IDEABOLT: It is well-known that the media constrains the creator, but (as Hofstadter so eloquently explains in Le Ton Beau De Marot) constraints lea to innovati

IDEABOLT: It is well-known that the media constrains the creator, but (as Hofstadter so eloquently explains in Le Ton Beau De Marot) constraints lea to innovation. AFAIK, currently we have the following new media transformations/revolutions going on (in order of how far they are in the transformation): 1. Music: The old N songs bundles in one container is gone. Note that the replacement of LPs with CDs didn't bring in the revolution, it was just repackaging. MP3 players did it. 2. News: N news items bundled in a paper is getting replaced by news readers that mix and match 3. Book publishing: Natural constraints of having N words in a book (after all, it's hard to publish a book with 20-30 pages, although this seems to be the natural length of many business books) 4. TV: The constraint of watching live has been broken (thanks to DVRs) but programs are still relatively arbitrarily grouped by channels. In most cases, a new device brings about the major change (MP3 player, iPad, Kindle, DVR). The last frontier, I think is TV, where arbitrary sets of programs are combined into channels which are in turn bundled into sets (i.e. you can't only subscribe to a list of channels you select). Companies that aim to transform one of these fields should understand that they need to be in the business of producing at least some of the content in that field, they can't just be bit pushers and rehashers. That's why, Amazon should publish books and have short story competitions for Kindle Singlets and Google (and Apple) should buy a TV station or at least a production company.