Future of Digital Media

Looking at going for a job with Quba and in the application form they posed this question:

What are the main current digital media trends, and what impact do you think will they have on business communications in the next 5 years?

It's a tough one, as things seem to be changing in this field so quickly. All the same, here's an attempt at the answer.

People nowadays expect a lot more than they used to from their digital media experiences. Instead of just being passive consumers, people now like to interact and play with their media, to customize their features, to create, contribute and share their own creations, and to access exactly what they want, when they want it. Only ten years ago, people were mostly sat in front of TV screens for terrestrial and cable channels, videos and game consoles. Now things are moving towards all forms of entertainment and social interaction coming through the computer screen. Before families fought over the TV remote -now they’re fighting over the computer.

Right now we’re experiencing a kind of mini-boom in Internet use, where huge numbers of users are flocking to be a part of ‘web 2.0’ communities and to make use of the many online features now available. The video-sharing site YouTube counts about 13 million users per month, the social-networking site Facebook claims to have 66 million regular users and is forecasting 180 million within two years and Google Earth has had 200 million people download their software. Google Earth alone has a number of users equivalent to the population of the 5th largest country in the world. This a change in the way people interact with media of epic proportions, and it’s a hugely exciting time for everyone, especially digital media developers, because digital culture is changing so quickly and there’s plenty of opportunities for new and innovative ideas.

The market has changed so much in the past two years, that it’s hard predict exactly what will happen in the next five, but it’s probably a safe bet that trends of content-creation and the desire for interactivity will continue. As more people around the world gain access to technologies such as digital cameras, video cameras, personal computers and mobile phones, so this surge towards creating large-scale digital communities is likely to continues. I am pretty sure that mobile phones and PDAs will become more and more prominent as the main supplier of all our digital needs (as they are pretty much already) and this will require digital media producers to be aware of how best to tailor development for handhelds. There’s been a steady rise in the popularity of games too, and this will continue to spread from consoles, to web-based multiplayer experiences, for entertainment, marketing and training. Above all though, I think what will be most interesting will be how all the multitude of features now available on the web will be combined to add even richer experiences for consumers. We are only just beginning to scratch the surface of what we can do with everything out there.

So it’s a cliché I know, but business communications will need to be particularly flexible, adaptable and sensitive to what’s going on in the Net, as one moment something might be the next-big-thing, while the next it might be old-hat. People are increasingly media-savvy and are now looking for authentic experiences that they can actually get involved in, feel a part of and not just observe quietly from the fringes. We’re all now drawn to experimentation, new ways of interacting and fresh ways of using the technology at our fingertips. So ultimately businesses will need to be creative in their approach if they are to appeal to the digital generation. But then that’s half the fun.

Bonus Level - Web 2.0 usage study: support for Welcome to Digitalia

Stumbled accross this fascinating up-to-date research study into Web 2.0 usage in the UK. The author David White of Oxford University, who was also referenced in the recent JISC report on E-Learning, clearly identifies the volume and characteristics of popular web 2.0 functions. The report indicates predictably that for almost every internet Web 2.0 function (social bookmarking, content sharing, blogging, etc) the Under 18 age group has the highest percentage of users.

What is also interesting is that use of Wikis, Wikipedia, reading blogs and discussion forums is about the same in all age groups, even up to the 65-74 age bracket. It seems that some web 2.0 functions have caught on much quicker in the older age groups, perhaps due to their tendency towards 'serious' content.

There is also evidence of online games/spaces use, where games such as World of Warcraft and Half Life are predominantly favoured by young people, whereas Second Life appears to have a much broader age appeal.

Further down the report, a graph of overall engagement clearly highlights the disparity of use between the ages, but future predictions indicate a levelling off as individuals move through the age groups.

If web 2.0 functions have great potential for learning, as I have argued in previous postings, and the 40 plus age group is currently under-using them as teaching resources, then it proves a greater need for teacher education on how the internet might be put to full use. See 'Welcome to Digitalia' below for how that might be accomplished.

Bonus level - Welcome to Digitalia

I have had an idea brewing over the past month or so, which I had intended to submit as my game design assignment - but with the Digital Earth competition taking this over, have just decided to note down the bones of it here.

*Welcome to Digitalia*

The main aim of this website-based game is to teach teachers about digital functions that young people use all the time, giving them direct practice and ideas for educational use.

Digitalia is a fictitious country in which children are the main inhabitants (or 'natives'). The home page contains links to information about some of the customs (social networking, blogging, Web 2.0 functions, games, etc), artefacts (internet, iPod, computer, etc) and some of the learning preferences (teamwork, parallel processing, hypertext thinking, etc) of the Digitalia Natives (DNs).
It also has a Visa application process for Digitalia Immigrants (DIs) who want to access the country. As part of the application process, teachers (or whoever) mustcomplete a series of tasks/games/challenges, each relating to technology and Web 2.0 functions such as blogging, making podcasts, using Del.icio.us, Wikis, and Google Earth, etc., which relate to how they might be integrated into teaching practice.

The game is also designed to encourage some of the skills needed to flourish in the information age, such as:

Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving

Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery

Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes

Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content

Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details

Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities

Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal

Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources

Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities

Networking — the ability to search for,synthesize,and disseminate information

Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities,discerning and respecting multiple perspectives and grasping and following alternative norms.

(taken from NML white paper - see below)

There is also scope for automated character interaction via email, video, audio, etc. However, unlike most popular ARGs which unfold in real-time (Perplex City for example), this is designed for individual players to go through at their own pace (like BBC's Jamie Kane), though some team-working with other applicants will be required.

Once the visa application process is complete, the older generation can become Digitalia Natives themselves!

[This game links in with some of the work carried out by the New Media Literacies project, which seeks to identify and inform teachers about the various skills required for the information age, as well as helping 'children to learn what they need to know to become fuller participants in the new media landscape. NML combines an interesting group of researchers and educators, including Henry Jenkins (Convergence Culture, 2006) and Ravi Purushotma, who have done much research into the educational potential of digital games, and ARGs especially.

They have recently produced the NML White Paper (2007), which goes into great detail about children's media use and the related skills they are developing in using internet-linked technologies - skills that are well-suited to a forthcoming knowledge economy, but which currently schools are failing to address. The paper coins the phrase *Participatory Culture* to describe the younger generation's practice of creating and sharing media content. The paper explains that 'a participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. A participatory culture is also one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another'. The point about informal mentorship is particularly interesting from an educational perspective, as this describes a peer-to-peer learning process that many teachers (the good ones at least) would love to see from their students. Other potential benefits of a participatory culture include 'the diversification of cultural expression, the development of skills valued in the modern workplace [see Gee, Hull and Lankshear 1996, 'The New Work Order'], and a more empowered conception of citizenship'. These are all benefits that teachers really ought to be capitalising on, and a game like Welcome to Digitalia might be a useful tool for helping them do this.]