Decades ago you used to buy gadgets that functioned well for different purposes; one unit did one task well and others not so well.

Take the Sony Walkman for instance, the revolution of having music in your pocket wherever you went. The idea was by Nobutoshi Kihara, who wanted the ability to listen to operas whilst flying on transpacific plane trips. First launching in cassette format during 1979 it proved a big hit amongst consumers. The Walkman became so popular it changed with the times, with the CD Walkman (also known as the Discman), MiniDisc Walkman and MP3 Walkman popping up over the years. The brand is still going strong to the present day, and is now also implemented as software in Sony Ericsson phones.

However, it is the iPod that has taken all the limelight recently, becoming one of the most famous inventions of the 21st century. The concept of a hard drive based device (and flash storage recently), with the capability of storing thousands of tracks has become one of the most popular portable gadgets ever created.

Now, onto the question as to whether technological convergence is occurring. The answer is an obvious yes; with the best example being the Apple iPhone. Launched in 2007, it has completely changed the mobile phone industry. It features an awesome 3.5 inch touch screen that works beautifully in virtually every aspect. So, what features has it got packed into its shell? Well, firstly its a mobile phone, an iPod, a camera, a video recorder, a GPS mapping device, an internet web browser and email client, a calculator, a voice recorder, and endless other features due to the App Store (featuring over 85,000 applications).

Put that into perspective, you now don't need to carry the following with you:

The iPhone has made so many gadgets redundant, and is one of the best all-in-one devices on the market due to its intuitive and innovative operating system.

"The iPhone is the most sophisticated, outlook-challenging piece of electronics to come along in years. It does so many things so well, and so pleasurably, that you tend to forgive its foibles."
David Pogue

An iPhone killer could well come along in future years, but for the moment it stands as one of the best devices of the 21st century selling over 20 million units. The recent decline of iPod sales (8% decrease) is partly due to the features of the iPhone, and the way it has given nearly every other mobile phone manufacturer a headache!

The World Wide Web is a huge virtual landscape with an endless amount of information and digital content. It’s now a normal aspect of everyday life, but how was it formed and who by?

The internet was originally developed by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1964, with its focus to share research between various universities and defence facilities. The first messages were transmitted during 1969.

The internet is simply a way of viewing files that have been placed onto a server; and due to the numerous protocols, no single person invented it. For instance, Leonard Kleinrock was the first to develop the idea of packet switching, a fundamental aspect in order for the internet to function; while TCP/IP was developed by Vint Cerf and Robert Khan in 1974.

Perhaps the most significant development was by the British engineer Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who is regarded as the inventor of the World Wide Web and HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol); alongside developing HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), and URL (Uniform Resource Locator). His first proposal was made in March 1989, with the first ever communication being made on 25 December 1990.

“I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the Transmission Control Protocol and domain name system ideas and - ta-da! - the World Wide Web.”
Sir Tim Berners-Lee

The internet is now hugely popular in almost every aspect; for business, for education and for social use. Websites are now content rich since the implementation of Web 2.0, with streaming video now becoming a reality with increased internet speeds. It’s also a 24 hour shopping centre, where you can compare prices to get the best deal. People now micro-blog about their lives via services such as Facebook and Twitter. Although the best website ever created is undoubtedly Google, the powerful and innovative search engine that helps you find what you want when you want, and is the most visited website in the world.

The statistics speak for themselves; in December 1995, 16 million people used the internet (just 0.4% of the world population). However, as of June 2009, there are 1,669 million users, which is 24.7% of the world population.

The World Wide Web is regarded by many as the best invention of the 20th Century, with The Telegraph ranking Sir Tim Berners-Lee number one in their list of 100 greatest living geniuses (published in 2007). It will continue to grow for decades to come, always innovating and bringing new content to the masses, with the next major development being internet connected televisions in living rooms across the globe.

Blogging can be a useful tool for either personal or professional purposes. Take for instance my website which is a personal blog; compared with the BBC’s Business Editor Robert Peston’s, which is a professional outlook on world business developments. Whichever preference you choose, all of your information is accessible via the public domain.

So, this leads onto the question as to whether blogging can start a career. In the case of Heather Armstrong it’s quite simply the opposite. She lost her job as a web designer because of writing offensive comments about her boss on her blog. In fact, she has now invented the term of being fired because of a bad digital footprint; becoming ‘Dooced’ with immediate effect; or as the Urban Dictionary describes it ‘to lose one’s job because of one’s website.’ However, she has learnt her lesson and now runs Dooce as a successful business in partnership with her husband, with a daily average of 55,000 readers.

Another good example is Salam Pax, an Iraqi, who blogged about the Iraq war during its initiation in 2003. He provided regular news and updates from a civilian’s perspective, subsequently gaining media attention. Some of the posts he wrote were extremely descriptive, painting a very clear image. The blog was later published as a book in association with The Guardian. This is another strong example of how the internet can quickly propel a future career.

"There were days when the Red Crescent was begging for volunteers to help in taking the bodies of dead people off the city street and bury them properly. The hospital grounds have been turned to burial grounds."
Salam Pax

In conclusion, you could suggest that a blog can either ruin or start a career. However, this is only based on the content you write, and as Heather Armstrong described “my advice to you is be ye not so stupid.”