The Library in your Living Room

[Jon Knight]

On Wed, 24 Oct 2012, Michael Schofield wrote:
> But the web with its textual links and packed screen doesn't feel right when
> you're more than 24" away from your monitor.
> [...]
> This has me thinking: what do you think the library will be like in your
> living room?

For my money, I wonder how many more years folk will be buying big, power 
hungry screens with DVD players, games consoles, etc, to plonk in the 
corner of their sitting rooms?  Broadcast TV is already having its 
boundaries blurred with on-demand programming, timeshift cloud replay 
services available from multiple devices, etc.  TVs as separate devices 
may well join the wood cabinets of the radiogram or the record decks of 
the hifi tower as an element of living rooms past for many people.

If the personal display screen gets really hi res, cheap and popular (and 
folk like Google seem to be going that way), why would folk want to have a 
permanently shared screen sitting there 24" from their sofa?  If you're 
always "wearing" your large virtual display, you could share your virtual 
screen with friends, family, neighbours and wouldn't even be limited to 
being physically in the same room.  Then it comes down to the question of 
what will the library be like when its always available if wanted in your 
field of vision?

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2012-10-24