Merging Humans and Machines: the Future of Digital Convergence

What is Digital convergence?
According to the Center for Convergence and Emerging Networking Technologies (CCENT) “digital convergence refers to the profound changes in the structure of media caused by the emergence of digital technologies as the dominant method for representing, storing, and communicating information.”

Wikipedia defines digital convergence as “the digitalization of traditional media.” Not only converting things like text and photos to digital forms but also combining modern forms of technology into one.

Carol Wohlfeil of Helium says that digital convergence is method by which all forms of media and communication will be digitized allowing them to be accessed through a single global network. She says, “Digital convergence is quickly becoming a reality. The once vast and unreachable world is now being condensed into the confines of the computer.”

But to put it plain and simple, digital or technology convergence is the process of merging a few or many types of technology, media, or digital tools to make one “super” piece of technology. It is consolidating technologies that we need or want so that they are easier to use, more portable, and most importantly more convenient for the user.

The people at CCENT believe there are three qualifications for a useful digital convergence: “

1. 1. The coming together, into a single application or service, of information content from sound broadcasting, telephony, television, motion pictures, photography, printed text and money.
2. 2. A growing amount of overlap in the functions that can be performed by different physical telecommunication networks.
3. 3. A growth in the interactivity, interoperability and connectedness of different networks and information appliances in the home and the office.”

Consumers, news organizations, corporations and non profits all use digital convergence for the same basic reasons: organization, communication, and utility when you need it, basically to make life more convenient. Consumers use digital convergence tools to stay in contact wherever they are, to keep their daily lives organized, and so they can feel like they have access to the rest of their life wherever they are for a sort of peace of mind in an emergency or just to get things done.
News organizations use their video and camera phones to help them report the news, to blog the news on the internet and now are trying to use digital convergence tools to revive the newspaper industry as discussed one of the blogs we read, “Can the Apple iPad save newspapers?” In it, the author explains that “publishers are hoping that Apple will/can offer the same magic for the print world that it did for the music industry with iTunes.” She suggests that the iPad “could finally put a price on digital journalism” essentially saving the print journalism industry. News organizations are also getting and sharing news through social networking sites like Facebook.
Corporations and non-profit organizations use digital convergence tools in many of the same ways. These tools are convenient when you need to get projects/ work done while you’re away from the office, to stay organized with your employees/volunteers, to advertise (as on social networking sites [internet], television, in films etc.), to keep in contact with or have convenient meetings with partners/donors from around the world, and these tools usually always do something along the lines of eliminating wasted resources (like time and paper). Wolhfeil also made two points that I felt were very valid and worded very well about business’ use of digital convergence:

“Costly business trips that now include airfare, hotel fees, and meal expenses, will become a thing of the past as a walk down the hall to a conference room will serve the same purpose. Paper media, such as books and magazines, will become objects of art. Communication over great distances will take place instantaneously. And cash in your wallet will be considered eccentric as most financial transactions will occur with the push of a button.
Billions of dollars are already being poured into internet advertising and marketing as online buying continues to escalate. Product developers and advertisers will be forced to upgrade the quality of their performance which will easily be tracked by the network. Competition in the global marketplace will require businesses to be closely in tune with consumer needs and improve product development methods.”

Microsoft's Courier would be a great example of how a digital convergence gadget can be really useful.

There are downsides, however, to all of this digital convergence. People can become so dependent on these gadgets to a point where if you don’t have your iPhone with you it feels like you’re missing a limb and have no contact with the world. If you lose it you might have just lost all the projects you’ve worked on for six months, your contacts, you missed your video conference with your boss, etc. Also it really seems like many of these new gadgets become obsolete or are superseded within 2 or 3 years. So, every time you buy one you’re running the risk that something way more convenient to your life style will come out in a few months and you’ve wasted your money.
What we need to stop doing is trying to create what is called a “black box”. A black box is basically the magic machine, it has every function you could possibly need in one tiny, portable package. For example, the black box right now would be the iPhone. The iPhone is a phone (duh), an iPod, a computer (has the internet), and has endless applications to add whatever other function you need. However, if you already have an iPod, a cell phone and a laptop then buying an iPhone makes all of those practically useless and you just have a bunch of gadgets that you wasted your money on. And I’m sorry to say, one day the iPhone will be obsolete too.

How does digital convergence relate to Creative Commons and the Long Tail?
Creative Commons is digital convergence! CC is all about merging people’s work/ media/ technology and making something new/better/more convenient/ entertaining/informative and that is exactly what digital convergence is all about! As for The Long Tail, one example of how its related to digital convergence is that it is giving companies more “shelf space” for their products, information, etc. like the iTunes where you can buy songs, shows, movies etc. on the internet to play on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad.

Ten Years From Now?
I really think that one day all of us are going to have little chips the size of a watch screen implanted in our arms that have everything we could possibly need in them. They would emit hologram telephone calls, internet access, and television. They would contain all of our most important information like our social security number, passwords to any account you could possibly have, including bank accounts, your birth certificate, contacts, and criminal and credit records. It will be scary. That is how the government will finally control us. Totally bleak, I know. But I don’t think that’ll happen in ten years lol. I don’t really know what to expect ten years from now: in the 70’s people thought we’d have flying cars by the 90’s, but in the past decade or so technology has taken over practically every aspect of our daily lives. So, it’s really a toss-up, I think it really depends on how far people will let technology into our lives, if we fully embrace it maybe we will have chips in our arms and robot maids, if not maybe we’ll just be happy having our TV, phone and internet in the same tiny package.

