Me the Media: Rise of the Conversation Society (Past, Present and Future of the Third Media Revolution)

Past, Present and Future of the Third Media Revolution Since the mid 19th century countless innovations have sprung up from American soil, in particular those related to technology and media. With Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States the change that web media can create, is being further satisfied. For example, during the campaign at myBarackObama.com, YouTube and Facebook, and later at Change.gov amongst others, his messages were resonating and swelling in a genuinely democratic way.
Through web media Barack Obama was able to deliberately implement We the People anew, so that each and every individual who chooses to can participate in a variety of ways. It is along these lines that the world is moving ahead from the well-known concept of the Conversation Economy to a Conversation Society, which is the ultimate consequence, if not goal, of what is referred to in this book as the Third Media Revolution.
Me the Media is how we call this multimedia web-based age. The old, trusted mass media have been absorbed by the new media mass in which we all participate as individuals and consumers. After the printing press and movable type, and after such mass media as radio and TV, the modern era of the Web is the Third great Media Revolution undergone by humanity. This sweeping wave has far-reaching consequences: for business, for society, for technology, and for us.
In this Me-Media dynamics composites of digital alter egos are rapidly becoming an accepted form of personal and brand identity. They increasingly form the basis of the social and economic activity in which individuals, organizations, and government engage. The Third Media Revolution e-mancipates physical identities to the Hyperego level: the digital me s we know so well from CNN s iReport, iGoogle, iPhone, myBarackObama, YouTube and the like. All are hyperlinked and super active on the Web, involving citizens, brands, companies and politicians. The coming decades will see us intimately and physically interconnected within our own web by means of ordinary hardware and software, but subsequently also via biochemistry ( wetware ) and nanotech. In this way, life will become one enormous test laboratory for the further development of humanity.

JAAP BLOEM is a senior analyst at VINT, the Research Institute of Sogeti. Jaap previously worked for publishing companies, the Internet Society and KPMG Consulting. In Me the Media, Jaap introduces ITainment as the revolutionary extension of ITech, analyzes our Programming Century, which took off around 1965, and defines the stages of telephony development.
MENNO VAN DOORN is director of VINT, the Research Institute of Sogeti, in Amsterdam. In 2007 Menno was voted IT Researcher of the Year by VNU/Computable. In Me the Media Menno introduces the concept of Media Mass as opposed to Mass Media, to emphasize the impact of modern web Me-Media.

SANDER DUIVESTEIN is a senior analyst at VINT, the Research Institute of Sogeti. Sander was a software architect at Capgemini and an Internet entrepreneur. His expertise on Web 2.0 and the Metaverse has been an important stimulus in the creation of Me the Media.
PETER LEYDEN heads Next Agenda, a new project focusing on transformative agendas into policy-making. Peter previously worked as managing editor at Wired magazine, and was a director of the Global Business Network, a think tank on the future. During Barack Obama s election campaign Peter was director of the New Politics Institute.