De Gruyter Handbook of Media Technology and Innovation

Book excerpt: The De Gruyter Handbook of Media Technology and Innovation brings together scholars from around the world to provide key insights on emerging technology trends and issues related to the fields of media management, information technology, product design planning and digital lifestyle. This handbook is about the power of good ideas. It’s about those business enterprises, government planners, educators and entrepreneurs that have harnessed the power of good ideas to become real difference makers in the world we live in. Keeping pace with fast paced technology change requires ongoing assessment and reassessment of the media management and technology fields to address important questions and emerging issues. A major premise of this book is that given the complex and ever-changing state of media technology – we have a responsibility and obligation to engage in a broader interdisciplinary dialogue whose purpose is to understand the current and future state of media technology and innovation as well as to appreciate the social impact that such technologies have on business, education and the general public. Forecasting the future, as any weatherperson or stock broker can tell you, is a risky business. But in this book we use the phrase "the creative next step" as a way to talk about the future and what we can expect in terms of the opportunities and challenges going forward.