“The paradise of choice”

 

The democratization of new technology has made possible for millions and millions of people to have more choices in products and services offered online.  The abundance of all these products and services has also made “the long tail” longer and longer. There are a lot of people who said that the availability of so many products, or having “too much” to choose from is actually a bad idea.  Proponents of this idea say that there are a lot of people who simply just does not know how to handle all the variety being offered online.  They argue that the less choices the better because it makes their selection process easier.  On the other hand, there are the proponents who support the abundance on products and services being offered online, people say that  “the conventional view is that more choice is better, because it acknowledges that people are different and allows them to find what’s right for them” (Anderson, 170).  Thus, people should be able to recognize the quality of the products.  Moreover, the fact that there are so many products online it does not mean that all the products are good.  Furthermore, that it why there is filtering online, so that consumers use them as a way of recommendation according to the consumer taste.  It is also important to acknowledge pointing out that the more products; the better people can compare the quality and the prices of the products.

Continuing with the abundance of “paradise choice” and the “long tail” on chapter eleven Anderson talks about why democratization of technology is good.  He talks about the regular mainstream culture (the traditional) vs. the subculture (“the long tail”).  He says that it is always good to have both, the mainstream culture and the subculture because as consumers we get smarter, due the choices that are being offered.  Anderson talks about how as culture we are all the same, but as individuals we are all different. and it is there that we can find our niche online.  “It shows that my tribe is not your tribe, even if we work together, play together, and otherwise live in the same world.  Same bed, different dreams…each of us belongs to many different tribes simultaneously, often overlapping (geek culture and LEGO), often not tennis and punk-funk).  We share some interest our colleagues and some with our families, but not all of our interests” (Anderson, 183,194).  As consumers we have the best of the two worlds: the mainstream and the subculture world, after all it is all about choices.  It is up to the consumer to decide.      

One of the problems with choice selection, is that once people have found their niches, many of them become issue polarized and close minded “As the customization of our communications universe increases, society is in danger of fragmenting, shared communities in danger of dissolving… if these technologies facilitate polarization in politics, what influence are they exerting over art, literature and music?.. Are we promoting a creative individualism or narrow individualism?” (Anderson, 189).  This is true in part, because the more a person knows about an issue the more influence he or she will have, however, this has been the case through history and it will not change.  This is the case with big media, in politics, in arts, literature or music works. Those who know more, for the most part are the most influent in agenda setting, eventually people become issue experts in different parts of society. 

Scarcity a marketing sacred commodity

 

In chapter eight Anderson talks about the “law of vital few” which means that few own a lot of; and on the contrary, a lot of people own very little.  This philosophy equally applies on marketing.  Few industries control a lot of the content on, TV, radio, or Internet.  However, Anderson also says that the “long tail” keeps growing because people want variety and quality of products; and companies by having these services, costumers will switch their taste for demand.  The law of supply and demand changes, because the more variety consumers have, the more choices they will have to choose from, thus as a result, “the long tail” will grow even bigger. This is because niches for new products that that did not exist before are now available for people of different taste.  Moreover, the distribution methods are easier than it used to be in the past making products available to costumers literally who live around the world.

Age and popularity is correlated to the purchasing of new products; this is another reason why “the long tail” keeps growing.  Anderson says that new things sell better for various reasons: first, there is the age factor; adults between 18 and 32 tend to spend more on new products.  However, there is also a demand for other products.  Thus I make the connection based on the discussion we had last week in which you (professor) Meraz explained that in the marketing industry, everyone is looking for attention, and attention is really limited.  Due to the fact that everyone wants to bee in the “hit” list, then everyone is fighting really hard to be in that spot.  “Although there may be near infinite selection of all media, there is still a scarcity of human attention…” (Anderson, 146)

