Technological convergence is an event that many chief technologists, financiers and equipment makers strive to bring about. They fantasize that they will release the killer handheld or software or website that will blend everything everyone wants into to one supreme offering . Imagine, the PDA that is also a full laptop, music player, phone is one sought after example, or a website that meets the needs of an entire nation.

While they all may dream this - because it means they’ll have hit the biggest financial jackpot or gain them a front page obituary - they are going to miss out on all the fun. Technology is not going to bring out single, dominant, optimal solutions anytime soon. Instead technology will be used to make astounding amounts of slightly divergent variants, each customized for a certain type of use/user. Biz guys will want email they can talk responses to. Gamers will want blazing processors. Audiophiles will want symphonic sound. Fashonistas will want unique encasements.

Same goes for social networking sites. I hear Venture Capitalists state they simply can’t imagine anyone making a site to compete with the 50,000,000 member MySpace communty. What they mean is they won’t risk their money, but many will not need their money. In the next 24 months there will be a dozen ‘fringe’ sites that start eating into MySpace popularity. Some will be made in other countries, some will be made by web-addicts, other will be spin-offs of other ideas. Popular new-comers will be only slightly different, but enough they they speak more clearly to a community. One will have cr8zy sYNtaX and txty talk, another will have inline gaming. One will be just for females, another will be sports 24-7. Some will be cellphone based, others will be limited to subnetworks. These are all guess by I could go on and on with pointing out underserved communities and underexplored communication platforms.

There simply will be no end. Dominence and convergence are not coming to a theatre near us. Divergence and multiplicity are what the internet age is going to continue to be all about.