The Integrated Media Association’s 2007 conference is scheduled for February 20-24 in Boston with lots of big ideas to consider for the future of broadcast networks and media.
As we reach the end of 2006, the “Echo-Boom” in online service continues unabated–and from what we can see, the processes may actually be accelerating.
Most of the expansion can be traced directly to four basic factors:
First, the continuing roll-out of broadband connections, allowing increased use of complex online applications;
Second, the emergence of massive communities, involving both interaction and individual expression; and,
Third, increasing acceptance of and confidence in online financial transactions, allowing for a steady expansion of online retail; and
Fourth, the movement of online marketing dollars .
These advances are interwoven with a sweeping change in approach, often called “Web 2.0,” which views “The Web [as] a platform, a foundation upon which thousands of new forms of business would emerge.” This shift in thinking focused practitioners on the inherent power of networks where radical decentralization and “the wisdom of the masses” could produce impressive results–like Wikipedia or open source software–that rival the products created within traditional proprietary, centralized systems. For more on this see Ellyssa Kroski’s excellent analysis of the “Hype and Hullabaloo of Web 2.0″.)