Week 4

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www.secrettechnology.com

In the economist article 'Your Telephone is Ringing', in what way is the word 'convergence' mainly used?

In this same article chairman of France Telecom says that this convergence is a step towards 'digital paradise' and Mark Wegleitner, chief technologist at Verizon says this is because they can now give people entertainment 'the way they want it'. What do you think of this?

This article, written in 2006, briefly deals with the idea of the 'quadruple play' and how telecoms are scrambling to get there first. It's now 2010, what can we see has happened since then on this issue?

In "All Things to All Men"

“We have to be extremely careful that we don't go
in the Swiss army knife kind of direction where we lose focus on what the consumer wants,” says
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the boss of Nokia, the world's biggest handset-maker." He goes on to say "The trend is not towards a single
converged device, but towards a greater diversity of hybrid devices. Not so much convergence,
then, as divergence."



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Consumer Lifestyle News

Nielsen asks what device is a tablet computer most like? And finds out that it is 'in between'. This research group studies several different aspects in order to come to this conclusion of convergence...

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Recent Media Example...

TV industry show hails smartphone, Facebook era - Yahoo News

"Internet-based TV viewing, the arrival of Apple's iPad and the proliferation of smartphones are set to ring in a new era of connected entertainment, industry experts predict.

Thousands of TV execs are to flock to the French Riviera to brainstorm and snap up some of the hottest new programmes at this year's influential MIPCOM 2010 audiovisual entertainment show that kicks off here Monday.

The four-day event will focus on re-defining the entertainment experience through fast-growing digital platforms such as social networks as well as smartphone-connected digital TV and apps and their effect on the industry.

"The business model for the web has not yet emerged even while the business model on TV is shifting dramatically," Gary Carter, chief operating officer at international production company FreemantleMedia told AFP.

"The two big areas of exploration for FreemantleMedia in the last 12 months have been the use of our brands in social games and on social networks," Carter noted.

Games such as FarmVille or Bejeweled, both of which are available as apps on Facebook and Apple's iPhone, are spreading like wildfire, Carter added.

Digital technologies are expected to steadily increase their impact on all segments of entertainment and media.

The number of apps on offer to iPhone, iPad and smartphone users is exploding and promises to usher in a new era for the media sector.

In 2010, almost 6.0 billion paid-for and free apps are predicted to be downloaded, up from around 2.4 billion in 2009. This surge in sales could yield over 11 billion dollars in revenue by 2014 in the US alone.

The bottom line here is how the entertainment, digital and advertising sectors can work together to create much-needed new revenue streams."


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From Flew textbook:

Boundary Objects

Path Dependency

Internet Imaginaire

Convergence Culture

Participatory Culture

Collective Intelligence

Henry Jenkins

Patrice Flichy

From the Economist:

Access Agnosticism

Network Neutrality (and what did the text say about this being a reality?)



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Convergence between texts

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