Digital Convergence creates confusion about the future of media; many smart people are trying to grasp what's changed, and what those changes mean. Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0 aggregates the thinking of several "2.x" usual suspects, and finds some of the best insights in Umair Haque's theory of media economics (link to PowerPoint).

The idea that we’re living in an “attention economy” is nothing new. But unless the media/technology industry starts listening to Umair and focuses on creating new ways to help people efficiently allocate their attention in a world of infinite options, the bubble will pop. And it won’t be pretty.

So let’s focus on the user. What the user needs is help allocating a finite amount of attention. And the solution needs to be personal — perfectly tailored to each user’s needs. The user needs a personal killer app.

Technology Review reports that Nikon is discontinuing most film cameras and focusing on digital. [Link]

Austin's own Bruce Sterling (who's becoming more of a world citizen these days) blogs about Henry Jenkins and MIT's Convergence Culture Consortium, which has a weblog which should be of significant interest. Bruce has reviewed the manuscript for Jenkins' upcoming book, Convergence Culture. About convergence, the MIT site says

here are three core concepts that are central to the way that we at C3 think about the current media landscape. Transmedia entertainment, participatory culture, and brand extension describe the same process as experienced by the creative artist, the media consumer, and the marketer. Each reflects the current moment of media convergence, a process that facilitates the flow of content across the entire media system. To us, media convergence is more than just a technological shift; it is a tectonic shift that has altered the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres and audiences. We believe convergence stands for a process and not an endpoint.

Transmedia Entertainment describes the newfound flow of stories, images, characters, information, and sounds across various media channels, in a coordinated fashion, which facilitates a deepening expansion of the consumer's experience.

Participatory Culture describes the way consumers interact with media content, media producers, and each other as they explore the resources available to them in the expanded media landscape. Consumers become active participants in shaping the creation, circulation, and interpretation of media content. Such experiences deepen the consumer's emotional investment in the media property, and expands their awareness of both content and brand.

Experiential Marketing refers to the development of novel approaches to brand extension and marketing which play out across multiple media channels so that the consumer's identification with the product is enhanced and deepened each time they re-encounter the brand in a new context.