Something Fun.
While there are some really cool and convenient forms of digital convergence there have also been some really useless ones (or at least ones that went as quickly as they came). Some good ones are the iPhone, ZuneHD, the Microsoft Courier and the Xbox. Some bad ideas were PDAs, the Nokia ngage, intel’s surfboard laptop and LG’s microwave television.


Here’s a video I found about convergence that I just thought was really interesting. Hope you like it.

Facebook and Twitter: Making Important Connections

Right now, even as a college student if you don’t have a Facebook or some other social networking account, you can be pretty out of the loop on some things. While I personally think that Twitter is a little excessive (and because I’m not to savvy on its inner workings), I really like using Facebook better. These social networking sites are so useful to people because they provide easy and quick access to friends, family, partners, businesses and basically anyone wants to be their “friend”. These are just a few of these social networking sites:

Many different people have many different uses for social sites. Individuals use these as networking tools, ways to keep in touch with friends and family, to find jobs and to ask questions/ get customer service from companies/ organizations that are also on Facebook or another networking site. News organizations use Facebook and Twitter to quickly get and spread information to and from sources, citizens, companies etc. Companies and non-profit organizations basically use these sites in the same ways in that they use them as a tool to raise awareness for their brand/product or cause, to get people involved with their efforts/ interacting with their business, to take donations/ sales, and to generally further their business/message. As Claire Cain Miller stated in her New York Times article, “[these social sites] can reach an unknown audience—a benefit that recruiters, human resources departments and job-seekers are fast discovering.”

There was also some mention in some of the articles I read about the concerns of fan groups that are set up on these sites and how that might affect your brand or campaign. I found a pretty interesting video about Coca-Cola and two big fans that kind of provided a possible upside to these "impostors" :

Using Facebook makes a lot of sense for small businesses for exactly the reasons that were brought up in the New York Times article on How to Market Your Business. For example, like I mentioned before, Kermit Patterson explains that, “Small businesses are using [social networking sites] to find new customers, build online communities of fans and dig into gold mines of demographic information.” As uncomfortable as I feel about advertisers targeting me through my Facebook information, I will admit that it’s a smart idea. In the same article, Clara Shih explains why it makes sense, “You need to be where your customers are and your prospective customers are…and with 300 million people on Facebook, and still growing that’s increasingly where your audience is for a lot of products and services.”However, I found a video in which Andrew Davis of Tippingpoint Labs makes some really good points about how businesses should be smart and be careful with their Facebook accounts:

Should my company be on Facebook? from Tippingpoint Labs on Vimeo.

As William Fisher pointed out, “Twitter [and other networking sites are] cheaper, faster and easier way[s] to recruit.” The magazine I work for uses Facebook to get people to go to our networking events, read our articles and even to recruit staff and collaborators. We have definitely gotten the word out about the magazine since we’ve been on Facebook.

As I mentioned before, many people simply use these sites to keep in contact with or find family and friends. Some people are taking that idea to the next level and are using Facebook to find missing children. I found a story where 27years after her son went missing a mom found him on Facebook and they were reunited. A non-profit organization called Missing Children South Africa uses their Facebook group page to help find missing children, and since their page went up on FB they’ve found three children! If that’s not greatly benefiting from Facebook, I don’t know what is.

Like Randi Zuckerburg talked about, it is to the advantage of many non-profit organizations to create a page on sites like Facebook since “more than 8 million Facebook users become ‘fans’ of new pages each day” it’s a great way to make people notice your cause."

These social networking sites are also really making changes in the way news organizations report. As I mentioned earlier, these social networking sites allow you to reach a bigger audience, and as Dorian Benkoil explained, “Most journalists are happy to have their work spread to as many eyes and ears as possible.” “The basic idea, though, is that once you're in Facebook, you'll stay there -- to communicate with people, get information, post photos and videos, play games, maybe even consume music and videos, or shop. With a newly powerful search and other tools, users may not want or need to open a new browser to search in Google or Yahoo or go to a Web site for whatever news and information they seek,” is the reasoning Benkoil gives for why it is in news organizations best interest to take part in advertising or promoting their organization on networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. By not doing so they could be completely passed over by internet surfers.

Social networking sites may even make some journalists jobs easier or at least could lead them to better or more information. "I think today social media is very important as a journalistic source. It provides journalists with a wider range of opinion, and gives them access to a whole range of voices,” says Peter Horrocks, BBC World Service director. He suggests a topic that we’ve learned earlier in the semester when discussing the events between Google and China, how we can use the internet and these social networking sites to quickly spread news and information from remote or restricted areas. I appreciated how he mentioned that even though its quick information and, as a news organization, you want to spread it just as quickly when you get it, you have to take into consideration and treat it like you would any other source and apply the same journalistic standards.

Social networking sites relate to The Long Tail concept in that they provide a voice to individuals within a large audience; they allow for the spread of information between individuals and large corporations and organizations; they give easy access and forms of advertising to small and local businesses; and they give individuals or groups a chance to rally supporters, employees, or even just people with common interests. Anyone with a social networking site increases their chances of getting exposure, potentially leveling out business monopolies in certain areas, giving people a chance to voice their own personal opinion to many viewers, and providing valuable networking tool(potentially giving more people opportunities for success).