From Irving Wladawsky-Berger:
USC’s Annenberg Innovation Lab (AIL) was founded in 2010 to study the transformational impact of technology on culture and on the media industries. The Lab is involved in three main kinds of activities: research
on the overall media landscape and its impact on society; design
challenges to promote the development of innovative prototypes,
applications and business ideas; and workshops that bring together
students, faculty, artists, executives and entrepreneurs to discuss
specific problems and come up with new ways of addressing them.
The Lab has a number of industrial partners,
including technology and communication companies like IBM, Verizon and
Cisco, and media companies like Warner Bros, Paramount and BET. I’ve
been a member of AIL’s Advisory Board since it’s founding.
For a technologist like me, it’s been a unique opportunity to learn
about the impact of technology on society through the lens of the
culture being transformed. It’s also been an opportunity to learn about
the major changes underway in the media industries, - among the
industries most disrupted by the digital revolution.
A few months ago, AIL launched The Edison Project, to “explore how the new creators and makers, the new metrics and measurement, the new funding and business models, and the new screens are all combining into a new ecosystem – and how media and entertainment companies can reorient themselves to flourish in this emerging Imagination Economy.”
The
Edison Project is a multi-year, multi-disciplinary collaboration that
aims to bring together USC experts in media, communications, technology,
business and public policy with corporate partners and media startups.
It will explore
the new forces that are so transforming the industry, including the
growing number of innovative creators emerging in social media
platforms; new technologies like wearable devices and virtual reality;
metrics and measurements that will help get a better picture of what’s
going on; and funding and business models, i.e., how do you make money, -
arguably the toughest issue facing media companies.
In a recent online article, AIL Director Jonathan Taplin
notes that the basic premise behind the Edison Project is that the
imagination and creativity being unleashed by advances in technology
will drive economic growth even more than the technology itself. The
global rise of ubiquitous and affordable technologies are leading us to a
kind of imagination economy, a participatory culture where social wonders are more important than technology, and enabling experiences have more value than specific products and services.
But, he also notes that these changes are hitting the media industries particularly hard. “The
Hollywood blockbuster model is collapsing under skyrocketing production
and marketing costs, broadcast TV is declining, and everything from
news to games to music to publishing is in the midst of a massive
reinvention.”...MORE
