Students, faculty and staff who find themselves addicted to news now have another temptation — MSNBC, live and free of charge, for anyone with a University network password.
The pilot program from OIT offers live streaming video of the news company's cable service, viewable over the Internet.
Originally, the streaming news service was a response to student requests for a way to stay in touch with the world after the Sept. 11 attacks.
CNN was used first, but the network asked the University to halt broadcasts until CNN's legal department could review the idea, said Dan Oberst, OIT director of enterprise services.
OIT looked to MSNBC after shutting down the live feed from CNN, and, after negotiations, began running the new program in early January.
"MSNBC said, 'just do it,' " Oberst explained. "They were very interested."
For now, MSNBC gets student attention and commercial time on students' computers. Negotiations are still ongoing to determine whether the University will be charged for future use.
OIT will offer the service at least until June 4 and may keep the program permanently depending on the level of interest from the University community.
A three-question survey, which Oberst said has received a few dozen responses, collects information about the popularity of the service.
Most of the responses to the survey were favorable, he added, though a few students complained about picture size and quality.
If MSNBC decides to charge the University for its service, OIT staff members will weigh the cost of the program against how many members of the University community use it.
As Oberst explained, setting up the live video stream was easy because all the necessary components were in place on WebMedia, which OIT uses to broadcast lectures and music.
An authentication system, which requires a user's name and password, ensures that only University members have access to the news channel.
WebMedia broadcasts MSNBC footage for either the RealPlayer or Windows Media Player programs, and offers two levels of quality, appropriate for broadband and dial-up users.
The MSNBC broadcast can be found at the WebMedia website, www.princeton.edu/WebMedia.
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