Social, Economic, and Technological Context

Tribler operates in a global context. The world of television, music, and photography is changing radically due to changes in business models, disruptive technologies, and social shifts. This page lists the global context and shifts in the ecosystem where Tribler operates.

Social

  • Communities are no longer based on geography (e.g. neighbours), but on shared values, belief, and culture.
  • A single individual can be a member of many communities, each reflecting a part of his personal interest.
  • 14-20 year olds: More desire to present publically who you are and what you did, no desire for privacy
  • Continous partial attention
  • People desire more control over what they see/hear/read
  • Desire content access any time, any place, any device
  • Bitsize media consumption: 3 hour movie is unacceptable, 3 minute clip is still OK.
  • P2P is by far the killer application of The Internet in terms of traffic, at 70% and rising.

Economic

  • The speed of innovation is increasing
  • The Internet removes the need for intermediaries
  • The Internet reverses the value chain and puts the prosumer in charge
  • Creative people increasingly do their own branding and cut-the-middleman
  • Winner takes all principle is dominating the digital domain due to networking effects
  • The Internet blurs the dividing line betwee non-profit amateurs and for-profit professional.
    They have increasingly access to the same information and tools.
  • Creative output will at least be doubled when a sea of amateurs joins the professional content creators
  • Journalists, photographers, and directors compete or co-exist with bloggers, Flickr users, and Youtube uploaders.
  • Journalism moves to a bipolar world: local community blogger and international journalist
  • Steady decline in profit margins in the printing world, music industry, and other old media industies.
  • Advertisement spending is contant and shifting from old media to new media

Technology

  • Television with access to all TV channels in the world by 2010
  • Photo realistic HDTV camera capture from a cell phone by 2012
  • Continued PC hardware improvements: 128-bit, 64-core processor by 2012
  • 4 TeraByte PC storage by 2010
  • Home Broadband Internet of 25 Mbps at 9 Euro/month by 2010
  • Communication and entertainment device improvements Tivo/iPod/Blackberry/N95