In the scale of economics, Anderson says that, in a capitalist society, this is the way the market works; whoever, comes up with the best marketing strategy, is more likely to create a hit in this diverse communication medium.  Since it is so diverse he says companies try to create a product that fits for the majority of a homogeneous audience.  “One size fits all” is what producers intend to create to bring people’s attention.  Since there is a surplus or abundance of products, niches inevitably establish themselves.  However, this is not seen as a bad thing, because in the long run, if a product is good, it will sell regardless of the new products coming to the market.  Nonetheless, there are online a lot of “crappy” products because there are no filtering systems and contrary to what many people think, filtering is good for consumers because it helps consumers from buying a useless product. This is another reason why the long tail keeps growing, growing, because there are a lot of useless products online, and not necessarily to supply and demand.         

“The New Producers”

 

In “The Long Tail” Chris Anderson talks about the tools and forces of democratization in technology.  Pretty much, he talks about that technology is becoming available to more people due to its lower costs.  He talks about the democratizing tools of production, the cutting cost of consumption by democratizing distribution and finally he talks about connecting supply and demand on the market (Anderson, 55).  He mentions that now, everyone has access to all kinds of new technologies and information. Moreover, Anderson talks about the people’s desire for knowledge and content online.

 

Anderson, talks about the revolutionary collaboration between “Pro-Am” era, “a time when professionals and amateurs work side by side” on the behalf of creating or discovering a product or a service for the good of the community.  An example of a “Pro-Am” product would be Wikipedia, which grew to be the number one online encyclopedia thanks to “Pro-Am” collective collaboration.  People from all sorts of life contribute their time and knowledge to make Wikipedia the most complete and used encyclopedia online.  Even thought Wiipedia is not considered an authority source, such as encyclopedia Britannica or Encarta, the collaborators from Wikipedia still do an excellent job.  As James Surowiecki says “The Wisdom of Crowds” democratizes and makes information available to everyone for free.

 

Following with democratization theory, Anderson talks about the five most important aggregators which are: physical goods, digital goods, advertising services, information and communities.  They are all, and important component to the Internet.  Now the “marginal const of manufacturing, shelving and distribution is closer to zero and royalties are paid when goods are sold” (Anderson, 95).  Digital information needs not space to hold it; all it needs is a computer.  Anderson also, says that there is a lot of online information because there are a lot of people who create content for “fun, self expression, experimentation, and some do it for the money or the repudiation.” (Anderson, 89). Nonetheless, he says this is what makes the Internet democratic, because there is something for everybody. 

 

The Long Tail

In ‘The Long Tail” Chris Anderson gives a brief evolution of the way commerce was done.  He talks about our past consumer behaviors, which has changed from the traditional catalog, purchase, driving to the store, buying products over the phone; to the latest purchasing practice: E-commerce. In chapter one, he explains the major changes the mass media is going through. He explains that all mass media audience has decline over the years, especially since the early 1990’s when the Internet emerged.  A great amount audience who relied on books, radio, TV, newspapers and magazines has been shifting to find more products and services Online.

Anderson explains that the audience for products or for mass media consumption is not disappearing; he says that the audience is just shifting and finding their own niche.  The fact that the mass media was obsessed with creating homogeneous programs for viewers did not mea that viewers liked what they watched, listened or read.  It just meant people had fewer options to choose from.  With the emergence of Internet all that has changed.  Now every consumer from any part of the world can choose from hundreds of thousands of options that once they did not have. 

Internet has revolutionized our lives, the way business is done, there is not time or space to choose anything from anywhere.  Now consumers are finding their own niche, their own time, their own interest without having to listen to the big mass media outlets.  As Rupert Murdoch once said, “people want control of their media, instead of being controlled by it.”  People are still consuming but they are fragmenting according to their tastes and need. . For example, now it is possible to listen to a radio station from another part of the world, watch our favorite programs online or search information that it is not possible to find in the local library.  The Internet has become the new “Whish Book” idea invented by Richard Sears, in which anything can be found but what it has done in only one place, “ Internet has eliminated most of the physical barriers of buying” now we have unlimited selection to choose from (Chris Anderson, 49).

