Late last week, I was given the heads up that the Times Square Alliance had announced that it would be enabling pretty much anyone with access to satellite feeds - and others who might only have access to public IP-based websites, the opportunity to see what is going on behind the setup for the big New Year's Eve ball drop in Times Square, NYC. Additionally, the Alliance is trying to promote others uploading their own video of the event, whether from video camera, cellphone, or other device, to share with everyone, and tag it accordingly. To get the ball rolling, you can find the delivery of the number 7 (you know, it goes at the end of "2007") here on YouTube, and there will apparently be some other bits of video content uploaded, up to 10 separate pieces, I'm told - so subscribe accordingly if this is something you're interested in keeping up with.

Wow, now here's an interesting idea. Rebecca Blood points out that Ithaca College is running a film contest for students who shoot a 30-second film. Sounds easy, right? Well, it's got to be shot completely from a cellphone.

In what isn't really surprising to me but what might be to others, CNN/Money has a story Wednesday about the possibility that mobile phone networks could be damaged or slowed by an individual or group who sent a flood of text messages its way. Truly, it's like anything else of this sort - the pipes are only so big and data can only be processed so fast - find the weak point, and go for it. This is why various thresholds and failsafes are put in place, just like you see search request thresholds on message boards and comment throttling on weblogs.

MediaPost's Shankar Gupta informs about an effort by College Sports TV (CSTV) to bring live footage of sporting events (basketball games, in this case) directly to mobile phones via SmartVideo, which offers a pay-to-play service to phone users.

If at first this seems unnecessary to you, that's fine. What's important here is the wireless aspect of serious content being delivered. It's not recorded, it's live - something our Dick Tracy watches promised in the comic strips, but isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. Additionally, these viewers will see the same advertising pods that those watching television would see - further expanding the reach of those spots for the network.