Welcome to the Age of Convergence (continued)

Later that year I remember watching a documentary on mobile cinemas in India called Mr. Battu's Bioscope (I'd rented it from Art & Trash: the video division of the used record store a few doors down. The independent video business didn't survive). Mr. Battu's lifelong dream was to bring Bollywood movies to a remote village in India, to bring the movies to people who had never seen movies. Mr. Battu and his assistant traveled there and set up a screen and projector. That night the villagers sat to watch the movie. As the film played its typical, mass-produced Bollywood fare, replete with suggestive dancing and music, they rose one after another and left. The next morning the leader of the village went up to Mr. Battu and said, "Thank you for coming, but please don't come again. We're very busy here." I suspect that the inhabitants of this remote village were not passive spectators.

The age of convergence has given us the tools and technology to be active participants in the creation and dissemination of content.

The Mr. Battus of the world can no longer force us to watch what we don't want to watch. Art and Trash videos will not only survive in the virtual world of convergence, but thanks to inexpensive storage, high bandwidth and continuous improvement in streaming technology, they will be accessible to a wider audience, a participatory audience in a global village. The content is and will be available when we want it. My friends need not worry about their physical collections; they will be available en masse in the virtual world, a place that is neither passive nor obsolete. nth.