Convergence

Convergence is a cool word. It sounds mystical and exciting. It’s no wonder its being throw into sentences left right and centre.
So what is Convergence?

Like Web2.0 the definition is still be fully explored as society and culture comes to more fully utilise new technologies. For example take the humble home telephone, it sat neatly on a telephone table next to a big book that was full of phone numbers. Fax machines came into being as so did answering machines. So what happened to that humble, single purpose telephone - it became a phone, fax and answering machine all in one. Now the considerations for convergence go a little further than just a mash up on technologies, just because the phone does all those features, doesn’t mean that it is are always or ever used for all those purposes. Perhaps upon purchasing the ‘telephone’ the device that best suited the décor of the house just happened to also be a fax. I have heard more than once someone request that a phone just be a phone. Are we are in a convergent society or perhaps society is being lead into convergence?

So what does this new access to facilities empower the user with? For more indepth look into Convergence view this clip from @henryjenkins