Culture-Tech

Welcome to your monthly update at the intersection of technology and the cultural industries. This month I was particularly consumed by internet archiving and Augmented Reality, which seem at first glance like two poles separated by a vast distance. It’s the past vs the future, right? Maybe so, but it seems to me we need…

Welcome to the first Cybercultural newsletter of 2020! My intention with the newsletter going forward is to be your curator for culture-tech innovation and ideas, as well as update you regularly about my own writing activities. I also want to make Cybercultural easier to consume this year. Your email inboxes are busy enough as it…

At the start of 2010 I was running ReadWriteWeb, a tech blog that helped define and chronicle the Web 2.0 era. We had run our first conference the previous year, in Mountain View in the heart of Silicon Valley. The site was growing in leaps and bounds, the online advertising revenue was flowing in, and…

Every December going back to 2004, I’ve done an end-of-year review of the top Internet technology trends. This is my sixteenth year doing this, but the 2019 review will be a little different. This year I’ll be focusing on what I call “culture-tech”: digital technology that is transforming the cultural industries. This, of course, is…

There’s growing evidence that the Web 2.0 ‘Long Tail’ theory is a bust for the online creative sector. Back in 2004, then Wired editor Chris Anderson theorized that blockbusters would matter less in the internet age and that everyone would sell “less of more.” But in today’s cultural world, where Marvel movies dominate and tech…

  Welcome back, Cybercultural subscribers! This week’s theme is how the virtual world is increasingly crossing over into the physical world. From James Dean being digitally reincarnated for a new film role, to the “Touch Video” technology of game developer Flavourworks, to the rise of immersive news, to a newly announced Pokemon GO developer platform,…

The theme of this week’s newsletter is 20th century cultural institutions trying to find their way in the digital-first 21st century. I’ll look at cultural heavyweights like Condé Nast (magazines), The Guardian (news media), HBO (TV) and The British Library (literature). After the fall of the glossy magazine, what’s left of Condé Nast? 🎩 In…

Welcome to your weekly subscriber update. The theme this week is new forms of cultural content in the digital era. I’m not just talking about the obvious changes: from CDs to streaming, paper to screen, etc. Today I’m looking at how the content itself has changed. We all know music is most commonly streamed now,…

Welcome to the first weekly subscriber newsletter in this new phase of Cybercultural. Today I’m debuting a fresh format for the subscriber emails. It’s not too different, but there are a few new twists that I hope you’ll like. Here’s what you’ll be getting every week from now on: A themed newsletter that hits on…

Dear subscribers, After much thought I’ve decided to make some adjustments to Cybercultural. I’m going to shift to one newsletter per week, which will be a long-form email especially designed for subscribers. I’ll continue posting separate articles that will be available to both subscribers and free signups, but these will come out less frequently –…