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June 14, 2006
The revolution will not be televised ...
Ashley Highfield, Director of BBC New Media & Technology, addressed the Royal Television Society on Oct 6 2003 with the title "TV's Tipping Point: Why The Digital Revolution Is Only Just Beginning." He address the issues of the digitization of television ... and began with a great story ...
I was reading an article the other day called "The Dangers of Wired Love", about a teenage girl called Maggie, who helped her dad run a newspaper-stand in Brooklyn. Business was booming, so Maggie's Dad, George McCutcheon decided to get wired up, to help him process electronic orders. Being a total techno-phobe, Mr. McCutcheon got Maggie to operate the thing, but soon found out she was using it to flirt with a number of men, particularly one married man she had met online, called Frank. Breaking all the known rules of cyber dating, she invited Frank to visit her in the real world, and of course he accepted. McCutcheon found out, went mad and forbade his daughter to meet up with Frank. But Maggie nevertheless continued to meet him in secret. Her furious father found out and one day followed her to one of the couple's rendezvous. He threatened to blow her brains out. She later had him arrested and charged with threatening behaviour.
An every-day story of modern times--maybe? McCutcheon's fathering skills perhaps a bit severe, and Maggie perhaps a little naïve? The striking thing about this story is that is was published in a magazine called Electrical World in 1886. The Victorian network that McCutcheon got wired to, and Maggie got hooked on, was of course the Telegraph.
The body of Highfields talk then ranges from concepts such as Moby's "infinite music", ubiquitous television, electronic community, ... Definitely something to spin heads after a nice banguet.
Ashley Highfield, TV's Tipping Point: Why The Digital Revolution Is Only Just Beginning, Netdistribution.co.uk, Tuesday, 13 June 2006. http://www.netribution.co.uk/2/content/view/657/2/
Posted by sjc at June 14, 2006 8:58 AM
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