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The WSJ freebies today include a curmudgeonly column by tech columnist Lee Gomes, "Why Getting the User to Create Web Content Isn't Always Progress."
[F]or those preaching the glories of the new mash-up culture, UGC [User Generated Content] is bringing about a new golden age, with the Internet giving a platform to everyone, not just elite writers or filmmakers.
The video-sharing site YouTube is a poster child for this sensibility, . . . you can consult the site's "Top Favorites." There are several dance segments, people imitating ninjas or lip-synching songs, and a (very funny, actually) dog who growls at his own leg. You can spend 10 minutes and take in all of it. Spend much more, and you start feeling guilty about the time you're wasting.
Contrast that group of videos with the list you get when you search for the most non-UGC, least mashed-up collection of TV shows I could think of: "Favourite 20th century BBC TV programmes." . . . .
The . . . list includes dramas and sci-fi and talk shows and sitcoms, all of them, in their own way, weighty meals for the mind. You can watch them decade after decade, and never feel guilty at all. Put me down for the curmudgeons.
There is an old saw: "A camel is a horse as designed by a committee." Why would anyone think that the Internet has repealed this fundamental law of group action? Yes, group input can improve things, but only if someone in the chain can say "no."
UPGRADE (1:30 P.M.): Gomes' piece also reminded Rough Type of committees:
It's the mashed-up products of committee culture that tend to feel static. The more a mob messes with something, the flatter, more one-dimensional it becomes. When it comes to creative work, the individual mind is more interesting - more dynamic - than the mob mind. And an RT commenter links back to some more interesting thoughts:
I don't think [Jason Lanier's Digital Maoism] quite gets to the heart of the current 'wisdom of the crowds' myth, though. It's not Maoism so much as Revivalism: there's a tight feedback loop between membership of the collective, collective activity and (crucially) celebration of the activity of the collective. Or: celebration of process rather than end-result - because the process incarnates the collective.
posted by James DeLong @ 9:38 AM | Internet: P2P, Search Engines...
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