A blog post by Nick Carr about the future of the printed book touched off an epic comment debate between the author and media theorist Clay Shirky about whether the book format itself will die out and be replaced. Read more at paidContent »
A manifesto on the future of news published by Columbia University’s center for digital journalism argues that the news industry as we know it no longer exists, and existing players need to figure out how to adapt to the new realities of news, and quickly. Read more »
Open-source principles have helped create a host of useful software, including the Linux operating system and the crowd-powered resource that is Wikipedia — but could the same approach be used to open up the process of producing government legislation? Clay Shirky argues that it could. Read more »
As more newspapers confront the same reality as the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and have to stop printing and go digital only to cut costs, what happens to the public role that a newspaper plays in a community? Can a digital-only media entity fulfil the same purpose? Read more »
Is Warren Buffett’s recent acquisition of the Media General chain a brilliant gamble, or an indication of his faith in the long-term prospects of newspapers? Clay Shirky argues it is neither — he says Buffett misunderstands some fundamental things about the business he has bought. Read more »
In an interview about the future of the media industry, Google’s head of news products Richard Gingras said that newspapers are like old-fashioned internet portals such as AOL and Yahoo, and that unless they can adapt to the web instead of fighting it they are doomed. Read more »
The news that Canada’s largest newspaper is launching a paywall brings back memories of an earlier paywall attempt, and how that led one GigaOM writer to the discovery of blogging — and three reasons why paywalls are not the solution to the newspaper industry’s problems. Read more »
As author Clay Shirky points out, the simple act of publishing something — whether it’s a book or a news article — doesn’t require an industry any more, just a button. So what do the traditional content-publishing industries do now to justify their continued existence? Read more »
New tools like the Kindle have led to an explosion of self-published books, but that has meant more competition for existing authors. How do they make money now? Writer Seth Godin says they first have to give up the idea that they deserve to be paid. Read more »
Want the short course on why SOPA is getting such blowback? Clay Shirky breaks it down in this 13-minute talk at the TED offices, explaining… Read more at paidContent »
In a presentation about SOPA and PIPA, author and media theorist Clay Shirky starts with an anecdote about a mom-and-pop bakery in his old neighborhood that made custom birthday cakes for children. What does that have to do with piracy? More than you might think. Read more »
The firestorm of criticism that erupted over the New York Times public editor’s question about whether reporters should be “truth vigilantes” is a sign there is still a huge gap between what the mainstream media thinks its job is and what readers think. Read more »
Why does Twitter allow users to have pseudonyms, while Google and Facebook require real names? Because Twitter realizes it can provide plenty of value for both users and advertisers without having to know your real name. On the social web, it’s all about reputation and influence. Read more »
Dave Winer says journalism as we know it is “obsolete” because everyone can do it. Is he right? Yes and no. One thing is for sure: journalism is being transformed by the web and by real-time publishing. Whether that’s good or bad depends on your viewpoint. Read more »
Everywhere around us we see evidence of chaos in the media industry. So what can be done about this state of affairs? Media analyst Clay Shirky says that it might actually be a good thing, because it will spur experimentation. Let’s hope he is right. Read more »
Professional cataloguers can be great if you want to index content — for professional cataloguers. But if you want to help average people find videos, then you should embrace user-contributed tags, even if they can contain spelling errors. Don’t worry, it still all makes sense to someone. Read more »
When WikiLeaks first appeared on the scene, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller made it clear that he did not consider leader Julian Assange a journalist, or WikiLeaks a journalistic entity. Based on some recent comments, however, Keller’s view may be changing — slowly. Read more »
Media analyst Clay Shirky says that the list of things that the Internet has killed — or is in the process of killing — includes media syndication of the kind that the Associated Press is built on, which he says is next in line for widespread disruption. Read more »
Harvard professor of psychology Steven Pinker has joined in the ongoing debate over whether the Internet makes people smarter or dumber. He says using Twitter and spending time on the web doesn’t make us less intelligent, any more than reading an encyclopedia makes us more intelligent. Read more »
Is the Internet making us smarter or dumber? Authors Nick Carr and Clay Shirky have dueling essays appearing in The Wall Street Journal this weekend that look at opposing sides of that provocative question — but the bottom line is that they are likely both right. Read more »
If you’re going to read one thing this long holiday weekend, don’t waste your time on yet another iPad story. Head over to Clay Shirky’s blog instead and read his great new piece titled The Collapse of Complex Business Models. It’s all about the transformation of […] Read more »
Clay Shirky says large media entities are like ancient societies such as the Mayans and the Romans, in that they have grown so complex that they are no longer able to function in any other way. The media theorist says that could cause their eventual collapse. Read more »
Today social technology theorist Clay Shirky delivered a fitting counterpoint to Danah Boyd’s keynote on privacy at SXSW the day before. Where Boyd spoke of the danger of making information more public than users intended it, Shirky talked about new opportunities for sharing information. Read more »
