Hello…
Welcome to Digital Hello, the place where we’ll look at the wild and wacky changing digital world! We’ll keep tabs on: The Consumer Revolution, Digital Convergence (or the 4 Play – Web, T.V., mobile, phone), Web 2.0, DRM, Digital devices, and the way that all of these are fostering innovation and changing the business landscape and the world as we know it!
To get started, here are some definitions (put my way) of what we’re looking at….
Convergence:
It’s being able to watch T.V. on your phone, T.V. on your computer, T.V. on your T.V.. Make a phone call through your phone, over the internet, or through your T.V.. Use the internet on your phone, on your computer, and on your T.V….you get the picture, its having every digital service on every digital device possible!
Web 2.0:
MySpace, YouTube, RIA….what? No one really knows where the term “web 2.0” came from (although I credit Mike Arrington at TechCrunch because its my fav blog :)) but it refers to the next generation web. If Web 1.0 constitutes innovations such as the browser, search, web pages, financial transactions, etc., Web 2.0 is taking the web one step closer to what it should be….its about creation, collaboration, sharing, and communication. Social networking, sharing videos, blogs, wikis….the web is becoming a lot more open and fun!
Digital Rights Management (DRM):
Napster changed the world. People got music for free and could play it on the device they wanted….companies lost money. No T.V. is going broadband and the world will never be the same!
Digital Rights Management is technology that aims to protect the ownership and distribution rights of content creators and companies. It’s not just about stopping illegal downloading and piracy, it’s also about keeping control of where you can play your media.
When I buy a song on iTunes can I play it on any device I want or only an iPod? Or play a movie through Windows Media Center or only iTV? Companies determine the answers to these questions by using DRM!
My take – I should be able to play any file I buy on any device I own. That would mean less DRM….can I then be stopped from copying and sharing the content (and therefore killing the price)? No. But I’m the consumer so I’ll let the big guys figure that out! 🙂 We’ll jump into what I call “The Consumer Revolution” and DRM through an upcoming article.
Mobile Digital Devices:
The iPod wasn’t the first mp3 player ever invented, it was just the coolest. Mobile Digital devices, are the new battlefield. People want to consume the media they want, when they want, and how they want (The Consumer Revolution). So, to win the consumer you have to give them what they want anytime anywhere. We’ll look how content and applications are going mobile and innovations in the gadget world making it easier for us to get what we want when we want it (for the most part anyway).
What do these issues mean to consumer, business, and the world as we know it? The future is wide open and we’ll walk through the excitement together at Digital Hello!
