Seth Godin once asked us What Should Google Do? and he turned our answers in an e-book (PDF). And now … Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson, staffers at the Poynter Institute for Journalism in Florida, give us their vision of how Google will rule the media landscape in 2014.
Done from a ‘backcasting newsreel’ perspective, Sloan and Thompson express their vision of the future as if we, in 2004, were viewing it in 2014.
Click here to stream the fascinating eight-minute EPIC 2014 newsreel video.
Excerpted highlights from EPIC 2014 include:
Year 2006: The Google Grid
"Google combines all of its services—TIVO, Blogger, Gmail, Google News and all of its searches—into the Google Grid, the universal platform that provides a functionally limitless amount of storage space and bandwidth to store and share media of all kinds, always online and accessible from anywhere."
Year 2008: Formation of GoogleZon
"This year sees the alliance that will challenge Microsoft’s ambitions. Google and Amazon joined forces informed GoogleZon. Together, they use their detailed knowledge of every users social network, demographics, consumption habits and interests to provide total customization content and advertising."
Year 2014: Welcome to the EPIC World
"The Evolving Personalized Information Construct is the system by which our sprawling, chaotic mediascape is filtered, ordered and delivered. Everyone contributes now – from blog entries to phone cam images to video reports to full-fledged investigations."
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Further Learning:
There is nothing in here about the average media consumers’ reaction to this upheaval or what role they will play beyond passive demo spoon monkey. Also, this vision plays out in a very linear fashion. Technological evolution rarely follows geological time; it is all about the catastrophic event that changes the landscape quickly...although 9 years is pretty quick.
Posted by: John | February 21, 2005 at 11:52 AM
John ... you certainly have high expectations. Sorry the video failed to meet them.
You do make solid points in your response.
However, I don't think this interpretation of the possible media future intended to cover the breadth & depth nor the consumer implications of what a converged electronic media landscape may have in store for us all.
Posted by: johnmoore (from brandautopsy) | February 21, 2005 at 12:15 PM
John ... I think I failed to mention I thought the piece was great and I think it paints a reasonable picture of what the media landscape may look like in the near future. I also think it is pretty "guns and butter" in its simplicity of how the networked landscape will change to accommodate this transformation. In terms of content, where are the Disneys and Sonys in this? In terms of web services where are the Yahoos and Barry Dillers? And the consumer? I love looking into crystal balls, and this was a great crystal ball, but it always leaves me asking more questions.
Posted by: John | February 21, 2005 at 03:07 PM
John: I was the first on the Internet to link to it back in mid-November.
Posted by: Robert Scoble | February 22, 2005 at 01:27 PM
Robert, I'm clearly a laggard as it relates to EPIC 2014. That's one of the reasons why I added a few more links to hopefully add some value to those who have been made hip to it.
I'm surprised that we haven't seen more chatter about it in all the biz marketing blogs out there. Hmm...
Here's betting I'm not the last to link to the EPIC 2014 so there will be others to join me in Laggardville.
Can I be the Mayor Pro-Tem of Laggardville? Better yet ... I'll be the Postmaster General of Laggardville.
Posted by: johnmoore (from brandautopsy) | February 22, 2005 at 02:10 PM