Comment Articles

Mind the cultural gap

Rupert Goodwins AnchorDesk

Published: 31 Oct 2001 17:17 GMT

There are various things missing from the digital industry at the moment, not least the customer. But one thing remains in ample supply -- the giant ocean of meaningless guff which daily batters our crumbling sea defences of scepticism and logic.

Take 'Net guru' Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of the MIT Media Lab. Here is a man who can reliably raise my blood pressure to the point where my kidneys self-puree, and in a recent interview with the BBC he demonstrates exactly why. His vision of a digital future -- already, the little veins in my forehead are starting to throb -- is one where 3G is nowhere, because "it's a dog" that "doesn't exist" and "is not good enough because it doesn't give the consumer enough difference". This is, apparently, because cellphone companies have been "knuckle-heads" and incremental improvements are never worth having.

No, Nicholas. While it might be true that the American cellphone world has been marked by knuckle-headedness, the European experience has been somewhat more positive -- by concentrating on standards, harmonisation and utility, a true global network has been built in somewhat under a decade. As for 3G not giving the consumers enough difference -- if adding high-resolution graphics and audio, precision location services and tight integration with the Internet isn't difference enough, one wonders what would do the trick.

Perhaps one problem is jealousy: while digital media and communications has changed the world through the Web, GSM phones, DVDs, PDAs and so on, the Media Lab has been responsible for very little that's touched us. Compare this to Xerox PARC, which has laser printers, Ethernet, the mouse and graphical user interfaces to its credit. Or, one can look at the Media Lab's Web site, where lives a 97-page file with over 300 ongoing projects. There are some nice ideas -- I particularly like the self-powered wireless button that squirts an ID into the ether when someone presses it -- but there are many more post-modern nightmares such as the Car of the Future designed on architectural principles.