Is this going to be libraries?
futurist Paul Saffo made a prediction: The future belongs to
neither the conduit or content players, but those who control
the filtering, searching, and sense-making tools we will rely
on to navigate through the expanses of cyberspace.
In a world of hyperabundant content, point of view will become
the scarcest of resources, and we will race to model human
points of view within the personalities of our software agents.
I will even bet that an industry will grow up around
individuals licensing their points of view for use in context
engines in exchange for usage royalties. Imagine being able to
give your news agent the personality and perspective of Walter
Cronkite, Howard Stern, or John Updike, or consult the
software-doubles of Siskel and Ebert for advice on cool movies
to view. Just as some talk show hosts have become the movers
and shakers of post-network TV today, individuals with unique
points of view could become the superstars of cyberspace, their
personalities immortalized in software traversing the web.
Players
- Google (obviously)
- Facebook - social media is a filter
(not always a good one
- Acadmic?
Tools
- Channels (make selection for you) (is
this going to last. Do you care "what channel is on?"
- Agents (Pandora) >algorithmic
parameters defining these agents will spell wild success or
utter doom for one player after another.