Expects and Amateurs – Bridging the Divide
June 4, 2009
With the development of online media we have seen a change in the way in which people collaborate when using the Internet. Excepting the fact that not everyone has access to the Internet, those that do have the ability to participate in online communities such as Wikipedia or Ning!. These networks contain many people from all over the world with various skills and interest whether they are at a professional level or it is a developing interest. The professional/amateur divide has essentially been bridged with new media online collaboration. A person is now able to join an online community and gain contact with professionals in the field of interest. It is not uncommon to now find social networks that contain industry and Internet professionals from around the world interacting with the general public in real time and mostly for free.
Online social networks based around the music industry are becoming more popular everyday. Musicians, artists, and producers are able to join a network with allows them to produce, advertise and market their music to the public. Major record labels have taken interest in this style of social networking allowing the public to interact directly with the label and artists involved with the network. This new development in communication between the general public (amateurs) and record labels (professionals) is a new step in the band and artist formation and collaboration process. Industry professionals are also using social networking sites to find new artists that are motivated and talented or show the ability to market or source good music.
As discussed in my last blog, Wikipedia is an online collaboration of experts and amateurs working together to create a valued and credible source of information. The interaction between experts and amateurs on such sites as Wikipedia has seen a change in traditional taxonomy due to amateurs being given the same abilities as experts. This new form for moderating social networks is know as folksonomy and does not follow traditional hierarchal structures of online site moderation. The professional community has expressed concern as to the public maintaining social networks, but as Wikipedia has shown, experts and amateurs can create a collaborative network where valued information is created and maintained under the new folksonomy.
