I decided to do a little more research into the topic of mass amateurization. Surprisingly enough I ended up: here. At a website written by the very author whose work we were discussing today. In the article I think a number of questions raised in class are answered or perhaps discussed further.
First who are professionals? Shirky states that "mass professionalization is an oxymoron; a professional class implies a minority of members". This means to me that we may all produce high quality content but if we aren't associated with the "professional group", we are not professionals.
The other thing he goes into in this post is the economies of weblogs. This put publishing and blogs in an economic perspective. This makes sense to me. With printed media because of barriers to entry not everyone is able to participate in production. However, with weblogs and blogging the barriers to entry are low (just have a computer and the ability to get online) anyone at any time can produce for this medium.
With this level of competition it is easy to see why many think the printed word to not be long for this modern world. Only time will tell what will happen. I for one like having a physical book and right of first sale.
I agree, the thought of the future makes me kind of nervous. We as humans are becoming so dependent on technology that we would not know what to do without it. I'm kind of like Will Smith in IRobot :-)What if technology turns on us?? It is in a sense a means of monopolizing the business. If you can not ever technically "own" a book or any other "e-thing" than the owner has the right to charge or treat you however he or she sees fit... that's something to think about
ReplyDeleteQUOTE: We want a world where global publishing is effortless. We want a world where you don't have to ask for help or permission to write out loud. However, when we get that world we face the paradox of oxygen and gold. Oxygen is more vital to human life than gold, but because air is abundant, oxygen is free. Weblogs make writing as abundant as air, with the same effect on price. Prior to the web, people paid for most of the words they read. Now, for a large and growing number of us, most of the words we read cost us nothing.
ReplyDeleteWords just want to be free. Good link on this article.
i like to have the printed version of my books as well..perhaps it is innately the narcism within me to want a crowded collection of books so everyone can see how smart I am rather than one tablet that could have infinite boks but not as impressive.. :(...however, I think that staring at a screen for too long may be harmful to the eyes if you really think about it.
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