While
everyone’s going crazy about the secret rules for making viral videos, Matt Hurst
at Data Mining has some short but stimulating thoughts on read/write culture
courtesy of Lawrence Lessig.
interesting point Matt covers off is the idea that technology "improve[s] access to the tools that support the creative process and the distribution channels."
True, Lessig Matt observes, but
consider the barriers to entry for Elizabethan poets… paper and pens were
pretty accessible back then apparently.
What really made a
difference to market entry – and I suppose between success and failure – was
‘patronage’. According to Lessig Matt: “patronage was the great enabler
(either via a wealthy individual or via cooperatives that created and performed
pieces of culture).”
The lesson here for companies in the 21st century is to offer
patronage to individuals. Treat all your customers as potential poets –
facilitate and enable them to become a success. Forsooth.
Technorati tags: Data Mining, Lawrence Lessig, William Shakespeare, patronage
Simon – these ideas/observations are not Lessig’s. I guess I wasn’t clear in my post, but these are things I was thinking about after having heard/seen Lessig talk. In fact, they are points that in some ways run against Lessig’s thesis.
Apologies… add to the mix the fact that I probably wasn’t paying enough attention to the detail while slurping on the big ideas!