I don’t really know the guy from Adam, other than he seems from his profile to be a smart guy.
His name is Aral – or rather, @Aral – and tonight he could be found waxing lyrical about the launch of the new Apple iPhone 3GS… in a lot less than 140 characters as his excitement mounted. The penny was starting to drop as to just what this baby could do now…
aralShoot/edit/share video with just your iPhone 3GS. Oh, yes! 
aralAwesome, “send to YouTube” feature is gonna rock!
araliPhone 3GS: 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, 3MP autofocus/tap-to-focus/low-light/auto-macro (~10cm) camera + 30fps VIDEO, ~2x faster, OpenGL|ES
Me, being the sports hack at heart, doesn’t ‘get’ any of the first post.
Whatever, is my instant reaction.
Though even I twig that when the ‘S’ stands for speed, the new iPhone is likely to rock more than just @Aral’s world.
The little phrase, however, that I do ‘get’ is the ‘Send To YouTube’ function.
Because as muchas we might debate endlessly about whether we’re now digital journalists, citizen bloggers or this hybrid bast*rd in between – the ‘jogger’ of the NYT’s worst imaginings – that ‘Send To YouTube’ function now unites us all in one regard.
We’re all digital broadcasters.
And YouTube now looks set to be the default channel of our production choice.
And for the traditional, legacy broadcasters, that’s not good news.
It is, however, the news that Anthony Lilley long ago predicted – that there would be an ‘explosion’ in media participation – one that, you sense, even now is only just beginning.
http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=26
“In the media landscape of the 20th century this did not matter so much as it does now,” wrote Mr Magic Lantern therein, a doom being foretold…
“Power was centred on the organisations which had control of scarce distribution outlets – such as television channels or cinemas. These organisations operated within a closed and controlled world – predominantly made up of physical products, like books, or within closed technologies such as television…
‘Closed technologies’ covers a multitude of sins, of course. Printed newspapers, print press halls, delivery vans, corner shops, paper boys… all part of a ‘closed’ loop that imposed both news and advertising on an all-but bound and gagged audience.
Tied to a little after five o’clock every evening and the thud of the Evening News falling onto the door-mat.
But the Age Of Imposition is now at an end.
The Age Of Participation is exploding all around us… not least in the tweets of my pal @Aral
“The coming of global broadband linkage and the web has changed that landscape forever,” Anthony continued.
“In the process, as has been discussed above, an explosion of participation in media is beginning.
“This world has flipped from a state of affairs where scarcity of content was the norm to the landscape we see now – with many more content creators, aggregators and owners out there.
“In addition, the availability of low cost digital production and post-production technologies is driving an unprecedented surge in creation, modification and remixing of content by the people formerly known as the audience…”
Which, of course, brings us to @Aral’s third and final tweet.
.. Shoot/edit/share video with just your iPhone 3GS. Oh, yes!
Or in other words, expect a ’surge in creation, modification and remixing of content by the people formerly known as the audience…
I thought one of the most interesting things about the Sky News iPhone app was that it had the facility for users to shoot a photo, add some text, and then file a report to Sky. Looks like Apple just cut them out of the loop…
Martin,
Good point.
You wonder whether Apple aren’t actually cutting the browser out of the loop period, let alone Sky News…