Middle Media 151
Since the rise of electronic media like TV and the Net, the idea of New and Old media has become entrenched in the culture. Conventional wisdom says that the former will ultimately and completely replace the latter.
That doesn't seem to be happening, though interactive media are ascending rapidly, and the influence and monopoly of traditional media have diminished. But there are signs all over of a new, hybrid, and probably permanent Middle Media.
Old media are generally defined as newspapers, magazines, publishing and network TV, controlled by small groups of gatekeepers who make decisions about what's news and what's not. New media, by contrast, are interactive, with choices made by their consumers, and they're digitally or electronically transmitted. In general, they are much freer and more opinionated.
But technology and the way people use it is so inherently unpredictable that that rigid distinctions between the two are becoming less useful each day. Most "old" media now have "new" appendages, adjuncts and outlets, especially on the Web. And the people using new media still acquire information and use culture in traditional forms - they go to megaplexes, read magazines, follow books.
The idea of "new" or "old" media may not hold too much longer, just Middle Media that combine elements of both, giving information-seekers many more options.
One small but telling example was reported in American Demographic magazine's March issue, which reported that dot.com companies - Garden.com, Wine.com, Tavolo.com and jewelry retailer Miadora.com, among others -- are successfully experimenting with print catalogues. People buy online, but they want to see some paper and pictures first.
"There's something about flipping through a catalog that can't be replaced by the online experience," says Rich Fazekas, research director at W.A. Dean & Associates, a San Francisco catalog consulting firm that's just completed an informal study of e-commerce players launching catalogs. "If [e-tailers] want to grow as a sales channel, catalogs can be a vital part of their business."
Another indication of an emerging Middle Media is the fact that the journalistic move from paper to e-news has gone from a trickle to a flood. Reporters are leaving newsrooms all over the country to work for online information sites. These reporters, leaving papers like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times and smaller papers in chains like Gannett, are bringing traditional journalistic sensibilities to e-news, which until now has been much more free and raucous than the offline press.
Just a few years ago, most retailers thought catalogs would disappear as consumers browsed through graphically - advanced online displays.
The rise in catalogs in conjunction with dot.coms is interesting because it demonstrates again that people are often less absolute in their technological choices than the techno-pundits and seers predict.
The music industry is hysterical about online music distribution, but there is little or no evidence that their "property" is being hi-jacked en masse by digital thieves. Last week, the industry announced it earned a record $14+ billion in l999. Some newspapers - USA Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post - are belatedly realizing that the Net doesn't necessarily replace them, but can often offer new venues for breaking news, new vehicles for identifying and acquiring subscribers, and can generally promote interest in their existing formats. They may no longer hold monopolies on news and information, but they still have a significant slice of the pie.
In a Slashdot discussion last week about the future of newspapers, it was obvious that many people here, for example, valued print news in certain circumstances, particularly if papers would offer more focused and in-depth information on subjects like technology and culture, as well as local news.
Publishers approaching meltdown about the future of books can visit any Borders or Barnes & Noble, where salespeople constantly suggest that customers find books online, and where it's also clear that people aren't even close to giving up reading words on paper even if they also read words on computer screens. Although online book sales are growing on sites like Fatbrain, Amazon and BN.com, so are the sales of books in stores. The technological absolutism invoked by the rise of the Net - everything will go digital - is not coming to pass.
Certain information formats can offer a sensual, contextual appeal that's impossible to quantify, and was not predicted. Consumers have fiercely resisted getting newspapers or books via digitized tablets. Convenience and speed are critical measures, but not the only ones. People enjoy browsing through catalogs they can see and hold, it seems, rather than simply buying everything online. They cling to the experience of congregating at malls and in bookstores, even when many of the items sold there are readily available on the Net and the Web. Movie admissions were up sharply last year, along with music revenues, and chain bookstores made huge profits.
The symbiotic boom in catalogs and online shopping may foreshadow the way future media will work. Media may not, in fact, be old-fashioned or new-fangled, but co-dependent. E-news and information can feed off print news and information, one stimulating interest in the other.
And the form of media might vary in terms of content as well. Information about politics, for example, might always be centered around print publications -- a handful of newspapers and magazines -- which are to many people better vehicles for presenting complex issues. Music distribution seems sure to move almost completely onto the Web, along with elements of radio and TV. But even though DVDs are booming, it seems unlikely people will forego the experience of going to theaters, which are also booming. Breaking news is clearly moving exclusively to e-media, as it is fast and tailor-made for hypertext.
Other kinds of coverage -- pop culture, health, investigative reporting, strong writing -- might always remain popular to consumers on paper.
Even though that pattern seems to be emerging, the truth is, nobody knows for sure. Interactivity has become one of the most powerful ideas in media history, no longer a fad but an expectation. As much as gatekeepers, politicians and journalists hate it, it isn't going away.
People expect to contribute to and participate in their information media, and to hold pundits, columnists and other information-givers accountable for what they report, think and write.
But as Garden.com's sweet-smelling catalogs show, the boundaries between old and new media are getting tougher to find. What is visible is a new and hybrid information structure, a new media species all its own.
Aside (Score:5)
Is there any? What kind of a genius does it take to figure out that people don't like to change things overnight? People like to smooth things over with gradual change. I know I do, and I know most businesses do too. This isn't a "middle media", it's just two medias in one.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Jon Katz in the Middle (Score:2)
uh, I'm confused. (Score:2)
do you pick your ideas out of a hat, or are you using a ouija board?
Books will stay on paper (Score:5)
Publishers approaching meltdown about the future of books can visit any Borders or Barnes & Noble, where salespeople constantly suggest that customers find books online, and where it's also clear that people aren't even close to giving up reading words on paper even if they also read words on computer screens. Although online book sales are growing on sites like Fatbrain, Amazon and BN.com, so are the sales of books in stores. The technological absolutism invoked by the rise of the Net - everything will go digital - is not coming to pass.
I doubt very much that books will become obsolete for quite a long time, even when the E-book finally becomes a reality for consumers. While some texts, particularly scientific textbooks, could do with the concept of hyperlinked sections, the majority of books would gain no real benefit to being digitised. Yes, it might be nice to search a book for a particular passge, but it's hardly essential for the enjoyment of the book.
While I love computers, there's nothing more frustrating than trying to read something that's more than 100 or so lines on a monitor. It just doesn't feel right and hurts your eyes, even on this brand-new 19" monitor. And I don't think curling up on your bed with your E-book will take off.
