d Blog

Welcome to d blog, also known as Dan's rant. The content herein is essentially comprised of miscellaneous ramblings and random thoughts on the nature of contemporary existence.

"Are we talking about the same thing?"

5/18/08
Are we talking about the same thing?

Are we fast approaching the day when everyone writes for the NY Times? No but often it does seem that way. Everyone has an opinion. And it’s all there for the taking. Everything is commented on inexorably, ad infinitum. The interactive internet, leveling the playing field, providing an address for all and multiple addresses for some. All access, all the time. Wherever you are the Internet River runs through it.

We live in an interesting time. I don’t think society has ever before been asked to change and adopt new protocols so rapidly. For Americans we are in a race to see if we will remain the dominant culture on this planet for much longer. Formerly impoverished nations have emerged in what seems like an overnight sensation to become economic powerhouses sucking global resources away from the USA. An evolutionary disruption is afoot changing the global balance of power economically, socially, militarily, moving us away from media push towards A dynamic where the audience exerts both push and pull for a new interactive protocol. .

As a baby boomer born in the mid-fifties my parents couldn’t comprehend my fascination with and affinity for television. music and the popular culture. Now, I can’t give my mother a computer. Nor can I explain certain aspects of my life or endeavors in any detail because digital life holds no fascination for her. As a Nursing professor, I believe that her professional run in with an IBM system3 in the late 70’s and early 80’s is responsible for her reluctance. She cannot be convinced that things are different now. I was almost 40 when the internet as we now know it began. I don’t expect those older than me to understand it like I do. I know I don’t understand it like a teenager today does. I do not have the vocabulary to adequately describe these gaps in comprehension I just know that disparities exist.

In the 25 years of its existence the cellphone has been adopted by more than half of the worlds population. Apples iphone heralds an era of mobile internet access by virtue of it having introduced a new computing platform. Ubiquitous connectivity is coming. It’s fairly pervasive now, if just a bit difficult to attain.

The inexorable march of time cannot be stopped. The same old themes, stories of greed, love, triumph and loss may continue to unfold though the context and details be new.

Attempting to avoid a myopic demise, old school media businesses continue spend cash, fueling a land grab of new media companies. Looking ahead briefly at the new context of audience behavior, the data suggests a more involved, more elevated, edu-economically speaking, audience of one at a time. This audience will seek out, program and subscribe to their own education, information and entertainment channels. This audience will launch and participate in their own interactive channels. New trails are being blazed by the likes of Tom Green, Leo Laporte and Chris Pirillo, who engage the audience enough to support themselves and their home office/studios from where they originate their own mashup programming.

Lockergnome’s http://chris.pirillo.com/
The Channel by http://tomgreen.com/
Leo Laporte of http://twitlive.tv/

+add a comment