Tuesday, June 21, 2011

First!

My first insightful moment of the class so far is that I need to bring a laptop to take notes on in the future because I cannot read my own handwriting.  It's going to make the rest of this assignment all kinds of fun.

Legitimate "Hmmm" moment #1:  Clay Shirky is a kick-ass name.  Seriously.  He sounds like a cartoon wizard.  Like, "You will rue the day you crossed Clay Shirky!"  Awesome.

Aside from having a name that makes me quiver with envy, he actually brought up some really interesting points.  I especially liked his idea of digital media as a "Triathlon" consisting of equal parts consuming, producing and sharing, even though that seems like it's quite a ways off.  Consumption is still the easiest part of the process, after all, and easy things are great.

"Hmm!" moment #2:  A Second Industrial Revolution

I loved this analogy, especially since Clay used it to draw lines not only between the life-changing aspects of the Industrial and Digital Revolutions, but also how overwhelming the whole thing can be.  The internet is an amazing and useful tool, but it's also a staggering amount of information and videos and jokes and comics and articles and music at your fingertips.  It's easy to just get lost in it all.

"Hmm!" moment #3: The Read-Write Culture

This last moment that made me go "Hmm" was the second video's main theme of turning digital from a "Write-Only" culture into a "Read-Write" culture.  I thought it was interesting how much the two lecturers had in common when it came to themes and ideas.  The second guy's slant was a little more "Think of the children!" but they both brought up a lot of similar points about fair use and the contributory process.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that.  Question time!
  • How do you think digital media can be changed to put more of an emphasis on production and less on consumption? 
  • What do you think of Second Guy's statement that "Extremism on one side creates extremism on all sides?"
  • How can the copyright laws and the fair use laws be combined so as to create an environment that is the most favorable to hands-on production?
Also, final thought:  Clay Shirky pronounced Wikipedia "Wee-kee-pedia" and it never failed to make me laugh.

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