Friday, February 15, 2013
Red Queens and Increasing Returns
Module 5: Red Queens and increasing returns
Shirley Brady
Red Queens are
defined by Thornburg as two technologies that are in mad competition with each
other in order to achieve gain over the other by accommodating favorable needs
and proving to be much better (Thornburg, 2008). Arthur’s definition of increasing returns as
‘the propensity for that which is already ahead, to progress further ahead, and
that which advantage decreases, to decreases even further” (Arthur, 1996, p.
100).
Upon my deciding
to obtain a DVD for my science fiction assignment in Module 4, based on Phillip
K. Dick’s book I used my most trusted resource Comcast. I decided to select a video I was not
familiar with and had heard nothing about.
I could have chosen any of the science fiction videos because I am not a
science fiction fan. The video I chose
was “Paycheck.” I was able to rent this
video for $2.99 and watch it for 24 hours.
This was very convenient for me because I was able to stop and start it. According Dr. Thornburg’s statement on
increasing returns, the opposition between DVD and Videos on demand would definitely
fit into this class.
As we all know
major movie rental stores such as Blockbuster have closed many of their
businesses. Would you agree that this is
due to the many sales of VOD? A
disadvantage may be that the movies are not recent, but the convenience is why
customers gravitate to them. You can
even have them sent to your home.
It is my belief
that DVDs and video-on-demand are on the expansion/enrichment quadrant of the
McLuhan’s tetrad.
References:
Arthur, W.B.
(1996). Increasing return and the new world of business. Harvard Business
Review, 74 (4), 100-109. Premier database by title.
Thornburg, D.
(2008). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors. Imperfect lenses into
emergent technologies. Lake Barrington,
IL.
Blogs I viewed:
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Hi Shirley,
ReplyDeleteI thought back when you mentioned the folding of Blockbuster Video. I remember how this was the way to rent movies that got over shadowed by Netflix. I can only imagine the new technological advances to come with video streaming and DVD rentals in the future. Good post.