Rhymes of History Technology
The rhymes of history describes how in history, a new
development rekindles something from the past (Thornburg, 2009). What comes to mind is the use of Skype
and Facetime, or video conferencing. We know now that we can Skype or Facetime our family and
friends, and business colleagues. The technology makes communication
interactive, fun, and personable. The best part is most of these technologies
are free.
This is not a new technology, but rather a rekindled
technology.
Over 130 years ago, science fiction movies were depicting
face-to-face communication over a television of sorts (Edwards, 2010). According
to Edwards (2010), experiments with actual videophone technology began in 1956
with AT&T. Of course we can
look back now and call the attempt a failure- but knowing what we know now is a
rekindling of the past in ways such as try and try again.
Edwards, B., (2010). 132 Years of the Videophone: From
Futuristic Fantasy to Flops to FaceTime: A visual history of the science
and sci-fi of phone calls you can see. Retrieved from http://technologizer.com/2010/06/14/videophones/3/
Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Emerging and future
technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Skype.com. (2012). Skyp-to-skype calls. Retrieved from http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/features/allfeatures/skype-to-skype-calls/
Diane, good choice of technology for this post; I read an article that summarized the potential popularity of videophones for personal use; the majority did not care to have the option to be in view when talking from home (in PJs or hair mussed up to cite a few reasons). Personally, I don't see the advantage, but I do like the idea of Skype for the military away from family or parents on business trips hanging in the hotel. If the market dictates a need and profit, there will be sales.
ReplyDeleteDavid