney as a business on December 17th, 2007 already passed; however the actual public beta launch of the BCmoney MobileTV service took place at MobileMonday Tokyo – Peer Awards this time last year. The Peer Awards are an annual Mobile Business Plan competition hosted in Tokyo, Japan.
Video of the event available here
Over the past year, BCmoney MobileTV has been through a number of transformations, added many features, and integrated with a number of other popular web services. Suffice to say, seeing the continued maturity of the web and constantly improving our technologies, we are getting closer and closer to our original goal of providing a Mobile and Personalized alternative to broadcaster-controlled one-way content services, repetitive and wasteful untargeted ads, and over-the-top deceptive marketing techniques designed to fool you into giving up your time and/or money.
We will continue to forge ahead into the digital frontier and want to take this time to thank all those who have helped along the way (you know who you are!)
Whether you are a user, contributor, fan, friend or supporter (perhaps one of the many friensd/supporters who put up or otherwise supported one main developer), the success of BCmoney so far would not have been possible without you!!!
Start Time: 00:00
Date: 2009-03-24
End Time: 23:59
Last but not least, some services we have our eye on in 2009 and onwards, as potential creative enablers of this crazy vision of our’s:
- Groupon
- Twine
- Freebase
- WolframAlpha
- AdMob
- ShareThis
- Apture
- TinyURL
- WhosAmongUS
- Kaywa (especially their QR code service blowing up in new markets)
MobileMonday Toronto – Aka so begins Round 2 of the Search for Round 1
Toronto Skyline (Photo credit: Bobolink)
BCmoney MobileTV was invited to present in Toronto at the year-ending MobileMonday event for 2008 (June 9th, 2008 at DuneDain Media).
The presentation, will be split into two halves. The first half will serve as an introduction to the Japanese Mobile Ecosystem with a focus on Mobile TV, while the second half will contrast the Japanese Ecosystem to our current (and by all reports, dire) situation in Canada. The primary goal of this presentation is to convince attending members of the Telcos, Developers, Mobile entusiasts and VCs alike, that BC$ offers the best possible solution for building a sustainable ecosystem of our own within North America.
A Q&A session and Hands-On Demos will follow the 12-15 minute presentation. After the presentation, we will also be making some big announcements about the future direction of BCmoney MobileTV.
BC$ = Behavior, Content, Money
The goal of the BC$ project is to raise awareness and make changes with respect to the three pillars of information freedom - Behavior (pursuit of interests and passions), Content (sharing/exchanging ideas in various formats), Money (fairness and accessibility) - bringing to light the fact that:
1. We regularly hand over our browser histories, search histories and daily online activities to companies that want our money, or, to benefit from our use of their services with lucrative ad deals or sales of personal information.
2. We create and/or consume interesting content on their services, but we aren't adequately rewarded for our creative efforts or loyalty.
3. We pay money to be connected online (and possibly also over mobile), yet we lose both time and money by allowing companies to market to us with unsolicited advertisements, irrelevant product offers and unfairly structured service pricing plans.