Digital shouldn't make analog habits easier - it should revolutionise!

In January's Wired issue Clive Thompson writes how the general availability of recording, editing and sharing tools for video begins to fundamentally change the way we use it - as a totally different medium compared to what it was in the analog world.

Making analog habits easier mustn't be the approach to go digital. Of course it's great to have a typewriter with delete function, but thinking that way really limits us.

Currently one of the best examples of what could be possible is a presentation tool that (finally!) drops the idea of having to navigate through slides as if using a slide projector: prezi.com - you need to check out the short demo.

I used to be sceptical towards so called live papers (mostly flash-based digital version of magazines with sound, animations that readers can flip through via mouse), and using Prezi ascertained me that live papers go in the wrong direction. Instead of just increasing the familiar analog experience of flipping through a magazine, we need to think of a completely different approach.

thanks @ netzwertig for pointing us to this great tool.

What comes after paper

A column at The Independent is betting Plastic Logic's "plastic paper" / eReader-device could be the real successor to paper. I had the opportunity to talk to one of their european executives, and I firmly believe in this product - though the first edition will aim at a business audience only (black & white, no animation capabilities, basically a comfy word doc reader).

I need this thing!