Mediaroom Personal Server not so personal, a development tool for 3rd-party developers

MediaroomMicrosoft’s ingenious naming conventions has failed me miserably. A knowledgeable person has contacted me and corrected my prediction about what the Mediaroom Personal Server is. It is not, as “personal” might suggest, a consumer product. It is a development platform for third-parties to develop Mediaroom solutions with.

The server allows the full Mediaroom environment to be simulated for the purpose of third party development. Currently this product is only available to the content providers (ex. AT&T, BT), and third-party participation in the development program requires sponsorship by one of these customers making it quite an involved process. Which is why Microsoft’s working on making this server available to more mainstream developers for developing on the Mediaroom platform.

But seriously, the Mediaroom people couldn’t have picked a more misleading name. Wouldn’t have “Mediaroom Development Server” worked so much better?

8 insightful thoughts

  1. Worked for whom? Bloggers searching through obscure online documentation to find obscure development software that isn’t even released yet? Mediaroom isn’t even advertised on the services that use it. U-Verse makes no mention of Microsoft, Mediaroom or MicrosoftTV, or whatever. This isn’t for the general public, it’s for industry partners. I understand your point, but it’s not like they’re releasing a product for general public and it has a confusing name. Maybe development server would improve on personal server. But then again, U-Verse and AT&T are developers, so if we’re talking confusion, then how about the difference between what this is supposed to be and what they would run their network on?

  2. I once ran a live cd of a linux distro and it was a complete mess. There was no way to tell what the heck the programs did because they all had indecipherable names. Microsoft’s naming conventions are fine by me.

  3. OMG!! What a mess!! None of the progs in linux start with “Microsoft”!! All the programs you use are from microsoft? Bet most of them are not… just break your live cd, those things are for open minded people!

  4. I was referring to the fact that Windows programs are often given generically descriptive names, like Internet Explorer or Media Player, rather than Ice Weasel or Kknapti v.1.2.1.4 (made up). Sometimes they are helpful and put “Web Browser” next to the name so you can figure it out. Sometimes, they don’t. This is kind of what I’m referring to:

    http://gchelpdesk.ualberta.ca/news/30jun05/images/Fig3.png

    Lately, Microsoft has been naming things like Popfly. Something like that isn’t all bad, but I certainly don’t agree with people who’ve complained about MS’s boring product names in the past.

    By the way, are you trying to be an ambassador for linux, or something? I don’t think you’re doing a very good job.

  5. We need an update on this information. Who is currently developing interactive applications on the MediaRoom platform and which providers have they partnered with?

  6. Hello ELR,

    I just started to develop MPF applications and I wondered why the discussion on this blog is focusing so much on the name instead of the technology itself. I’m currently searching for securitiy issues related to MPF development and the Mediaroom browser itself, so any hints would be very appreciated. As far as I know in Germany it’s only the Deutsche Telekom AG that uses the Mediaroom platform for developing apps for their set-top-boxes.

    In case anybody is looking for MPF developers or .NET developers in general feel free to contact us on:
    http://www.Wianco.de

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