 

Media changes

In the last chapters of “We the media” Gillmor talks about the current problems journalist face due to the new technology.  Not only journalists are more exposed to being sued because someone posted material that is not accurate. (Especially in forums)  Moreover, he talks about the misrepresentation of journalist stories, in which it has been found that  some journalist including the one from  USA Today, Jack Kelly had “fabricated some information in which he became a finalist to the Pulitzer Prize” (200).  Among other things it has been know that other journalist have been copying other journalist materials. 

He also, talks about how the big media and big business lobbied Congress to pass stricter laws and punish those who don’t use their material in a “fair way”.  Gillmor says that Congress is deciding to listen to big media thus allowing them to expand their monopoly. He gives the example of copyrighted work that protects author’s creative work.  Although I agree that if one creates a piece of art, music, or writing the author must be entitled until his death because that is product of his creativity.  But he mentions how Disney Corporation managed to take away the rights of his cartoons from public domain and continue to make profit after the copyrights had expired.

Gillmor says that the old media is being responsive towards new technology, but they are being responsive, because they are afraid of losing money; and the new techniques they are adapting is done to intimidate the audience.  For example at the end of the book he mentions how he and his publisher decided to have “We the media” Online for free. That is something that other publisher would not do because they know that somehow they would lose money. The only way publishers allow readers to download material is when the material is public domain.  They don’t publish Online books for free because they are afraid of losing money. 

  

Whose information do you trust!

On chapter eight, on page 171, Gillmor, writes about “whose information do you trust” he talks about how Google decided not to post any Blogs on its news sites even thought some of the best Bloggers post really interesting information about the current news and events and Bloggers are doing a good job covering those events.  In my opinion Google should allow the best Bloggers with relevant information about news or events to be searchable in “Google News”.  Thus however, Google could put a disclaimer informing people that the Blog is not a news website but it has relevant information about the topic being searched.  Thus readers can have more options and they would decide how to interpret the comments being posted Online.   

On chapter nine Gillmor also, talks about the new changes in technology, has changed the way news are being presented to the public he explains how pictures, stories and videos can easily be manipulated to take advantage of something.  Gillmor gives the example of the 2004, presidential campaign in which someone posted a fake photo of John Kerry with Jane Fonda.  “Kerry and Fonda in a photo that turned out to be doctored were show “together” at a 1970s rally protesting the Vietnam War.  It was unclear who crated the fake picture, but the willingness of many people to trust this picture spoke volumes about how easy it is to manipulate public opinion”.  (Gillmor, 177).

As Internet users, we have to keep in mind that not everything we see online is trustworthy, especially if the information found in not from a trustable source. Blogs can be trustable if they are at least being cited by other people.  The lesson to be learned is to be suspicious when information being post online does not have a reputable source. This does not mean that we have to rely on the traditional media to deliver the news. It just means we have to be a little more suspicious about the way news are presented and question who presents the news and why.     

Citizen Journalism: “We The Media”

In chapters, 4,5, and 6 Gilmore talks about the necessity people has in writing the stories the traditional media is not covering.  Some citizen’s journalists write with a great passion about certain topics, and eventually they become to be experts in topics such as politics, law or even economy.  These writers see the necessity to post this information on the web so that people more can see it.  Moreover, Gilmore also, says that although the traditional media has the economic resources, sometimes they don’t want to invest too much time in investigative reporting because it costs too much money to do an in-depth reporting. And the stories especially on TV have to be really short.

People who has great passion for any topic will write in-depth because they care about the topics and they wonder that Online, there must be some people who are also hungry to learn more about it.  One thing is true: citizen journalism is uncontrollable growing.  More voices are being heard, and less people are being ignored by the big media companies, thus allowing more people to join in the conversation, something of course that traditional media does not like it, but this is a democracy and when more voices are heard, people will have a broader perspective of the issues that affect them and that the media should be covering, if they don’t, well, citizens journalist and bloggers will start the conversation themselves, because now the tools to start a conversation exist and those tools are cheap or even free. 

