In this age of new media as a primarily socialisation device, issues of the way in which it will be used in the future come to the foreground. In a time of high unpredictability and increasingly fast evolution of the media how can we adequately prepare for a future. Jane McGonigal examines the way in which media is used today and proposes a future in which socialisation is key, and a failure to accept and move towards this will be indicative of failure.
McGonigal sees the beginning of the future with the creation of Web 2.0.
“It’s a collection of technologies, business strategies, and social trends. Web 2.0 is more dynamic and interactive than its predecessor, Web 1.0, letting users both access content from a Web site and contribute to it.” (Murugesan 2007; p34)
A system that allows social connection, collaboration and easy movement of information, a system necessary for the future. To gain insight into the power of Web 2.0 and the new media, we simply have to look at Wikipedia, an encyclopaedic website that is based off collaboration in the collection of information. It has been estimated that this website alone has generated over “100 million thought hours”. With this power the future remains an open source.
However this openingness will create challenges to the way in which the future will pan out. For example Cambrian House (2006), a popular crowd-sourcing website was unable to keep collaboration stable and therefore failed to remain afloat. Jane however believes that there is a way to combat this, with what she calls “Fun Economics”, a method of rewarding collaboration in some way. Though this will require future development, it cannot be all wrong, look towards the success of facebook and World of Warcraft that have effectively kept their audience attention.
By Wayne Blair, z3290795
Tutorial – Monday 4pm
Reference
- McGonigal, J. 2008, “The Engagement Economy.” Technology Horizons, The Institute for the Future
- Murugensan, S. 2007, ‘Second generation web technologies’, IT Pro, Jully/August 2007, IEEE Computer Society, P34-41
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