Red Queens and Increasing Returns – Week 5 Blog

Reflecting on everything you learned in this module, respond to the following:

• When you decided to obtain a DVD for your science fiction assignment in Module 4, where did you go to find a movie based on a Philip K. Dick book? Did you rent or purchase a DVD, or did you view it digitally on your computer using Netflix or a similar vendor of video-on-demand? \

We found the movie online through Google play. 

• Is the current competition between DVDs and video-on-demand an example of increasing returns or Red Queens? Justify your response with sound reasoning and specific examples.

I think that it is an example of increasing returns because everything is digital.  You can download it and watch it on a variety of devices rather than be tied to one specific machine.   A case in point is the demise of Movie Gallery and Blockbuster which have now been downsized to machines like the Red Box or the Blockbuster vending machine. 

• Where do you think DVDs and video-on-demand are on the four criteria of McLuhan’s tetrad?

            

Enhances – It allows you to use a variety of devices in order to view the movie.	Obsolesces  - Digital movies (on-demand) obsolesces the delivery system of having to view the movie through a disk.
Retrieves – It rekindles a time when I was younger and could view pictures through a view-o-scope.	Reverses – It is setting the stage for the development such devices as Google Glasses which allow you to record video as you walk down the street.