It’s a converged world
For the longest time, we’ve been hearing about the concept of technological convergence, and that convergence is the nirvana to which we’re all heading.
Well, here’s a tale of what I would consider to be my first real convergent moment (if there is such a thing). Last Sunday our local parish, Kimmage Manor, held its annual parish day. The parish day is the usual mix of bouncy castles, kids talent shows, home-made scones, etc. that these events tend to be – good family fun, in other words. One of the activities were races for kids of different age groups, in which my own two daughters ran in their respective groups.
Like any self-respecting parent, I videoed the whole thing on the video device that I happened to have in my pocket – my iPhone 4. I took a separate video of each event, and when I got home I fired up iMovie on the iPhone. With iMovie, I was able to create a single movie with both clips, some titles and a decent looking transition between them. I didn’t bother adding a backing sound track, but I would have easily done so using any song from my iTunes catalogue.
Once my 30 second movie was done (they were short races), I was able to export and upload directly to my video hosting provider of preference – vimeo (but could equally have done so to YouTube or a few other options).
So let’s recap all that. I took a couple of high-definition video clips, edited the clips into a movie, uploaded it to a video sharing site, all on a device that weighs 137g, fits comfortably in your pocket, would set you back (with a mobile plan) about the same amount as a couple of Take That tickets in Croke Park last Sunday, and did all of this without ever plugging it into a computer or network.
If that’s not convergence realised, then I don’t know what is.
I keep thinking back to William Gibson‘s famous quote: “The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
For those of you who are interested, here’s my masterpiece. Martin Scorsese it ain’t, but hey, did I mention that I did it all on my phone?
Kimmage Manor Parish Day from Steve Flinter on Vimeo.