The architecture of cross-channel ecosystems: from convergence to experience

Abstract

Convergence has been quietly reshaping not just media consumption but also the way we interact with products and services. Read/write access through personal and ambient devices enables the creation of free-flowing, actor-defined experiences that connect physical and digital artifacts, people, and locations into information-based ecosystems that vastly exceed the boundaries of the media industry. All sorts of everyday activities, from traveling to education to healthcare, are affected. This paper details the ways convergence is conceptualized in media studies and within product and service realization; argues that while media studies offer more mature descriptive frameworks, design practices are ill served by them as they are descriptive and not generative frameworks; proposes a formulation of cross-channel experiences as an information-based design artifact and of cross-channel ecosystems design as a pragmatical, actionable approach for dealing with convergent experiences in everyday activities.