With the recent public launch of Hulu a couple of weeks ago I started to think about what effects Internet TV will have on our culture and our lives. People are slowly relinquishing their television sets as their primary way of watching network content. Online video and Internet TV sites are giving people a venue through which to be social, communicate and interact about what they're watching in different way.

Sites such as Hulu, Brightcove, YouTube, and Break allow users to rate each show/video, ask questions, and encourage social interaction. All of these sites allow the audience to share their videos with friends in many different ways (embedding video, email, IM, etc). But if the way by which we interact about television shows is changing, I wondered what will happen to the water cooler? (more...)

In our culture today the internet and technology have become an ever present force in our lives. Whether were waiting in our car during rush hour, talking on a cellphone to a friend, using the internet to retrieve our email or setting our home security system we have come to embrace some aspect of technology in our lives. This has made our society one that expects outcome at a moments notice and wants information pertinent to them at any time, anywhere they are.

As the Internet has developed it has in some ways allowed us to reclaim knowledge. Information that once would have been a chore to find or limited to those doing scholarly research is now available to anyone at anytime from anywhere. Unlike the information that may be provided to a person by news media, a library or a school, a Google search could yield several different hits on a topic all from different points of view. This kind of access to information gives a power to the average person that they haven't had before. The advent of Web 2.0¹ (yes I know it's a cliché) has in many ways restored their voice and individuality.

Possibly one of the most important things that Web 2.0 does is 'harness the power of a collective intelligence' and embrace the 'wisdom of the crowd'². While this may seem like an easy thing to overlook, many of the websites we use today exemplify these two things. Some examples might be Amazon, Wikipedia, Digg, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

Not only did Web 2.0 set out to collect and harness our intelligence but it also embraced the idea that people (and that means anyone) have a voice that should be heard. Blogs have allowed the average person to publish their thoughts, feelings, opinions and knowledge online for the world to see. Ideas, concepts, philosophy, journalism, writing, and art are all methods of expression and intelligence that are no longer limited to those who have a degree in their respective subject matter or to those with the money to publicize their thoughts. Blogs have in so many ways made truth, intelligence, ideas and expression a level playing field. And while there is a slight learning curve for those who are less familiar with technology, our culture is beginning to change because of this.

News Media
The internet has given people the power of choice back to the 'audience', they can now seek out the news that is important to them. News media networks such as CNN are adapting to suite a new breed of audience. Projects such as iReport embrace the 'collective knowledge' of their audience empowering them to submit news stories that are important to them.

Politics
Social media has completely changed the way the average citizen has the power to change their country through politics. The recent presidential campaign of Barack Obama has in many ways set a new standard for citizen involvement. By using various social media websites Obama's campaign allows people to campaign for him without ever leaving their couch via buddy icons, YouTube videos, Facebook groups etc. This new form of advertising allows any citizen the power to support Obama and promote Obama, even if they don't get out of the house and vote for Obama. By harnessing the voices of individuals he has created a buzz³ that could potentially land him in the White House.

The point is, the citizen is much less limited today as far as the reach of their own personal message goes than they ever were before. What used to be considered the audience is no longer the audience anymore, it is a voice that expects to be heard.

The world of Web 2.0 is also the world of what Dan Gillmor calls "we, the media," a world in which "the former audience", not a few people in a back room, decides what's important.

-A quote from Tim O'Reilly's article What is Web 2.0?²

I expect watching the influences of these ideologies extend further into our culture will be an interesting experience. It is possible that media 10 years from now will look nothing like the media we know now as the citizens media grows.

In a time when information is momentary, ever-evolving, and growing at such extreme rates, It is important to explore where it is coming from, and where it wants to go.

I began to look at what was around me at any given moment. The mobile phone in my pocket. The ipod in my bag. The laptop that follows me everywhere. The TV I watch on my computer. The radio I listen to on my computer . The podcasts that give me news, and knowledge of whatever I want. The accessibility of it all. The customization of it all. The growth of it all. The New Media that was mimicking the old media, but now paving the way for a new way of giving and receiving information.

As I began to explore a little deeper, and break down The Flow, I saw trends in the goals of this media. It wants to get smarter and faster, larger and deeper, easier and closer. As a GenY, I have the knowledge of the world a click away, and I have had this as far as I can remember.

Describing the Flow:

Easy to Understand

The web is growing into the semantic web, an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which web content can be expressed not only in natural language, but also in a form that can be understood, interpreted and used by software agents, thus permitting them to find, share and integrate information more easily.

Made by Us

Open source is a philosophy of software distribution that allows anyone to read and modify the program's source code. Because anyone can modify the source code, bug fixes, improvements or implementation of new specific features occur rapidly.

Always In It.

Pervasive computing is a ubiquitous, wireless, always-on, networked world. A mobile device becomes a tool of locating, comparing, sharing, and learning within a shared network. Everything is reachable, and you can reach it.
at any time.

Mark Weiser considered this the end goal, but not without laying down the 3 vital components for this to be reachable.

cheap and low-power devices - Prices drop and the computing power and battery life in these devices offer more time and capabilities within the network.

a network infrastructure - A community must exist, and the ease and stability of the network must offer the public extreme ease of use and reliability.

pervasive applications - A system of connecting the user with the network. As the technology grows, these applications will adapt and change rapidly.

Always Around It.

Ubiquitous Computing is about the new types of computers invisibly embedded into our everyday environment. Rather than explicitly being the "user" of a computer a human will implicitly profit from services running between computers without even taking notice of them.

calm technology - Weiser envisioned computation primarily in the background where it may not even be noticed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web
www.generic.jo/glossary.aspx - open source