[kNews] Convergence: supply (no) and demand (yes) +meeting

[kNews <k-news@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear All,

Live from sunny Nice... Let's recap: Convergence needs interoperability 
needs us all to find common ground with our "like-link" peers but also 
agree on interfaces to other links along the whole content value chain 
(between consumer and content owner inclusive). Resistance to convergence 
could be caused by lack of profitable business models. Hopefully revenues 
will increase...
 

But what if it's worse than that? What if, with all this convergence and 
standardisation, overall revenue does go down and not up for any given 
market. And what if everyone's market share is reduced? Wont the ease for 
new companies to enter a given market greatly increase? And then there's 
unrelenting, unstoppable consumer. Wont they be in a far better position to 
change to a new supplier the instant their current one isn't the cheapest 
or most convenient (depending on their priority)? And doesn't that mean 
that what we can charge consumers will fall through the floor?
 

Here we are, as consumers, saying we want convergence (and all it's 
conveniences) and we want it now and we'll pay for it. But, as 
shareholders, employers and employees we wouldn't want our companies to 
touch convergence with a barge poll, would we? Let alone aid in its 
creation? Let's face it, if this is all the case, isn't convergence bad 
news for everyone in business right now as it will only enable new 
companies to come in and "steal" our precious fickle customers?
 

Now, does this mean we may have a wee bit of a problem with all this 
convergence lark? A wee bit of a big dilemma, perhaps? And perhaps the 
solution(s) go way beyond another piece of technology or communications 
standard or legislation? Far, far deeper than that, perhaps? A radical 
shift? I haven't got a clue what and I suspect we haven't even invented the 
tools to crack this particular nut yet...
 

OK. Enough questions. They are real questions, posed by real people and 
they deserve discussion. With these questions I'm trying to illustrate that 
convergence is not a simple task - people have real problems with it. That 
we're up against loads of potential brick walls (those mentioned and many 
others). And it's essential that we highlight problems in order to bring 
about solutions. So, we really have to think "out of the box". We have to 
think differently. We have to act differently.
 

Let's not get carried away with convergence. Things will not change over 
night. This is going to take time and commitment and lots of discussion and 
creation. People have to take responsibility for the tasks to achieve the 
goal. Artist needs to talk with hacker and consumer with banker and techy 
with legislator and all other combinations. Scary stuff, hey? And guess 
what, that's what we'll be doing on Monday at the Kendra Initiative meeting 
(convergence workshop)...
 

And if there's one things that absolutely certain in this sea of confusion 
it's "I want what I want, when I want and I want to pay for it!". Let's 
keep that goal in mind...
 

I've been prompted to this train of thought by our up and coming Kendra 
meeting and my up and coming panel at Streaming Media. You can see my posts 
on kFW and kNews here:
 
http://www.kendra.org.uk/lists/archive/k-framework/msg00006.html
http://www.kendra.org.uk/lists/archive/k-news/msg00017.html
http://www.kendra.org.uk/lists/archive/k-news/msg00018.html
Please post comments to kFW and not to me direct. Use:
mailto:k-framework@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=Convergence-thoughts
But you'll have to be subscribed before you can send which you do here:
http://www.kendra.org.uk/profile.php#lists


For latest information on the meeting see:
http://www.kendra.org.uk/meetings/20011022invite.php

If you are planning to attend the meeting please do your best to list 
yourself here to give us an idea of numbers:
 
http://www.kendra.org.uk/participate.php#meeting-participants

If you can't make the meeting (unthinkable!) then come and visit Kendra 
Initiative at Streaming Media Europe - Astream's stand 541...
 

Fun or what?! ;-)

Cheers Daniel

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