Week 9 – Convergence, Apps & Behaviour
One year ago, the idea of convergence was still but a pipe dream. In 2009 we have the iPhone – and the app store. All the tech magazines are going gaga about it.
The promise of convergence has been with us for some time but what does it really mean – if anything? It used to refer to the mobile phone. Is the currently popular iPhone really the one device to rule them all? An impressive piece of machinery which will certainly be hard to trump. Although Google are trying with Android.
Today, we are surrounded by a multi-level convergent media world where all modes of communication and information are continually reforming to adapt to the enduring demands of technologies, “changing the way we create, consume, learn and interact with each other”.[1]
^ Jenkins, Henry (2006) Convergence Culture : Where old and new media collide, New York University Press, New York.
(Wikipedia “Tecnological Convergence”)
Henry Jenkins in his book Convergence Culture : Where old and new media collide (2006) says that New Technology is changing the way we interact with people.
This idea is reflected in a New Scientist (22nd August) article by Richard Fisher. In “Welcome to Appland”, Richard talks about how he uses his iPhone for just about everything – from timing his tooth brushing to finding the nearest local toilet. He even writes the article via iDictaphone. In the same article, Dean Eckles suggests that app-enabled phones are rapidly becoming the sole “lens” through which we view the world. We are beginning to trust technology. In one experiment, people were more likely to trust a computer they had been sitting at for hours than one in another room – even when both were running the same programs. This can lead to issues. We may not visit a restaurant around the corner because our iPhone doesn’t inform us of it. Apple often decides which apps to run and “vetoes anything it believes is offensive, unsuitable or competitive with its other services.”
Augmented Reality
Devices used to augment our environment with additional information
How to Behave : The New Rules
(Wired magazine, August 09)
- If your call drops, call back
- Don’t Google-stalk before a first date
- Texting is OK while in the company of others
- Feel free to bittorrent
- Never broadcast your relationship status
- Don’t lie with your Facebook photo
- Balance your media diet
1hr gaming
1.25h social networking
0.75h microblogging
3.5h entertainment
2.5h news - Online conversations are not all about you
- Friend your boss, but not your boss’ boss. Follow them both on Twitter.
- On Facebook, ignore your Ex.
- Ditch the headset.
- Choose the right ringtone
- Don’t BLOG or Tweet anything that has more than half a million hits.
- Delete unwanted posts from your Facebook wall.
- Meet online friends in the real world (Beware : it will be weird)
- Leave your Wi-fi open.*
- Seek out your co-workers on Facebook
- Be mindful of your personal space
- There’s no such thing as too many friends
- You can reinvent yourself online
- Don’t hesitate to haggle on Craigslist.*
- Don’t work all the time – you’ll live to regret it
- Never unfollow someone just because they unfollowed you
*mainly USA.
The Dawn of the Cyborg?
If our phone is rapidly changing the way we think about and view the world and we can’t live without it because it is becoming as familiar as our own body parts, just how human will we become in 10 years time?
iCar Remote Just for fun.
In Class
10 minute writing session #4
Write to this tune.
You can write anything in response to today’s subject/s (above). Try to write from a character’s point of view. Perhaps a character you are working on right now – for this course.
Remember that characters are defined by their experience in action, not by what they wear – and if they speak, they’d better not be telling us the whole truth – just what it is they want us to hear.
Just a few hints for you there.
Stravinsky’s “The Rites of Spring”
For your BLOG
- What “converged” apps do you use? (if any).
- Or what would you use if you had the chance?
- How might you develop an “augmented story”?
Try to relate your app back to the idea of character if you can.
Comments
2 Comments on Week 9 – Convergence, Apps & Behaviour
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Tamiah Bantum on
Thu, 24th Sep 2009 11:40 am
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Joe on
Sun, 27th Sep 2009 4:30 pm
The program NextWorld on the Discovery Channel is really interesting as far as presenting possible technologies of the future. I recently saw an episode on future cars, many of which incorporated some kind of augmented reality – one car even had a screen that would slide down over the windcreen, scan the environment ahead and display a high-definition, digital version of the road ahead! Why? apparently becouse they can…and it looks cool. Most of the cars have multiple screens connected to cameras mounted on the outside of the car that allow the driver to ’see’ 360 degrees around them – for added safety of course. And some of the cars even have an on-board robot that will speak to the driver and make suggestions about their current ‘emotional’ state by scanning their faces and calculating whether they are tired, angry, happy, etc. or can even park the car for you. In a few decades we might be at the stage when the car can drive itself and humans can just sit back and enjoy the ride.
The Dawn of the Cyborg?
I recently saw a documentary on the ‘demise of the dinosaurs’ which chronicled how a fragment of the giant outer-space asteroid named Baptistina crashed into the Earth some 65 million years ago, essentially causing a mass extinction by way of biblical narration and ending the dinosaurs reign.
The reference to this film is that it highlighted that there have been 5 of these mass extinctions throughout Earth’s history. After each annihilation, a new species rises from the ashes to claim their world. With the dinosaurs being the most recent victim, this ultimately sets up humans as the next. The exponential rise in new technology is perhaps an indication that robots are the front runners to next inherit the Earth.
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