Technological convergence is the tendency for technologies that were originally unrelated to become more closely integrated and even unified as they develop and advance. For example, watches, telephones, television, computers, and social media platforms began as separate and mostly unrelated technologies, but have converged in many ways into an interrelated telecommunication, media, and technology industry.
Definitions "Convergence is a deep integration of knowledge, tools, and all relevant activities of human activity for a common goal, to allow society to answer new questions to change the respective physical or social ecosystem. Such changes in the respective ecosystem open new trends, pathways, and opportunities in the following divergent phase of the process".
Siddhartha Menon defines convergence as integration and digitalization. Integration, here, is defined as "a process of transformation measure by the degree to which diverse media such as phone, data broadcast and information technology infrastructures are combined into a single seamless all purpose network architecture platform". Digitalization is not so much defined by its physical infrastructure, but by the content or the medium. Jan van Dijk suggests that "digitalization means breaking down signals into bytes consisting of ones and zeros".
Convergence is defined by Blackman (1998) as a trend in the evolution of technology services and industry structures. Convergence is later defined more specifically as the coming together of telecommunications, computing and broadcasting into a single digital bit-stream.
Mueller stands against the statement that convergence is really a takeover of all forms of media by one technology: digital computers.
Acronyms Some acronyms for converging scientific or technological fields include: NBIC (Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information technology and Cognitive science) GNR (Genetics, Nanotechnology and Robotics) GRIN (Genetics, Robotics, Information, and Nano processes) GRAIN (Genetics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Nanotechnology) BANG (Bits, Atoms, Neurons, Genes) BRAIN (Biotechnology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Informatics/big data, and Nanotechnology)Totten, Michael P (2016) neo-BRAIN, a mnemonic acronym created by Michael P Totten for describing the emergence and looming convergence of five General Purpose Technologies (GPT): Biosynthetics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Informatics (big data), and Nanotechnology. Presented at the Executive Seminar, The Third Industrial Revolution Roadmap, Next Economy for The Metropolitan Region of Rotterdam and The Hague, June 22, 2016.Totten, Michael P (2023) BRAIN Sphere, presentation to the Regenerative Economics Study Group, Center for Ecozoic Studies, June 20, 2023. Totten, Michael P (2026) The Coming Great Collapse, The Looming Great Work, presentation to the Human Prospect Study Group, Center for Ecozoic Studies, June 09, 2026.Totten, Michael P (2027) Get Ourselves Back to the Garden, Phase Dynamics between Land, People and Tools. A BLOOM COIN (Book-like, Online, Open-access, Multimedia Collaborative Innovation/Collective Intelligence Network), forthcoming 2027.
Biotechnology
A 2010 citation analysis of patent data shows that biomedical devices are strongly connected to computing and mobile telecommunications, and that molecular bioengineering is strongly connected to several IT fields.
Bioconvergence is the integration of biology with engineering. Possible areas of bioconvergence include: Materials inspired by biology (such as in electronics) DNA data storage Medical technologies: Omics-based profiling Miniaturized drug delivery Tissue reconstruction Traceable pharmaceutical packaging More efficient bioreactors
Digital convergence Digital convergence is the inclination for various digital innovations and media to become more similar with time. It enables the convergence of access devices and content, as well as the industry participant operations and strategy. This is how this type of technological convergence creates opportunities, particularly in the area of product development and growth strategies for digital product companies. The same can be said in the case of individual social media artists, such as vloggers on YouTube. The convergence in this example is demonstrated in the involvement of the Internet, home devices such as a smart television, camera, the YouTube application, and digital content. In this setup, there are the so-called "spokes", which are the devices that connect to a central hub (such as a PC or smart TV). Here, the Internet serves as the intermediary, particularly through its interactive tools and social networking, in order to create unique mixes of products and services via horizontal integration.
The above example highlights how digital convergence encompasses three phenomena:
previously stand-alone devices are being connected by networks and software, significantly enhancing functionalities; previously stand-alone products are being converged onto the same platform, creating hybrid products in the process; and, companies are crossing traditional boundaries such as hardware and software to provide new products and new sources of competition.
Another example is the convergence of different types of digital content. According to Harry Strasser, former CTO of Siemens "[digital convergence will substantially impact people's lifestyle and work style]".
