The Associated Press created quite a stir recently by declaring that people who link to their stories are violating copyright. In effect, the organization declared war on the internet, and is taking what I think is a colossally wrong headed turn towards walling off their content from the very people it should be showing it to, ie) the world. Notable new media thinkers like Jeff Jarvis have railed against AP’s move, but now he’s been joined by an unlikely ally. Chris Aheam, the President of Reuters Thompson, has written a column called “Why I believe in the Link Economy,” where he explains how Reuters will embrace opportunities created by the internet, rather than fighting the future and losing.
In a word, self-employment. I’ve been really busy and haven’t had a lot of time to post anything. I’m also trying to refocus the site towards video and video production, rather than the catch-all approach I’ve taken before. That’s mostly due to the fact that I’ve started Freyburg Media (www.freyburgmedia.com), my own video production company. So there may be a little less posting for the next couple of weeks, but rest assured I’ll not only try to find cool stuff to write about but also post videos I’ve produced that are more fun and less business-related.
Something’s been bugging me for the last little while about the amatuerization of media. While you probably won’t find a bigger proponent of the democratization of tools for creating media and distribution methods than myself, and while there’s never been a better time for someone with an idea and a camcorder to go out and make media, it’s pretty disappointing to me that what catches on with the general public isn’t thoughtful or unique creations but gossip and nonsense. Witness the rise of Perez Hilton, chronicled in the latest issue of Wired. Hilton’s blogging consists of mindless gossip wrapped in an infantile bow of terrible writing, and yet his site makes on the order of 50k a day in advertising. And Julia Allison’s Nonsociety is about…what, exactly? Nothing but navel-gazing and the craven pursuit of fame for fame’s sake.
But we can’t blame vain, shallow people for being who they are. It’s our own damn fault for falling prey to the same craven impulses they wallow in and enabling them. For further spite and bile, check out this Huffington Post article about female New York bloggers, and how they’re cheating themselves by writing about superficial nonsense and staring at their own reflection.
Chris Anderson, who wrote “The Long Tail,” (a great book, btw) has a new book in the works called “Free,” all about how digital goods are plummeting in cost and hence are driving the new gift economy. Wired has an excerpt from the book, along with video.
While we did our VideoBlogging 101 presentation at Northern Voice today, Jordan shot some “almost live” video on his hard-drive camcorder to show the audience how easy it is to publish video to the web. Behold!
Over the last little while I’ve been blogging at Techvibes about the Vancouver technology scene. Sashay over there and take a look at my work if you would.