Convergence is already here, and it’s a Good Thing™
As Professor Rich Gordon highlights, Convergence is a tricky thing to define. Gordon latches on to Ithiel de Sola Pool’s explanation:
“The current convergence between historically separated modes of communication lies in the habitability of digital electronics. Conversation, theater, news and text are all increasingly delivered electronically … [E]lectronic technology is bringing all modes of communications into one grand system.”
Not only is this exciting, but it is already happening for me in a real, concrete way. There are two obvious examples of how converged media directly benefit me as a student here at Northwestern. First is something almost everyone here can relate to: NUTV. Second is the Byzantine-yet-powerful Voice-over-IP telephony system I rely on.
Every Northwestern student has benefited from the convergence of IP and coaxial cable networks. In response to persistent student complaints about not being able to access TV in their rooms – either because reception was poor in the university’s old, plaster-and-chicken-wire-walled dorms or because students wanted to watch cable channels – the university IT department introduced NUTV. Though relatively advanced multicasting technology is required to stream 24 channels across a 10Base/T network, to students it’s totally transparent. With the NUTV back end, students can turn their computers into televisions with a simple Java application. The key here is that rather than support a new kind of network like installing broadcast signal boosters or wiring every room for cable, the university digitized TV signals and sent them out over its pre-existing IP network. Not only was this cheaper, but it also allows the university to be much more nimble in the future; when (OK – if) the FCC finally makes digital broadcasting standard, modifying NUTV will simply require a new backend. The network itself can remain untouched.
Though NUTV is an obvious and pervasive example of the power of convergence, it does not actually improve the television experience beyond pushing it to new locales in a less expensive manner. My experience with VoIP telephony, however, not only brought landline style phone service to me more cheaply, but it also drastically improved the phone’s functionality. After moving into my fraternity last year it became painfully clear that my cell phone simply would not work in my room unless I was willing to stick my head out the window every time I wanted to make or receive a call. I also had a roommate, so I couldn’t send private calls to my room phone. So, an internet-based phone line seemed like the optimal solution.
My VoIP line operates transparently; so transparently, in fact, that I don’t even know the phone number for it. When someone calls my cell phone and I don’t answer for any reason – be it that I don’t have reception or that I simply rejected the call – rather than call forwarding to my carrier’s voice mail system, I’ve set it to forward to my VoIP number. If I’m in my room, I can answer the phone. If not, it goes to the VoIP voicemail. When someone leaves a message, the VoIP system records it as a WAV file, attaches it to an email and sends it to a GMail account. From here a GMail rule determines that it is a voicemail, automatically archives the message, and sends a copy of it directly to my cell phone. In this way I still get instant voicemail notification, even though my voicemail system is totally separated from my cellular carrier. The benefits of this system are threefold. First, of course, I effectively created cell phone service in an area where there was none before. Second, I unified my messaging. All asynchronous communication is stored in a single, date and time stamped, searchable archive. Third, I can move my self-created cell phone service anywhere where I have access to the Internet. Not only is this extremely helpful for a standard college student (who is inherently mobile) but for myself in particular. Next quarter when I am abroad on TM, friends and family in the US can call my cell phone and speak to me, regardless of where I actually am.