The world according to Danny

Danny en France!

Danny is like any other 14-year-old who races home from school: to get online. To him, a world without mobile phones and websites is inconceivable. Danny belongs online, he plays online and he interacts online. He doesn’t watch TV, he reads books occasionally, magazines never. The virtual highway is the new tarmac on the doorstep, the place where kids meet, scrap, share, interact, learn from one another and grow wise.

For Danny technology is intuitive and simple and he can figure it out with ease and common sense. At home Danny’s creative world is the rich tapestry and infinite possibilities of Garage Band, iMovie, Facebook and YouTube.

So, what of this world that Danny occupies?

Danny doesn’t know it yet but something very major is about to happen. The QuickVoice app on my iPhone that lets me dictate my emails will soon change everything. Voice recognition technology is just round the corner and it’s going to open up a whole new number of doors and these won’t just be the fridge and microwave doors. I can’t begin to imagine the possibilities of this technology for publishers and game developers. I wonder which of these two businesses will be first to fully integrate the technology in their craft?

Danny’s life isn’t all online. He goes to school and he learns in class. As a matter of fact, Danny will sit his AS exam in French in 3 weeks time. In an effort to get him reading in French, I decided to search the house (dusty corners of) to find him some French books. As I looked through the bookshelves at home (I seldom look there anymore) I was reminded of the multitude of formats and bindings that were produced in children’s illustrated publishing and of the past, of when my boys were young (or younger, because it is not that long ago), and when there was little contest from other media for their attention. As I browsed the shelves and uncovered the wonderfully illustrated covers, I couldn’t help but notice how tired paper and books felt by comparison to the hyperlinked world of Internet and its endless possibilities for discovery. How static and lifeless these objects felt.

What was apparent to me in that instant is how traditional media, by that I mean the print in newspapers, magazines or books, is petrified by comparison with today’s world of rich media and mobile networking. No wonder magazines can no longer be magazines, books can not longer be books, TV no longer be TV, and how all media, irrespective of platform, distribution channels and format, needs to redefine its purpose around the needs and desires of its core audience.

The game players will be the media companies that understand the business of community; those that are able to forget and let go of the legacy that defined them in the past.

Danny has no desire to be a consumer. Consuming is not a state of infinite possibilities. It is passive, dull. What Danny has come to expect is that he can choose the part he plays in his rich and interactive world and, not unlike the kids before him, who played on the tarmac, be an active, all singing and dancing member in his community, online.

Suffice it to say that by the time I returned from my search for analogue content with 2 volumes of Asterix under my arm, Danny was otherwise engaged: sat on his bed, laptop on knees, earphones, happily conversing and exchanging with his French friends, sharing their hyperlinked content. Boy has the world moved on from Asterix. Vive le numerique!