A new study from Nokia and The Future Laboratory predicts that by 2012, a quarter of all entertainment will be “circular”, that is created, edited, and shared within peer groups rather than being generated by traditional media. The bulk of the study was based on interviews with trend-setting consumers from 17 countries about their digital behaviors and lifestyles.
Mark Selby, Vice President, Multimedia, Nokia, said: “The trends we are seeing show us that people will have a genuine desire not only to create and share their own content, but also to remix it, mash it up and pass it on within their peer groups – a form of collaborative social media.” The term circular is based on the movement of content: it is created, shared with friends/family, gets edited/remixed and then shared on or returned again.
As Tim Leberecht of CNet says, one has to take these vendor-funded studies with a pinch of salt. He makes an interesting point about the study: that the distinction between traditional and “circular” entertainment is becoming increasingly difficult to define. But still, for what it is worth, the tech early adopters in these countries are living in and establishing a participatory culture.
I wonder, since the data is based on the actions of early-adopters, how much of this applies to South Africa (SA)? If the prediction is five years out, is it any more for SA? And if yes, how many more years? Only two of the 17 countries are traditionally comparable to SA: Brazil and India. Reading about the survey findings there didn’t help to answer these questions, but it does make for interesting reading.
Steven Vosloo 
I followed the article on CNET that was based on a press statement issued by Nokia on 3 December 2007 http://company.nokia.com/en/news/press-releases/2007/12/03/nokia-predicts-25-of-entertainment-by-2012-will-be-created-and-consumed-within-peer-communities . On the CNET article the author expressed reservations on Nokia sincerity of its assertions when he said “Nokia’s intent is obviously to ride the wave of a powerful current and promote its mobile devices as the venue where that new kind of “circular,” convergent entertainment will take place” The author might have been vindicated when in 8 January 2008 Nokia issued a statement on the release of the Nokia N95 with a huge 8Gb memory card saying “With this trend dubbed by Nokia as ‘Circular Entertainment’, devices such as the Nokia N95 8GB, which allow the consumer to create, edit and upload content directly to the Internet, will be more important than ever as consumers personalize content and make it their own”
I am however was impressed by Nokia N95 from the day it was released and even now, it is one phone that is still highly valued in places like Zimbabwe.
I didnt use the N95 but I will make another post here when I investigate whether in Zimbabwe the N95 did facilitate a participatory culture, it was a very expensive and never used it and now curious to find out the experiences of people that used this particular phone.