Red Queens and Increasing Returns

Module 5
Red Queens and
Increasing Returns

When I decided to obtain a DVD for my science fiction assignment in Module 4 based on a Philip K. Dick book, I went to the local BlockBuster Media store in Carson City. Knowing that I would be at the residency in Minneapolis, the week this assignment was due, I decided I needed to purchase a DVD instead of rent one because the 5-day rental fee with extra day charges would be greater than the purchase. This made my choices very limited as to what I could select for this assignment. Each DVD suggestion from Dr. Thornburg for this assignment was available for rental, however, Total Recall was the only DVD available for purchase, so that is why I chose the movie I did.

The current competition between DVDs and video on demand is an example of increasing returns as described by Dr. Thornburg where “two innovations hit the market at about the same time and by chance, one technology gets locked in and drives the other to extinction, in a nonlinear process” (Thornburg, 2009). According to Chris Anderson from Wired Magazine, Reed Hastings the founder of Netflix saw an “inflection point” at the moment when home-theater units started becoming popular with the DVD hitting critical mass and saw an amazing opportunity (Anderson, 2004). At this point in time, neither the DVD nor video on demand has locked in, so let the game continue!

Living in Nevada now for 20 years, I can appreciate “the art of playing the tables in the Casino of Technology… and above all, the rewards go to the players who are first to make sense of the new games looming out of the technological fog and make adaptations to what is coming” (Arthur, 1996). Therefore, as I think about the four criteria of McLuhan’s tetrad, DVDs and video on demand are currently on the “Enhances” quadrant, because both of these technologies have enhanced the quality of life for many families to allow more time spent together at home, and I am not sure what will replace them yet as predicted in the “Reverses” quadrant (McLuhan, 1988).

References:

Anderson, C. (2004). Tech’s long tail [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/
chris_anderson_of_wired_on_tech_s_long_tail.html

Arthur, W. B. (1996). Increasing returns and the new world of business. Harvard Business Review, 74(4), 100−109.

McLuhan, M., & McLuhan, E. (1988). Laws of media: The new science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Red Queens Image. Retrieved from http://www.proteusadvisors.com/uploaded_images/Red-Queen-733517.jpg

Thornburg, D. D. (2009). Increasing returns and red queens. Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4199715&Survey=1&47=5797856&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Module 3 - Rhymes of History

Interactive white boards are an example of a technology that represents a rhyme of history. In the school district where I teach, we use SMART Boards specifically, therefore, I have become a SMART Notebook v.10 certified trainer and a SMART Exemplary Educator (SEE). SMART Boards rekindle from the past the need to display information for an entire classroom of students to see at one time, rather than the teacher having to write something on each individual students' slates or chalkboards, capturing lost teaching time, as did the inventor of the first chalkboard, James Pillans, a school headmaster in Scotland in the mid-1800’s (http://www.ehow.com/). How ironic is it that today, the teacher still only has to write something once on the SMART Board, but with other emerging technologies such as the interactive response system (clickers), iPods and iPads, it can also be shared individually with each student on a personal technology device just as the original student slates or chalkboards were used. I would also like to emphasize as Dr. Thornburg pointed out in his vodcast, “It’s not the technology, but the affect of the technology, that is rekindled," possibly coming full-circle.

Kevin Kelly paints an incredible picture of what life might be like in the next 5,000 days of the Web through “one machine” composed of three unique components: (1) embodiment is where humans are the extended senses of this machine, rekindling all previous forms of how humans communicate; (2) restructuring links data and all things, rekindling how everyone and everything in our environment effect each other in some way; and (3) codependency has everyone relying on everyone else, because we become the web, rekindling the need for socialization.

References:
http://www.ehow.com/about_6458935_slate-chalkboards.html

http://www.smarttech.com/

http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4199715&Survey=1&47=5486705&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html