The most glaring and obvious point I noted while reading the first 60 or so pages of this book, “Being Digital,” is how outdated it is. It was published in 1995, a mere 12 years ago, yet so much of it is in need updating. Off the top of my head, the author’s thoughts on HDTV, for one, are rather amusing. Negroponte appeared to me, beyond convinced that HDTV would never take hold and that such a technology wouldn’t proliferate in American households. Well, without doing extensive research – just a quick Google search – it turns out that in 2005, more than 13% of American households view HDTV programming, and more of such programming continues to be available today.
I mention that point for a couple of reasons. First, is that making such bold statements about technology in particular, can often be folly, as predicting market and technological trends isn’t quite an exact science. Second, is that the ever-changing and ever-evolving technological landscape means that while a bold statement such as the aforementioned may seem like a perfectly logical conclusion draw 10 years ago, it seems amusingly misinformed just a scant 10 years later.
Another point I noted was Negroponte’s questioning of the validity of cross-ownership rules. He stated, and I paraphrase, that “there isn’t anything necessarily wrong about the ‘co-mingling’ of ‘bits’ and that to restrict it would be to deny the media consumer the richest possible environment.” In light of such rampant media conglomeration just 12 years later, I wonder if Negroponte would still hold to this idea now.
Lastly, it also amuses me to read that in 1995, Negroponte felt that copyright law was out of date and in need of an overhaul. And that’s long before the massive proliferation of the internet, and more specifically, internet-based music trading, both legitimate (iTunes, etc.) and illegitimate. With the continual battles today concerning such issues, I wonder how much more so Negroponte would feel copyright law is outdated.
