- Even cheap cell phones (mobiles) now record video.
- Mobile high speed (3G+) is becoming ubiquitous and cheap.
- Google already covers the news, and provides News Alerts.
- Google already owns YouTube.
- Google already owns Blogger.
- Google is poised to buy Twitter.
- Google even provides a mobile OS (Android).
- Google's policies are basically information for all and do no evil.
So what does it all mean?
Live streaming video from the street to the blog-o-sphere.
Virtually instantaneous. Pre-categorized. 'Pushed' to those interested.
And major media will come to rely on it due to its blanket coverage.
Example: You see some questionable behavior by some police officers. Maybe a good solid tasering of a person already restrained is just getting started. So you whip out your phone, press the Live Video to Blog app, select the 'police abuse' tag from your list of presets, and then aim. Elapsed time: about 3 seconds.
After it's all over and the victim has finally stop screaming (for one reason or another), you're approached by an aggressive police officer who demands 'the video'.
You just laugh.
You explain to the soon-to-be-former police officer that, "It's already been seen live by several thousands. Who? Well anyone that's interested in the Live Video keywords 'police abuse': media, civil rights lawyers, elected officials. Oh look, CNN just picked it up. They're playing MY video! Here look officer, you can see yourself on CNN on my phone. Isn't that cool? Can I have your autograph? Hey, come back!"
The punch line to all this is that the police (in general), even if they read and understand this post tonight, are almost certainly incapable of changing their attitudes and approaches quickly enough to avoid this inevitable technology convergence landing on their head like a ton of bricks.
They've got about two, maybe three, years. And that's simply not enough time.
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