Happy New Decade! Some personal thoughts

 

Wow - managed to survive and prosper during the noughties. Said goodbye to shortwave radio - but also started a major documentation project examining the fundamental changes affecting broadcast media. Radio still remains an important medium - it is just shortwave radio that is no longer mainstream in all but a handful of markets. There were various attempts to launch a digital variant, DRM, but that window of opportunity has closed. No-one needs DRM as a stand-alone technology.

Despite the increasing "theatre of security", i.e. all kinds of performances at airports to make us feel more secure, I still enjoy travelling and meeting people in their own context. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting hundreds of fascinating people during my safaris into emerging technology. I have learned a lot about worlds I never knew existed - and been humbled by the willingness of great minds to answer my questions. It's my hope that many of the recent interviews I've compiled will materialize into a documentary on Radio's Near Future. Thanks for your patience.

I know the media business is tough for many. In the content business, we all have to work longer and harder to get the same financial results we enjoyed just a few years ago. But I feel the friendships I've made in the last couple of years are deeper, more robust and meaningful than in the boom years of business card collecting and "First Tuesdays". Those were the friendships made face-to-face, sometime triggered by social networks like Linked-In and Facebook. I find these networks are great to amplify or reactivate existing relationships, but not much use for starting new ones.

If you came to this website by design rather than by accident, it could be we work together or have done so in the past. I'm fortunate in being able to look back on a wide variety of commissions, - there were none that I didn't enjoy doing. Thanks for your confidence in what I do with Critical Distance and for collaborating on great ideas.

Let's make the next decade even more productive, starting with a successful 2010! I hope our paths cross often.