1a) Genre/subsite of tv website, BBC Drama

BBC drama page.

The page itself is very simple, The image shown is the entire page. It is all compact, all the information is in a small square, so computers running on higher resolutions can see the whole page without scrolling anywhere. I think that a diaplay running even lower as 600x800 could see the page in its entirety.


The website, www.bbc.co.uk/drama itself has an easy to remember address, which anchors my feelings that this website is aimed toward an older audience, one who is interested in BBC drama, but wants to find out more, possibly males and females aged 40+. I think this because the website is very very easy to navigate, everything is set out very well, under bold headings, with popular programmes getting image links, Heroes, Holby City etc. There are also links to other parts of the BBC website, which may interest the surfer, for instance, Doctor Who has a strong fanbase, but the programme itself has it's own website, so a link image is provided.

The technology I can see it replacing is magazines mainly. The information provided is the kind of thing provided in TV magazines, for instance on the Heroes website, there is an episode guide, and interviews with the cast.

IMMEDIACY
All the information is avaliable at the click of a button. No waiting for the next issue to be delivered to the shop.

INTERACTIVITY
There are messageboards for individual programmes. Flash games are playable.

VERTICAL INTEGRATION
The links to other bbc websites allows the user to see other content, whilst the bbc keeps an audience.

6) indie fansite PMC

Pokemon.marriland.com is an independant, unofficial pokémon fansite based in the USA.

It has a mostly white and blue colour scheme, with pictures of pokémon splashed around. The main page is set up as a blog, with the latest 5 posts by the admin in the centre. On the left is a menu bar, with links to all the sections, a main heading for diferent games, utilities and pokémon card lists. These include Diamond/Pearl; TCG spoilers; and Video Game info. The D/P contains ammong other things, a walkthrough of the game, a searchable pokédex, and a utility for building a squad. The TCG spoilers contain information about each card in each trading card set, and the videogame information contains things for older pokémon games. The headings for each section have the iconic image of a pokéball on each side of the heading name.

The site also has a forum, which has thousands of posts on various pokémon and non pokémon topics.

This site is pretty much essential for anyone who loves pokémon, and who plays the pokémon games.

NARROWCASTING

This site is targeted at people who love pokémon, which is a niche audience.

REACH

Anyone who loves pokémon can access this site easily.

IMMEDIACY

Pokémon fans can access the website any time, and not have to wait to find something out.

7) leisure activity

StumbleUpon is what leeches all of the time that i should spend on everything. It's kind of a cross between a blog, a social networking site, but these are both uses that are dwarfed by the main point of stumbleupon's existance.

Simply put, it is a browser toolbar that allows users to discover new wesites based on a set of interests that the user selects upon signing up. The user can "thumbs up" a page to add it to your personal blog of pages that you like, and your stumbles get more personally tailored. You can also "thumbs down".

If you thumbs up a page that no one else has, a window pops up, and you classify what genre the page is of, and stumblers that have selected that interest get to stumble upon the site you added to the database.

It relates to any audience, as there are so so many interests that are up for choosing. It seemingly exists solely to waste time, although it offers the ability to find new things in the internet with relative ease.

Like channel surfing for the internet.

INTERACTIVITY
It allows people to add any website to the datable of pages to stumble upon, and has a blog feature.

IMMEDIACY
As it is on your browser window, just one click and you are taken to a website relevant to your interests.

PERSONALISATION
This has so much personalisation. Each individual member has a blog of pages that they thumbs up, which is personalisable by colour. You can add pages you like, you can choose your topics.

TIMESHIFT
You can press the button any time.

QUALITY
Not necessarily higher quality, but you always get something interesting to your taste as you choose your tastes.

DIVERSIFICATION
allows users to find new things within their interest.

HORIZONTAL NETWORK
Other people thumbs up pages which you stumble upon, so they provide for others with no personal gain.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

8) Converged, portable tech

The iPhone. According to Apple, and fans of apple, the best thing since Jesus. The absolute pinnacle of portable convergance, it combines an MP3 player, an organiser, email, internet, a 2 megapixel camera with video, it has a touch screen with multi-touch capabilities, full qwerty keyboard, bluetooth connectivity and wifi connectivity.

Oh, and it also makes phonecalls.

All in all, this isn't a particularly new idea, but as it has been hyped, then hyped again, and finally overhyped, it is seen as a new wonder in technology.

The "unique selling point" of an iPhone, is its convergance. Steve jobs, when announcing the iPhone said it was a 3-in-1, an "iPod", a mobile phone, and an "internet communications device".

The thing about the iPhone, is that it isn't actually very good at any of these things. As an ipod, it flounders due to its poor hard drive, as a phone, it fails in its non ability to perform basic phone functions, such as sending MMS (picture) messages, and as an "internet communications device" it loses it's glam wow factor by the fact that it gets so fingerprinty after one week that it's barely useable, due to the only keyboard being the touch screen.

So it is effectively replacing the PDA/mobile/mp3 player by this one piece of hardware.

It is relevant in business, and to people who like to feel important. This is due to its conferance call ability and its email ability to be constantly emailable about anything any time. It is used to keep things less complicated, keeping less devices on onesself at one time, and for this, i suppose it works.

With such a converged product, there will be obviously many institutions involved. Apple, and its iTunes, provide vertical networking, as you need to buy music to put on the iphone, youtube has its own little video application on it, and O2 in the UK and AT&T in the US have exclusive rights to sell the iphone on contract.

They specifically do not allow any horizontal networking; no homebrew applications may be put on the phone, and i guess this counts as regulation, although it is probaly a bit extreme.

I think the main point i am trying to make, is that to create convergance, you will ultimately have to sacrifice some of the overall quality. When was the last time a phone had a decent camera?