Earlier I wrote about a new technological advance in camera lens production that will significantly change the quality of digital camera phones. According to Wired Magazine "Eventually, liquid lenses could fundamentally change the mechanics of the camera."
Now, according to a San Jose Mercury News technological innovations in cellular telephony, "promises to turn cellular phones into mobile blogging tools."
"Rabble" is a new technology that streamlines text and image processing from a cell phone to a Weblog.
Rabble enables a new kind of self-expression that informs, entertains and connects people through the media they create. Create your channel and post location-based media - your favorite places, photos or an up-to-the-minute newsworthy event. It's like putting virtual sticky notes on the world around you. Then connect with your world. Tell Rabble where you are and it will show you who is around you and the media they have created. Through bits of location-tagged media, find and interact with other people and get information you won't find in the yellow pages. Part blogging, part location-based personal networking, Rabble connects you with the world in a unique and intuitive way by turning "users" into "producers" and creating a marketplace for mobile user-generated content.
Some advocates that the technology will a new generation of citizen shutterbugs and amateur news hounds reporting on events.
Predicting the impact a new technology will have on society in such a generalized way is problematic. I am suggesting that predicting media futures is dangerous because so much of the discourse surrounding the technology is either based on self-serving marketing hype or the media's buy-in of it. Without careful consideration of the more historical, social, economic, political or ideological impact of the new technology as a form of cultural practice, high-tech news is often simply high-tech hype.
Only time will tell.