And I'm not even going to go in to the phenomenon of toilet books - you know, those books full of easily digestible sections which sit in the bathroom for when you need a quick read :)
Re:Aside (Score:3)
Today, you can still find new LPs, but not for ever album. Their market is mostly audiophiles who can hear and understand the difference. It is a limited market. CDs have advantages in size and durability (at least short term durability). There are also people who never replaced their turntables with CD players because they had ceased to embrace change (the grandma market, although that is a stereotype).
The same thing is happening with print media. There are people who will take electronic over print text whenever they have the choice. All it would take to push me into that camp is the right technology for reading the text. I'd want a full general purpose computer, running Linux, FreeBSD or Hurd with connectivity to my desktop machine. But I might settle for electronic text that is portable between a lesser handheld machine and a desktop with those capabilities. However, there continues to exist a market for print text. Even if it is losing market share as a percentage, the growth in the market for text in all forms may compensate for that (I haven't seen the numbers).
Eventually, when there is an established model for selling electronic text to a mass market, and a large enough portion of the market will buy them some texts will cease to be sold in printed form, at least initially. That will be the steep portion of the curve of the decline of the Old Media. That will be the one period in which it will be suicide to be in the Old Media business exclusively. I wish I knew how far off the start of that stage of the decline is. We might already be there for all I know, but I doubt it.
examples? (Score:3)
adbusters [adbusters.org]
the onion [theonion.com]
would slashdot be considered an alternative media source? probably?
anyone else got some good outside-the-mainstream media sources?
I don't know about you, but i still get all my news from everything 2 [everything2.org]
Interesting? (Score:2)
Well, a summary would be:
"Despite the recent huge push for everyone to get on to the internet, there seems to be a similar move from the internet to phisical media"
I was quite interested by the observation that some internet companies are experimenting with paper catalogues (Its only a matter of time before Amazon comes up with a "technology" that automates printing a catalogue[1])
The obvious conclusion is both media will merge.
[1]Just in case Amazon DOES try to patent this, here's some prior art
I've got an idea for a system thats connected to a database that can print paper catlogues on demand. You could have it so that it can create a downloadable printable document for home printing, or be printed elsewhere and delivered
Former and Latter--Quit It. (Score:2)
People seem to love it so much they purposely set up arrangements of arguments, just waiting for the splendid chance to use a "former vs latter"
I'm not saying Jon K. uses it all the time, this is the first time I've noticed it in one of his articles. I generally like his artciles, though I usually don't read all the way through...I just saw it this time and it bothered me. The fact that he reverses the order of "New and Old" from their counterparts in the first half of the sentence doesn't help.
Anyway, I feel better now.
cheese
Re:Aside (Score:2)
This is all like claiming there's a middle movie media because the film industry thought at first they would up and vanish as TV seeped into more and more living rooms, but now there's so much cross-pollination going on between the two it's hard to see where one leaves off and the other begins (just look to see how many large Hollywood studios are left that are NOT owned by corporations with large holdings in other media like TV and print).
Media is media, no matter the method of transmission.
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I'm not understanding this... (Score:3)
Four words: been there, done that.
This "middle media" you rant about has existed long before you started getting flamed on Slashdot Jon. Take a look at buying from TV. Home Shopping Network and QVC have been doing this "middle media" stuff for a while now. Rather than leaf through a bulky catalog for your favorite Hawaiian shirt, you can turn on the TV and see that shirt right there...they even have someone to walk around in it so you can see just how it looks! If you don't want to buy it from TV, you can always visit their store (QVC has one in Lancaster PA) and buy the same shirt you saw on TV. And yes, they do have catalogues to browse through. There you go, you have TV and the print media working together, an idea they've been doing since the mid 1980's.
And NOW you're popping up telling us that there's some new "middle media" that we should all be bowing down to? What rock have you been living under?
Ever wonder why a lot of people on Slashdot don't like you Jon? This article is just one reason. But feel free to enlighten me, as I'd be interested in what you have to say.
Quote from Newsweek (Score:2)
Just because it's obvious to you... (Score:3)
Discussion and comments and arguments are what this site is about, in addition to news. So if it's not news (at least to some of us), why can't we just accept that and carry on with the discussion, comments and arguments?
Go ahead, moderate this down as inflammatory or something. I'm just speaking my mind. Think about it, and it might make sense.
Eruantalon
Well, how can I top that? (Score:4)
As far as Jon's article, though, he has a good point. The e-companies are discovering that the key to success is to take the best of the old models and marry them to the new. Remember Amazon, and their intent to be a "virtual company", with no inventories? They gave up on that and have been burning cash to build warehouses and shipping facilities, allowing them to control the process better. The e-tailers who are now branching into catalogs have discovered that to rely on on-line only is to leave money on the table.
The place for e-only commerce is in a small, specialty marketplace that is so focused as to make the Internet the only practical, affordable way to reach your target audience. Thinkgeek and Copyleft are two good examples of specialty businesses that probably couldn't succeed in a traditional catalog or retail world, because the overhead costs would be far too high to justify the limited audience. The classic examples like the hot sauce company that went online and had sales that took off (I forget the company, but this was some time ago) and the Copylefts of the world are the best ones for a purely e-commerce based approach.
In reality, Amazon needs warehouses and customer service reps, the New York Times needs (and can make money from) online newsfeeds, and MicroWarehouse needs to have online ordering from their catalog (the closest postal equivalent to spam I've seen) in order to maximize their revenues. Smart companies like Ingram Micro make it easier for companies to do business in this hybrid world with fulfilment services and private-label direct shipping. Shippers like FedEx and UPS are more valuable too in this new economic model because in many cases they will be the only actual contact the customer has.
In the end, the Internet is changing the way business is done, but the smart companies use the best of the old and combine it with the new to make more money. Money is a Good Thing, especially when you're making it...
- -Josh Turiel
Huh? (Score:2)
Of course people like to hold paper in there hands and look at it. This is how most of us grew up getting information. Maybe the children being born today will be more used to a monitor and want there information that way. However, the vast majority of people that buy online right now want to be able to browse through there buying decision without being tied to the computer.
Just because the dot.coms and others are using paper catalogs now doesn't mean that everything won't finally go all electronic. Even paper will have interactive abilities eventually. This is all just a transition period not some Middle Media thing.
