All media -- TV, Internet, stereo, VCR, computer -- will soon reduce to one box, enabling you to interact with galaxies of information and entertainment material. Time magazine predicted: "All content -- movies, music, shows, books, data, magazines, recipes, and home videos -- will be instantly available anywhere on demand."
Convergence will allow for such goodies as contextual shopping. You'll watch a Madonna concert (which of course, would begin whenever you want). You want to see what she looks like from behind. No problem, one click. Then you decide you like her shoes. One click and you've ordered it, so-called T-commerce. Before turning off your box, you'll be alerted to upcoming attractions based on your past selections.
I believe the killer app will be immersion. Combine the convergence and virtual reality trends, and I predict that millions of people will spend their evenings, not watching sitcoms, but experiencing amazing things in 3D: You'll virtually be flying the Mars Explorer, performing open-heart surgery, exploring the Amazon jungle, batting against Roger Clemens, climbing Mount Everest.
Career implications: Work for an artificial intelligence firm, one of the six broadly diversified content companies (Disney, News Corp, Seagram, Sony, Time Warner, and Viacom) or a broadband Internet infrastructure company such as Inktomi (www.inktomi.com). Also pipe owners (for example, AT&T, which has covered both the phone- and cable-based delivery systems) should be big beneficiaries of the convergence movement. See About.com's portal to info on broadband: http://broadband.about.com , NYU offers a program in interactive telecommunications: http://itp.nyu.edu/html/inf_index.html . More of a hands-on type? Design and build those all-in-one media boxes or the new Internet backbones that will be required to handle the increased bandwidth.
http://www.martynemko.com/articles/cool-careers-excerpt_id1504
