Technology on the march! For a long time, the tech industry kept to itself -- only defining what it means to process data and program computers. By the end of the 80s, things had changed. Laser printers and desktop publishing software, at first just toys -- were all of a sudden able to replace expensive typesetting equipment at a fraction of the cost. All of a sudden publishing was open to people with a lot less money. Movies were being redefined by Pixar and other animation studios. Then, in the mid-90s, came the web, and publishing became almost free. Starting in the late 90s it was time for tech to redefine what it means to be a musician, with Napster and then iTunes. We took our first step at redefining news with RSS, also in the late 90s. Publishing was free by the mid-90s but it wasn't easy until blogging software matured. By the mid part of the next decade we were ready to redefine radio, with podcasting. BitTorrent is redefining the distribution of movies. And now, finally -- it seems -- tech is ready to fully redefine news. What it will look like is still up for grabs. But the time is now. Just look around. |