Turns out I’ve been blogging for six years today. I started out with the rather immodest title ‘DubberNews’ and quickly shifted it to ‘The Wireless’, which is what it remained for nearly 5 years.
Out of interest, here’s something I wrote on this day in 2002 on that blog.
Monday, April 08, 2002
It’s nice to be surprised by new information. I discovered yesterday that not only was the original commercial use of radio ‘point-to-point’ communication, but the original commercial use of the telephone was broadcasting.
Interesting how social patterns play a part in the development of a technology. Most technological innovations – especially in the area of mass communications are deemed as having been invented in a vacuum, then unleashed on society as a specific cause which will have specific effects. In fact, invention and culture are so heavily intertwined that even once a device has been introduced and accepted, the use to which is finally put is not necessarily in the hands of the commercial providers of that product.
The announcement recently that NetRadio has shut up shop and liquidated their assets suggests that perhaps one of the key problems of online broadcasting is the fact that the providers try to dictate the use to which the medium is put. The simple fact is that the majority of listeners don’t want a screen to be the interface between them and the radio.
The internet is an enabling technology – not a medium. The web does not equal the internet. The web is to the internet what a toaster is to electricity. Nobody blames electricity if they have difficulty drying their hair with a toaster. They use a more suitable appliance. You can, of course, dry your hair with a toaster if you really want to, but it’s not a terribly satisfying experience. You can also listen to radio on the web if you want to – but it’d make a whole lot more sense to develop a better appliance for the task than to either keep banging your head against a wall OR write off internet broadcasting altogether.
The funny thing is that I’m still saying this stuff. In fact, I did this nearly verbatim at a seminar last week. Either I was right all along, or I need to get a new routine…
Tagged: Internet
