When a person gets into his or her vehicle to go some place, there's the potential for numerous devices to make "demands" on their attention. There's the old-fashioned radio, the satallite radio, the CD changer, the cassette player, the GPS-based navigation system, the IPOD or similar MP3 player, the cell phone, and now something called Roadcasting.
I discovered the concept of Roadcasting while surfing a site called Eastern Standard Tribe. According to EST,
"It is a system, currently in prototype state, that allows anyone to have their own radio station, broadcasted among wirelessly capable devices, some in cars, in an ad-hoc wireless network. The system can become aware of individual preferences and is able to choose songs and podcasts that people want to hear, on their own devices and car stereos and in devices and car stereos around them".
According to the Roadcast web site, testing is moving along and they have the open source code available for download by developers. So, I assume Roadcast will start popping up all around the country soon. I have one question; is this a technology anybody really needs? Is Roadcasting something anybody really wants?
My questions raise, at least in my mind, a whole host of philosophical questions. Is technology, on its own, good or bad? Is it absolutely necessary to rush out and implement new technology just because "it's there"? Can technological advances actually be a detriment to society as a whole? Or is it how society uses the technology the real issue?
See you next time.
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