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Broadband Internet evangelist George Gilder addressed the SBS Seoul Digital Forum on May 7, revealing his special brand of unfettered optimism.
The widely hailed and criticized author of "Telecosm" told the audience that his interest now lies in imaging technology and digital cameras. Gilder's latest vision is that not just cameraphones, but digital cameras will record hundreds of millions of photos of this global village, which will then be transmitted and stored.
Broadband Internet evangelist George Gilder thinks that imaging technology and digital cameras connected together by high-speed Internet are hot
Digital cameras are even becoming edible, he exclaimed, citing the example of pellet cameras loaded with sensors and a transmitter that can be taken with water, pass down the esophagus, stomach and intestines to take pictures and send data about one's viscera to a computer.
Glider's dream of the future has already been realized with innovations in imager chip technology like Foveon, that collects all three primary colors on every pixel.
"The chip itself will increasingly bear lenses and other apparatus required for capturing high resolution images wherever they are needed," he said. "As Korea becomes the leading user of microchips in advanced applications, Korea will invade the world with its ascendant silicon intelligence. Perhaps the most important new frontier of Microcosm and Telecosm is the camera or imager."
He predicted Samsung Electronics would be at the center of the future of the explosive demand for these memory chips.
Gilder has long been a vocal advocate of the Korean model of 75% broadband Internet penetration.
"I live in rural Massachusetts. The only broadband available is between my hard drive in my computer and my Samsung screen," he quipped, adding that the United States is far behind at just 18%.
"Koreans will kill TV!" he said, pointing to the "massive dinosaurs" of influential American TV networks proactively stifling U.S. broadband to levels that cannot support full motion video in order to hold their market share.
Gilder said that widely distributed broadband network would kill the TV advertising model, since it is based on capturing reluctant "eyeballs."
"It is totally based on wasting the customer's time, and it will die this year," he said. As Gilder made this startling prediction, I observed Lee Jae Woong, the CEO of Daum Communications, the biggest threat to Korean TV networks in the competition for advertising dollars, stifle a big smile.
"The competitive edge of TV networks will remain as sharp as before in the Internet age"
Gilder's statement is already a reality here in Korea. According to the president of KT, Lee Yong Gyeong, the average Korean watches 14.1 hours of television per week. Internet usage now weighs in at 13.47 hours per week, and has the potential to outdo television as the most influential media source.
Lee did offer one prediction that might alleviate the fears of companies like the Seoul Broadcasting System. He said that in the area of program content production, networks would be able to remain competitive even in the Internet age.
Gilder once predicted that network capacity will double every four months, the so-called "Gilder's Law." The large-scale increase and revolution in communication companies is most exciting, he said, indicating that trans-Pacific fiber optic cable will drive an enormous revolution in capacity but if companies do not find end users for it, they'll ultimately go bankrupt.
Of all the OECD nations, the United States has a pitiful record of broadband penetration, disappointing Gilder to no end. He said his solace was that the "digital divide" is not between developed and developing nations so much as it is Korea set apart from the rest of the world in information technology.
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2004-05-11 14:25 |
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©2004 OhmyNews
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