On the cusp of the Third Age of Communication

We are now entering the Third Age of communication with the Internet as the main driver. This transition will be painful for those who have heavily invested in the Second Age. So what are the Ages of Communication?

First Age – One to one.

This Age is characterised by interpersonal communication and still exists as the basic form of interpersonal relationships. In terms of written communication this was the dominate age up until about 500 year ago before the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1440. Books before then were hand written and labouriously transcribed mainly by monks. Few people could read and few books were actually written.

Most communication was spread by word of mouth. In terms of technology, the telephone is a first Age device.

Second Age – One to many.

The printing press kicked off this Age, however the effects were not immediately apparent as it took a long time to really take advantage of the new methods. Books were now able to be mass produced and a small number of writers where able to make books to be consumed by a large number readers. The last century of this Age came to be dominated by mass media marketing. Not only books, but newspapers and entertainment were dominated by Second Age communication. TV, Radio, Films, etc are all media where a few producers send information to a large audience with little or no ability for the audience to send information back. People became passive consumers of communication. Our political processes also mirrored this with democratic governments being a small group of people controlling large populations.

In terms of technology, TV and radio transmissions, newspaper and book publishing, music and film production are all Second Age communication channels.

Third Age – Many to many.

The internet has now enabled communication to move to the many to many mode. A simple chat room is a basic example of this with all involved able to simultaneously talk (write) and listen (read). Twitter is an example of the ultimate chat room. To those who see this for the first time it is often confusing with multiple conversations tripping over each other and much of the conversation appearing to be just noise. However if you also factor in the fact that those involved can be from anywhere in the world and people can participate in multiple chat rooms at any one time, it becomes clear that this can allow ideas to spread around the world in seconds.

With the coming of the Third Age everyone now has the ability to become producers not just consumers. The number of YouTube videos, the number of blogs around show just how popular this idea really is. And it has the established Second Age Media company’s worried. So where can it go??

TV/Film is now being replaced by people downloading their own shows and watching them when they want. In addition a new form of TV is developing where small producers are able to make small scale shows. The Streamy Awards recently showcased the best of these with some well established actors now producing their own Internet shows. (If you haven’t seen it, The Guild is a good place to start)

Radio/Music is also being replaced by people developing their own music to be played on Ipod type devices while they do other things (jogging, housework, driving etc). Talk shows first published on radio are often available on download through RSS techniques meaning that the user can develop their own talk show program.

Newspapers are being replaced by many of the blogs or information websites. People often bought newspapers not for the quality of the product, but because all the information was conveniently in one place. Now browsers can bookmark various information sites to keep you up to date with the latest information or sports scores, and these can be fed to your browser through RSS feeds. Also Mashup sites such as Digg or iGoogle allow you to browse what is happening in the world or your area of interest.

The rise of reality shows demonstrates that people now expect to be involved in their entertainment, not just passive consumers. Twitter and Facebook also allow for real-time involvement, as well as offering very accurate ways to track people’s opinions. Often sports broadcasts (particularly slower moving sports such as cricket) now include people’s comments on the action as it is happening.

There are also some more serious efforts developing the many to many technology uses of which Ushahadi is just one. To understand how this concept could develop over the next few years Clay Shirky has coined a term "cognitive surplus" to describe the way the Internet is now providing us with tools to be creative in our spare time, not just consumers.

This is only just starting to occur and it is difficult to see where it is going to head. Gutenberg would have not foreseen that his invention would have developed into the Mass Media companies of today. However Tim Berners-Lee (the father/inventor of the internet) does have a feel for where the Internet is going and is keen for the Web to become the Semantic Web, which is the ultimate Many to Many idea.