For a business that is fundamentally about serving its end users, we often forget that the most important part of media is the human element. I think that's especially true when it comes to digital media. We get so caught up in the technology, the data streams, the ability to dynamically serve content and advertising, that we sometimes lose sight of the very people those media are created to serve. Without them, we are nothing more than a bunch of media servers. So I think it fitting to end the year with a column focusing on how digital out-of-home media …

You know the drill: you get to your gate with time to spare, you're hungry, but you're traveling alone. You can either pick up all your stuff and go in search of a dining establishment where there's probably nowhere to sit, with one ear cocked for news of a gate change or flight cancellation; ask someone to watch your stuff, hoping they'll persuade the ever-vigilant TSA not to detonate it in your absence; or just give up, looking forward to $2 peanuts on the plane. Enter JetBlue, which has installed interactive video screens at the gates of its new terminal …

I can't believe we're winding down our first calendar year of the Digital Outsider (officially begun in May), and I'm pretty happy with the stories we've uncovered so far on the digital transformation of the outdoor media business. So beginning today, and over the next few columns, I'd like to spend some time thinking about where digital out-of-home may be going next.

Are you ready to have your own digital billboard? Ready or not, you can, with a new digital projector the size of a cell phone. As yet untested for advertising applications, it's still food for thought for digital out-of-home futurists.

A lot has been written about the supposed synergies across the "three" video screens: TV, online-connected PCs and mobile, hand-held devices. This week, I'd like to talk about an interesting connection with a fourth: digital, out-of-home screens. Actually, in this case, I'm really talking about a multitude of screens: screens on airplanes, screens in supermarkets, and even screens on gas station pumps. What do they all have in common? Well, they're all screen-based affiliates of CBS Outernet, the digital out-of-home division of CBS Corp. What else do they have in common? They're all teaming up to help with a potentially …