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February 10, 2006DisintermediationBack in the day, say 1994, it was common to say that the web would disintermdiate the middle men. And it did - sort of. A lot of middle functionaries have already vanished. I predict we are about to go through another round of disintermediation that will flatten the value chain even further, reduce the distance between producers and users, and give both a lot more choice. To wit: podcasts, vidcasts, watching last night's TV show on your iPod, distribution out of the home of "content" created in the home, personal devices sending photos and videos. You get the picture and the sound track too -- when, where, and how you want it. I can already see the tire tracks on the suits of the telecos and cablecos. Or are they photon burns? Posted by Jock Gill at February 10, 2006 10:38 AM | TrackBackComments
Not fast enough, Jock, can't get here fast enough. I'm fed up with the spin and filtration that middle men put on information and entertainment. I note the NYT article 06-FEB about IBM's work on television over WiFi; this kind of development could lead to increased disintermediation, disrupting current business models. Concerns me, though, that companies with a vested interest in the status quo will do what they can to co-opt newer "flattening" technologies, preventing their emergence. On the other hand, I hate to think what "reality television" would be like if anybody and everybody could be a producer...there are times when filtration and mediation is a good thing. Posted by: Rayne at February 10, 2006 5:00 PMPost a comment
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