“We The Media”

In “we the media” Dan Gillmor, talks about the thirst for news that grew post 9-11, it is interesting how the emergence of so many blogs were dedicated to comments about what the 9-11 attacks, he also talks bout how the big media companies are not the only ones dominating the news agenda.  Now the big media companies formerly know as the big three ABC, CBS, and NBC don’t dominate the news business anymore.  Now, anyone who is interested in certain news or topics can write about it, and as Gillmor says sometimes they create big stories and become famous independently from the media.

Gilmore also says that a lot of good content is being written by amateurs who are passionate about topics and technology.  As long as people are interested in voicing out their opinion and as long as they have the tools and a computer to write it, they will do it.  This is his approach or philosophy of “we the media” in which he says that anyone of us can create our own conversation online and we don’t necessarily have to what for the big media to us what to think of who to think.  Now some of us tell big media what we think the agenda should be. Now and in the future it seems that we are the media.  

The Wealth of Networks

The whole philosophy of pee-to-peer open source programs is basically being able to use any program available for free. Of course this is something that big companies like Microsoft don’t like because it takes business away from them. The programmers who designed the open source system truly believe in the movement of freedom in regard freedom of sharing programs with others without them having to pay for it.  Moreover, Benkler also talks about the freedom people have to make any modified changes to the programs if needed; as long as they give credit to the original General Public License it is good.   

“In the Peer Production of Information, Knowledge, and Culture”In the open source systems anyone’s knowledge is well appreciated, because, even now it exists technical supports through the blogs, now users don’t even have to wait hours and hours to have technical support from the company. That is a great advantage, and the support is for free. Is cool to find places that offer support where individuals share “their time, experience, wisdom, and creativity to form new information, knowledge, and cultural goods” (Benkler, 15). Finally in this age of technology, it is always good to find out how much valuable information we can find online and best of all it has been provided to us by someone who cares and knows about technology and he or she is willing to share that knowledge with the whole world. Great!    

We Are The Web: WIRED

In We Are The Web, Kevin Kelly, takes an interesting review of how the experts in technology got the evolution of the Internet wrong.  He goes back to the 1990’s when the Internet was not even understood by the computer experts.  It just amazes me how wrong experts were.  For example Kelly talks about an article published in 1994 by Time Magazine.  In this article the author explained “why the Internet would never go mainstream: “It was not designed for doing commerce, and it does not gracefully accommodate new arrivals”.  So many experts cataloged the emergence of the web as “baloney”.  Wow! Even experts were dead wrong. One thing that I found questionable in this article were some statistics about who the Internet uses are.  Their surveys have found that the majority of the Internet users are females. I agree with his findings.  However, I don’t agree with the findings that teenagers don’t really use the Internet.  The article says that “Internet is not and has never been a teenage realm… in fact; they say that the average Internet user age is 41 years old.  I don’t agree with these numbers and there are many reasons why I don’t agree with these figures.  First of all, we know that for the most part teenagers tend to be the early adapters of technology; they are the ones who have the latest gadgets, the most recent cell phones, computers, or the most recent games. Thus I think some of the findings are not really accurate, however, the article is really interesting. It really shows who much the internet has evolved since the 1990’s.    At first, Internet was seen as a medium of communication for the elite, now it is a communication medium for anyone, to do just about anything.  It is unimaginable the things we are able to do Online thanks to the creation of the Internet. Now people buy, gamble, watch movies Online, do their banking, dating, play games, chat, and get information about anything they want from everywhere they want.  It is just amazing.  Finally, equally important, the future for the web evolution is unimaginable that not even the most knowledgeable experts in technology are able to accurately predict it.