Then Again, Perhaps Technology Is Good For Modern Stories

from the not-such-a-bad-thing dept

A few weeks ago, we pointed to an article claiming that modern technology was making it harder to write interesting "thriller" or "mystery" movie plots, since it was (according to the author) tougher to come up with plausible storylines that wouldn't be ruined by a character holding a mobile phone. That seemed like a bit of a stretch, but now we have the flipside to that, which is that authors of mystery stories claim that the web has been tremendously useful in helping them come up with important details to make their plots and stories more realistic. They track crime reports, learn new jargon, look up maps of locations, understand weapons and generally get the extra info they need to make the story feel more realistic. So, perhaps story writing hasn't been killed off by technology after all.

Filed Under: authors, plots, technology, web

Is Modern Technology Taking Away The Thrill And Drama In Movies?

from the period-pieces dept

Textually points us to a movie critic speculating that so many new thriller movies are set in the recent past because of the lack of technology like mobile phones and the internet. The reasoning is a little thin, as it basically says that since things like mobile phones make tracking people easier and the internet makes researching people easier, it takes away much of the drama. Of course, that ignores the many movies out there these days that use those technologies as a part of the plot. The article does mention these movies, but brushes them off by saying that people are sick of "technothrillers," without offering any actual proof of that. It does, however, have this fantastic line: "The public doesn't want to see bad guys get hacked. They want to see bad guys get whacked," making me wonder if the entire thesis was built around that line. It's an interesting thesis, clearly, but there doesn't seem to be very much to support it other than the fact that there have been a few recent movies set in the 60s and 70s.

Filed Under: movies, technology

AOL Struggling With Life Outside The Walled Garden

from the what-business-are-you-in? dept

On Tuesday morning 1200 AOL employees received their severance packages as the company continues trying to find its footing outside of the walled garden. Evidently, the transition to an advertising-supported web portal isn't going as well as they hoped. A memo from AOL CEO Randy Falco suggests a couple of the reasons they might be having problems. First, it's not clear whether they consider themselves fundamentally a technology company or a media company. Some of their products—especially email and MapQuest—face technology-focused competitors like Google and Yahoo who have been rapidly improving their products' capabilities. Others, such as "Food" and "Money & Finance," are competing more with traditional media outlets like CNN or the New York Times. The two types of companies tend to have different corporate cultures and pursue different business strategies, so being evenly split between the two might not be such a good strategy. Falco's memo also focuses a lot on AOL's advertising platform, but that seems like putting the cart before the horse; if you don't have a compelling product and growing traffic numbers, the best advertising platform in the world won't help. AOL may also be handicapped by the perception by many (including me) that AOL is the Internet for beginners. That was a great perception to cultivate when a lot of people were using the Internet for the first time, but it's not so great once most Internet users start to feel comfortable with the Internet and want to take the training wheels off. I have a feeling that this week's layoffs won't be the last of the painful changes at AOL.

Filed Under: business models, media, technology
Companies: aol

Technology Will Change Politics From Top Down To Bottom Up

from the but-it-won't-be-pleasant-in-the-meantime dept

Sometimes people wonder why so many people in the tech industry tend to fall into more of a "libertarian" viewpoint on things. Perhaps it's because they realize the empowering nature of technology to do away with the need for many more centralized top down structures. The reason that we often have big top down structures is because there was no efficient way to spread the control outwards, so you consolidate power at the top allowing someone else to make decisions for a large group of people as their "representative." However, technology erodes some of that, by creating more efficient means of communication, breaking down the need for such top down control. We see it many different aspects. Companies today are more fluid, with a much more bottom up approach. Products and services that involve a bottom up approach are becoming more popular (and more useful) every day. So it's only a matter of time until the same thing happens to the government.

It's almost surprising to find out that there's a high ranking politician who recognizes this. Apparently the UK's Tory leader David Cameron made exactly that point, noting that politicians need to let go, and let the technology distribute tasks out to citizens, rather than trying to control everything centrally. Of course, it's one thing to say it and another thing altogether to do it. Those who came up through the "old" way, which grants more power and control at the top freak out at the idea of giving up that control. You see it today with the way Microsoft reacts to open source, the way the RIAA reacts to Napster, to the way newspapers react to citizen journalism. They close up, circle the wagons and talk about how important that control is -- though, not in those terms exactly. Instead, they trash the quality of the more chaotic bottom up system, missing the point that it's not about the average quality, but the the abundance of options that make quality more personalized. The same thing will happen in politics as well. Many people get into politics (or get hooked on politics) because of the power that comes with it. Getting them to give up that power won't be easy by any means. But it will happen. It'll just mean a period of rather painful adjustment.

Filed Under: bottom up, politics, technology, top down