ARTS & FARCES internet

A lot of us probably share Joi Ito’s view of where intentionally small publishing endeavors are heading. Joi nails it when he recognizes that “attention is moving from commercially produced content to dynamic or contextual content.” He uses the example of Japanese kids evolving through spending money first on audio CDs, then on karaoke, and now on text messaging and picture sharing over mobile phones. The migration is clearly from consumption to production, from professional to amateur, and from fully protected rights to fully open rights. Conversations, he says, are starting to look more like publications. And he’s right.

At the same time, Joi sees networked consumer electronic devices replacing personal computers. Here’s where I think he runs off the tracks. “Eventually digital cameras, phones, TVs, PRVs, and other devices will all be connected to the Internet,” writes Joi. “People will be publishing, sharing, viewing, and hearing content from the Internet without having a PC. They will be as irrelevant to consumers as mainframes.” This is an interesting counter-argument to the question of whether the television or the computer will provide the media hub for individuals. Joi introduces a third possibility: the net itself.

While there’s some evidence that Joi’s “cloud of personal interconnected devices” may come to pass, I think it’s all too confusing and gadgety with little hope of getting better. I don’t want a gaggle of connected devices that communicate with each other and the world. I want a keyboard and a screen connected to local storage and a fast network connection. I want it to be small and portable and run for days on batteries. In short, I want a “more better smaller” version of the notebook I already have.

That notebook allows me to produce and consume with the same gizmo. And I like it that way.

Several years ago I migrated to a laptop from a whomping desktop machine with a big honking monitor that caused my desk to bow in the middle. I could only work at my desk in my desk chair. I’m on my third laptop now, and I’ve never looked back. I don’t think I’ll ever own another desktop. I don’t use a handheld because I need a keyboard. My laptop has become the center of my professional life. I can work anywhere there’s a net connection. Everything’s here or on a private server I can tunnel to from virtually anywhere. I don’t want a bunch of gizmos, each with its own interface and bugs. I just want a laptop with the gizmos I need hanging off of it.

I don’t think I’ll ever own a PVR or another television because the manufacturers are already caving into the desires of the entertainment cartel instead of those of their customers. Or they’re trying to make them more like personal computers. Why would I pay US$900 for a semi-intelligent recorder plus hundreds more for a television? I have a firewire port on my laptop; make a tiny box that hangs off of it and delivers television and PVR capabilities through the screen I already have. And make it cheap; I already own the most significant bits. Same with my digital camera; the digital film slides right into a carrier that slides right into one of the PC Card slots on the laptop.

Joi goes on to write that “Microsoft will continue to dominate the desktop, but it will become less relevant as consumer electronics companies embrace open standards….” If only this were true. Ever tried to program a universal remote control? Me neither because of the horror stories I’ve heard. How about which format of re-writeable DVD? I bought betamax; you can’t fool me again. There’s nothing preventing Microsoft from embracing open standards, and as soon as it senses even a wisp of loss of relevancy it will indeed embrace with its ironclad grip.

All that said, the rest of Joi’s vision is dead on and worth studying. But I’d add one more key technology: the room for serendipity. I still spend a good deal of time trawling through authoritative information sources for things I didn’t know I was interested in.