I was viewing some of the the “video archives”:1 from the “Software 2004″:2 conference (I’ll write more on some of the videos that I watched in a later post), when I noticed most of the links required that “Kontiki’s”:4 software be installed on your machine.

After I installed the Kontiki software (I used IE for the install, since it was easy with ActiveX) I was good-to-go to watch the videos. I really don’t like installing ActiveX plugins on my machine, since they can obviously be security hazards. However, I figured I could trust that the company putting on a top-notch conference on software would use a partner (Kontiki) that I too could trust. Since some of the videos had PowerPoint presentations synced to the video, I had to install Microsoft’s _PowerPoint 2003/2002 Add-in: Office Animation “Runtime”:3_ on my machine too. Overall the installation process was kind of a pain, but fairly straight forward.

Kontiki is, for lack of a better term, similar to Kazaa (but with security, reporting and central control) but targeted mainly at large enterprises for applications like corporate training. It allows enterprises to better leverage the investments they’ve made in their networks by allowing the networks to work more efficiently. When a user chooses to download a file, Kontiki optimizes the download. If, for example, the requested file exists on a machine on the same local network as the user’s, the download will take place from that local machine. I’m definitely not doing a great job of explaining how Kontiki works, so please watch the video entitled _Learn how Kontiki Grid Delivery Technology enables large scale delivery of video_ (linked to from the Kontiki “homepage”:4) if you want to learn more about their technology.

Here’s a screenshot of Kontiki Technology video.

!/words/img/kontiki_small.png!

Notice that the PowerPoint slideware is synchronized with the video, and video bookmarks allow users to jump forward or backwards to different sections in the video. Overall, a pretty rich environment.

Technologies like Kontiki’s are making applications like corporate communications, distance learning and training a reality over the web. Oh, and of course, I’m digging the fact that I can virtually attend conferences like Software 2004!

[1 (Software 2004 Video Archive)]http://www.sandhill.com/conferences/sw2004_video.php
[2 (Software 2004)]http://www.sandhill.com/conferences/sw2004.php
[3 (Office Add-in)]http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4033a84a-24c7-40b2-8783-d80ada33cff8&displaylang=en
[4(Kontiki's Home Page)]http://www.kontiki.com/