Watch this cool video about the future of the Internet to 2015. The speculations are pretty close to the mark and entirely probable.
The video references Reason Magazine, which sent subscribers an issue with a satellite image of their houses/apartment buildings (with the address listed) on the cover. I was a subscriber at the time (I once flirted with libertarianism), and it threw me for a loop because I had no idea what was going on. It was bizarre. 
The video producers predict, among other things, that Google will merge with Amazon to become “Googlezon.” The power of Google’s search engine, combined with Amazon’s personal recommendations software, will personalize and deliver news to the point where the New York Times will cease its online edition. Bold. With tools like RSS, it could happen.
Based on the online revolution in general and paradigm-shifting changes wrought by social/new media (digital news, blogs [including rants and original reporting], podcasts, RSS, etc.), what are your predictions for the future of communication?
(Hat tip: The Blog Herald)
(Image from An Atlas of Cyberspaces)
Addendum: The video can be interpreted a few different ways. To me, it’s a prediction about the decline of mainstream media and rise of credible participatory journalism (a good thing). For someone else, it may portend the world domination of Google (a bad thing?) and participatory journalism without fact-checks and balances.
The video has been around for a while. I read this funny article about Google in The Onion (satire) last year. Still funny?
Another Addendum: I had the nagging feeling the video was a “mockumentary,” so I e-mailed the producers. I said I liked the video and wondered if it was “serious.” Matt Thompson replied:
Hi La Shawn,
Thanks for your compliment. EPIC may be provocative, but it’s definitely not serious. We talk a little more about its creation here…
Read the story at Poynter Online. I still think it’s clever and worth discussing. 
