Topic: Entertainment

As the release of smart phones and tablet PCs fill technology reports Brian Roberts reminds us that cable TV is still a part of most people's lifestyle. Talking about the development of On Demand television and an impending application store for your TV, the idea of technological convergence between computer and TV seems ever closer. John Battelle challenges Roberts to answer questions on the future of cable in an online video world.

Do great ideas just pop into the heads of lucky geniuses? Getting ideas on a reliable basis is important in a business culture. Brainstorming, although 80 years in existence, is still not well understood. Gayle Curtis explains the rules of brainstorming, or structured ideation, and how proper brainstorming not only promotes ideas, but also promotes a culture of respect, acceptance of points-of-view, and an attitude that continues to foster better ideas.

What are the key elements that create real player engagement in a game? Nicole Lazzaro, president of XEODesign and expert on emotion and player experience design, identifies where on the emotional map game creators must take us to make their games popular and successful. The games that keep us coming back provide us with more than mere amusement. They challenge, surprise, and relax us while creating opportunities for what we really seek at the end of the day--a chance for social interaction.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Professor Jesse Schell, from the Entertainment Technology Center, about the serious task of designing video games.

Steve Jelley, Eric Lindstrom, Matt Locke, and Jeremy Silver discuss digital media in the context of teen social networking, books, activism, and predictions of what the digital future will look like. Because we are a social race and need to communicate, content will remain even when platforms mutate and we create and talk about content in new ways. Each panelist gives his predictions of the dramatic changes which will define the digital world just ten years from now.

What do you get when you apply Moore's law to robotics and GPS? Chris Anderson, of Wired magazine, explains what you get in this Where 2.0 presentation. Cheap and ubiquitous location technologies combined with robotic toys have given birth to a thriving amateur Unmanned Aerial Vehicles community. Though these sophisticated spy toys, which are powered by open source software, are usually flying just for the fun of it, the federal regulators are trying to figure out what is even legal, in this brave new little world.

Jeremy Silver discusses why the world of music in the internet age is on the edge of enormous change, but not on the edge of disaster. Silver reviews the recent difficult history of the music industry since the growth of the internet. He sees positive signs in the many areas of experimentation in music activity. Although the new business models are not proven, there is tremendous energy at work.

Eric Lindstrom, cofounder of VideoJuicer, believes that story telling in the television industry is going to change because of the Internet. He talks about what a hub site and an aggregator site is, and which one you'd need at which stage in building your brand. He also talks about the impact of time-shifting in daytime programming, and how the television industry perceives the Internet as a solution to their problem known as the DVR (digital video recording).

"Electoral Dysfunction 2008" is a sample of some of the political comedy that is taking on the presidential campaigned. The sketch show is performed by Kansas Public Radio's Right Between the Ears comedy troupe. This is an excerpt from the full show which is an hour of high energy take-offs and put-ons, spiced with off-the-wall sound effects and music.

On February 17, 2009, all analog television broadcasting in the United States will convert to digital. Millions of households will need to either replace their televisions, sign up for cable or satellite service, or install a digital signal converter. While the Federal government has subsidized these and assured that the switch will be cheap and easy, a reporter for IEEE Spectrum radio who tries it herself finds that for her, it is neither cheap nor easy.