>At inception, film was an archival and scientific tool. The creative
>potential of film was not an original intention, but rather a happy
>consequence of a technological innovation. One can draw similar
>analogies from the realm of the computer and the internet, and no doubt
>the same will be true for handheld wireless devices.
Careful with your conclusions here.
The video feature for 3G mobile telephony has been conceived and is
intended for mass entertainment. So, if it takes off, it will not be
coincidental. On the other hand, if it doesn't it will enter the ranks of
the watchman, WAP based internet services, Iridium and some other examples,
where the intention didn't fulfil.
Your analogy could therefore as well be used to draw the conclusion, that
when things have been conceived and were intended to become "killer apps"
they often flopped, while things that were not conceived to become "killer
apps" often take off.
Ten or twenty years from now, people may post on lists like this one
anecdotes like "while film was conceived as and intended to be a scientific
tool but became the entertainment medium, wireless video was conceived as
and intended to become an entertainment medium but became the monitoring
and policing tool" or something like that - who knows ?!
The only thing that is "no doubt" is that we don't know until it actually
happens.
Until then all we can do is to assess the odds and say this and that
suggests something will take off, while this and that suggests that it
won't.
rgds
benjamin
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Received on Fri Aug 10 05:04:06 2001