The Edison Project at USC Annenberg Innovation Lab

 

 

 

 

 

 

USC Annenberg’s Innovation Lab is home to the Edison Project, a “multi-year collaborative applied research and executive education initiative focused on anticipating and creating ways to take advantage of new trends and disruptions in the Media and Entertainment industry.” This project suggests a transition from an Information Economy to an Imagination Economy, including a vision for a new Media and Entertainment ecosystem and working with strategic partners to achieve this vision.

The Edison Project views as opportunities what most perceive as signs of disaster – revenues struggling to outpace inflation, skyrocketing production and marketing costs, the demise of broadcast TV, and the collapse of Hollywood’s blockbuster model. It is exploring how new creators and makers, new screens, new metrics and measurements, and new public space are combining into a new ecosystem and how media and Entertainment companies can take advantage to succeed in the emerging Imagination Economy.

The Edison Project’s five research pillars include:

* The New Screens – How to communicate using not just the newest versions and combinations of video, music, text, comics, and games, but with virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D printers, the Internet of Things, and the increasingly-connected, increasingly-intelligent world around us

* The New Creators + Makers – Identifying the new creators and makers in this new media ecosystem and how they will compete and collaborate with the established “traditional” media giants

* The New Funding + Business Models – New ways that value is developed, derived, and shared, and how new technologies and behaviors are making those possible; how smartphones around the world change the business models for content and advertising; and how new curation and recommendation engines allow deep catalog and hyper-niche content to reach and monetize their audiences

* The New Metrics + Measurement – New systems required to measure success in the new media and entertainment ecosystem; how measurements can be compared across disparate media; and how big data or biometrics be used to measure engagement

* The New Public Spaces – How technology will be installed in public spaces to help narrow the digital divide and the participation gap; determining who has “read/write access” to the augmented reality spaces that are directly overlaid onto real-world spaces; and the percentage of the wireless spectrum that should be reserved for public use

For more information on the Edison Project at USC Annenberg, visit their Web site.

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