EPIC Book Summary

Weinberger:

David Weinberger’s book Everything is Miscellaneous discusses the organization of information in the technological world. The internet has caused an explosion of available information, but has also made the organization of it significantly different from the physical world. Weinberger’s main point is summarized with his three orders of order, which are:

•First order of order: Organization of physical objects in the physical world.
•Second order of order: Still works with physical objects, but instead uses metadata to do so. One example he uses is the Bettmann Archive, a collection of photos which have corresponding note cards that refer to the physical place in the vault that photo is located.
•Third order of order: Organization away from the physical, such as in the digital world. Once information is freed from its physical constraints it can be divided into a million different ways based on the needs of the person searching for it. Once example of this is tagging of photos online, because users can type in their preferences and get what they need according to their tags.

These three orders of order basically sum up the book in its entirety. He talks at the beginning about the historic struggles of organization, from Aristotle and Plato to current times. Throughout the book he gives tons of different examples of his same points, but by the end you have a pretty good understanding of how the digital age has changed organization forever.

Jenkins:

Jenkin’s book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide talks about how media and its multiple platforms are changing in the digital age. It talks about how media has changed the relationship between producers of content and consumers of content and this new relationship will not be fixed with a ‘black box,’ which refers to the theory that all media will converge into one magical box.

Jenkins goes from describing how the Matrix has created whole new worlds for consumers, created by consumers. Fans of the Matrix have gone deep into online forums to discuss the inner workings of the Matrix. Fans have even created online worlds based on the Matrix that they can interact in.

Another example is Harry Potter. What started as a book series has become a multi-media sensation, but this is not just created by the owners of the series. Fans have gone online to create fan fiction and other media based around the world of Harry Potter. This has created problems however, because the owners of the franchise and the fans have been in a battle of rights and copyrights. The “Potter Wars” that Jenkins describes makes an important point about convergence culture – who owns what? Jenkins says that the owners and fans need to strike a balance between ownership and fan-created content, and strides and being taken towards this.

These two examples show one of Jenkins main points – transmedia storytelling. This refers to the “art of world-making” where multiple media platforms are used to create a world around a story. For example, the Matrix online is an example of transmedia storytelling. Harry Potter fan fiction is another.

Jenkins’ Convergence Culture overall is a discussion of how media is changing. This in turn changes the relationship between the consumers of media and the creators, and how these roles are becoming interchangeable. The issue now is what this means for the big media companies and the fans of popular culture, and how profits, ownership, and rights will change.

Lessig:

Lessig’s book, Remix goes over a number of topics regarding copyright law. He says that the current copyright law is outdated because of the digital age. The digital age has allowed for the amateur to take professionally produced works and use them for other purposes, including remixing. The issue however, is whether these remixed works should be under the same copyright laws as the original. Is it a completely new work of art when someone uses beats in a different way? The big media companies are battling with this issue, trying to protect their profits and ‘property.’

The book begins with a discussion of the Read-Only Culture vs. Read-Write Culture. The RO culture is media provided to us by a professional source, such as the music industry or movie industry. The RW culture however, is more of a mutual relationship between the producer of content and the consumer of content. This leads up to the “Remix.” Lessig states that this new form of ‘creating’ is the new form of writing. However, copyright law conflicts with this new form of literacy.
Lessig also mentions commercial economies versus sharing economies. The commercial economy is what is usually thought of when you think of economy. It’s basically the exchange of goods for money. The sharing economy does not involve money however. Both sides contribute to a common goal, for example Wikipedia is user-generated content for the good of everyone.

Finally Lessig states the different types of hybrids. These are community spaces, collaboration spaces, and communities. He also states how copyright law should be reformed in five steps: Deregulating, Clear Title, Simplify, Decriminalizing the Copy, Decriminalizing File Sharing.

Relevance to Final Project:

I think Weinberger will be the most useful for my final project, because he talks about the new way information is organized. These books will also be useful because it has made me aware of the current media culture so I can reflect this in my final organization of the website, and it will influence my wireframe because I know users expect certain things out of websites. I will also think more about the types of content on the website, and how best to make it available to users of the website.