The social, on demand, online, time shifted, place shifted future

I have for the past couple of years been using a Home Theater PC (HTPC) solution built on top on Windows and Mediaportal . It has posed several interesting technological problems, ranging from hard disc space, failing power supplies, to integrating DVB-T cards. The next challenge will be integration of HD transmission using DVB-T2 and MPEG4. But this post is not about all that but something more interesting… and the true paradigm shift in entertainment and learning.

My 4,5 year old daughter and my 3 year old son has always had this solution available to them. They have truly grown up to a on demand online media entertainment. Our TV-ritual is simple, they take turn wishing for something to see. Sometimes it is Pippi Longstocking, sometimes Postman Pat. From time to time we also introduce new experiences to them like a new series. The way I do this is simple, I record interesting TV-series and store them on the computer and serve them on demand to the children. However sometimes they wish for something else, often I can find it on online sites like svtplay.se, Voddler or YouTube. An example was the wish to see some motorcycles, a simple search on YouTube found enough video to satisfy a three year olds heart desire. This has naturally introduced a problem, when we visit others without this kind of solution, the children has learned the term "Live TV". Live TV simply means not watching what you want when you want it.

A very good feature using this kind of solutions is the availability to pause everything , including live TV (a life saver for anyone with the desire to see the news and having small children). In the future I expect I will make sure we go from a single stand alone solution to a central media server and clients in different rooms or even mobile. Enabling an on demand, online, time shifted and place shifted media experience.

But the above is also true when it comes to music, images etc. We buy music either on CD or online and store that on the computer. But since there is good online services out there the need for local storage is rapidly decreasing. A good example of a online service is Spotify and more will be created in the future.

The social aspect of all this comes in form of the possibility to share what you are watching or listening to using your favorite social network. Spotify integrated with Facebook not long ago.

When I started to build this solution most seemed to be more technologically skilled than me, almost developers themselves. These days the software and hardware is getting better and easier making this technology available to everybody. Either as a stand-alone solution like a TiVo or as a PC-solution. I expect to see server solutions in the future taking advantage of solutions like Windows 7, Windows Media Center, XBOX 360 (with Kinect) and Windows 7 phones (and naturally the equivalent on Apple or Linux…). That is, an integrated kit of appliances and applications .

Now to the interesting bit - My children will enter the school system and eventually (I hope) a university in 15 years. During this time other kids will have grown accustomed to this kind of solutions giving higher education institutions only a few years to prepare for the kind of students that expect an social, on demand, online, time shifted and place shifted learning experience. Some say this future is already upon us, some that it will take a little while longer, but only a few that it will never happen. There is need for much action to prepare for this future both in faculty/staff training and in technological solutions (mainly making things easier much much easier). Over the years the terms used for this new reality has differed, these days I guess Virtual Learning Environments is often used (at least in Europe). Naturally one can argue that the birth of this paradigm shift lies elsewhere, but from my perspective the key here lies in the perspective. My children doesn't understand live TV, it is unnatural, the abnormal behavior (even though I guess they will be forced to learn that there is a harsh world out there). Live TV is something as archaic as dinosaurs and black and white TV sets.

The normal behavior is the social, on demand, online, time shifted and place shifted experience!