While analysts vie to outdo each other apotheosizing wireless Internet's influence in politics, and companies selling political mobile Internet services pop up like moldy mushrooms, I look at the U.S. elections and think: So far, yawn.
Although I'm ecstatic over many of the winners (blue is my favorite political color), there has been way too much hype about wireless Internet's value in 2008.
As a rather rabid supporter of wireless Internet, including camera phones, mobile TV, and microblogging, I'd love to proclaim the politics-changing, life-affirming cosmic ramifications of wireless Internet for these elections. But it hasn't happened.
Where did most people want to get news about the elections? They were glued to their televisions. The much-derided "mainstream media" was where you wanted to see the election unfold, not on your cellular phone. I was one of the handful who watched live MSNBC and Fox News on a phone (Verizon Wireless's V Cast Mobile TV), although at the same time I streamed CNN on a laptop, watched other network broadcasts on regular TV, and read Websites.
Lots of people posted camera phone videos of themselves and polling locations on the Web. But, really, so what? Some people posted camera phone videos of long lines at polling places. Again, did that add much to understanding the political process? The mainstream media also showed these type of videos -- albeit in better detail and also in real time. Now, I'm a huge fan of live streaming cellular broadcasting, but did any of the cellular streams make a difference in this election? Nope.
The campaigns transmitted lots of SMS messages to supporters and possible supporters. I can see where this is useful to exhort people to vote, provide polling details, etc. But SMS isn't "wireless Internet," although you could categorize it as "wireless data"; and even SMS doesn't always work out as planned. The Obama campaign wanted SMS to be how the world first learned Senator Joseph Biden was picked as the vice presidential candidate. Too bad the mainstream media got the scoop first, although the campaign was able to capture millions of cellphone numbers from people who signed up.
Some companies offered election information on mobile-friendly sites, such as Google, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, and CNN. But how many people spent much time peering at phones for detailed news, except for policy wonks huddled over their BlackBerrys? Instead, most consumers read articles on their computers. Twitter-holics stared at their phones for election news, especially on Twitter's special election site, which is still displaying tweets at an amazing rate. It can be a bit mesmerizing.
Twitter is excellent, sometimes, for getting news fast. But huge amounts of useless messages often drown out the nuggets of useful information.
By the way, all this mobile hype is spawning a huge number of advertising-based political services, including Airwide Solutions, Mobile Commons, and polling. So you had better carefully consider the "information" services for which you sign up.
Certainly, wireless Internet can be tremendously beneficial, such as for documenting potential election abuses around the world and in the United States. Also, cellphones will be much more useful for politics when subscribers can immediately view all types of videos, such as Flash, by news organizations, consumers, and political parties.
I'm not disputing the potential value of wireless Internet-related political sites. And I'm certainly not disputing the value of political sites and services on the wired Web. But when it comes to wireless Internet in U.S. politics, there's still more wishful thinking than value.
"Information is accessed leaning forward, entertainment is accessed leaning back"
Modify it little bit-
"Information is accessed leaning forward, entertainment is accessed leaning backward"
Re-modify it,
"Information is accessed through learning, entertainment is accessed through experiencing"
Why information is accessed through learning ?Learning is a process of understanding the phenomenon. Any process or phenomenon are learned by the amount of information availabile.
Why entertainment is accessed through experiencing ?
Entertainment is fun, it is the most obvious thing one wants to do after work. It is learned process and it is accessed from the past memory or relevant experience.
Therefore, In case of Information and Entertainment this quote holds true !
"Information is accessed through learning, entertainment is accessed through experiencing".
With TVs and PCs blurring, perhaps the PC becomes more of the TV. What's the typical computer LCD size? 17 inches? 19 inches? Getting a 21 inch LCD monitor isn't a big deal. It wasn't that long ago that people bought 21 inch TVs. Bottom line: The size of computer LCDs are getting to the point (already there for some people) where watching TV is a perfectly fine experience (although not compared to that 42 inch and above high def TV).
TVs are becoming less like furniture. When I was very young, my parents had a black and white TV, AM/FM radio and "record player" that came in a huge, beautiful solid wooden cabinet with two thick wood doors, each with a brass lion's head. (I wish I had kept it!).
Today, TVs are much more bare bones. You don't see TVs surrounded by wood or huge speakers. TVs are mostly monitors with neutral colors.
It seems that the "TV of the future" will -- for the short term -- remain a "regular" (LCD or plasma) TV, but computers as TVs also are gaining ground. And as computers gain ground as TVs, so do the possibilities of interactivity.
Interactivity has been technically possible for years, but it will never happen. We will never have a density of compatible devices and servers. TVs are not selected like PC's, they are selected like furniture. Unless interactivity was mandated by law (like HD) it would never happen. It took years- decades even- for color to fully penetrate the base.
That is why I like the idea of a Wii remote control. Backed by a smart server it would know what you were looking at. Even you you loaded your own DvD. It could be cheep enough to give away. With some support from the cable company, it could pull in social media such as messaging, SMS. etc.
"Interactive TV" has been discussed for decades and we haven't made much progress in implementation. Numerous experiements and consumer trials have been conducted, but it hasn't taken off.
Yes, it would be great to be able to click on links on the TV that would correspond to the news in order to obtain additional information. That has been technologically possible for years. We can do that while watching videos online, obviously, for advertising, and that's where most of the mass market implementation has occurred.
I know the mobile TV companies, such as Qualcomm's MediaFLO and MobiTV, would love to offer an integrated video + links service. It's not the technology, it's the business case.
Obviously, these videos + links would be great for political information, whether on "regular" TV or mobile TV.
I know what you mean. But the CNN guru with the Surface Computing map indicated early that PA, OH and IN were in the bag. From that point on I was 'lean back'
The point is, the networks cover the election like sports. They spend 10X more time commenting on strategy than covering issues. They are like the goofballs second guessing the football teams' coach. Coverage is close to information free. Coverage is, however, opinion rich.
For example, I did not hear even one comment on how a 2.x mile. two lane, gravel road cost 20 something million dollars. A four lane interstate costs $1MM per mile.
But I so remember our favorite republican commenting 'let Sarah be Sarah'.
It would be so cool if I could click on commentary and drill down to some nice text site with the facts.
I know Mark Cuban wrote that as few months ago on his weblog, although I don't know if he was the first person to say it; I assume he was not.
Elections are more than entertainment -- they are both learn forward and back. Watching the returns might have been entertainment for you -- and the networks certainly tried to jazz up the graphics (such as CNN's phony "hologram") -- but until Obama won Pennsylvania and Ohio, they were pretty nail-biting for me.
If I leaned any more forward, my head would have gone through the TV (or computer) screen.
As for NASCAR, well, that would be more appropriately addressed by the Sarah Palin supporters who are capable of writing with at least crayon.
The good news is devices are converging: Computers are getting smaller and more powerful, such as the netbooks (Asus, MSI Wind, etc.), and phones are getting a bit larger and more powerful (iPhone, BlackBerry Bold, etc.).
The problem is we still haven't been able to solve the equation that combines great power with great portability. It's still a non sequitur.
I must agree Mr. Reiter, I didn't see anything special about using the wireless networks to change the outcome of the elections. Technology did have an impact, but wireless technologies, not as much.
Paul, the biggest difficulty is having the networks up and running (and ready to handle all the video traffic). The devices are improving and the screens are getting bigger and brighter - also the UMPC (Ultra-mobile PC) as Mr. Reiter has written about,can provide a device for people on the go, with screens bigger than any cellphone.
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