Trends in Digital Media
In today’s trendwatching podcast, Cathi Bond gets into ’sharing’. Why not have a USB sofa so you can leave digital media behind for your friends? (via Gizmodo)
Meanwhile, Nora Young has been following Danah Boyd’s discussion (here and here) of her experience at the Web 2.0 Expo, where, amongst other distractions, a Twitter feed that contained unkind remarks scrolled behind her as she was giving a presentation. It’s got Nora thinking about our blind assumption that more communication tools are necessarily better. The talk itself is here, and is well worth reading.
Tags: Danah Boyd, furniture, social media, Twitter, USBs
November 28th, 2009 at 5:31 am
I’d seen the Danah Boyd post and reached the same conclusion. The move toward making everything more read/write is in general a good thing–however, it’s not read/write at all to post a speaker’s reactors/hecklers for the benefit of the audience but not the speaker. It’s then kind of write/write, a bizarre Mystery Science 3000 experience. I also am troubled, a bit, by the tremendous value placed upon the unimpressive and not particularly rare coin of snarky commentary. If I were fortunate enough to attend a web conference in which someone as insightful as Danah Boyd were speaking, the last thing I’d want to see if what some tweet-author posted as she spoke.
I like better the situation in which tweets may be sent to a moderator, who may then ask the pertinent questions. This can be an effective way to faciliate Q and A.
I can picture already the MPAA v. La Z Boy litigation bound to ensue
from the USB sofa. I rather imagine, somehow, that La Z Boy would
win, and yet everything in media would subtly change. If you got “lost in translation” piped from a La Z Boy, you’d suddenly hear what he whispered to her, and it would turn out to be a sports betting tip.
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:20 pm
HAH! You made me laugh! LazyB USB smack downs!