We need a new taxonomy.
What the hell does “digital” mean?
I mean, what the hell does it mean in the context of analysts, consultants, the trade press and the way agencies and clients use it?
“We need to be digital.”
“You aren’t digital enough.”
“They are really digital!”
“We are 100 percent digital.”
“They have no digital.”
And on and on and on….
I say this as I meant to report on the IPAD, and in reading various reviews and opinions I was struck by the way people use the word/term/idea/concept digital – mostly with no meaning and little understanding.
And almost never with any appreciation of the average everyday user of the devices, channels, content and applications that digital technology has enabled and empowered.
I have just given you the first clue….
So let’s start with a general definition:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/digital
dig·i·tal (d j -tl)
adj.
1.
a. Relating to, or resembling a digit, especially a finger.
b. Operated or done with the fingers: a digital switch.
c. Having digits.
2. Expressed in discrete numerical form, especially for use by a computer or other electronic device: digital information.
3. Electronics
a. Relating to or being a device that can generate, record, process, receive, transmit, or display information that is represented in discrete numerical form.
b. Relating to or being a service that provides information expressed in discrete numerical form: We subscribe to digital cable.
4. Relating to or being a profession or activity that is performed using digital devices: a digital librarian; digital photography.
5. Using or giving a reading in digits: a digital clock.
6. Characterized by widespread use of computers: living in the digital age.
n.
I love the finger one – reminds me of the digital switch on my Kindle….
You can also BING it or follow mine:
Bottom line – we have made the term meaningless – in fact beyond meaningless.
Which, of course, opens up a challenge and an opportunity….
A new language of description and engagement. A taxonomy that makes sense.
What is a magazine? What is TV? What are apps…really? What is the Internet? What is a Web site? You get the point.
So I thought a great place to start might be Facebook and the definition of friends – critical to understanding what is really happening in that world.
Listen:
“Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren’t bad people; they’re just acquaintances.” Jay Leno
And there you have it….
What’s your view???
So just for fun… also from the free dictionary…
Analog (adjective)
Measuring or representing data by means of one or more physical properties that can express any value along a continuous scale. For example, the position of the hands of a clock is an analog representation of time. Compare digital.
1. Of, relating to, or being a device in which data are represented by continuously variable, measurable, physical quantities, such as length, width, voltage, or pressure.
So is our digital work generating a lot of analog data, like Clicks for example, as an analog for curiousity?
And for more fun… from 1996 edition of Newton’s Telecom Dictionary:
2. In telecommunications, in recording or in computing, digital is the use of a binary code to represent information. Analog signals – like voice or music – are encoded digitally by sampling the voice or music analog signal many times a second and assigning a number to each sample. Recording or transmitting information digitally has two major benefits. First, the signal can be reproduced precisely. In a long telecommunications transmission circuit, the signal will progressively lose its strength and progressively pick up distortions, static and other electrical interference “noises.” In analog transmission, the signal, along with all the garbage it picked up, is simply amplified. In digital transmission, the signal is first regenerated. It’s put through a little “Yes-No” question. Is this signal a “one” or a “zero?” The signal is reconstructed to what it was identically. Then it is amplified and sent along its way. So digital transmission is much “cleaner” than analog transmission. The second major benefit of digital is that the electronic circuitry to handle digital is getting cheaper and more powerful. It’s the stuff of computers. Analog transmission equipment doesn’t lend itself to the technical breakthroughs of recent years in digital.
Does all of our digital cut out and cut through the noise???
(Most of the creative folks I know would be rather offended if their work was termed “binary”…).
Putting a number on an emotion ….. and accidentally stumbling upon un-foreseen dividends.
How else could we have transitioned from the emotionally taxing “He loves me, he loves me not” to the mentally liberating “maybe he is not all that into me” ?. Someone must have broken the “he loves me, he loves me not” equation into 2 different actions, took iterative observations, collected the metrics and stumbled upon an un-foreseen dividend – that has liberated many from having to go through the anxiety of a very analog “he loves me, he loves me not” to a very close to digital “may be he is not all that into me” that is snazzier than an xcelcius dashboard!
Okie dockie…got to get back to work…
digital – its the vehicle of personal freedom,thought and mobility.YET it leaves incriminating finger prints all over our lives. (just ask Tiger!).
Digital is only an alter-ego.
His right name is Robert Fitzgerald Diggs. He’s a member of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Is Digital sound really better?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/business/media/10audio.html?scp=1&sq=audio%20sound&st=cse
The issue is not to define teh word digital — teh issue is to define whta it really means — in all aspects
Digital (as a proxy name for internet, computing, wirless, etc.) is massive in its effects on society, economy, nationality, etc. At the micro level it is a channel and channels for all sorts of message and media. My biggest concern is that “Digital” when used by most people I meet is the latest talking point refuge for the vast majority of people in marketing, who stop learning somewhere in their 20s. They hide behind nebulous talk about ‘digital’ – this area needs less talk and more expertise. When will people start glossing over – clients in especial? Since “digital’ maybe lost to us – we need a word that does not invite ether clouds of thought. Maybe a portmanteau word or a compound word the Germans are so fond of – as a start = binarywirelesswebconnectivity. Dull yes, but at least says something
@Craig:
) It’s about \virtual\ and real/analog living.
What do you think about: \I am on.\ and \I am off.\ (and yes, I am german
In fact yesterday I read an article in an analog german newspaper about the web as a drug and how hospitals begin developing cures for what we would call heavy users. It is the first time that the addicted are not able to stop using their drugs. They still need it for work etc.
Digital is the new Online, which was the new Interactive, which was the new New Media, which was the new Multi-Media, which was the new something else. Those of you that can guess my age from this line SHOULD be digital. Those that can’t probably ARE digital.
Which means, Digital will become the new Divide (which used to be the Gap) unless we make it the new Bridge.
Which, when you get down to it, is what our clients need us to help them to do: make Digital the new Bridge.
to cross the gap…