Convergence is the mutual remediation of at least three important technologies--telephone, television, and computer -- each of which is a hybrid of technical, social, and economic practice and each of which offers its own path to immediacy. The telephone offers the immediacy of the voice or the interchange of voices in real time. Television is a point-of-view technology that promises immediacy through its insistent real-time monitoring of the world. The computer's promise of immediacy comes through the combination of three-dimensional graphics, automatic (programmed) action, and an interactivity that television cannot match. As they come together, each of these technologies is trying to absorb the others and promote its own version of immediacy. (Bolter & Grushin, p. 224)
Why is the fact that each medium is "hybrid of technical, social, and economic practice" important to computer science? (Hint: do you want to make money? Do you want to work on projects that people need and want?)
Last updated: 20 July 2002