Open networks are not typically a service provider's first choice of how to organize the way applications gain carriage on a network. To a genuine extent, such networks shift profit potential away from network access providers and towards third parties. Cable TV and voice are the two easy to understand examples.

 

In  fact, one of the reasons the Internet has posed such a threat to closed-network providers is precisely the inability to directly profit from applications developed to run on those networks.

 

So cable and telco executives fear Google (News - Alert) for good reasons. But resistance is in some ways futile, even dangerous.

 

Virtually all networks are more open these days than they used to be, for reasons directly relating to the ability of a largely-closed network to innovate and prosper in a world where the Internet functions as a de facto parallel universe. That’s not to say networks really are fully “open.”

 

Cable executives used to joke among themselves that "regulated monopolies are alright but unregulated monopolies are the best of all possible worlds."

 

These days, no single provider can hope to keep up other contestants if it does not create a platform for software development. So what used to be known as "OpenCable" now is Tru2way, but retains the essential mission: create a development environment for third party innovation beneficial for televisions, set-top boxes, and other devices cable operators use.

 

The technology enables cable companies and other interactive television service and application developers to "write" interactive applications once and see them run successfully on any device that supports the specification.

 

Existing applications include interactive guides, "start over" applications, and games; future applications might include, for example, interactive ads, chat, web browsing, and t-commerce.

 

With tru2way technology, consumers will be able to access two-way digital cable programming without the need for a cable operator-supplied set-top box.

 

Panasonic (News - Alert) uses the specification to build TVs that can operate without a set-top while Samsung uses it to create program guides.

 

Panasonic also uses the specification to build portable digital video recorders.

 

The cable industry also is working with Microsoft (News - Alert) and other companies in the personal computer industry to enable tru2way on future Windows Media Center PCs.

 

Nobody should confuse these developments with truly “open” networks in the way the Internet is open. But it is a step in the direction of openness, if only because service providers benefit from some degree of openness.