Date archives "March 2007"

Crowdsourcing: is it better to focus on the 1% of passionate users?

This blog entry at the Crowdsourcing blog, which ‘monitors the rise of the amateur’, reviews some recent studies that confirm that peer production is mostly the result, not of an amorphous wisdom of crowds process, but of the core role of the lead passionate producers. Interestingly, he then contrasts crowdsourcing with what I would call… Continue reading

"We”Tube: The Future of YouTube

OK, so this kid puts up a video of himself ranting about the future of YouTube and asking a question: http://youtube.com/watch?v=z7JgtjeIsuY Then, Lots of other folks put up some similar videos of themselves answering the question: http://youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Re%3A+%22We%22Tube%22%22&search=Search Now my curiosity here is that this is a new form of conversation. But it is a conversation… Continue reading

Linking open source design to open source production

Last January, in discussion the OSCAR open source car project, we posed the important issue of the linkage between the design phase and the construction phase, assuming that the deep linkages between designing and actually making are vital for the success of open source production models in the physical world. Since then, I’ve been alerted… Continue reading

Adam Dada: DRM-free and open music models make more sense for small bands

In the discussion around a recent Slashdot posting, serial entrepreneur Adam Dada makes an interesting case about why small bands are better off adopting open music models, Excerpt: “As a very very small music producer (basically, I give bands money to record or tour, and I hope to recoup some of that investment in the… Continue reading

Book of the Week: Adam Arvidsson on Ethics and the General Intellect, 4

We continue the prepublication of Adam Arvidsson’s second chapter of the Ethical Economy. In this fourth excerpt, he discusses the concept of Mass Intelltectuality: “Mass Intellectuality This ideal of total control, of tying the message to the medium, or agency to structure, to use sociological terms remained an ideal (perhaps best expressed in the sociology… Continue reading