[LINK] Why Pro-Amateurs are the Future

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Rachel, Robin and Kim write,

> Me too ;) Seriously, I discovered Cocos2d over christmas and have set
> myself a 99c challenge!  There are so many toolkits out there now,
> frameworks, arduinos, and so on and it will eventually payoff in
> creative convergence, with 3D printing, design sharing and the rest.


Yes.. interesting to see how long it takes for a lagely 3D-printed open  
source design world-car (eg, printed egg-shape escape-pod with standard
bolt-on mechanicals) to equal current cars and especially regards costs.

Cheers,
Stephen


> Perhaps there is a positive swing to the shenzen effect in that tech
> is cheap enough now that anyone can create almost anything  with it...


rachel

--
rachel polanskis 
<r.polanskis@> uws.edu.au> 
<grove at zeta.org.au>

On 09/02/2012, at
11:47> , Robin Whittle <rw at firstpr.com.au> wrote:

> Hi Kim,
> 
> > Thanks for mentioning this article:
> 
>>
http://www.ga> mesbrief.com/2012/01/why-pro-amateurs-are-the-future/
> 
> > This is a repost of a piece by Tadhg Kelly:
> 
> 
http:> //whatgamesare.com/2012/01/why-pro-amateurs-are-the-futur> e.html
> 
> He is discussing the creation of music,
writi> ng, computer games and I
> guess some kinds of software,
> including perhaps "apps" for mobile devices.
> 
> Some
qu> otes are below.
> 
>  - Robin
> 
>> Creative industries
t> end to be like clubs. You can get into the
>> club in
man> y ways, but all of them are equally difficult. You've
>>
> put the time in, done the training, had the lucky
breaks,> 
>> struggled and finally made it.
> 
>> Once you are
act> ually in the club then life is easier. You have
>> a
name> , you are a part of a network and you work with a lot of
> >> the same people year in year out. Members rarely fall
> out of the
>> club entirely.
> 
>> However, part of
being>  'in' is the sense that the club can't get
>> too big,
an> d for many the internet is actually pushing to make
>>
th> e club smaller. Book publishers, for example, no longer
o> ffer
>> much in the way of advances. Long-tail services
l> ike Netflix and
>> Spotify have such huge libraries that
> every new artist is competing
>> not just with their
peer> s, but their antecedents also. Distribution
>> may rise
b> ut prices fall.
>> 
>> They feel squeezed by piracy.
Thou> gh they dislike it, many who are
>> 'in' quietly believe
> that they have to keep many more people 'out'
>> in
order>  to hold on to what remains.
> 
>> Those who are 'in'
als> o feel squeezed by something else:
>> Democratisation of
> tools. It’s bad enough that they have to deal with
>>
a>  loss of revenue, but a reduction of difficulty in
gettin> g into the
>> club threatens to increase its size many
ti> mes over. The future is a
>> world awash with low-rent
eb> ooks, GarageBand music and GameMaker-
>> developed
games.> 
> 
>> The magic of the internet is therefore this: It
su> bstitutes time
>> spent getting into the club with time
s> pent finding fans.
> 
>> For most, those days of a
publis> her acting as an angel investor to
>> an artist while
the> y hone their craft are over. The publisher can’t
>>
aff> ord it and the pro-amateur doesn’t need it.
>> 
>>
Inst> ead the new model sees the pro-amateur doing the work of
> >> building the market, and then perhaps later a
publishe> r or aggregator
>> cuts a deal with her to scale that
ope> ration up. The artist becomes
>> part-business person
and>  so she makes better art. And, in the end, we
>> will
all>  win.
> _______________________________________________
>>  Link mailing list
> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>
http://mai> lman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link

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