Everyone involved in the media, entertainment, and technology fields is aggressively determined in figuring out the next step — in the form of content, in the form of business plans, and in the form of user interaction. However, there are places that have been using digital media for a while and are doing so profitably. These industries are education and corporations.
Let’s consider a few educational examples:
- Students can submit their documents online via various technologies, one of them being Blackboard. Blackboard also allows users (including instructors) to mass email, reach out to specific people, determine grades, and even conduct online assessments.
- There are various resources available, such as Lexis Nexis, which universities have access to and provide a wealth of information. Their digital media hook? Digitized information.
Both he companies above are successfully using digital media and provide information to users that would usually be difficult to obtain.
Similar to educational institutions, corporations are also using digital media effectively. Have you ever considered how broadcast networks or anyone that pushes out content to the masses organizes that content? The answer is digital media technologies, in the form of organizational tools.
There are plenty of ways to make specific industries use digital media tools — and be successful at them. You’ll notice that all the specific examples in this post are fairly expensive solutions.
The biggest challenge of digital media is to change consumer habits. Introducing the iPod was not an easy task. As a manufacturer or service provider, you need to determine what pain point you’re solving, and the minute you can determine that, creating a product becomes easier. One company that is keeping this in mind is MOD Systems. Currently, a consumer facing product doesn’t exist, but I have a feeling that the mindset behind the corporation could lead to big things.
