Page 147 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2015147the very nature of the web. Users participate actively, with comments, by exchanging and recommending content, or by creating their own. The web as “conversation” between users, brands and organisations has come to the forein the business world. Museums, publishers or authors, and creators have developed a modelof digital presence through the social networks that enables them to remain in contact with their users and readers. The social networkshave opened up a new dimension for creation and relationships, making it possible to diver- sify touch points and establish conversations between artists, creators, institutions and users. If the cloud economy has converted cultural products into services, the social media have made it possible to deepen and enrich the expe- rience between audiences and creators, making culture more open and participatory. The culture industries have become “conversations”.3. The post-PC era2014 will go down in digital history as theyear in which Internet access through mobile devices surpassed access with PCs for the first time worldwide. In other words, people now access the Internet more from mobile telephones than from computers. Mobile devices are the driving force behind the expanded, ubiquitous and distributed Internet that is leading to a new paradigm, giving rise to an ecosystem of its own with specific habits and customs. Some of the most successful digital services and companiesof the past years are designed for and to be used by mobiles: WhatsApp, Instagram, Zite and Flipboard are but a few examples. Mobility asa window on new experiences of collaborativeparticipation and creation is rapidly being incorporated into the culture and leisure sector, providing a broad range of opportunities both for the consumption of content, music, video and books etc. and for enriching the user’s expe- rience in museums and plays. We are witnessing the downfall of institutionalised habits of asking people to “switch off their mobiles” and the rise of more innovative ones that call for them to interact during the performance.2014 will go down in history as the year in which Internet access through mobile devices surpassed access with PCs for the first time worldwide.4. The Internet of Things (IoT)The consultancy firm Gartner2 reckons thatby 2020 there will be some 26 billion devices connected to the Internet. We are therefore witnessing the first steps of a new phase of digital transformation in which not only people but objects are connected – a new phase whose economic and social implications we are now beginning to glimpse and which, as with mobiles, will have an impact on the content and entertainment industry. The evolution of the IoT in combination with virtual realitywill provide opportunities for the content and entertainment industry. We will pay attention to the development of technologies such as iBeacons3 in museums and cultural centres.2Pepe Cerezo