Resistance is futile
This week, like many before, has been a sad one for the meek continue to inherit the earth due to strength and fear. Doesn’t make much sense does it? The meek shouldn’t rule with strength and fear, but in our times of technological advancements, we’d rather fight over royalties than communicate. I’ll be honest, that last comment was in no way related to the recent Writer’s Guild strike going on the east and west coasts because I think they deserve the money. The shows aren’t driven by the actors(though they wouldn’t be as good without them) or the studios(though without them they wouldn’t have a place to air), but without the writers, no one has anything to say. I think that they deserve to get residuals from DVD or online sales. Or at least an increase in them. They have mouths to feed and people to entertain – PAY THEM SO I CAN WATCH THE DAILY SHOW DAMNIT!! Anyway, the meek I speak of are the people on the other side of the conversation – the people in charge. The people that think that the Internet is not something to be embraced because old time values will hold. These people should either start thinking outside the box or get out of the way. Resistance is futile….they just don’t know it yet.
For this week we read the end of Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold and the first five chapters of Wikinomics by Don Tapscoot and Anthony D. Williams. The most enjoyable thing about the readings thus far has been how enlightening they seem to be about the most obvious concepts. For example, in an age where gas prices are supposed to hit $4.00 a gallon for unleaded, it would make sense for us to figure out a way to conserve or share resources. The better able we are to work together, the better off we’ll be. In the case of Smart Mobs we’re given the example of NYCWireless, an organization that helps provide WiFi to the urban sprawl that is Yonkers. In of itself, it is an excellent idea and considering how cheap and alternative it can be to using a major corporation like AT&T, Sprint, Comcast or Cox Communications(to name a few). The airwaves are free to the public, so why should the public be confined to the rules of the FCC when those rules were developed in 1927, a much more archaic time than those we are living in today? Why not just build our own WiFi towers and share the band? The answer, most of the time, is if you have WiFi, anyone can use it. That’s the point, though….right? Not when users want to protect their information and right now, WiFi does not have the same protections as hardlines. But what’s so wrong with no secrets? I, for one, have repeated over and over in my posts like I do like my privacy, but if everyone has no secrets, then why would it matter? Clearly a smart mob can work if directed properly, yes? Which brings us to the readings in Wikinomics. At first glance I figured that the title had been chosen using a method described in the most recent edition of Wired Magazine only to realize that, no, the title wasn’t a joke about an online encyclopedia, but rather the Economics of Wiki.
In the first chapter of Wikinomics quotes Rheingold as saying, Collectivism involves coercion and centralized control; collective action involves freely chosen self-selection and distributed coordination. What does this mean and how does it relate to our readings? Collectivism is the method practiced by the old guard – create a company, hire staff, produce a product. Some companies have a small turnover rate because they treat their employees well and some just the opposite. Being part of the collective means that while you are part of the company, everything you do is for the betterment of the company. Collective action, however, is more like free-flowing. Individuals gather together to work on a project for the sake of developing something they wish to create. The best example is the basis for the book – Wikipedia, possibly the most thorough online source of information in the world. But why? Why would it be so trusted and why would anyone want to remove themselves from collectivism to be part of the collective? The answer is information.
The original internet was created as a method of accessing databases for academic research. Easier access to information was the drive for companies like Yahoo! and Google. Wikipedia, however, isn’t a company in the strictest sense. It’s not selling ads, developing radio stations or creating mobile phones. It’s a hub for information that is becoming increasingly more accurate than any other news source. The book cites the bombing in London as an example of people posting information over the course of a day, but I would rather use the article about former wrestler Chris Beniot who died earlier this year by hanging himself after killing his wife and child. Wikipedia not only had one of the first reports of his death, but details surrounding his death had been posted by someone prior to the police being called and sent to his home. While the people who posted about the London bombing of 2005 were able to keep an accurate record of what happened, the fact that anyone could add information about the death of Beniot before it was public is both interesting and terrifying. For the sake of this post, I’m going to go with the former. The ability for mass amounts of people to contribute toward the goal of information is amazing. There is so much in this world that I don’t know, but now have access to just by searching Wikipedia. It has the possiblity to become the new great library of Alexander. This library, I would imagine, won’t disappear into the nether regions. So what does all this have to do with my original statement of the new guard vs the old? As discussed in the reading, there Peer Pioneers, Ideagoras, and Prosumers. Those that develop the ideas, those that adapt to emerging technology and the consumer who claims right to everything.
The old guard would like us to pay for everything that is created. Me, I don’t mind. It’s like paying taxes. I want to drive on the road, but I’d prefer it to be a well-maintained road. So I pay my taxes and I get to drive on a safer road than others. If I pay for the content, then they get to make more content. Here’s my issue: I don’t trust the people that sell me content. In the reading, the Sony BMG DRM debacle was mentioned. I was one of the people involved in the class action suit(granted it was by no action of mine other than sending them my Cyndi Lauper cd back in exchange for a DRM-free copy) . Sony wanted to make sure I only made 3 copies of that disc, so they included protections to ensure it. Trouble was, those protections messed up my computer. Using the same trust I have for Wikipedia, I am more likely to go to LimeWire, KaZaa or any other free downloading software to get my music because most music lovers don’t want bad music. They want safe music. If I can’t trust the company who sells me a CD, then why should I buy it from them? The numbers don’t lie. Recently an article stated that MP3s are outselling CDs 4-to-1. Personally, I love CDs, but if I can’t trust them, I’m not going to put my money into them and I can’t stand iTunes. Where else am I going to go? Television companies are getting nearly as bad, but I think that has more to do with a poor perception of what the internet can bring. NBC recently backed out of a renewal with iTunes to sell their properties. This was a DUMB idea. If people don’t get it from iTunes, they’ll get it from Mimo. Why should I pay $3 per episode when a box set costs $40? Or better yet, why pay at all when it comes over the airwaves for free? So far, the old guard don’t have answers for that. I work for an old guard company and I’m watching us fall farther and farther behind because we don’t seem to understand what our audience wants. I guess it doesn’t help that our staff doesn’t understand the internet past shopping on eBay.
Out of respect for what’s to come, I will leave you with this – a video mash-up of Midway’s Mortal Kombat theme with scenes from Dragon Ball Z. This a video similar to what was referenced in the reading as being a powerful form of self-promotion because the consumers are being active in the product, of which, there is no greater kind of promotion. If your audience loves you, they will buy it, make it their own, and buy more later. Any good product is worth paying for, which is why Linux and Firefox have been able to survive for so long on donations alone.
Or this: The Codex, episode 1, a machinima based in the Halo universe.
Interestingly, the highly successful series is no longer able to make it more films because Microsoft’s new licensing rules don’t allow it. Gamers can now record game play through Halo 3 but they can’t do anything fun with the content. Gotta love the contradictions of new technology.
Or this: an episode of Red Vs. Blue….see for yourself.
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