Institute For The Future

Future of Video Conference Materials, part 1

 

The Technology Horizons program at IFTF held our spring exchange two weeks ago.  Our research topic was the Future of Video, a subject that could not be timelier.

Undoubtedly, video is a medium on the rise.  The technology itself is expanding, from a screen in front of us, to screens all around us: wearable screens, foldable screens, building-sides turned into screens; 2D is becoming 3D, and pixels function like words, allowing for the construction of an image, unit by unit.

As the technology evolves, we are developing grammars with which to create, discuss and critique this form.  We our physical beings are utilizing more of our senses, altering our cognition, and shaping new understandings.  The conversation itself is then spreading with a viral intensity throughout communities across the globe.  Users and organizations are becoming conversant in the subject video, and altered forms of communications are emerging, like the video story remixed, retold and reposted--one story, told countless times by numerous people in an almost religious repetition. Mobile phone prevalence takes this video conversation to more distant places, engaging a multitude of cultures in the new mode of discussion.

The political ramifications of widespread video usage are vast as well.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what will live-streaming real-time video be worth?  If a camera knocked away by police cannot prevent an event from being recorded and distributed, how will governments’ actions or violent conflicts be effected?

At our exchange, IFTF began a discussion about a transformation that may turn out to be on par with the advent of the printing press.   Time will tell, but investigating these trends will be important either way. Personally, organizationally, societally--all facets of our lives are woven into this interesting and impending change.

We are please to offer our insights, summaries, videos and forecasts from our exploration into these themes from our event to our Technology Horizons members here, or search for SR-1235. 

You will need your password to access this material.  It will be followed in the next few weeks by edited video talks of our exchange panelists, final report, and a technical foundation piece.

We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback.