eJamming and the Importance of Context

Originally posted on February 28, 2007

Nathan McNeill Comments on DEMO 07 Technologies

eJamming and the Importance of Context

This product enables musicians to “jam” with each other online in perfect sync. I highlight this product as an example of practical innovation. Innovations fall in basically two categories:

1.                  Innovations that change the nature of how we live, work, play, etc.

2.                  Innovations that change the context in which we live, work, and play.

eJamming is a great example of a product in the second category. Musicians have been playing together for thousands of years, and what eJamming offers does not promise to change the basic dynamic of musical interaction. What it does do, however, is extend the geographical boundaries within which that interaction can take place. Same instruments, same keys, same notes, same types of people, different context. This subtle change in context can have small implications (two band members spend an hour and a half practicing together vs. half an hour practicing and an hour driving), and huge implications (a Mongolian drummer jamming with a guitarist from LA).

I believe that this type of innovation is generally underrated until it becomes a cultural phenomenon. YouTube, eBay, Amazon, and many other companies did not change the nature of how we live, but shifted its context. Home video, auctions, and books were hardly new, but these innovations created a new context for each, sparking renewed consumer interest, and huge business opportunities.

Would-be entrepreneurs should take note. Many CPU cycles can be wasted trying to come up with something that changes the way people live when the same creative energy could be put into simply watching how people already live and coming up with a way to extend or enhance it…to change its context.