[This is a message, I got from Carl Malamud. Andreas Schachtner ] ------- Forwarded Message I was kind of hoping to defer an announcement on this project until IETF week, but the publicity mill is moving fast enough that a note seems more appropriate now. On March 31, I'm launching a new service on the Internet called Internet Talk Radio. Internet Talk Radio is a "radio" metaphor: professionally produced radio programs that show up on the net as audio files. You can multicast them, or you can simply FTP the files and play. All I'm doing is producing the information and you are free to distribute at will using the protocol of your choice and to change the encoding format of the data to suit your computing platform. Distribution starts from UUNET and fans out to regional networks in an attempt to try and avoid excessive duplicate transfers. If you're a local net, you should contact your service provider. If you're a service provider, send mail to info@radio.com and I'll send you back instructions. If you're in Europe, mcsun at EUnet will be the initial spool point. If you're in Japan, WIDE and IIJ will do distribution. If you're a Alternet customer, you'll simply anonymous FTP from UUNET. We are not using the MBONE, although the networks that constitute the MBONE is certainly welcome to use that distribution medium if they feel that it is appropriate. The first show is "Geek of the Week" (;-), an interview show with members of the community. The program will be around a half-hour (e.g., 15 Mbytes in standard PCM, 8000 sample, 8 bit, mu-law encoding). The program is sponsored by Sun Microsystems and O'Reilly & Associates. Before the ugly spectre of AUP violations flames up .... we use a National Public Radio-style ack scheme consisting of just a couple of sentences. Indications from at least two of the large government networks are that we are compliant with their Appropriate Use Policies. No need to do anything now ... the service doesn't start until March 31. I will give a 30-minute talk at the IETF on April 1 to explain this new service and to answer questions. I figured since the New York Times is running an article on this, its probably appropriate to at least get some preliminary information out to the net. Send Inquiries to: info@radio.com Carl Malamud Internet Talk Radio "Flame of the Internet"