6 Director’s Voice
We are already more than a decade into the 21st century. Structures are already horizontal and the opinions of their members are all important. Personal and collective project funding models are changing, with “crowd funding” on the rise. People are communicating at all levels thanks to content repositories, social networks and chat tools which have swept away traditional SMS communications. Project management methodologies have become “responsive”, allowing work teams to adapt perfectly to their clients, week after week. Smartphones and tablets are able to read Augmented Reality codes that allow us to access applications and websites without typing, thanks to their high definition cameras. Clothing has become “intelligent,” capable of monitoring the state of the person wearing it. It is possible to exercise while “playing” thanks to “Exergames” in which we compete with our fellow citizens and post our results in public forums to win recognition. The development of ICT and Multimedia applications has become more democratic thanks to the ability of small teams of highly talented people to publish their products on existing online platforms. And we use all kinds of Transmedia means to do so, adding to them and hybridizing them second after second. The world has already changed. It is a fact. And it will continue to do so, in shorter and shorter cycles. Who, then, are those really prepared for these new communications and business structures? Who will really be quick and able to implement the ICT/Media products meeting the needs of end users? Those who have experienced the complexity of real multidisciplinarity, being able to adapt and continually readjust to new and different work teams entailing multiple profiles? People who speak multiple languages and know how to interact with experts in them? Technology, Science, Research, Design, Communications, Marketing 2.0, Transmedia, Gamification, Script, Usability, Creativity, Art, Management...there are many ingredients, and we cannot know all of them inside and out. But it is our obligation to engage them and be able to handle them and structure them in order to build ideal teams that provide effective solutions to the “same old” problems and, above all, to the new challenges that lie ahead. Welcome to the era of digital “producers.” By the way, all are invited, regardless of your area of expertise.