CCT 300:Critical Analysis

of Media

Class 11: Web 2.0 Remainders and Grown Up Digital in a Creative Economy

RSS Feeds

• Information feeds to create push vs. pull relationshiop to media

• Feed aggregators (browser, online or application-centered) collect new information feeds in one location

• Increasingly mashed up with other services (e.g., Yahoo! Pipes)

Folksonomies

• Collaborative tagging and categorization of materials

• Tags and categories develop organically through community input

• Opposite direction from taxonomy – top-down, enforced control (e.g., Library of Congress)

• Use in TorCamp conferences

Collaborative Favourites/Bookmarks

• Shared items/pages of interest• Services such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, Fark,

(too) many others become ways of tracking commonly bookmarked items

• Del.icio.us tagging and its benefits

Podcasting

• Downloadable audio or video broadcasts, related (but not necessarily tied) to popularlity of iPod

• Itunes integration - a central repository for podcast feeds, but there are others

Video/File Sharing

• Emphasis not only on sharing content but creating it

• YouTube celebrities – a new means of creating (often quite popular) cultural content

• SlideShare as more business-oriented space – collecting otherwise ignored PPTs in one shared space for distribution and comment

(Some) Games

• Which games?• Multiplayer games - building of community

around game actions, especially games that require group interaction to succeed

• Examples?

IM?

• Is instant messaging really 2.0?• To some extent, it adheres to SLATES, but the

community is generally very insular – email isn’t really 2.0 for the same reason

Information or Creation?

• Information - what is it? How does it differ from data? Knowledge? Wisdom?

• “information economy” - what is it?• What are value-added activities in the information

economy? (and what aren’t all that valuable?)

Right/Left Brain (Pink)

• Left brain - sequential, functional, logical, literal, textual, analytic, ordered, rules-based

• Right brain - simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, emotional, contextual, synthetic, complex, holistic, association-based

• More orientation than exclusivity - we use both all the time (e.g., recognizing danger)

• Unless neurologically impaired, both can be exercised and developed

Three Trends

• Abundance• Asia• Automation

Abundance

• The developed world has most its basic needs sorted out - people don’t necessarily need more stuff

• New product releases - not about need but want (and engineering that want…)

Automation

• Products are increasingly produced by machines (e.g., robotics in manufacturing)

• But so are professional services - e.g., DIY law, accounting - even coding in cases

Asia

• Alliteration! (Think globalization - also includes BRIC countries and elsewhere)

• Global work transfer - not just cheaper manufacturing labour but also cheaper info. economy labour

• Many qualified scientists, doctors, lawyers, accountants in BRIC - often available at a fraction of Western salary

High Concept, High Touch

• Previously privileged left-brain talents - increasingly automated, outsourced

• In age of abundance, goods and services must not just be functional but appealing

• Creativity - not just information processing - is the real value-added activity

• More complicated than following rules - must be able to manipulate and create them

Information vs. Conceptual Age

• Function• Argumentation• Focus• Logic• Seriousness• Accumulation

• Design• Story• Symphony• Empathy• Play• Meaning

Rise (and Flight) of the Creative Class (Florida)

• Creative class growing in number and power both• Talent, technology and tolerance drive creative class• Creative people thrive in creative communities - and

leave those that aren’t• National/worldwide competition for creative talent

that can be influenced by policy – e.g., Florida’s own departure to Toronto

Implications for Education and Employment

• A troubling trend in higher education - information transfer and programmatic learning via rubrics

• But creative class defines rules, not just follows them

• Mimickry of instructions != education – e.g., McCloud’s notion of surface vs. idea/form.

Grown Up Digital (Tapscott, 2009)

• “a generation bathed in bits” – echo/Gen Y (1977-1997)

• Technology as “air” – integral and seamless part of lived experience

• Intergenerational conflict – norms, values, and potentially brains of Gen Y conflict with more traditional boomer era or more cynical Xers

Eight Norms of Gen Y

• Freedom of choice and expression

• Eager to customize and personalize

• Scrutiny of decisions made – demanding and discerning

• Corporate integrity and openness

• Play and entertainment in work, education and social life

• Collaborative, relationship building approaches

• Speed is of the essence• Interest in and capacity

for innovation

Concerns

• Is Gen Y as creative and innovative as they claim? (again with rubrics – going through the motions isn’t creative!)

• Is structured existence engineered by “helicopter parents” creating a new generation of perpetual adolescence?

• Do they reflect on what they create, especially when speed is of the essence?

• Is idealism and privilege of experience and play taken too far?

What can/must I do?

• Be prepared to engage reality critically and creatively• Engage both right and left brain skills• Live up to the promise of your generation – and be

aware of the concerns of other generations• There are no instructions on how to do this –

comfort with unstructured environments and creating the rules of the road is important

• Sound hard? It is - but it’s more rewarding financially and intellectually than being sheep

Next week…

• Test review – (this does not mean I tell you what’s on the test – it’s an opportunity to ask questions about material and the general structure of the test, not what precisely to study)

• Project presentations