Interactive Digital Entertainment, Social Computing, and Lifestyle Computing

Some of the most dramatic recent developments in computing have been the explosive growth in interactive digital entertainment (IDE), and social and lifestyle computing--or the non-business use of computing for purposes of entertainment, socialization, and lifestyle augmentation. For example, the market for gaming alone is currently about $7.3 billion dollars, with $936 million in online gaming. Meanwhile, the market for digital entertainment in homes and home automation has reached an all-time high in 2005 with no end in sight. These non-business uses of computing represent large and legitimate markets with social implications that are so profound and global in impact that effected societies will never be the same.