From Convergence to Techvergence

Convergence is a term that’s been used to refer to what’s happening in the media, news in particular, as techniques and technology bring content, tools and techniques together online. In my October 14, 2005 blog entry on James Brady, the executive editor of washingtonpost.com, I described his view that there are four types of convergence: technical, audience, competitive and information. Competitive convergence, the merging of the approaches and tools of competing mediums in the online world (newspaper websites using video and sound elements or collaborating with a TV station to produce stories in both mediums), was where I began my exploration of this concept. That’s seeing the concept from an “old world” perspective, shoveling traditional approaches to media into the new container of the Web.

More recently, I’ve become more intrigued by convergence of technology, than traditional media. I’m calling this techvergence. The most graphic example of this at the moment is the cell phone. Smart phones are combining a multitude of technologies so that one device has the functionality of a cell phone, a digital camera, a media player (MP3 audio and video), and a PDA style computer. The Sony Ericsson Walkman phone is an example of this http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000030046498/. If you think about it we’ve added all kinds of technology to what was once considered a fairly everyday item, the telephone.

If you’re old enough to remember when phones came in two colors, black and tan, and had a rotary dial, then you might remember them as a functional, but mundane, electronic device. They had one function an that was to connect you to another person so you could have a two-way conversation in real time. If you weren’t home you missed the call and had no way of knowing. This meant that when you’d applied for a job you were stuck waiting anxiously at home near your phone for days on end so you’d be home if called for an interview. Because we’d all had experiences or known someone who wasn’t home, missed that important call, and thus missed a life changing opportunity. Fast forward to 2005 and a small device that fits in your pocket allows you to make or receive a phone call anytime and nearly anywhere. It takes messages, keeps your calendar, gives an alarm when you’ve got a meeting coming up, lets you listen to your favorite song or watch a video clip, provides you access to the Internet and enables you to work on a written report.

If someone would have proclaimed in 1965 that all these things would be done by that mundane black device with the rotary dial that sat on your kitchen counter, most of us would never have been able to envision it. This led me to think what currently everyday items might get the techvergence treatment.

So I created a game for my students where I came up with a list of everyday items  — shoe, toothbrush, eye glasses, power drill, ink pen, etc. — and technology enhancements such as an LCD screen, speaker, MP3 player, computer processor, hard drive, etc. I let a team randomly choose a card with an everyday item and 2 technology cards. It’s called the Techvergence game and students were charged to combine the item and technologies, add other functions and technology and create an innovative device that served the needs of a target audience. The students came up with some interesting devices, some funny and some with potential. The attack pack got me laughing so hard I cried. It basically took a water bottle, pressurized it, combined it with a computer processor and keypad, put them all in a back pack with a hose that fed through your sleeve. You then used the controller to protect yourself with it set to a water cannon intensity, reduced the intensity for splashing your friends, or set it to drink mode if you were thirsty.