Scrolls (Score:1)
Re:Jon Katz in the Middle (Score:1)
Don't create a causal relationship out of thin air (Score:1)
I don't necessarily think that the increase in theater receipts and music sales can be directly attributed to advances in 'new' media and the internet. I think that a number of people are trying to create a causal relationship where one doesn't necessarily exist. I think that people are overlooking a booming economy and attempting to say, "Hey, despite traffic of mp3s on the internet, the record companies are still getting richer"
I agree that there is a revolution going on, and people are becoming more and more attracted to digial media (whether it be mp3s, online newspapers, eBooks, etc.) but I don't think the time is yet upon us where these are going to supplant 'old' media.
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Out with the New, In with the Old (Score:2)
First, people will praise all the brand new features, how it will change the entire world, and how the "old best thing" in that field will become very much obsolete.
However, when you check back in a few months, you'll find that the product, service or company that survived wasn't the "next best thing" or the "old best thing", but the "combination of what made the old best thing the best, along with the features of the new best thing".
This is true of media, operating systems, cars, toothbrushes, food and damn near everything else out there...
Re:Aside (Score:3)
Today, you can still find new LPs, but not for ever album. Their market is mostly audiophiles who can hear and understand the difference. It is a limited market.
I'm not sure about the situation in the US but over here in Europe there has been a huge revival in 12" records due to the huge popularity of dance music in Europe. Because it is designed to be beat mixed vinyl is the best media because it can be cued by hand as well as sped up or slowed down easily. Almost all albums and singles that fall into the dance catagory are released on 12" to cater for the thousands of DJs who buy vinyl every week. So in this market the popularity of vinyl is actually increasing.
Media is media (Score:1)
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"New" and "Old" Makes no Sense (Score:3)
It seems to me to make much more sense to keep dividing and criticizing media along more traditional lines:
The forced format of the medium. Books have usually been text, magazines now have lots of pictures, newspapers are moving to more graphical formats, television is tied to pictures, and the Web might soon bring everything at once. "Old" and "New" makes no sense here; everyone wants to convey information in a way that makes the most sense for the information itself and for those who consume it.
The number of people who can be involved. Books are generally very prohibitive; they are usually written by just one person. Newspapers, magazines and TV programs are often the result of collaboration - but they do not allow serious, prolonged interaction. The Web permits dialogue, often with amazing results (like Slashdot, or the new online academic journals). But there are always exceptions: many Web sites are top-down (without dialogue) and many newspapers have ample letters sections (encouraging public dialogue).
It just seems to me that calling some media old and some new is a particularly useless way of trying to dichotomize what is, in fact, a richly intricate and complex process.
A. Keiper [mailto]
The Center for the Study of Technology and Society [tecsoc.org]
Re:Books will stay on paper (Score:1)
And I'm not even going to go in to the phenomenon of toilet books - you know, those books full of easily digestible sections which sit in the bathroom for when you need a quick read
What are you talking about, any book qualifies as a bathroom (toilet) book, it just depends on how much time you want to sit on the crapper.
Incidentally, it's the mention of toilet books in an article about online companies producing catalogs strikes me as funny, since my mother told me that when she was little and they didn't have indoor plumbing (too rural), there was always a catalog in the outhouse for toilet reading and "after".
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everything's "booming" (Score:1)
Re:Former and Latter--Quit It. (Score:1)
So, to the point? People will always compare the old vs the new - some kind of "human nature", though I really hate that term. We like seeing what's changed for the better and what hasn't. It's a good way to figure out if we're moving forward or backward. Sure, it's overused, but it's still a valid form of comparison.
Eruantalon
Katzbot, The Free Associator (Score:3)
Given "Shetland ponies" and "acupunture", I got "Demystifying the Man-Animal Holistic Connection."
Given "hot grits" and "Natalie Portman", I got "Cyberfood and E-Love in the Naboo System.",
Given "school shootings" and "confused by Linux", I got "Greetings from the Hellmouth 5: When The Lack of Man Pages Causes the Info-Ignorant to go on a Geek Goth Gun Nerd Columbine Rampage."
Clearly, this is a program whose time has come. Hey, Rob, open the Katzbot source!
"New" (Score:2)
It never held in the first place. This whole "new media vs. old media" thing was just a way for a bunch of young journalists to maintain their sense of self-importance while ignoring "old fashioned" notions such as fact-checking and objectivity. It was a typical rush to the new by people didn't really even understand the old. Now we see the shakeout, where everyone realizes that things weren't all that different after all.
Re:YOW!! Up ahead! It's a DONUT HUT!! (Score:1)
Some thoughts (Score:2)
Newspapers will NEVER be completely replaced by the TV (ever swatted a fly with a TV?), or by computers. It's been tried. Teletext services, such as Ceefax, were a complete, unmitigated disaster. Not because of the information, or the immediacy, but because they don't have the flexibility.
THIS, I think, is the key. Anybody with a couple of dollars to their name can buy the materials needed to write a masterpiece on paper, sketch stunning works of art, or scribble to their heart's content. ANYWHERE. On the highest mountains, on the oceans, in the dryest deserts, ANYWHERE. For as long as they like. Yes, there's only so much ink, but it doesn't run out just by leaving the book open. Pens last for weeks or months, not hours. And books are FAR, FAR lighter, for small quantities of information.
This leads me onto the second key point. Paper IS vastly superior to digital representations, for small volumes of information. Computers are GREAT for number-crunching, sorting, processing, et al, but give me a notepad and a pen for a shopping list or swapping a phone number.
Third, Jon Katz is no scout, and probably never has been. Nor does he know many Travellers. What do these have in common? Secret writings, using sticks, stones, and gouged lines, designed not to be visible to those who don't know. What'll they do, if physical writing no longer exists? Leave a laptop at the crossroads, in the hope only the right person'll see it? Be real!
Last, but not least, statistics has no real concept of "zero". Gaussian distributions, sure! But a Gaussian distribution has no mathematically defined limit for either tail. What does this mean? Simple. Computers will never replace the written, printed or carved word. They are too useful. What we'll see is the Gaussian distribution centre itself midway between the "old" forms and the "new" forms, but that's ALL it will be. The mid-section of the distribution. The rest will exist in each camp, according to the needs of the users.
Are you sure about the onion? (Score:1)
Any midwest
George
Looks like time to plug the "Dead Media Project" (Score:2)
Saw a funny referance recently, Dave Barry? Steve Martin? Anyway, about how email, where messages are sent across great distances at the speed of light, has largely replaced smoke signals, where messages are send across great distances at the speed of light.
