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.
