Phillip Swann is our kind of guy. In his small, but info-packed book TVdotCOM, due out in December, published by New York's TV Books, the former publisher of Satellite Direct manages to provide a surfeit of information, speculation, and humor that proves good things come in small packages (128 pages). It is wonderful to read someone who gets right to the point, makes it, and moves on (OK, you can see we are a Strunk & White fan).

The book is about, obviously, the coming onset of ubiquitous interactive TV - in your living room, your bedroom, your office, your car, and most especially on your wrist. Yes, Dick Tracey's upgraded dream (remember, it started out as only a wrist radio) is perilously close. The implications for post postmodern life are astonishing, and often hilarious. And, as with the onset of most new technologies, often a bit overrated.

Another Prophet?
Swann has a lot of predictions to make about how interactive TV will affect us - a whopping 84 specific prognostications. Maybe more, but one of them is "Chapter Ten on how ITV could pose a threat to your privacy" - and, as it turns out, the uncorrected proof we were sent stops at chapter nine. Who let the dogs out...? Nevertheless, we know that ITV is going to spy on us, so make sure you buy a copy of "Enemy Of The State" to go along with your copy of Swann's book, just to get familiar with the moves.

Critical to Swann's vision of ITV is that Tivo, Realplay, or some variation on that technology will be central to it, which will allow you to watch anything, anytime, and even put live shows on hold and then continue them, while getting rid of the ads. Central to his vision also will be Bluetooth or some variation on that, which lets the central TV controller control your world - your house, your sprinklers, shopping, maintenance, and so on.

Broad Vision
The broad sweep is that this new technology is going to change everything, forever, a trap futurists regularly fall into. For instance, Swann rightly postulates that it will increase the vertical market (specialized interests, a channel for every one) and decrease the horizontal market (there will be less social common interest in what was on TV last night - no more chat over last night's edition of the "Honeymooners" at the water cooler). That's already happening with cable TV, but it's also showing its natural limits, which are the natural limits of human interest and attention. As the water cooler itself becomes rarer with the rise of the home office, sports bars are burgeoning. People like to congregate to share interests, and the opportunity to go home and watch their own specialty interests is not going to make that evaporate. It's in it our genes.