Score -1: Off Topic (Score:1)
SiliconDragon
Re:Books will stay on paper (Score:1)
I find that thet vast majority of fiction readers in my store resist any change from the basic mass market paperback format. Most will read a borrowed hardcover of a favorite author before the paperback comes out, but they'll buy a paperback as a reading copy later.
The key to this, I think, is portability. Paperbacks are easily purchased, inexpensive, and can be carried in a spare pocket nearly anytime. Late last year, I would joke about my huge inventory of portable information storage and retrieval devices, all of which were guaranteed y2k compliant.
People WANT portable, inexpensive and portable. They want the web in their home to be as accessible as a portable telephone, instead of a PC. Until the fiction market can beat the distribution medium of paperback books, I'll still be making money off paper.
This makes me happy.
paperbacks.homepage.com [homepage.com]
Re:Aside (Score:1)
I don't mean to pimp a commercial webpage, but CDNow [cdnow.com] has been selling vinyl for a while now, and usually has a vinyl version for most new releases, which is also usually cheaper than the CD release. Tired of paying $20 for a CD, pay $10 for vinyl. Now, if I could just get an in-dash turntable for the car....
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Have their people call your people (Score:1)
These articles sound like auditions for those outlets that we're getting the second-run of and not original, provocative content written for Slashdot.
Re:Aside (Score:1)
My first thought was that this also would push me over the edge into e-text. However, with the Palm units out, have we seen any kind of move towards e-text for Palm? Yeah, there's the Kama Sutra or however it's spelled. Anything else? Have users of the Palm gone for more e-text than books? I can't figure out myself whether I'd prefer to have an e-text of a book on a handheld unit, or have a book. There's something about books that makes them slightly more real than an e-text, IMO. I suppose it will eventually come down to some people taking strong stands on one side or the other, while the majority of people prefer what's easiest.
Eruantalon
Re: Electronic texts (Score:2)
Current copyright law says that if a book goes out of print, the author can reclaim the copyright, and take it to another publisher. With these newer forms of publishing, all a corporate publisher has to do is sell one copy occasionally -- printed on demand -- for the book to be legally be considered not "out of print" indefinitely.
An example of this: right now there are seven books (psychology related texts -- which I won't name for the same reasons) that I would order in a second if they were in print. But would I rather keep them in print at a publisher who let them sit there for years, or wait another year or two for the author to regain control?
I'll wait. And when the author regains that control, I hope they use electronic publishing and print on demand to keep control of their works until the copyright expires.
(Somewhat related side note: I think that the Sonny Bono extensions to the period of time a copyright is issued for are wrong, BTW. And that corporations shouldn't be able to pass around (sell) their collection of copyrights like stocks unless the original contributors are somehow compensated, but that is even further off-topic).
Omigod...could things (gasp!) work together??!! (Score:2)
OK, just to grab a few bits from the beginning (i.e. the 'topic paragraphs') of JonKatz's article:
"For years, Old Media dismissed electronic competitors as frivolous and temporal. Then New Media appeared to be burying its predecessors for good. It appears both notions may have been wrong. The boundaries between new and old media are getting fuzzy, as a hybrid Middle Media emerges between the two."
and...
"Conventional wisdom says that the former will ultimately and completely replace the latter."
Who comes up with this shit? For decades now, people have been saying that print media will never dissappear. Since day one of 'the new media,' nobody except for a very few extremists has been saying that the 'old media' will dissappear. The idea is, has always been, and will continue to be that as it develops, new media technologies will coexist and integrate with the old ones. Given that, this article is pretty stupid and alarmist, not to mention long.
Oh wait--I forgot the source. Nevermind.
Re:Aside (Score:1)
Kind of like the zealous group of people who refuse to go from console based operating systems from the 60's (or 70's?) and leap into todays pool of graphical user interfaces?
As much as this sounds like flamebait, I'm asking a serious question. Are we Linux users trying to initiate change in todays markets and practices, or are we just clinging to old technology with few new drivers?
I'd like to see some thoughts on this (although I'm sure I know what some will have to say).
And BTW, someone wanna tell what's up with all the ASCII art?
Re:Books will stay on paper (Score:2)
Then, he said, this ideal medium was already invented: the book.
Of course he wrote this in the 70s, before he could envision personal computers and the power of manipulating data. Also, he was naturally biased (having written more books than any other American). Still, it's a good point: until a medium can overcome every advantage of books, they aren't likely to disappear.
A. Keiper [mailto]
The Center for the Study of Technology and Society [tecsoc.org]
Re:Interesting? (Score:2)
I was quite interested by the observation that some internet companies are experimenting with paper catalogues
While it may certainly be easier to find a specific product using an online catalogue, if you're just browsing to see if there is anything you might want to buy then a paper catalogue wins hands down. Lets face it, who wants to spend all their time going through God knows how many links on a website just to see what they've got.
And then there's the majority of these websites which are designed really badly, again putting users off looking through them. Paper catalogues can't really go wrong in that respect (unless the company are complete idiots).
Re:Books will stay on paper (Score:2)
What are you talking about, any book qualifies as a bathroom (toilet) book, it just depends on how much time you want to sit on the crapper.
Yes, but unless I've got the runs, I generally don't spend enough time there to read any useful part of, say "CORBA Distributed Objects Using UNIX" :)
Re:Interesting? (Score:1)
Yeah, I've found some very bad ones (www.maplins.co.uk is terrible unless you know exactly what you want)
Paper catalogues can't really go wrong in that respect (unless the company are complete idiots).
It would be quite easy. Just have a list of names of objects on page 1, pictures on other pages, and no way of cross referencing. This doesn't happen because everyone knows what a good magazine looks like. For some reason, not everybody looks to find out what succesful websites are like.
Re:"New" and "Old" Makes no Sense (Score:1)
Because it's the easiest way to divide things. Well, let me modify that statement: Because it's easiest to tinker with the qualifications of old and new to make all items obviously fit into one category or the other. It's the easiest to play around with so you can get the results you want, thus it's the most frequently used form of differenting items when comparing them. You could argue all day about categorizing things by price, effectiveness, format, user-base, ease-of-use; but categorizing things by age is always the easier to arrive at.
Eruantalon
Re:Aside (Score:3)
You guys need to remember, Katz comes from a media background. For those with a media background, what he writes about here is both significant and interesting. The whole world of mass media is being turned on it's head as a result of the internet.
