The future

Life is all about differentiation and integration. These two are cyclical in nature i.e. one followed by the other and they can be seen in every walk of life. Even in businesses we can see consolidation happening. For instance most of the TATA subsidiaries were diverse in nature and functioned separately however they have been brought under one umbrella of TATA Group. Convergence is in nature. Even the expanding big stars finally condense into a black hole.

Imagine a place without books, photographs, movies, televisions, stereo systems, letters, post cards, billboards, telephones, and fax machines. That place is not Europe in the Dark Ages but the world that most people in the twenty-first century will inhabit. In lieu of the media that we now take for granted there will be the one great digital medium that replaces the current Internet. The process by which all these separate media become digital and come to be delivered via the global network is known as digital convergence. 

Digital Convergence is the priming of underlying digital technology components and features such as voice, texts, video, pictures, broadcasts, presentation, streaming media, global connectivity and personalized services; the combination of all of these features and abilities from multiple electronic systems into a simplified, converged and computer-mediated communication system to enable individuals interact, play, communicate, collaborate and share information in many new and different ways.” 

Digital convergence will have a monumental effect on the business industry. And businesses that are able to keep up with the changes will fair well. Costly business trips that now include airfare, hotel fees, and meal expenses, will become a thing of the past as a walk down the hall to a conference room will serve the same purpose. Paper media such as books and magazines, will become objects of art.Communication over great distances will take place instantaneously. And cash in your wallet will be considered eccentric as most financial transactions will occur with the push of a button.

 As a part of our MIS (Management Information System) project, we have undertaken to understand and explore the various dimensions of the rise of digital convergence, find its importance in respect to adding value to the business evolution and human development and probe the future of this technology as a means of information sharing. Various factors seem to be adding continuous strength to the expansion of digital convergence. The replacement of the analog medium to digital and the fact that digital materials can be reproduced at any resolution (assuming that one has the storage space and the bandwidth), the introduction of new medium of digital transmission via fibre optics and huge reduction in digital storage and transmission prices are some of the factors which make digital convergence the future of almost everything.

As a part of our project, we will be citing references available of websites, blogs, and online newspaper journals. We will also be looking into the present implementation of digital convergence by analyzing the pros and cons of the new products like VOIP (Voice Over IP) etc which are a product of this technology. Being the end user for some of such products, we will be detailing our experiences and expectations from this new technology.