Saturday, October 9, 2010

danah boyd

Broadcast media structures (schools) take one critical thing for granted:





There is an assumption that everyone will tune in and give their attention to the broadcast entity. Yet that has never been true.
With the barriers to distribution collapsing, what matters is not the act of distribution, but the act of consumption. Thus,
the power 
is no longer in the hands of those 
who control the channels of distribution; 
the power is now in the hands of those 
who control the limited resource of attention.
This is precisely why Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2006 was "You."  
Your attention is precious and valuable. It's no longer about push; it's about pull.
And the "Law of Two Feet" is now culturally pervasive.

{isn't this what people are calling web 3.0}

Being in flow with information is not about being interrupted
Switching from a model of distribution to a model of attention is disruptive, but it is not inherently
democratizing.
At the most basic level, consider the role of language. People will pay attention to content that is in their own language, even if they can get access to content in any language. (global voices, zuckerman, translating tweets and wikipedia in other languages)
stimulation.

If we're not careful, we're going to develop the psychological equivalent of obesity.
We're addicted to gossip - what's the alcohol
homophily.
In an era of networked media, we need to recognize that networks are homophilous and operate accordingly. (and now zuckerman)
power.
We found that reasonable people disagreed about which accreditation method was best.

making it work:
we have yet to find the digital equivalent of alcohol.
Figuring out how to monetize sociality is a problem, and it's not one that's new to the Internet. Think about how we monetize sociality in physical spaces. The most common model involves second-order consumption of calories. Venues provide a space for social interaction to occur, and we are expected to consume to pay rent. Restaurants, bars, cafes—they all survive on this model. But we have yet to find the digital equivalent of alcohol.

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isn't  - transparency - the new currency?..
and through authentic and non agenda driven transparency -  
s h a r i n g occurs.

bring on the mesh... let's drink it up.



danah will be embedded in my mind forever for a comment i was lucky enough to hear a year or two ago - that she focuses on going where the clusters are - and figuring out why they're clustering..
i've been listening to and watching people (mostly kids) for several years now... trying to do that. trying to notice things. things that matter.
i realize this sounds utopian, but i do believe we are primed for sharing - people are craving a simpler more honest time.
and the gang who is now gradeschool through college - seems to have that as second nature. the ways they display it (in a system with so many rules sharing has no air to breathe) tend to manifest in atypical ways. but when you take the time to listen to their story... a lot of what we see and interpret incorrectly is a defense mechanism they have built up.
in fact - from my perspective - (one that is earnestly seeking out those global voices) - i'm blown away by what kids put up with today... in a relatively respectable manner.


if we could unleash this in public school. take away those suffocating rules.. ed could be the vehicle to social change.
and like - overnight even... because so many are primed... and because networking can. that fast.





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