multimedia experience: language of new media (78-93)

This particular part of the reading is a nice realization: "All computer users can speak the language of the interface. They are active users of the interface, employing it to perform many tasks... How is it possible that people around the world adopt today something that a twenty-something programmer in Norther California hacked together the night before?" The author then goes on to talk about how cultural languages of today are based on already familiar forms. I think what's interesting about the computer is not only how all users can speak the language of the interface, but are also connected to each other at the same time. Though perhaps content-wise, things are not universal amongst people of the world (language barriers are always a problem), everyone knows what it is to click, highlight, copy, paste, close a window, click a link, use a search engine, on and on and on. We are all "speaking" the same interface. Neat.

Another thing I liked about this portion of the reading is how they touched on the transformative, chameleon-like nature of the computer. It's related to what the last portion spoke about: the computer being a place for both work and leisure. Since the reading also spoke a bit about games, it made me think about things like the Nintendo DS or the Wii. Think about the transformative nature of these two objects: with Wii Sports alone, the remote becomes a tennis racket, a boxing glove, a baseball bat or a bowling ball. The DS does a multitude of things as well, your stylus allows you to cook, operate, play with a dog-- and with the speaker included, often times talking or blowing is incorporated into gameplay. While things like the printed word or cinema can speak to you by what you see or hear, the computer allows you to interact with something in a multitude of ways and through a variety of your senses all at once.

"If we simply mimic the existing conventions of older cultural forms such as the printed word and cinema, we will not take advantage of all the new capabilities offered by the computer." - I agree wholeheartedly with this. Wouldn't there be a lot of innovations that we may not have today if people continued to think in the way existing conventions worked? However, I also think it's interesting that these conventions are probably a lot of what push innovations in technology and interface further: because we want these older cultural forms to be easy and accessible. In this day and age we're all constantly hooked up and connected to the rest of the world. Crazy!