Now the problem here is, most of us (Linux) geeks have already seen the world of information being turned upside down. We read Katz articles and automatically respond, "Well, Duh, of course that is what is happening." because we saw it coming a long time ago.
There are a lot of bozos in modern media that are just not realizing what we've known for a couple years already. The Old Media *is* dying off and being replaced by something much better.
---
All that said, I'm beginning to see where many of the people here on /. don't like Katz because he doesn't write for geeks. He writes for large, non-technical *users* of technology, not the tech-savvy creators of technology. I almost get the impression all his "writting skills for geeks" were learned at Wired. By writting on /. he's reaching a large crowd, but his writting is a bit out of place here. Not only that, many of us find his writing condescending.
However, I am just tired to death of all the whining that goes on. You may nicely preface your comment with "not Anti-Katz", but then you espouse nothing but "Anti-Katz" during your post.
An appeal, all of those who want nothing more than to bitch about Katz, GO NOW to your /. preferences and turn him off. (Fat chance it'll happen, but I can wish, can't I?)
Re:Books will stay on paper (Score:1)
Yes, but unless I've got the runs, I generally don't spend enough time there to read any useful part of, say "CORBA Distributed Objects Using UNIX"
Sounds like you need a more comfortable crapper. :)
As an aside, my brother (who's a SysAdmin, go figure) used to keep a copy of O'Reilly's 'DNS and Bind' on top of the toilet for crapper reading.
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Re:Please die. (Score:1)
>Please die Jon Katz.
Wow.. I knew the hatred of Jon Katz was bad, but when moderators start marking these trolls up as insightful? Jesus..
Re:Please die. (Score:1)
Re:Aside (Score:2)
Fear of embracing change ? Wow, that sounds familliar.
Kind of like the zealous group of people who refuse to go from console based operating systems from the 60's (or 70's?) and leap into todays pool of graphical user interfaces?
Oh God, I hope this doesn't turn into another console vs. GUI flamewar. Anyway I'm still firmly in favour over paper books at the moment simply because of the usability factor. When the E-book becomes as convenient to use as a regular book, I'll switch over. It's got nothing to do with a fear of change.
What would it take to do this? Well, the actual unit used for the display needs to be as convenient as paper, and not give you eye-strain after an hour. This is the real kicker IMHO at the moment. I also doubt an E-book will ever be able to give you that real new book smell either :)
Middle Media? (Score:1)
Books, catalogs, and *.coms (Score:2)
I believe there is some reason to believe that the same thing is happening with online retailing. Barnes and Noble is more and more often beating Amazon. They are also beating Borders. Unless Amazon buys Borders, I think that we will eventually see Barnes and Noble dominate both the online and the retail markets - winning in each market because of the synergy with the other...
Cheers,
Ben
Re:Aside (Score:1)
However, we do tend to like sticking with the old - the console, C (or even Fortran, Assembly, and who-knows-what), Unix time (which we should fix, at some point before 2038(?), no?). Not to say there's anything wrong with these - they worked in the past, they work now. They may not always work in the future, though. If they're still useful, use them; if there's something better, use that. I think we forget to move to the better once in a while, because we've been using the older that has always worked.
Overall, I think we're doing OK as far as embracing new things and making changes in the tech world, but we get caught up sometimes. We're probably doing a pretty damn good job initiating change, and change is a very hard thing to initiate.
Eruantalon
Re:Aside (Score:2)
Here's the way I look at it: If an author continually publishes material that I see as drivel, I will continually say "Wow, that's drivel". Then, if the publish a piece that I like, I will say "Hey, that wasn't drivel, that was good". Are you suggesting that I keep my mouth shut in the former case, but not the latter?
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Re:Aside, no shit (Score:2)
Katz, to finish with this tripe is sad. "New media and old media have formed this new species, blah, blah, blah," Jon spent too much time at Wired and thought he new what new media was. Now he starts to see signs of things changing and backtracks because they don't change fast enough. Wait 20 years Jon, media can't change in 5.
All it can do in that time is slowly morph to some middle ground, and you think'll stop here. Less that 5% of the homes in this country have broadband. Excuse me for being a Net 1337i57, but if you don't have broadband, YOU ARE NOT ON THE NET and can't *really* participate in new media (it's too slow to be useful), just some bastard child that hints at the real possibilities. Until 50%+ is hooked up, you won't see sweeping changes. That will take 20+ years.
Go climb a mountain or something Jon and think a bit longer about the difference between stopping halfway and calling it the top, and climbing upward until there's no mountain left.
(posted here to avoid the me-too root posting tendancy.)
--
Re:Books, catalogs, and *.coms (Score:2)
Although I've bought books online they've always been books that I've already wanted before I went to the site. OTOH, practically whenever I go into a big bookshop there will be something on the shelf I've never heard of before that I like the look of, and I'll buy it. By doing this I've been introduced to some of my all-time favourite authors.
Online catalogues remove the "browse" factor from shopping. They can be great if you know what it is you want, but if you're just looking out of curiosity then you're far better off with a paper catalogue, or even better, a shop.
Re:Scrolls (Score:1)
Re:"New" and "Old" Makes no Sense (Score:2)
Instead, the situation is a lot more complicated, and interesting - and analyzing its complexities seems (to me) more useful than making quick, inaccurate judgments.
Re:Aside (Score:1)
what's the point, my GUI has a button that opens a console. And my console recognizes cryptic stuff like startx to make a GUI, best of both worlds. No war necessary, we're already at peace (except for the zealots, which are never at peace)
I like reading online. I do it for multiple hours a day, and it doesn't bother me any more than reading a regular book does after multiple hours. I'm still waiting for that solar powered collapsing foldable PDA(B), though
--
Catalogs and logistics (Score:1)
That may be so, but it's much easier to go the other way (go from a thriving catalog business into dotcom land). Why? Many existing catalog companies already have a solid logistics network in place. Look at Lands End or direct companies like Dell who have been in the logistics business a lot longer than they have been in the online business. Setting up your database and slapping up a storefront is one of the easier parts of this process. The real work is done in warehousing, inventory management, shipping, and order fulfillment. In the point-click-get it tomorrow world, those who master logistics will become industry leaders. Oh, I know that's not as sexy as saying it's some new media paradigm, but it's powering the companies that are getting it done.
