Blink-e

Print Action, Feb 2005 by Robinson, Jon

In this issue alone, I asked four people I interviewed what they think the iPod generation means for the future of communications. It is a question that I have been asking for many months, because there is a tremendous momentum behind this technology. It will definitely affect the printed medium, most obviously in terms of ad spend. As much as printers want to offer innovative media solutions, so do most advertising firms and WiFi will one day offer interesting personalized marketing campaigns.

This small, wireless hardware technology, which organizes and re-purposes gigabytes of information even though it is the size of a pack of gum, is building a new era in the consumption of rich content. Print built its dynasty around the consumption of rich content. The difference, of course, is that one medium is much more viable in its ability to present personalized rich content.

Oh, and of course, this movement is being driven by a group of youth who are just a few short years away from becoming very serious media buyers. And I use the words very serious media buyers, for whom patience is not an option and visual content display is everything. If you blink, e-commercc applications used by your client might pass by unnoticed.

If you are one of those people who stress relationship-based sales, then it is vital to understand the current and future media consumption habits of your clients. Again, this is particularly true now that other mediums are officially organizing rich content.

Zac Bolan provides a very interesting piece from MacWorld 2005, where, once again, Steve Jobs' keynote address received the lion's share of attention. Bolan explains why all of all this iPod-like technology is important to anyone involved in the graphic communications industry.

Technology writer Peter Rojas was gracious enough to let us run excerpts from his minute-by-minute live blog of Jobs' keynote. It is included to provide a very different view of what important trends Jobs noted in his speech. While both Zac and Peter focused on the same major points, I was fascinated just reading through the live keynote update because it provided a sense of how far digital media applications and platforms have come in a few short years.

Artist Ken Danby, who kindly permitted PrintAction to publish his iconic painting "In the Crease" on the cover, speaks about this re-purposing phenomenon and how vital it is for our world to get back some of its grassroots creativity.

Creative thinking is the foundation of most successful business and the innovation it brings is vitally important for smaller companies to compete against the large companies that usually have more of a say about the technology and direction of an industry. Economist Al Goss this month has tracked the world's largest commercial printing company, since it was formed one year ago.

Jan Robinson - Editor