On the heels of its eighth forum and annual meeting in Beverly Hills, Calif. this week, The Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) announced plans to form an outside content advisory board.
The new board's purpose, according to ISMA, will be to address pertinent issues facing the content owner community, which includes the protection of digital content and rights management and safeguarding equity and shareholder value.
ISMA, a non-profit corporation founded by Cisco Systems, Apple Computer, IBM, Kasenna, Philips Electronics, and Sun Microsystems is an industry alliance dedicated to the adoption of a universal, open standard for streaming media over Internet Protocol (IP) networks.
Since its inception in 2000, the alliance has added nearly forty companies to its roster, which cumulatively represents all facets of the media distribution over IP industry.
ISMA's content advisory board will be helmed by digital content specialist Philip L. Engelhardt and will include members representing various industry sectors.
According to Greg Carter, ISMA board of directors, the advisory board's goal will be to guide the ISMA's technical activities as they relate to streaming over IP networks. The group will also provide insight into market dynamics and other concerns.
"The insights and perspectives of content providers are critical to the future development of the streaming media industry," said Carter.
Carter will serve as the new board's primary liaison and advisor.
"The ISMA has been an extremely effective organization in breaking down barriers to industry growth by promoting open standards and developing specifications that address key issues such as content protection," said Dr. Lev Gonick, a member of the advisory panel. "The new advisory board will formalize an already close relationship and help to move streaming media to a new level for the benefit of content owners and consumers alike."
In January of this year, ISMA added four new members to its alliance: Coding Technologies of Sweden, ContentGuard of Maryland, Nextreaming Corporation of Korea, and VBrick Systems, Inc. of Connecticut.
ISMA also recently issued new membership initiatives aimed at making the alliance more accessible to educational organizations, non-profits, and startups. The new initiatives involve complementary membership to non-profit and educational organizations that meet specific criteria and reduced membership fees for emerging companies.
