Digitality:
New way of encoding info. 0's and 1's - binary code. How computer works, electricl pulse on or off. All progamming or entering information into a computer is based on this code. Byte is piece of 8 bits of information, a series of on or off pulses. Huge amounts of information easy to deal with in a tiny code.
Interactivity:
New ways of streaming information, compressed to travel through the air (satellite system), ISDN cable (broadband) and telephone cables, cable cable with satellite systems. Given more width so that multiple strands of information can be sent via one feed. Limited amounts of bandwidth, the more people using it the more bandwidth used. Interactive, so you can interactive with it and each other, say yes and no to it, can get it to respond and respond with it, and reply to it: feed that goes both ways. This changes the way it is used, rather than information going one way, it is now shared and responded to. compressing of digital information means you can upload as well as download.
Hypertextuality:
Organisation in texts. No longer linear, so rather than going from A to B, you can go A to Z or X to Y, like shuffling your songs. Can jump whichever way you'd like, wherever you'd like, like a dvd and the difference from a video. Can read a text whichever way you want, making a difference to the producers who have to make this possible, and need to realise you may jump out of their text and into somebody else's. Think about websites.
Dispersal:
How information can be and is shared and communicated. To do with market share, size and take-up (who's using it.). how much access users have and how producers target users and maximise their markets. couple with digitality creates huge market for producers.
Virtuality:
Already-discussed ideas linking with reality and representation. Verisimilitude, like iconography, is how real something is. cartoons are representational. some virtual worlds also representational. what is real? mimicking and representation of the world. who, why and how?
Convergence:
New technologies merging into one, like companies. MP3's showing photos. where will it go next and will people use it? Think about size: both of data and hardware, new possibilities.
Audience:
How does the audience use the technology? Do they actually use it? has it changed the way they use it? did they use it before and has it changed the way they use it if it has been updated? has the technology been led by consumer demand or by the industry? have the people who've made it made us think that we want it? who actually has access to these things? who is disenfrancised?
Regulation and Control:
Is there any control over the technology's use? who's doing the controlling and should it be there in the first place? what's done about copyright issues? What are the implications of control and people subverting it? is it realistically possible to have this control? what impact of this on the producers? what potential impact is there for the government?
Ownership:
who owns the technology and does it make a difference? how much money they have, use the market, compete with one another and how they use their money and their brand to sell various things: games console manufacturing is a good example of this.
