While poking around looking for info on Zune, I came across a blog at Accenture that is based on a concept I hadn't heard of yet - Trivergence, or the convergence of devices, data, and software-based controls in a networked environment. The initial post, The Birth of Trivergence, explains it well, and a separate page, Trivergence Basics, explains it in more depth. The blog is done by Andy Zimmerman, head of a consulting group that deals with the major US telcos and cablecos.
recently guys in my practice had been talking a lot about the ubiquity of network access—or "IP Everywhere" as they put it. Maybe there is something there—maybe in the area of devices. Then I happened upon a Sun Microsystems piece that predicted 17 billion networked devices by 2012.
Now this is getting interesting! A lot of those devices are going to be small and inaccessible, and you need some way to control them remotely. Voila! The SoftPanel: A user portal into the world of devices.
Devices with no buttons. That’s really cool. That’s something to talk about! But am I making this all up?
About then Apple introduced the iPod Shuffle. In his product announcement, Steve Jobs talked about the problem of putting complex controls on a device the size of a package of chewing gum. His designers came up with the epiphany that not everything had to be on the device itself, but—thanks to ubiquitous networking—some functions could be relocated to the PC. OK, it’s happening. I kicked out my $99 and got one. My God! This stuff really works!
Once I got it, the whole thing seemed obvious. Almost everyone I explained the concept to—colleagues, clients, friends and family—also got it right away.
Interesting stuff. We will be (and in many cases already are) controlling a multitude of devices through interfaces that reside on other devices. This has many potential implications for clinical research, and I will look for ways to explore them more as time goes by.
Comments