Something is going on here, Mr. Jones

Earlier this week I enjoyed watching a new episode of Star Trek. This DVD quality viewing on a laptop computer was radical in several critical ways: 1] It was produced much nearer the edges, NOT in Hollywood, at substantially lower costs; 2] The distribution has essentailly no cost as each viewer legally downloads their own copy -- many using bittorrent, the all for one, one for all peer to peer distribution technology; 3] I can carry this around on my 2nd generation iPod. For more on the new episodes, see http://www.newvoyages.com

A second data point is the rapidly emerging home brew “radio” produced at the edges and distributed for free via RSS: Podcasting. For an entry point into this innovation, see: http://ipodderx.com/

A third data point can be seen in the recent John Stewart episode of Cross Fire. A close reading of that episode confirms Stewart’s charges. All of the elements are there: A “news” show with a large fan audience and celebrities who entertain them with what amounts to mud wresling antics in order to support the consumption of the advertisers' products. The conflict between its actual status as an gladatorial entertainment and its claim to be “news” is painfully clear. Is everything to be reduced to Celebrity, Entertainment and Consumption?

Something is going on here, Mr. Jones -- with apologies to Bob Dylan, who was right then and is right again.

There is a telling bit of evidence that we the people don’t think so. Within hours of the broadcast, the John Stewart segment was a huge hit on the darknet. The outing of Cross Fire is an underground hit? Something is going on here, Mr. Jones.

One of the things going on is that new low cost tools are enabling a substantial relocation of the nexus of production and distribution from the industrial center to the people at the end points of the network. If we work with it, we will benefit from a new wave of innovation, investment, and productivity that much sooner. As David P. Reed points out, every 10 million citizens who invest $1,000 of their own money to improve their ability to participate unleashes 10 billion dollars to fuel further innoivation and market activities. In the case of the PC revolution, 10s of millions of people invested several thousand dollars every two or three years.

If we fight these inevitable changes, we lose time, energy and opportunity.

Looking backwards 500 and some years ago, we all can see how the book made with moveable type changed everything. The production and distribution of knowledge was relocated from the centrality of the monastries to the broader pubilc. The number of producers and readers increased dramatically. Innovation increased. Markets, governments and religions were transformed in unexpected ways. New traditions emerged.

300 plus years latter the American revolution formalized the relocation of political legitimacy from the centrality of the church and throne to “we, the people” at the edges. Granted, “we, the people” excluded women, first nations peoples, the poor ad so forth, but it continued the trend of shifting power away from the center towards the individual at the edge.

Now, 200 plus years latter, the data are starting to suggest that we are at the end of the era that depended upon centralized, industrial means of production and distribution. The long trend of shifting production and distribution, power, further and further from the center continues.

The interesting question is will this 21st century shift be as transformational as the the shift enabled by moveable type? Will it give us the innovations we will require to achieve sustainable success in the face of the many difficult new challenges facing us?

Posted by Jock Gill at October 17, 2004 12:10 PM | TrackBack