If you’re like me you’ve been hearing about Convergence for so long that you’ve become understandably jaded. The dream of a convergent world with multiplying media options has been floated by all manner of visionaries and hucksters for over two decades. Not so long ago the prospect of convergence seemed a lot like flying automobiles. A classic futurist scenario that will probably never come to pass.

Remember when we were promised a world with 500 channels? If that future was so great how come they didn’t anticipate TiVo or YouTube? The vision of seemingly unlimited television programming was an extension of the old media world view – one where consumers watch passively at a pre-appointed times and wait to be told what to purchase. That world is about to become extinct. You can no longer treat your audience like lab mice.

Media has always been about engaging and communicating with your audience. The difference now is that your audience has more options than ever before. And tomorrow they’ll have even more options. Unless you proactively use new media to engage your audience you’ll lose them – permanently.

We’re in the midst of a media revolution that is fundamentally changing the nature of communications. Your audience is now your collaborator, and in some cases even your competitor. The old rules no longer apply.

It may be difficult to take all of this talk about a media revolution seriously when you’ve heard it all before. Wasn’t the Internet going to change everything?

Guess what? The Internet did change everything. It just took a little while for all of the pieces to fall into place.

Over the next couple of months we’ll be rolling out a variety of new media products and services. Feel free to subscribe to our RSS feed.

In the meantime, we’re providing ongoing industry commentary at Booksquare and Medialoper, two of our original Oxford Media Works publications.