From September 2005 to June 2006 a team of thirteen scholars at the The University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for Communication explored how new and maturing networking technologies are transforming the way in which we interact with content, media sources, other individuals and groups, and the world that surrounds us.

This site documents the process and the results.

the Newest New Media: the OS

2006 marks the start of the second half of the decade and just an hour ago, Apple announced Macbooks with dual-core Intel processors as well as dual-core Intel powered iMacs . Assuming there are no unpleasant surprises, these machines should be able to run Windows, Mac OS X, and various flavors of Linux. In this brave, new world, the OS, becomes nothing more than a form of media. Meanwhile, Google is rumored to be providing an alternative vision of an OS that can run through your web browser. Certainly they have to do something with all that iron they own and those minds they employ.

Why? The OS is becoming the newest new media. I noted all of the different subscriptions being touted during Jobs's keynote: for one, RSS was much in play as you could photoblog your family snapshots up to your .Mac site whereas the new iWeb allows you to post your blog quickly and easily. Meanwhile, by making software that works with a particular OS and a particular web service, Apple ensures that we pay for their subscriptions. The costs will quickly add up: iLife ($79), .Mac ($99), and the OS itself ($129 and much more regularly revised than Windows). So instead of paying for media your consume, you'll be paying for the media you produce. Well, you'll be sure to buy a few songs or vingles at the iTunes store anyway, won't you? Welcome to network culture.

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Submitted by kvarnelis on January 10, 2006 - 9:32pm

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