I hope a lot of these dotcoms aren't getting into the catalog business just because they know people like to read things on dead trees. That's kind of the equivalent of a company putting up a brochureware website because they know everyone's getting online. Running a catalog mail-order business can be very similar top running a good online business but only if you set it up right with a solid structure of order fulfillment behind it. Many catalog companies get that; they've had decades to streamline their distribution, and they can make the move online rather easily. New media? Middle media? Hardly. More like just one more new channel for a proven existing way.
Re:uh, I'm confused. (Score:1)
Re:Are you sure about the onion? (Score:2)
I work at a B. Dalton Bookseller in our local mall, and we carry the print version every week.
Re:"New" (Score:1)
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Re:Looks like time to plug the "Dead Media Project (Score:1)
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Re:Just because it's obvious to you... (Score:1)
Katz can call it "A Sooper Dooper New Media Teknology (tm)" for all I care. But that's not the point. My gripe with the article is that he thinks that this whole "middle media" thing is new and exciting, when in reality it's already been in practice.
Furthermore, I still don't see this "middle media" anywhere. So what if a few dot coms are printing catalogues? That doesn't mean that the "middle media" is upon us. Hell, Sears has been printing catalogues since the 1880's, and they have their Wishbook [wishbook.com] catalog on the web...so where's the Katz commentary on that?
Pundit Amazed at Continuing Popularity of Theatre (Score:2)
The radical new development of mass-market "books", made possible by this new-fangled thing invented by Guttenburg, was anticipated to bring about the long-awaited death of theatre as the public's primary source of entertainment. Much to everyone's amazement, it appears that theatre, and other live performances, are in fact not dying at all. The pundits are stunned.
"Perhaps one day," says one, "there will be this thing called convergence, maybe not with books, but some sort of projected images telling a story for a mass audience, with traditional theatre being performed at the same time mirroring the story, and raucous audience participation both enhancing and commenting on the same story. It could be called "Rocky Horror"."
It's all in the damn smell (Score:1)
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
Just because the dot.coms and others are using paper catalogs now doesn't mean that everything won't finally go all electronic. Even paper will have interactive abilities eventually. This is all just a transition period not some Middle Media thing.
I think that was Jon's argument. The reason he used the term middle media is because he's trying to demonstrate that there really isn't a clear divide between new media and old media, as many other pundits suggest. That it is a transition, as you state, and a transformation, exactly because people like to still read paper.
Shortsighted pundit. (Score:1)
Trent Lott (Score:2)
Try reading the text closer... (Score:1)
And NOW you're popping up telling us that there's some new "middle media" that we should all be bowing down to? What rock have you been living under?
Jon's article isn't saying we should be "bowing down to" this middle media. On the contrary, his text cleary indicates he's not certain where it's going, but is asking questions about the implications and the direction things *could* move in. If you read carefully, you'll see he uses terms like, "And the form of media might vary in terms of content as well" or "might always remain popular to consumers on paper"
At no point did I see a statement that said anything about the certainty of middle media succeeding, or that we should be completely submissive and accepting of it (bowing down to it, as you claim). On the contrary, he points out that the electronic media dictates a greater openess and consumer participation in the content and success of the material in question.
Re:Former and Latter--Quit It. (Score:1)
I have no problems with somebody doing a comparison, old vs new or whatever...
I re-read my post and I think maybe you might have misunderstood my intentions for the post.
cheese
Re:Try reading the text closer... (Score:1)
One word: Sarcasm.
Re:Yet Another Wrong Jon Katz Article (Score:2)
Huh? You mean like newspapers? I have fast internet access at home, and reasonably fast access at work, and I still buy newspapers and magazines. Then there's the 75% or so of the population that doesn't have reliable internet access.
Here's a prediction for you: The internet will kill traditional news media in the same way that television killed books and VCRs killed movie theaters.
Is command line vs. GUI a false dichotomy? (Score:3)
Certainly, this discussion will generate some heat, but I wouldn't call it flamebait. I don't believe that CLIs and GUIs are mutually exclusive. It is certainly possible to have systems without one or the other, but it isn't necessary. The tension between the proponents of each side come from a firm insistence that their own preferrence not be abandoned. So let's examine the merits of each and consider the implications for the print vs. electronic media issue. I think that the way I am going to twist this analogy will be counterintuitive at first, but it may shed some light.
CLIs are not inherently more flexible than GUIs. There is no reason that they necessarily must have a richer set of options than a GUI can provide. However, that is often the case. Don't flame me if your favorite GUI is easily as flexible as my favorite CLI. I not only concede that it is possible, but that it has been done. The biggest hurdle in presenting a flexible GUI is to not sacrifice the benefits that GUIs provide. The biggest one is that GUIs allow users to leverage the power of recognition over the burden of remembering.
Okay, with that out of the way, what are the benefits of a CLI interface? I'm going to talk about the Unix shell functionality as one of th best examples of a truly rich set. Primarily, a CLI puts a rich set of functionality into a form simple, flexible commands and a mechanism for combining them. The power of the Unix/Linux shell model is the ability to combine commands in useful ways, and also to script those combinations. Once scripted, they essentially become powerful new commands. I haven't seen a GUI that privdes this mechanism to script repeated operations and build up complex combinations with conditional logic. Is there one?
Now, how does this related to print versus electronic media. I would say that the scripting capability is related to the direct accessibility of electronic texts to be manipulated in various forms. E-text can be cut and pasted for quoting. I personally find it easier to translate because I can search through it for similar phrases that I have translated elsewhere. It can be transmitted faster and more flexibly than a printed book.
Printed formats are analogous to a GUI. They are designed around a set of intuitive operations. It is obvious how to determine your position in the text, how to move forward and backward, etc. They are easy to look at and read. They hide the details of how graphics were included.
Yes, I turned the analogy on its head and equated the new, electronic text, with the old, command line interfaces, and vice versa (print and GUIs). Does this possibly hint at who I think falls most naturally on each side of the two debates? I think that those of us who are used to taking control of our computers through a CLI, who are so used to data being a live thing and building filters to put it in whatever form we want, are also likely to want our text that way. I could be wrong, but if I have erred, I suspect it is in not including some people who use GUIs as flexibly. I think the reasons for choosing electronic over printed text are still present in the analogy.
Why is Jon Katz allowed to speak? (Score:1)
Re:Just because it's obvious to you... (Score:1)
So, my point was that yes, this "middle media" has been around for years, Katz seems to think it's new, and he seems somewhat interested in this topic, given the tone of his article. It doesn't really matter, IMO, that this media has been around for years - it's the discussion of said media that matters. Personally, I think that this "middle media" is more of a transitional period where both the new and old are used to a similar extent. What will happen in the future - whether the new will replace the old - I don't know, but it's articles like these that make people think about it. That was the point I was trying to make - not argue that this "middle media" is a new and exciting thing.
