I said last column that among the groups participating in the media Geekonomy (Fans, Support, and Creators) that they're all in conflict because they want to get the most they can with comparatively little thought of the future – in short, of sustainability. I referred to this as a kind of Extraction economy – the goal is to get the most of what you can out of a given source of resources.
geekonomy
Media Wars Part 1: The Analysis
INTRODUCTION: Reviewing the stories of last week, issues of media, ownership, and more were big. There were talks about scanilations and author income, of game companies and resold games. Last week brought to light a simple fact – today there is a lot of unease, turning into outright hostility, between the consumers, creators, and distributors of media. My goal is to analyze that situation and look at possible solutions because it affects the geekonomy, and because it's hard for me to shut up about my opinions.
In this and the upcoming posts I will be covering a lot of ground, clearly missing things or generalizing. Forgive such issues – this is a complex issue.
There's an odd undercurrent of hostility in the media marketplace. You can hear it in conversations, where discussions of casual downloads might include a snide remark about how much DVDs cost. You see it in the news, where strange lawsuits are brought against people for what appear to be trivial reasons. You feel it when an author discusses the craziness of the media market place and how they're concerned about being paid – or how angry they are at a publisher or a downloader. There's something that seems broken out there in the world of the media marketplace – and thus, part of the Geekonomy.
The Two Sides Of The Geekonomy
Those of us working in – or hoping to work in – the Geekonomy are always trying to understand it a bit better. It's a bit of an obsession of mine, because I feel like there's "something" out there for us progeeks and profans to grasp, but I haven't fully grasped it yet. I can get some idea of the form of the Geekonomy, but its still fuzzy.
I've said for awhile that the Geekonomy, that place where geekiness, fandom, and industry comes together, is information-driven. Its computers and video games, anime and novels, and at least a bit self-referential as everything ties into each other. The fangirl that writes fanfic also uses Facebook and debates publishing on Lulu.com. The dedicated otaku uses Photoshop to do art, makes web pages, and buys manga at the bookstore.
Of course, this is leading up to a recent insight of mine. Namely, that the Geekonomy has two sides that are intimately intertwined.