WebTV'ers linking into Net4TV's Solar Eclipse Event in the wee hours of August 11 will have a special co-host ... one of the very few German developer/users of WebTV.
Knut Eichhorn is a graduate student at Hochschule für Druck und Medien Stuttgart, a school specializing in print and media production. Part of his studies include the development of multimedia for computers, television, and the Internet. "We are already hearing about Internet TV in Germany," says Knut, "and since I had school holiday, I thought it would be a good chance to come to the US and find out about WebTV."
Previously Knut had interned for a Daimler-Chrysler executive who had been stationed in the US and who had been a WebTV beta tester. "He really got me excited about the possibilities of WebTV," says Knut, "and he also told me about Iacta and Net4TV. He said that, if you want to develop for people using WebTV, you have to meet them. So I emailed to Net4TV and introduced myself, and asked if I could come for the summer to learn."
Knut already had the web and graphic design skills, and he quickly mastered the techniques of developing for WebTV. "It's different and it takes some getting used to," he says, "but I like it. People talk about the things that WebTV can't do, but from a graphic design sense, there are a lot of things that you can do much better on TV." Knut has created Net4TV's Game Center and the front graphics and cartoons in the last four issues of Net4TV Voice.
Here Comes the Sun
But Knut brought more than just his talent. At his school last year, he was one of the producers of Die Sonne, a CD-ROM about the sun, and last total solar eclipse of this century, which will be seen over Germany on August 11. Although it began as only a school project, the result was so successful that it has been published as a commercial CD-ROM by a German software company in conjunction with a major German science magazine.
"It was an exciting project to make and see become successful," says Knut, "and I was a little bit sad that, after learning so much about the sun and solar eclipses while I was making the program, I would be in the US and miss the eclipse. It will pass right over my hometown of Stuttgart."
The Magic Combination
Knut was already participating as "RedBaron" in Net4TV's Sunday afternoon Chat4TV, a weekly three-hour chat that includes a live RealAudio talk show broadcast with the participants in the chatroom and live webcams from the studio.
"I was showing the Net4TV team my CD-ROM after chat one Sunday, and I mentioned that it was too bad that I would miss the eclipse. Then we suddenly all looked at each other and realized we were thinking the same thing: we could do a live chat with the eclipse!"
Knut contacted his sister in Stuttgart, and she agreed to be on the other end of the phone providing a live description for the RealAudio broadcast as the totality occurs. He then contacted several institutes and located webcams that would be broadcasting the eclipse. "It's going to be 3 a.m. here in California when the eclipse is happening in Germany," says Knut, "and there's a lot that has to come together that night. But I think it's going to be really exciting -- and it is for me, to link my friends and family in Germany with my new friends here all over the US that I've met on WebTV, and to enjoy the eclipse together."
In addition to co-producing the Net4TV Eclipse Chat, Knut also co-wrote the Eclipse Excitement Surfari, and the How the Eclipse Works articles for this issue of Net4TV Voice. He also is art directing the Eclipse Event.
During the remaining part of the summer, Knut is concentrating on learning the programming of the publishing system for Net4TV Voice. "WebTV is coming to Germany soon, I hear," he says, "and I'm really happy to have a chance to get a head start learning how to develop for the platform, but especially to meet the people who are using it. And who knows, maybe we can do a German version of Net4TV and have WebTV users on both sides of the Atlantic getting together and meeting this way."
Previously Knut had interned for a Daimler-Chrysler executive who had been stationed in the US and who had been a WebTV beta tester. "He really got me excited about the possibilities of WebTV," says Knut, "and he also told me about Iacta and Net4TV. He said that, if you want to develop for people using WebTV, you have to meet them. So I emailed to Net4TV and introduced myself, and asked if I could come for the summer to learn."
Knut already had the web and graphic design skills, and he quickly mastered the techniques of developing for WebTV. "It's different and it takes some getting used to," he says, "but I like it. People talk about the things that WebTV can't do, but from a graphic design sense, there are a lot of things that you can do much better on TV." Knut has created Net4TV's Game Center and the front graphics and cartoons in the last four issues of Net4TV Voice.
But Knut brought more than just his talent. At his school last year, he was one of the producers of Die Sonne, a CD-ROM about the sun, and last total solar eclipse of this century, which will be seen over Germany on August 11. Although it began as only a school project, the result was so successful that it has been published as a commercial CD-ROM by a German software company in conjunction with a major German science magazine.
"It was an exciting project to make and see become successful," says Knut, "and I was a little bit sad that, after learning so much about the sun and solar eclipses while I was making the program, I would be in the US and miss the eclipse. It will pass right over my hometown of Stuttgart."