Eruantalon
Re:Looks like time to plug the "Dead Media Project (Score:2)
Or semaphores, though the network layer latencies of Semanet and Smoke Ring are pretty atrocious.. Bridging is really difficult and the routing algorithms are poorly implemented and not very well maintained..
Your Working Boy,
Re: Electronic texts (Score:1)
Yes, this is a thorny issue, and I hadn't thought about that implication. To a certain extent the authors who are really in demand are likely to be able to exert some control. New authors still face the issue that they are dealing with large corporations who don't need them, individually, as much as the authors need publishers. Electronic publishing may actually change this. It lowers the cost of publishing a work. The monetary compensation to the author may turn out lower is some cases, but if it can get a new author's work into the hands of readers when he would not otherwise have had that chance, it is probably worth it. There are already a number of cases of people whose work, self-published on the web, has shown up in print.
This will certainly increase the time it takes for classic works to become available online. And there will be a period for most of them, when they aren't in print in any meaningful sense, but are not in the public domain. Regrettably, that has the effect of reducing the exposure of many worthwhile older works without increasing the revenue to anyone. If they aren't getting sold, nobody makes money.
Re:Katzbot, The Free Associator (Score:1)
Given "Spam" and "Internet", I got "This week on From Martha's Kitchen, learn to can tomatoes and to prepare kielbasa, Japanese risotto, and grits with tomato and shrimp."
Survey for the moderators (Score:1)
INSTRUCTIONS:
-If you enjoy having sexual relations with children, moderate this down as "troll"
-If you enjoy having sexual relations with cats, moderate this down as "offtopic"
-If you enjoy having sexual relations with cows, moderate this down as "flamebait"
-If you have had sex with Richard Stallman, moderate this down as "redundant"
-If you have had a threesome with Richard Stallman and ESR, moderate this down as "overrated"
-If you have ever had sexual relations with a normal human being of the opposite gender, moderate this up as "funny"
Thank you.
There is no final answer (Score:1)
Sometimes I wonder where the obsesive thought that everything new must replace and destroy what caame before it comes from. Mostly I don't bother.
Every medium has value. And the metavalues of that medium are different for everyone. Did the printing press cause hand copied books and hyroglyphics to become worthless? No, they greatly increased in value because people realized the value creation through the sheer effort that was necessary to create a hand written book.
Oil paints have not invalidated cave art or watercolors or vice versa.
What is gained through the net is a medium where it is incredibly simple to post information that is accessible to millions and billions of people. Inexpensive, cheap and easy.
There exists an added credibility in print media, justified or not. People recognize the tremendous cost for the creation of print media, paid reporters, informants, ink, and paper.
Most people here recognize the high cost of a highly visible and popular web site like slashdot, paid reporters and all. Most people do not see these costs.
Simply put there are differing uses for differing mediums, they all have differing intrinsic values, but the difference of these values means that no one medium is inherently better for every situation.
Please don't cheapen our new or our old sources of information by declaring that one must destroy or dominate the other. Celibrate the fact that people today have such an amazing amount of access to such a diverse quantity of information, for this is one of the true cornerstones of democracy.
chris pugrud
chris@pugrud.net
--- Not anonymous, not a coward.
Re:Former and Latter--Quit It. (Score:1)
Old vs New is overused and overrated. It makes sense, it's easy to do, but one can't differentiate between old and new as easily as the statisticians would have us think.
Semantics are given too much weight and used all too frequently. Catch-phrases are always thrown around in the media (and community at large) to get noticed and listened to. People place more weight (wrongly, I think) on semantics and statistics and language than they do on data.
Is this anything like what you were saying? I'm still rather lost on this semantics idea, and I'm not really sure what you're trying to get across, but I think I agree with you.
Eruantalon
Re:"New" and "Old" Makes no Sense (Score:1)
Which was my point. Yes, categorizing by age is easy, but it's usually not the best way to do it. That, and by playing with the definitions of your categories, you can play with the results a little, and thereby bias your statistics. It's not good comparison/categorizing/statistics, but it's use very frequently.
Eruantalon
humans are sociable... (Score:1)
jonkatz says that we continue to go to the movies. but, he says this as if it were a divine revelation. of course we go to the movies, we are a sociable spieces. it's always more fun to see a movie with others than by ones self. this is the reason i choose to stay in the theatre industry. i go to the theatre to be moved, to be entertained. there is something to be said for having the actors only a few meters away (as well as sitting with an audience). it is an experience you can't get at your computer and i enjoy bringing that experience to others as a theatrical sound designer. it is continued to be said that print media will go the way of the dinosaur, but that's also what they said about theatre over the last hundered years. things that involve the human experience don't disappear, they evolve.
people understand the convience of the internet but have a deep desire to remain with people. check out the personals if you don't believe me. it just seems obvious to me that we would wish to have something to tie us to a society that otherwise is intangable through ones and zeros. dvds maybe cool but the imax experience is better. mp3s sound nice but nothing beats attending a live concert. it's about time people opened their eyes and discovered that technology isn't here to replace the human experience, just to enhance it.
rev. eric
Re:Don't create a causal relationship out of thin (Score:1)
So you're agreeing with Katz, then. You make the statement that you "don't necessarily think that the increase in theater receipts and music sales can be directly attributed to advances in 'new' media and the internet". That's Katz's point. He states:
Although online book sales are growing on sites like Fatbrain, Amazon and BN.com, so are the sales of books in stores. The technological absolutism invoked by the rise of the Net - everything will go digital - is not coming to pass.
In other words, others are claiming that the Internet is impacting sales in older distribution channels, but he's pointing out that that's not correct.
The REAL New Middle Media (Score:3)
The REAL new "middle media" is right here. Really.
Slashdot is the PERFECT example of "middle media".
Everyone seems to agree that "old media" , (and I think we're getting to hung up on defining "old media" by the FORM of physical media used to communicate the message, rather than the ORGANIZATIONAL structure used to generate the information dissemenated by that media) is not going away anytime soon. Fair enough. I would agree with that.
Problem as I see it is, with all of the vast amounts of "old media" out there and all the thousands of "new media" outlets emerging, it's simply WAY too much information for the average person who consumes information as a small subset of their normal lives to take in.
