I've been online since 1995 (pre-Netscape) and consider myself a creature of the Web (obsession to e-mail, willingness to try just about any Web 2.0 application/service, blog-oholic, etc.) but I was blown away impressed earlier today by a presentation given by Jeff Cole, who is director of the USC Annenberg School Centre for the Digital Future. (The event was sponsored by eBay). Cole is heading up an ongoing study looking at how the growth and growing use of the Internet impact what people do online and offline. The audience, which is pretty Web-savvy, was entranced by some of the findings that Cole presented. For a newspaper journalist, however, it was a little depressing because Cole believes newspapers face a declining future over the next 20 to 30 years. Rather than read a newspaper, people will more and more of their information from the Web. So what does this mean for newspapers? Well, it means they need to leverage their brands and credibility to create Web sites/services that generate revenue. Cole also had some ominous news for television industry. He argues television advertising has been in decline since the 1970s when the remote emerged as the way to consume television. A particularly troublesome reality is only 5% of people actually watch television commercials. Does this mean product placements will be the new way to reach consumers? No. So what does the television industry do to survive? Cole said if he knew the answer, he'd be on his private island rather than giving presentations in Toronto in late-March. In any event, it was a fascinating presentation that rasised more questions than answers. If there was any consolation from Cole's presentation is he touched on many of the questions and areas (business, politics, marketing, advertising) we'll be trying to answer at the mesh conference on May 15/16.
Update: I'll augment this post on Sunday with some more facts and figures.