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.