User Created Media and Infrastructure
September, 2006
“There’s something happening here; What it is ain’t exactly
clear.” We’ve got trends and
counter-trends relating to a movement with potentially massive societal
implications, not just economic and legal.
Trend: Consolidation of media. This isn’t news. In fact, it’s so “not news” that the
discovery of the fact that the FCC was burying a study on the consolidation of
media was barely news. By the way, the
study concluded that it was not a good thing.
For those living underground, mass media is now concentrated in the
hands of a handful of corporations, with potentially dire consequences for the
creation of art and entertainment, and a complete distortion of the ideally
clean flow of data from “what’s happening” to “what’s reported.”
Counter-trend: Democratization of media. We are seeing an entire world of normal folks
creating the entertainment we consume, and reporting on the news, changing the
way we inform ourselves. Cases in point:
- MySpace and the
entire social networking phenomenon:
100 million people hanging out with each other online, decorating
their own virtual space, recommending new music, displaying music, slide
shows, videos.
- Fan Fiction: Just regular folks, writing stories
about their favorite characters. Is
it big? If you go to www.harrypotterfanfiction.com,
currently (October, 2006), you can read one of over 36,000 Harry Potter stories not written by J.K. Rowling. Go to www.fanfiction.net and browse
literally thousands of categories
in which there are anywhere from a few to thousands of stories. This is huge.
- Wikipedia: “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” It says so right on the site. The English language portion of the site
currently has over 1.4 million
entries. Where do you go for
immediate information?
- Open Source
Computing: A radical idea; that
software can be more effectively and efficiently developed if done in
public, shared and vetted by many different skilled professionals, and
left open to innovation and use, rather than developed in secret, using
code names, and owned exclusively by one company. A sharing, cooperative, interdependent,
transparent process. And, sometimes
FREE!
- Creative
Commons: Inspired by the Open
Source Movement, a different and more sharing approach to copyright
law. As the site says, “Enabling the legal sharing and reuse
of cultural, educational, and scientific works.” It is a collaborative way to approach
intellectual property rights.
- Blogging: Media stars are made simply by the
perceived value of the contribution.
More and more people get their news and analysis from The Rude
Pundit, The Huffington Post, and many other sources having nothing to do
with the mass media outlets.
- Intelligent
agents/aggregators: Where do
you find these bloggers? Between
Google and applications like the customized MyYahoo home page, there is
growing awareness of and access to these alternative sources of news and
commentary.
- Mashups: What does it sound like when Lou Reed,
David Bowie and The Notorious BIG find themselves in the same song? We are finding out. A massive sub-culture of digital artists/DJs
is taking works owned and “controlled” by major media companies and
combining them to make new art.
Pretty compelling stuff, too.
- MMRPGs, Second
Life: Massively Multiplayer
Role Playing Games enable anyone who wants to create a place to live,
virtually, and to have entertaining adventures, play games, share community,
live virtually. The major media
companies have no real advantage in this space. Second Life (www.secondlife.com), in a
way, takes this even farther, by not tying the experience to a game. People simply inhabit the Second Life
world as they would the real world – with a few differences.
- The
Participatory Web aka Web 2.0:
There’s a new browser concept coming, and it’s based on
sharing. The activities most prized
and the functionality most transformed are about community, sharing, and
receiving customized content from many sources. See www.flock.com.
Not brought to you by Microsoft.
Trend: – Consolidation
of infrastructure. So much the reality
that it’s almost not a trend, although the large media, computing and communications
companies are continually seeking to dominate infrastructure in each new area
as it develops.
Counter-trend: – Democratization of infrastructure. As in the area of sharing of media creation,
collaboration and sharing are powerful trends changing the way we work, and, in
some cases, do business.
- Distributed
computing: Pioneered by the
SETI Institute, various projects requiring massive amounts of computing
beyond the capability of those working on the project, including the Human
Genome Project, requested that common computer users like you or me allow
their own computers to be taken over in the hours they are not otherwise
being used, for the purpose of crunching vast amounts of data. Millions of people have participated.
- P2P
distribution: As Napster
proved, people will create their own distribution networks. As the music industry looked on, tens of
millions of individuals participated in a music distribution system that
had nothing to do with the entrenched powers, shiny discs, trucks, or even
payments. This model is moving into
other types of content.
- MySpace: Yes, it is now owned by News
Corporation. It is also an emblem
of the ability of a start up to so completely catch fire that many types
of content can be displayed, performed and distributed to a community that
can (and does) number in 9 figures without having to set up a traditional
network of any kind.
- YouTube: Again, suddenly, and without involvement
from established media or infrastructure companies, YouTube now logs over
100,000,000 video downloads per day!
This staggering figure has been achieved by a company that was
founded last year, 2005! The
revolution is upon us!
In each of the above examples,
content is being created and/or infrastructure is being provided by individuals
with no thought of immediate financial compensation for their efforts. And, yet, it is a global phenomenon. On the content side, for many, it is
replacing much of the leisure time entertainment and news experiences formerly
provided by the big media companies. This
clash of the titans – big business versus the rest of us – citizens, consumers,
viewsers, however one might characterize it, has potentially huge ramifications
for the way business and life is done in the 21st century. Who knows?
It might even be a harbinger of a changing global consciousness! One can only hope.