As the chapter Converging with Other Emerging Media points out–convergence has moved beyond the website. In the evolution of user interface technologies and satellite ability, it’s pretty hard to be disconnected.
The chapter talks about five different convergence tools: RSS feeds, email, SMS or text messaging, electronic bill boards, and radio broadcast data service (RBDS).
First, RSS feeds–most commonly used by news and blogs sites, are meant to keep bringing the audience back to original sources (not to say that every other form of web communication isn’t doing that). Clever RSS feeds customize for their customers, like the BBC, which lets you chose what country’s news feeds you want.
The author’s comparison of the email to our modern day delivery of news to our door steps is dead-on. But just like the real news papers piling up, this tool requires clean-up in the long run. The New York Times online has a good simple system of sending daily headlines with a little clip of the story (if you choose– you can also choose to get the whole story).
Text messages–while this is becoming trendier, I think it’s most likely the riskiest of the convergence tools, because in some respect, the owner is paying for it. If a person has internet on their phone, then they can easily prescribe to emails and RSS feeds that are “free” and do the same thing (or even twitter). So they don’t need the text message.
On the other hand, SMSs for really specified information like the stock market or traffic updates right at 5 p.m. for a personal route home. For example, Traffic.com lets you customize your routes and will send you texts to your phone if there are traffic delays. Of course, if a tornado is coming through town and you get a text about it, you’re probably grateful also.
And then there are those sights that will down right converge to their inner core–providing all the services, all the time. National Public Radio is the perfect example of one medium adapting to cater to all media convergence, including RBDS systems.
