Ze Long Tail

Dee's definition of interactivity: Interactivity is our attempt at programming a technology to simulate a conversation with other human beings. This coversation need not necessarily involve the usage of workds, but could also include sound and imagery as its particular "language".

Kiousis' definition of Interactivity: Interactivity can be defined as the degree to which a communication technology can create a mediated environment in which participants can communicate both synchronously and asynchronously, and participate in reciprocal message exchanges.

Downes and McMillan's definition suggests that interactivity is a two-way communication with flexible timing and the communication environment creates a sense of place.

While one can argue towards any of the many definitions the readings touched upon, I do have to say I disagree with the flexibility of timing bit. I personally don't consider e-mail to be interactive, so I would add some sort of frame of response immediacy (wow lets make up some more terms) to my definition.

Chris Anderson's article brought up some great points. The Long Tail is essentially a term/theory that discusses the potential success found in offering entertainment options that don't fall into the top 20% hit range. This is wonderful in theory but in reality, but it could be a sort of gateway to lowering quality. What if horrible bands and horrible film makers start producing crap and infiltrating the markets with this stuff just because they can? There has to be some selectivity and I think interactivity is a great tool retailers can use to gauge the responses of their potential audience. Take American Apparel for instance, they regularly come out with "test" garments that users get to vote on and the garment with the highest votes is then produced in a limited number and offered for sale on their website. Depending on the success of that item, American Apparel will either discontinue it or launch a full-scale mass production of it. As long as Amazon, itunes etc. take control of their offerings and involve their audiences in a dialogue, The Long Tail could be a very successful business model because not only would it offer customers what they REALLY want and make money doing it, but integrating interactive components like Amazon already does could create continuous demand from their customers.