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The PC was recognized as a medium only 30 years after it was invented with
introduction of multimedia software. All this time, computer continued to spin off markets and secondary markets, needs and professional specialties. The talk as always was centred on how to improve on existing markets and solutions.
The Internet is computer's first important application. Hitherto computer was only quantitatively different to other computing or gaming devices. Multimedia and Internet have made it qualitatively superior, sui generis, unique.
Part of problem was that Internet was invented, is maintained and is operated by computer professionals. For decades these people have been conditioned to think in Olympic terms: faster, stronger, higher - not in terms of new, unprecedented, or non-existent. Engineers are trained to improve - seldom to invent. With few exceptions, its creators stumbled across Internet - it invented itself despite them.
Computer professionals (hardware and software experts alike) - are linear thinkers. The Internet is non linear and modular.
It is still age of hackers. There is still a lot to be done in improving technological prowess and powers. But their control of contents is waning and they are being gradually replaced by communicators, creative people, advertising executives, psychologists, venture capitalists, and totally unpredictable masses who flock to flaunt their home pages and graphomania.
These all are attuned to user, his mental needs and his information and entertainment preferences.
The compact disc is a different tale. It was intentionally invented to improve upon an existing technology (basically, Edison’s Gramophone). Market-wise, this was a major gamble. The improvement was, at first, debatable (many said that sound quality of first generation of compact discs was inferior to that of its contemporaneous record players). Consumers had to be convinced to change both software and hardware and to dish out thousands of dollars just to listen to what manufacturers claimed was more a authentically reproduced sound. A better argument was longer life of software (though when contrasted with limited life expectancy of consumer, some of first sales pitches sounded absolutely morbid).
The computer suffered from unclear positioning. The compact disc was very clear as to its main functions - but had a rough time convincing consumers that it was needed.
Every medium is first controlled by technical people. Gutenberg was a printer - not a publisher. Yet, he is world's most famous publisher. The technical cadre is joined by dubious or small-scale entrepreneurs and, together, they establish ventures with no clear vision, market-oriented thinking, or orderly plan of action. The legislator is also dumbfounded and does not grasp what is happening - thus, there is no legislation to regulate use of medium. Witness initial confusion concerning copyrighted vs. licenced software, e-books, and copyrights of ROM embedded software. Abuse or under-utilization of resources grow. The sale of radio frequencies to first cellular phone operators in West - a situation which repeats itself in Eastern and Central Europe nowadays - is an example.
But then more complex transactions - exactly as in real estate in "real life" - begin to emerge. The Internet is likely to converge with "real life". It is likely to be dominated by brick and mortar entities which are likely to import their business methods and management. As its eccentric past (the dot.com boom and dot.bomb bust) recedes - a sustainable and profitable future awaits it.
Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory Bellaonline, and Suite101 .
Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com
