EM820 Week3 part 2

Q:  What are the technical AND economic transformations that are making the new emerging media practices possible? Be specific—not just internet, but how, what capacities, materials, etc. Think about other technologies, roads, satellites, phone, alternative energy sources, ..

 

A:  It seems to me the continuously lowering cost of developing content and hardware are making new emerging media practices possible. For instance, it really wasn't that long ago that cellular phones were gigantic (by modern standards) and resembled normal wired phones; they were so expensive that only the wealthy were able to take advantage of them. Now, it seems that almost everyone has a cell phone that fits in our pockets and many of us have smart phones that are more powerful than the first computer I owned way back in the 1980's. As the production costs continue to fall, more powerful phones will be able to be given away free and even more people will be able to access their power.

Another enabling practice is the open-source movement. Taking advantage of the skills of multitudes of talented people, software applications/services are becoming more and more advanced/reliable. The open-source market is forcing traditional companies and markets to reconcile their business practices with the new consumer expectation of "free".