Newly appointed Futurist-in-residence at the New York Times, Michael Rogers, spoke with Patrick Phillips
from iwantmedia.com. I was particularly interested in what Rogers had to say about Times Reader,
the hybrid web/desktop app built with Microsoft technology that aims to give a paper-like
reading experience to the screen. He said that he doesn’t see paper disappearing any time
soon…
“However, we’re within a few years of seeing some very effective electronic reading
devices that finally do begin to challenge paper.
The new Times Reader, on a tablet PC, is already a pretty good experience. Spin that
forward five years and you’re starting to have a compelling alternative. Finally, in
another decade, a substantial part of our audience will have grown up already doing much
more of their reading on screen, and they’re not likely to have the same emotional
attachment to paper as does much of the current readership.”
I also enjoyed this quote from Michael Rogers about what a ‘futurist’ does:
“I’m not sure that the real value of a futurist is to predict the future — the future
is always going to surprise us in one way or another — but rather to get others thinking
about it in a creative and flexible way.”
Ah, so that’s what the Pew
report was supposed to do!
