Sunday, August 06, 2006

The Future of the Internet

On my way back from Loughborough this morning I stopped off at the BBC (as you do) to do a short intervie won the Worricker programme about the 15th anniversary of the Internet. The piece was hosted by the programme's technology correspondent Jason Bradbury.

One of the panellists, Penny Haslam from BBC7, took issue with my assertion that within 5 years most of the people round the table in the studio would have a blog. She reckoned that no one would want to read her views so what was the point of a blog. I gently (actually I fear it wasn't so gently) pointed out to her that she was quite happy to give her views to world on the radio, so what was the difference? Good to see Phil Cowley as the other panelist - he runs Revolts.co.uk and is a political academic at the University of Nottingham. He always talks a lot of sense.

Jason reckoned that Web 2.0 was about to revolutionise our use of the internet. He thinks that it will push information to us in a filtered way rather than us having to go and search for it. I said I thought that the next big thing will be Internet TV. At the moment people aren't used to watching TV on their computers, but that is about to change. Watch this space.

10 comments:

dizzy said...

This site is Web 2.0. Web 2.0 has been around for years. The only difference is that marketing people and self-important cultural commentators have just heard about it and think it's new.

dizzy said...

I should add as well, that InternetTV has also been around for a while. VideoStream DSL was introduced in 2001 and people have been watching TV over their Broadband lines since then in the UK (they just might not have knwon it).

For anyone wondering what Web 2.0 is, some useful reading here

Chris Palmer said...

She has a point though - nobody wants to hear her views, but on the tax funded state run radio we don't have a choice, whereas on the internet and on blogs - we do!

dizzy said...

I just read my comments again, I think I may have sounded a tad agressive. That wasn't my intention.

Anonymous said...

That's 15th anniversary of the Web. The Web and the Internet are not the same thing, nor the same age. The net is considerably older than the web, which is simply one of many services that run on top of it.

Anonymous said...

So, TV on the Internet! Will this mean that I can download programmes except the BBC and do away with the License fee?

Ripoff.gov.uk will never agree.

dizzy said...

hmmm ARPA

ian said...

No-one wants to hear my views either. But that's not going to stop me. Bwa ha ha.

As a point of pedantry, it's the 15th anniversary of the web, not the internet. To illustrate the difference, (internet) email has been around longer than 15 years.

To me, it is, unimaginable to think of life without the web. Even though, conversely, I lived most of my life without, to think of going back is ...., well, worse than that time a couple of years ago that I had to use dialup for a week.

Anonymous said...

Iain
I'm with you on blogging. I was once a big sceptic. Then I started my own blog - and can't imagine going back to life without a blog. It doesn't mean that I accept everything about the blogosphere or its influence. But I do believe it will have at least as bog an influence as the web.

Anonymous said...

Now, she may indeed be right; it's quite possible nobody is interested in her views, in which case her blog (for she will undoubtably have one) will founder on the shoals of shallow hits.

I expect blogging to cause many a media figure to unintentionally "out" ideas they'd rather keep hidden. It will contribute to a higher turnover in the mediasphere, and make literacy and quick-thinking compulsory. At present, with all due respect to those who transcend these qualities, the only imperatives for British Media Maven status appear to be old school ties, raging snotloads of cash, a past as somebody important's media liason, or a good family name.

A rant about the American media would be too easy, so I shall spare you that.

Chaos theory is one thing; the concept of Conservation of Catastrophe is another. I'm looking forward to watching it happen.