Where will technology take us?

I read the article Tell me the future (3/12/07) from the Gaurdian Unlimited and answered the following questions:

Who is Chris De Wolfe and what does he say is the future for social networking? What impact will portable hardware have on this area of technology?

Chris De Wolfe (CEO and co-founder of an extremely popular social networking website MySpace) says that the global village is becoming more personal and portable, people are logging on to these social networking sites now more than ever, affecting other industries such as music and advertising. He says that the future of the social networking web is more personalised and the realtionships formed or developed through this technology will grow closer and closer. Due to technology these days, mobile devices such as phones and laptops, we are able to minimise the boundries of social networking.

Who is Chad Hurley and what does he say is his company's goal? Is he a positive or negative technological determinist?

Chad Hurley (CEO and co-founder of an extremely popular video-sharing website YouTube). Says his company's goal is to include everyone to simple accessible technology, and to make it almost second nature to us (such as making a telephone call). YouTube aim to improve the ease of uploading videos onto the site, and want to increase the diversity of the videos. They want more orientated around friends and family, news, music, sports, cooking etc. He is a positive technological determinist. He descirbe this technology in a positive way, with no reference to technology being negative. He talks of how he wants to make his website easy to access, from a number of places, clearly indicating he believes new technology has a positive effect on out lives.

What does Maurice Levy say is the challenge for advertisers and what is 'liquid media' compared to 'linear media'?

Maurice Levy compares the digital and analogue media, and says the possibilites of the digital advertising is much greater than the traditional advertising. Linear media is the old way of advertising, with no interactivity in it. Liquid media, which Maurice describes as "seamless", can interact, change settings, jump and skip parts of playlists, and many other options. It is the new digital media. It gives the user the ability to multi-task, for example, pausing, rewinding and fast forwarding live TV.

What parallels does Norvig draw between Edison inventing electricity and the development of online technology in terms of searching for information?

Norvig explains that Edison inventing electricity, was almost the flood gates, opening to whole new range of ideas and possibilites. He describes how the current technology will enable us to improve and build faster, better machines with what Edison invented.

What are the issues for the developing world? How is this evidence of a 'digital divide'? (socio-economic divide due to access to technology)

There are major differences between MEDCs (more economically developed countries) and LEDCs (less economically developed countries). New digital media helps us to understand what is happening in the world and the divides created between these countires. LEDCs may not be able to access this new form of technology and therefore not receive the up to date detailed information that the MEDCS are able to.