So, as I see it, in my humble opinion, the idea of a "middle media" is very much valid, and I'm convinced will emerge as a titan on not only the 'net but all forms of communication. But I define the "middle media" as a collection of somewhat specialized collators of all media, like Slashdot is for technology/Linux/techonology-politics.
A weblog of sorts, with the added benefit of INSTANT feedback in the form of truly open comments, taking what is otherwise a LONG, painful process of debating and agonizing amoung the media outlets over every story and making it a VERY fast, (in Slashdot's case a few hours) intense discussion, and then we all move on to the next story.
I'm convinced also that this model will begin to appear in print and television as well. I can TOTALLY see a "Slashdot TV" program with Taco and Hemos (or two scantily clad babes playing the roles of Taco and Hemos) burning through the best-of-the Slashdot news for the day/week, taking phone calls and adding their own pithy wit to the mix. Hell, if I lived in Michigan, I'd have already put my 10 years experience in TV to work and got them to do it by now, but I'm sure someone will soon, and it will work.
Just my 2 cents, of course.
Catalogs. (Score:1)
Re:"New" and "Old" Makes no Sense (Score:1)
Star Trek: Voyager (Score:1)
In Star Trek: Voyager [startrek.com], the crew of Voyager uses technology extensively. Ask the replicator for the food you want, without having to print off a copy of the recipe to keep next to the cooker. Want to know something? Pull it up on a display or ask the computer directly. Old media, such as TV shows, and music are played in crew's quarters by the computer from databases on the ship.
But interestingly enough, in several episodes, crewmembers (such as Janeway in "Fairhaven"), have books replicated to read, instead of reading the texts on the computer screen.
So yes, although media delivery may change in many profound or not-so-profound ways, I would argue that books will be around for quite some time to come. But will technology change the way we receive at least some content? Absolutely.
Re: Katz--How many typing monkeys, and how many... (Score:1)
All hypotheses welcome.
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"The Internet interprets censorship
as damage, and routes around it."
Re:Is command line vs. GUI a false dichotomy? (Score:1)
MacOS comes to mind. Most applications can speak AppleScript, which allows you to create reasonably powerful system scripts. I personally find AppleScript's syntax to be annoying because it tries to be "English-like" and I don't think in English when I write programs. In general, I have not been able to leverage AS in the same way I have Perl. However, it does meet your criterion of a scriptable GUI.
Re:you suck... (ot) (Score:1)
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Re:Looks like time to plug the "Dead Media Project (Score:1)
Re:Is command line vs. GUI a false dichotomy? (Score:1)
I used to clip articles from the local newspaper. After a short stint on the desk, they would end up in a box with all of the other "filed" articles, never to be heard from or thought of again. Now when I find an interesting article in the paper I look for it on-line and save it to file, where it is much more likely to find future use. I still like the experience of reading the "paper" newspaper, but it is clearly far more useful to save its content in a text file.
Re:Aside (Score:1)
This is a welcome statement from those who think they are part of the "Digerati" and probably reflects a maturing of Katz's views on the topic.
-Dean
Significance.. (Score:2)
I'm traveling and just browsed the posts below. Strange..I know this isn't a flame, but this isn't deep or complex. The point is pretty clear and being much discussed around media offices, ad agencies and in mags like American demographics..All old media isn't vanishing as rapidly as people thought just a few years ago, and old and new media are linking up synergistically, and creating different kinds of media outlets. It's not a complicated point, it is new, and I'm by no means the lst person to notice it or write about. It's also interesting many of the comments below are attacking me for making this point, and than making it along with me. Strange. There is a mindlessness to these flames that many people comment on and ask me about. Flames don't bug me much (I'm not running for mayor), but I'm not sure I know how to answer.
Wired and Broadbad (Score:1)
Re:Aside (Score:2)
While it is a great article and an interesting idea it has to be asked "Is Slashdot the correct forum for it"
This would be a perfect article for salon, yahoo or any other large audience of non techno savy netusers. However posting on Slashot is like explaining the basics of physics to Stephen Hawking. Most of us are aware of the revolution in media.
I think it is time Katz realised the audience he has and started to pitch his articles to the appropriate location. The advantage of the net is that there will always be somewhere that an article would be appropriate for.
Mandos
/s
Re:Wired and Broadbad (Score:2)
You have surfed the Net on a 28k dialup right? And you've also surfed on a T1, I would assume. The use of the Net changes drastically depending on how you connect. My point is that the Net and "new media" won't take over until 50%+ of the population gets to use the Net like it should be.
Two quick concrete examples for you.
Newspapers vs.
Radio vs. Napster(or streaming music sites)
Neither
Streaming MP3s, which I listen to constantly, is not possible without broadband. Go visit www.shoutcast.com or www.live365.com and see how much "New" media you can access over a dial-up connection. Or Flash sites, large video files, heck even the abundance of game demos, or how about online FPSes, video conferencing, etc. Bandwidth is more than just a piece of the puzzle, it's the table on which the puzzle sits.
Shopping on the Net and getting news is "old". Surely you don't think using a telephone line to order products is revolutionary.
I used the mountain comment as a hook, looks like it worked
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state of flamage? (Score:2)
I don't have anything against you personally; I don't know you at all. Sometimes your pieces are good, and sometimes they aren't. I rather think this one was shot wide, but maybe I am missing the point.
Someone else made a comment to the effect that this piece would be more appropriate on a less tech-related site, like salon or yahoo. I'm not sure how close that is to the truth, but there may be something there. Many of your pieces do tend to target the lowest common denominator when it comes to technology. While I recognize some of the points you made on this subject in your intereview, I think you may -- in very simple terms -- be boring some of the readers.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Re:Aside (Score:2)
seeing as most media has gone through either a computer as some point - it's as easy to select 'export to html' as it is to select 'print'.
also, there is the practicallity of it. sure, if i'm going to work, i'm not going to read the news on the train on my laptop but then, if i'm at work/home, i'm not going to go out and buy a newspaper if i can read it online without getting out of my chair.
i guess the final thing is the audience. if i'm buying a computer from say dabs.co.uk, i'm not going to go through the catalogue when there's much more up-to-date information online. but also, i doubt i'd prefer an email of computer arts magazine's articles than a hi-res glossy print.
as for cinema and music - i get the feeling that people are a lot more aware of quality of the medium than previously.
and then there's the fact that the windows font renderer doesn't anti-alias fonts at the mostly used sizes.
this is just my situation.