Research, standards and thoughts for the digital world

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The driver of future MPEG standards

Introduction It is not by chance that the MPEG Future Manifesto has the following action points at the top of its list (italics are mine) Support and expand the academic and research community which provides the life blood of MPEG standards; Enhance the value of intellectual property that make MPEG standards unique while facilitating their use. Why are these two action points so important? Because the main ingredients of the successful MPEG recipe have been so far Developing the best…

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The true history of MPEG’s first steps

Introduction Purely based on logic, MPEG should not exist. In the 1980s the Galactic Empire of media standardisation was firmly in the hands of ITU (videocommunication and speech), IEC (audio and television) and ISO (photography and cinematography), not to mention its kingdoms and duchies - the tens of regional and national standards committees. How could this little Experts Group, not even recognised in the ISO hierarchy, become the reference standards group of the media industry (and more to come)? Like…

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Let’s put MPEG on trial

Introduction An Italian proverb says “those who do things make mistakes” to mean that only if you are inactive you don’t make mistakes. According to that proverb, then, MPEG, who has done a lot of things, must have done a lot of mistakes. So, in this article I imagine there is a prosecutor making charges to MPEG and a defence attorney speaking on behalf of the defendant. Whoever wants to be part of the jury is welcome to join. Charge…

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An action plan for the MPEG Future community

Introduction A group of people caring about the future of MPEG has established MPEG Future. According to the MPEG Future Manifesto, the group plans to Support and expand the academic and research community which provides the life blood of MPEG standards; Enhance the value of intellectual property that make MPEG standards unique while facilitating their use; Identify and promote the development of new compression-related standards benefitting from the MPEG approach to standardisation; Further improve the connection between industry and users,…

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Which company would dare to do it?

To get an explanation of the question in the title and an answer, the reader of this article should read the first 5 chapters. If in a hurry, the reader can jump here. MPEG is synonym of growth Manage growth with organisation MPEG does not only make, but “sells” standards A different approach to standards Interoperability is not just for commercials Time to answer the question MPEG is synonym of growth MPEG is a unique group in the way it has…

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The birth of an MPEG standard idea

From what I have published so far on this blog it should be clear that MPEG is an unusual ISO working group (WG). To mention a few, duration (31 years), early use of ICT (online document management system in use since 1995), size (1500 experts registered and 500 attending), organisation (the way the work of 500 experts work on multiple projects), number of standards produced (more than any other JTC 1 subcommittee), impact on the industry (1 T$ in devices…

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