Cellphones
The functions of the cellphone change as technology converges. Because of technological advancement, a cellphone functions as more than just a phone: it can also contain an Internet connection, video players, MP3 players, gaming, and a camera. Their areas of use have increased over time, partly substituting for other devices.
A mobile convergence device is one that, if connected to a keyboard, monitor, and mouse, can run applications as a desktop computer would. Convergent operating systems include the Linux operating systems Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile and PureOS.
Convergence can also refer to being able to run the same app across different devices and being able to develop apps for different devices (such as smartphones, TVs and desktop computers) at once, with the same code base. This can be done via Linux applications that adapt to the device they are being used on (including native apps designed for such via frameworks like Kirigami) or by the use of multi-platform frameworks like the Quasar framework that use tools such as Apache Cordova, Electron and Capacitor, which can increase the userbase, the pace and ease of development and the number of reached platforms while decreasing development costs.
The Internet The role of the Internet has changed from its original use as a communication tool to easier and faster access to information and services, mainly through a broadband connection. The television, radio, and newspapers were the world's media for accessing news and entertainment; now, all three media have converged into one, and people all over the world can read and hear news and other information on the Internet. The convergence of the Internet and conventional TV became popular in the 2010s, through Smart TV, also sometimes referred to as "Connected TV" or "Hybrid TV", (not to be confused with IPTV, Internet TV, or with Web TV). Smart TV is used to describe the current trend of integration of the Internet and Web 2.0 features into modern television sets and set-top boxes, as well as the technological convergence between computers and these television sets or set-top boxes. These new devices most often also have a much higher focus on online interactive media, Internet TV, over-the-top content, as well as on-demand streaming media, and less focus on traditional broadcast media like previous generations of television sets and set-top boxes always have had.
Social movements The integration of social movements in cyberspace is one of the potential strategies that social movements can use in the age of media convergence. Because of the neutrality of the Internet and the end-to-end design, the power structure of the Internet was designed to avoid discrimination between applications. Mexico's Zapatistas campaign for land rights was one of the most influential case in the information age; Manuel Castells defines the Zapatistas as "the first informational guerrilla movement". The Zapatista uprising had been marginalized by the popular press. The Zapatistas were able to construct a grassroots, decentralized social movement by using the Internet. The Zapatistas Effect, observed by Cleaver, continues to organize social movements on a global scale. A sophisticated webmetric analysis, which maps the links between different websites and seeks to identify important nodal points in a network, demonstrates that the Zapatistas cause binds together hundreds of global NGOs. The majority of the social movement organized by Zapatistas targets their campaign especially against global neoliberalism. A successful social movement not only need online support but also protest on the street. Papic wrote, "Social Media Alone Do Not Instigate Revolutions", which discusses how the use of social media in social movements needs good organization both online and offline.
Media
Media technological convergence is the tendency that as technology changes, different technological systems sometimes evolve toward performing similar tasks. It is the interlinking of computing and other information technologies, media content, media companies, and communication networks that have arisen as the result of the evolution and popularization of the Internet as well as the activities, products, and services that have emerged in the digital media space.
Generally, media convergence refers to the merging of both old and new media and can be seen as a product, a system, or a process. Jenkins states that convergence is "the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behaviour of media audiences who would go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they wanted". According to Jenkins, there are five areas of convergence: technological, economic, social or organic, cultural, and global. Media convergence is not just a technological shift or a technological process, it also includes shifts within the industrial, cultural, and social paradigms that encourage the consumer to seek out new information. Convergence, simply put, is how individual consumers interact with others on a social level and use various media platforms to create new experiences, new forms of media and content that connect us socially, and not just to other consumers, but to the corporate producers of media in ways that have not been as readily accessible in the past. However, Lugmayr and Dal Zotto argued that media convergence takes place on the technology, content, consumer, business model, and management level. They argue that media convergence is a matter of evolution and can be described through the triadic phenomena of convergence, divergence, and coexistence. Today's digital media ecosystems coexist, as e.g., mobile app stores provide vendor lock-ins into particular eco-systems; some technology platforms are converging under one technology, due to, for example, the usage of common communication protocols as in digital TV; and other media are diverging, as, for example, media content offerings are more and more specializing and provides a space for niche media.