I Want My WebTV
By Molly E. Holzschlag
OK, I lied. I personally don't have a burning passion for WebTV, but as a developer I do recognize that it's an important format. Despite the fact that WebTV users are still a very small part of the browsing population—not quite totaling a million—knowing how to properly accommodate those users can only serve to broaden the scope of our Web sites. What's more, the Web and TV will become more closely entwined over time—and the savvy developer will do well to learn what's up and coming in our convergent future.
Why WebTV?
The demographic of the Web is changing. What used to be the domain of skilled computer users and motivated curiosity seekers has become a public utility. Technically interested but less-adept audiences want—and deserve—an easy way to get online. We see this clearly within the senior audience, which happens to be one of the largest growing Web populations. WebTV makes the Web approachable by putting it in the context of a familiar medium.
From a more technical standpoint, convergence is something developers have foreseen for some time now. Convergence (the integration of the Web and other media, such as TV and handheld devices) is a critical concern for developers. The familiar (albeit already frustrating) domain of the Web browser isn't the only focus of our futures. We need to become aware that we'll soon be dealing with user agents running on devices as small as pagers and at least as large as big-screen TVs. That means negotiating changes in the languages we use, and the way we do design.
