At 11:49 AM -0600 3/11/05, Janice Windborne wrote:
>Am I the only person who hasn't seen this?  I am sorry it is only in
>English, but it brings up some interesting questions for us even if
>it is "fictional" history.

Beautifully constructed.

Thanks very much, Janice.

Did you notice the one item that was missing from the narrative? It
was vocal (only in English, as you mentioned, but that is relatively
minor - I am sure people will want to dub it onto different languages
and let it grow), and that is the differentiator they have missed
highlighting, in the media mix. I am sure you have all seen the very
recent article in Businessweek, called Internet Radio 101
(http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2005/tc2005037_3846_tc024.htm).

More then ever before, people can connect anywhere, anytime, in any
language of their choice - using their oral and aural senses. I think
the BW article is spot on, and that, as in efforts currently on to
improve machine translation of text, there will be bots appearing
soon that will provide machine translation of speech*, and with the
spread of cheap and maybe free broadband, the limits of reaching out
and touching will be gone forever.

(* and if not, there will always be human translators eager to do it)

1984-2014: The connection with the anniversary of thirty years of
popular personal computing, the same year that the end of personal
freedom was once predicted, is a little insider (black) humor.
--
Vickram