Multimedia

We looked at so many amazing inventions this week like the e-paper, the Japanese umbrella that is linked with Googlemap (or google earth) that was able to track the steps of the person carrying it as well as the NewsML. There were also videos projecting what the future would be like. I found these videos especially interesting because it all sounds so possible. I can't decide whether or not the future (as shown in said videos) is going to be scary but it sure looks exciting. I also liked the concept of the prosumer, which according to this Wikipedia article, was coined by futurologist Alvin Toffler when he predicted that the role of producers and consumers would blur and merge. I feel that we've already started with blogs and podcasts.




This video by Phil Cooke talks about the media revolution which I feel is rather relevant to the topic at hand. He talks about how the digital media revolution is going to be as life-changing as the Gutenberg press as it's going to change how consumers and producers interact.



It's no longer the producers providing shows while we consumers passively watch. It is now a "2-way conversation" and the example he gave was the television program "Lost" where producers actually looked at feedback audience gave online and responded by modifying the storyline. Of course this is only one aspect in which the digital media revolution will have impacted on us. Other aspects he mentioned include the government, science, worship and etc.

Random information: I found this book called "Me in Media" which explores, in its words, the "rise of the conversation society". This site provides a chapter by chapter summary and it does look interesting. One of the more interesting info is that we're going through the third media revolution. The first is the type letters and printing press which I suppose refers to Gutenberg printing press. The second is the electronic mass media like television and radio. Now, we're going through the web media revolution!

That's it for this week's discovery!