CompuServe Messages

<<Secondary school students will be taught the rudiments of camera work, editing, scriptwriting, and graphics manipulation to augment their 3 R's.>> Patrick, fascinating. I have always said that the only people interested in doing anything original are under the age of 10. For most of us, the only original art in our homes is displayed on the fronts of our refrigerators. The stuff on our walls we got at Target. Somehow, when we get older, we loose our desire to make our own new stuff. <<When all of the above is extant, then consumers will more easily be able to send out their own messages, instead of just watching TV.>> As the information bandwith rises; so rises its demands on your creativity. By the time we get old enough to afford it, we've lost the juice. It is hard for me to visualize the types of video messages consumers will send. I send 10-12 quicktime video messages a month. But I don't think that's typical because I send far more than I recieve. The video phone has had so many starts and each one has been a flop. The phone companies can point to piles of research indicating nobody wants this. What's the plan to overcome the 'creative burden' of video? More Ready-to-wear clips? <<Software knowledge agents will serve as information refineries to sift through the vast quantities of available material to find programs of interest.>> I think you've hit on probably two of the most attractive things about Media 100 technology for the consumer. 1) People are nmemonic in nature. They want to see 'that movie where Monroe's dress blows up when she's standing on the subway grate.' And maybe they don't want to see the whole movie; perhaps they just want to see that scene. Access methods to movies hasn't changed in 75 years. You still go to the stacks; find the title; and search the reel. Albiet those stacks are now called Video Rental Stores. How oddly unresponsive of the entertainment industry. 2) People love to collect things. Stamps, photos, coins, cards, newsclippings, CD's, buttons, just piles and piles of junk. "I have every ______ ever made!" Yet there is no convenient way for the consumer to collect and manage video — one of the most ubiquitous things in America. This is mostly because the producers of these intellectual products don't want you to. But you can copy software from floppy to your hard drive. And you can assemble your favorite CD's onto cassette for your morning jog. Why would consumers not want to treat video the same way?