Idea: A special camera arrangement, recording the entire field of sporting events. All of that data is recorded and broadcasted, and fans use their TVs to move around and watch the events from whatever angles they might choose. Some of them even share scripted perspectives and angles with each other, sometimes adding commentary. These data streams flow all over the internet.

This fits into a general vision I have for the net and media of all kinds. Media now is like ice, in that it doesn't change shape, you can't get to all of it, and it's hard to mix.. either that, or it's like gas -- the conversations we have everyday, easy to lose, transient. The digital world can and should be re-formed along new guidelines, and it should reshape the existing world. There are three stages and parts...

Firstly, we need the general ability to annotate information. On the web, this means firstly that information should not go away, and secondly that we need servers which just store notes and commentary people jot about anything they might see. These servers should be like a wiki, with perhaps some access controls so people can note things to themselves, share with friends, and the like. It should be integrated into archive.org or perhaps just be glued into 'wget' so the commented-upon material cannot be removed by the author or anyone else. You would hate to have your memories of a book disappear or made incomplete simply because the author decided to, wouldn't you?

Secondly, we need the ability to share our annotations and simple manipulations (perhaps a 'path' to traverse the web?) with others. This could be arranged by having an index of annotations (optional) and for people who subscribe to their friends annotation 'channels', when they visit site N, a sidebar or button-with-an-annotation-count becomes visible. People also might choose to have all open annotations visible to them when browsing.

Finally, data streams and formats need to be completely open, and designed for exploration, so it's actually possible to alter, interact, and play with them, and share these interactions with others. The omnirecording of sports events is just one example -- videos should easily have their video and sound seperated so people could record new sound over a video, or add another commentary track. Sound players should support this, with ways to recieve and select between various sources for all parts of a media experience.

Producer-Consumer dichotomies need to be changed. Information must be free, but it must also be fluid.

A few nights ago, I had a dream about my digital camera.. kind of. In the dream, the digital camera could control time in two ways .. firstly, it could age or youthen objects and part of objects (or people), and secondly it could displace objects in space and time. I had a fun time with it, but like my camera in real life, it takes an awfully long time once I press the button for it to take a picture, and in the dream it had an even shorter battery life(!). I was trying to youthen my cat, but slow as he is, he wasn't standing still for the 5 or 6 seconds before I could take a shot.

Here's some advice a LOT of people neglect. Before you ever give a presentation using your laptop, TURN OFF YOUR SCREEN SAVER AND POWER MANGLEMENT SOFTWARE. Nobody likes seeing your screen blank after a minute or three of talking, and watching you keep heading back over to hit the space bar or move the mouse.