Next week Chris Anderson is visiting my home town. I got invited to write a few words about this event hosted by Media Evolution; which discusses things I work with anyhow. My entry is the first in a series of blog entries regarding this event and I’m looking forward to the next ones! For more information please visit What’s Next who initiated this series!
Most people know about Chris Anderson as the author of the book “The Long Tail” and the book “Free” which is soon to be published. Both books discuss what happens with the economy when products become digital, in thus in essence become free to reproduce.
The discussion about the digital economy is needed, no question about that. But the thing we tend to forget is what the same digitalization does to the society, outside the economical sphere. Think beyond the economy, the law suits, the smear campaigns on both sides of the pro- and anti-digitalization discourse.
All things that could be made digital will be made digital. The media industry was the first to become rationalized because of this and the slaughter is far from over. It will not end with newspapers, music and movies defacto becoming free of charge. It will change the foundation on how most of these are created and perceived. Art will change value, not only in an economical sense but also in a social one. This, however, is probably not a turn for the worse as it will make the social context more important than before.
Most people realize that blogging is now a form of citizen journalism. We will experience more sites as the swedish site Newsmill whom aggregate the content from skilled bloggers to form a digital news paper with only high quality content. This price tag on each blog entry is not the important part, it’s about getting your opinions read by a multitude of people that are interested in what you have to say.
Other things are on the verge of being digitalized that we never thought about before. In a not too distant future we will have 3D plotters in our homes, probably for the same price as a normal laser printer today. With this machine we will be able to create real physical objects, albeit with a low quality to begin with.
But why should the speed of evolution within this field differ from the computerized world since it will be an integral part? This means in the long run that we might just download blue prints for our jeans and get them created in our machines at home. And this is actually not as sci-fi as it sounds, you can already make coffee mugs and other small plastic object today with a plotter for less than $5,000.
How will our society be reshaped when everybody can make whatever object they want to, by just getting a copy of a blue print from the net? The digital today and future is not just about economy. It’s about the power shift from corporations in control to people in control. It’s about more than getting your entertainment for free.
And in the future that free lunch everybody talks about; might just be available for download. Hopefully there will be a vegan copy as well.
13 comments ↓
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Would a new definition of vegan be required if I plot a steak that was never a cow?
#2. That’s an interesting question. And I am not sure. It needs to be debated. In my mind vegan is something one become either for health reasons (trouble with meat, eggs or such) or for the majority to not add problems to the filthy meat industry. I would say that downloaded copies of meat would be vegan as long as it does not require the suffering of real live animals. And that is something that this new technology in the end will help out with. Everything could be vegan, hopefully.
But it’s essential to think about these possibilities (and problems?) in a broader spectre than just “Free media”. Which is what I wanted to say with this blog post.
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“Art will change value, not only in an economical sense but also in a social one.” I will have to think about this quote on my long trainride back to Malmö tonight. Thanks for a great start, Peter!
You’ve seen reprap, right? http://reprap.org/
“[RepRap] has been called the invention that will bring down global capitalism, start a second industrial revolution and save the environment…”
- The front page of The Guardian, November 25, 2006.
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I think Chris represents the past Internet Generation. The old saying “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” still applies.
Chris charges to come and speak, it costs to come and listen – there’s always someone who has to pay the bill in the end.
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