In the 50's and 60's we talked a lot about the "McLuhan Effect" or the social changes surrounding society's adoption of television. We now see global news, events, and trivia minutes after it happens via broadcast television. This changed our perception of the world and our place in it.

We are entering an era that will be characterized by individually owned and operated video phones narrowcasting real-time video feeds to any interested individual, group or media source. (Some are writing about a new form or reporting called "participatory journalism." I guess that means if an individual with a video-phone scoops a reporter, they should relax and go with it?)

Individuals will have the resources to show the full range of human endeavors and activities in living color, full motion and in real-time. We feel that the social effects of this technology will make the changes from broadcast TV look like the singing the National Anthem before the Super bowl. We're about to experience the "big game" in global communications.

Broadcast Television broadened society's definition of "good taste" and "socially acceptable programming." What will happen, when each individual owning a video phone makes their individual decisions about what to show? The answer is anyone's guess but more importantly, anyone's choice.

Perhaps it is not too optimistic to posit that many types of business communication, educational and training subjects, security and shopping opportunities will be greatly enhanced with individual video telephones. There will always be those that will "take it to max" and show us all images we'd rather not witness. There will be "church ladies" that will be offended by their personally defined measures of "modesty," and periodic calls for "censorship" in the name of protecting youth which will be countered by first amendment rights advocates.

While all of those issues will be raised, the reality is that unregulated individuals will be using a media - that until now has been the very heart and model for "freedom of speech." Camera phones that take "digital pictures" have raised the issue of voyeuristic images. Video-phones will - in all probability - go much further than simply looking-up skirts.

Yet, after we've lived through trying the extremes and readjusting to the realities of real-time video-telephony, we believe we will be left with a powerful mechanism for change, mostly for the good of society, and one that should remain free and unregulated - that the good it can do far outweighs the harm a few abhorrent soles can do. We're going to have to grow up fast on this issue because this shift will be in full swing by the end of the decade. (see the article below that estimated installation percentages.)

An old adage states that "seeing is believing." Real-time video images, taken by a single person or a group, will quickly find their way into security, financial, legal and governmental activities providing compelling and eidetic sets of images as proof that thus-and-such actually took place. Many of our institutions will be forced to grow and expand given this new form of "proof."

A new set of applications for logging video, to verify time and place, as well as authentication tools will probably be forthcoming.

The real point is that "up close and personal" as interpreted by an FCC sanctioned broadcast TV Channel may bear little similarity to the material communicated by individuals. If humans are anything, they are curious and that characteristic plus network television has provided society with insights and viewing opportunities well beyond what of our parents and certainly our grandparents defined as being in "good taste" or better still, for the common good.

Hand-Held, Wireless Telephony will kick the imagery up more than a few notches. Simply imagine the full range of human experience and then imagine capturing it all on video as it happens. It is a good time to ask a few basic questions. What is in society's best interest? Where do we draw the line on freedom of speech? How do we handle this kind of honesty?

Now is the time to give it some thought, before we are faced with a "de facto standard" that is no standard at all, or perhaps worse, live with how it unfolds.

Video telephony, and those that operate the handsets, are about to make society and some contemporary lives transparent to the max. How do you want it to play-out?

Terry Wellman
Copyright - Digital Marketing Corporation
June 17, 2004

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Monday, June 14, 2004
Research Points to Natural Demand for Mobile Video

A recent, end-user survey performed by In-Stat/MDR found that 13.2% of US wireless subscribers are extremely or very interested in purchasing mobile video services for their wireless phones. "While still a relatively small niche of the market, this figure is significant in that it represents the "natural demand" for mobile video services, prior to any large-scale carrier deployments or market messaging," says Clint Wheelock, Director of In-Stat/MDR's Wireless Research Group. By 2009, mobile video services are expected to generate $5.4 billion in annual revenues.

In-Stat/MDR also reports that:

• By 2009, 22.3 million Americans will be viewers of mobile video content, and 31.1 million will use video messaging services.
• Sprint PCS subscribers, who typically exhibit more early adopter characteristics than customers of other wireless carriers, were the most likely, among those surveyed, to be interested in mobile video services.
• By 2009, mobile video services will account for approximately 14.9% of total wireless data revenues.

Views from Lisa Wellman & Terry Wellman

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