Skip to main content

Content contained for contentment

Over the millennia human species has been defined as social.  Now we are redefining social as a channel of communication using technology to aid or so it seems.  In order for this social experiment to succeed it is important to understand that we love content.  Content defined as anything that has provided the needed mental nourishment for the times, be it information or entertainment or both.

A recent interview by Charlie Rose with a panel comprising of media folks triggered this thought that    clear trends now indicate the audience now has the power to control what to watch/consume, how and when.  From early times when you could actually decide which cousin to visit to seek out free entertainment, today you can use the power of the internet to achieve more or scale in techno geek.

All content is after all data and if it's data it's easy to package it and deliver it to a variety of platforms in terms of  form factors or channels.  Content can be simply a phone call to a relative which is a 1 on 1 or conference another friend and discover happiness to have connected to reminisce.

Then there is the same pipe that might bring a great TV-Show free of adverts that you can record and watch while sipping tea on a Sunday morning as I am wont to do.  Or then I can walk away and use the internet to connect to a cloud based bookshelf and add my trivia thoughts for some random guy or gal in 2050 to come find it and smirk at.

Underpinning all this is the broader notion that information democracy will truly bring out the best of the creative energies - authors, poets, film makers, scientists, tweeters perhaps for dissemination across borders and it's to be available to anyone who seeks.   That consumption will be driven also by computer analytical models that decide what content might get consumed where in terms of individual consumers of what race, culture, background, economic or social standing.  The personalizing might be what drives cost of the said content and the money is where content owners can actually deliver it in an auction like model across segments of the population.

It has opened the business to a whole lot of entrants from content producers to pipe owners aka cable or phone or broadcast companies, to content curators like Amazon, Google, to code based delivery companies like Netflix to the people that make the computing devices like the Microsoft and Apple where the end product is consumed.

Now if only this ends world hunger, malaria, and bombings we all might get time to enjoy this content some more.

Comments

  1. RajendraNovember 24, 2013 at 8:01 PM

    Obama seems a bit more sensible than Bush, so there is some hope. If arms manufacturers did flowers instead, that would be something.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
2 comments
Read more

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language.  Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds.  The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic.  Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'.  This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...
2 comments
Read more

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
2 comments
Read more