Thursday, September 28, 2006
The content delivery explosion
And now back to our content delivery explosion....
It is important to keep tabs on how our young people are getting their news and exchanging information. I've eluded to this in previous columns. They are an important segment of our society. The traditional forms of information distribution sources need to be aware of how people are accessing information and exchanging ideas.
I monitor a number of podcasts each week. Most of the casts cover technical issues. Some involve material aimed at young adults. The cliche is today's young people are the leaders of the world, tomorrow. Just substitute readers for leaders and you begin to comprehend the dilemma that our information industry has before it. Don't ignore that simple truth. How our young people are becoming accustomed to accessing and exchanging information will be the norm of the future. Information providers ignore it at their peril.
The percentage of homes with high speed connections is rapidly increasing. Along with this is an increased use of features like streaming video. It is not uncommon for school-aged children to turn to their computer when they get home in the afternoon instead of the television. They instant message each other. They update their MySpace accounts and check out what their friends have done. They visit sites like YouTube and checkout the latest popular videos. Or, they might make one of their own to upload and share with their friends.
They don't watch the news on television. They don't listen to the radio. They don't read the newspaper.
When I was a kid, if you wanted to watch a television program, you had to plan to be in front of the TV when the show aired. Devices like Tivo ended all that. You could record your favorite programs and watch them at your convenience. Now, you can download shows over the Internet and either play them on a portable device or watch them on your big-screen television set. Apple will soon introduce a device that will let you send movies to your television from your computer that you have downloaded from their online store.
Television networks now offer shows over the Internet for download and display at your convenience.
This is all new and exciting for those of us who remember when the first television set was carried into their house. (It was a big Zenith in a yellow cabinet in about 1955. Yeah, I'm old.) The young people of today are growing up in an age when information and entertainment are readily available on demand. They will watch what they want; when they want to. It won't matter where that content originated. It will all very much look the same on their television set.
Any content provider--whatever the media, electronic or print--has got to be nervous about the future. The challenge will be how to maintain their special content in the new age of individual information freedom.
Next time how the information revolution is furthering our cultural polarization.
It is important to keep tabs on how our young people are getting their news and exchanging information. I've eluded to this in previous columns. They are an important segment of our society. The traditional forms of information distribution sources need to be aware of how people are accessing information and exchanging ideas.
I monitor a number of podcasts each week. Most of the casts cover technical issues. Some involve material aimed at young adults. The cliche is today's young people are the leaders of the world, tomorrow. Just substitute readers for leaders and you begin to comprehend the dilemma that our information industry has before it. Don't ignore that simple truth. How our young people are becoming accustomed to accessing and exchanging information will be the norm of the future. Information providers ignore it at their peril.
The percentage of homes with high speed connections is rapidly increasing. Along with this is an increased use of features like streaming video. It is not uncommon for school-aged children to turn to their computer when they get home in the afternoon instead of the television. They instant message each other. They update their MySpace accounts and check out what their friends have done. They visit sites like YouTube and checkout the latest popular videos. Or, they might make one of their own to upload and share with their friends.
They don't watch the news on television. They don't listen to the radio. They don't read the newspaper.
When I was a kid, if you wanted to watch a television program, you had to plan to be in front of the TV when the show aired. Devices like Tivo ended all that. You could record your favorite programs and watch them at your convenience. Now, you can download shows over the Internet and either play them on a portable device or watch them on your big-screen television set. Apple will soon introduce a device that will let you send movies to your television from your computer that you have downloaded from their online store.
Television networks now offer shows over the Internet for download and display at your convenience.
This is all new and exciting for those of us who remember when the first television set was carried into their house. (It was a big Zenith in a yellow cabinet in about 1955. Yeah, I'm old.) The young people of today are growing up in an age when information and entertainment are readily available on demand. They will watch what they want; when they want to. It won't matter where that content originated. It will all very much look the same on their television set.
Any content provider--whatever the media, electronic or print--has got to be nervous about the future. The challenge will be how to maintain their special content in the new age of individual information freedom.
Next time how the information revolution is furthering our cultural polarization.
# posted by Richard Polk @ 9:40 AM 
