Digital Divergence

Very interesting how a contrarian view can give an enlightening perspective on the world. Digital Convergence is an idea whose time has come and gone; it is no longer giving us a clue as to how to shape the future. On the other, Digital Divergence, is the an idea whose time has come. How do I know this? Well, last week at meeting to discuss research strategy for 3CR, the topic surfaced, and then today, I find the matter raised on Build and Break.

My call on it is that digital convergence has happened; all media is now digital media. We have computers that are cheap enough, capable enough and power-efficient enough that our ability to manipulate and mash the media is limited by our system building skills and imagination, not our technology. Digital Divergence is what happens next, and we see a range of diverse digital devices and applications exploiting digital convergence. If the single device model of digital convergence were correct then shoe shops would stock only one type of shoe.

Unfortunately both divergence.com ("the Nematode Genomics Company") and digitaldivergence.com are taken so I have to think of a better name for a digital divergence blog.