Mass amateurization occurs by removing or weakening the entry barriers to a professional field.

However, we should keep in mind that Clay Shirky has used the notion to address an emerging trend in the media.

He describes the trend as follows:

 …Most professions exist because there is a scarce resource that requires ongoing management.

…Our social tools remove older obstacles to public expression and thus remove the bottlenecks that characterized mass media.  The result is the mass amateurization of efforts previously reserved for media professionals.

Mass amateurization diminishes what he calls “professionalism.” In his view, professionals often enforce strict and difficult-to-achieve standards in their profession, not only to maintain high work quality but also to protect their turf from amateurs.

It’s no longer necessary to be a professional photographer for your work to be noticed. Even for a non-professional, far-from-standard photo, there will always be some audience. The reality is even more bitter for professionals: Their work may no longer get noticed, as it might become buried forever under millions of photos taken and shared by amateur photographers.

The same trend holds true for other types of content, including but not limited to articles, podcasts, and ebooks.

Who coined the term “mass amateurization”

In some textbooks and articles, I have seen references to Wolske, Johnson, & Adams (2009). They titled their paper: “Citizen Professional Toolkits: Empowering Communities Through Mass Amateurization.”

However, Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody was published a year before the above-mentioned paper. Therefore, although Wolske and his colleagues did not mention Shirky’s name, the credit belongs to him.

Mass Amateurization and Media

Shirky has titled the third chapter of his book “Everyone Is a Media Outlet.” He believes that effortless publishing leads to many more outlets, and the news provided by media will get diluted in this ever-deepening pool of content.

He describes the effect of mass amateurization on the media (specifically the news industry) in a brief yet convincing statement:

[news will change from an] institutional prerogative to news as part of a communications ecosystem.

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Here are some of his quotes and statements I have collected while reading his books and thought that it might be interesting for you too.

Kevin Kelly Quotes

Summarizing the memetics and some other similar ideas:

Humans are the reproductive organs of technology.

On emergence and evolution:

A brain is a society of very small, simple modules that cannot be said to be thinking, that are not smart in themselves. But when you have a network of them together, out of that arises a kind of smartness.

On what technology wants:

Extrapolated, technology wants what life wants:
Increasing efficiency
Increasing opportunity
Increasing emergence
Increasing complexity
Increasing diversity
Increasing specialization
Increasing ubiquity
Increasing freedom
Increasing mutualism
Increasing beauty
Increasing sentience
Increasing structure
Increasing evolvability

On how the technology has helped us to know ourselves more than before:

Technological advances could allow us to see more clearly into our own lives.

We are reaching deep within ourselves to adjust the master knob.

On the emergence of a global brain (or machine):

All these computers, all these handhelds, all these cell phones, all these laptops, all these servers – what we’re getting out of all these connections is we’re getting one machine. … We’re constructing a single, global machine.

A mechanical/evolutionary view of the world:

Clearly, we are self-made. We are the first technology. We are part inventor and part the invented

Future is not so far from now:

The very long tail of the future is already here.

Life is just a complicated technology; technology is just a simplified form of life:

Life is the ultimate technology. Machine technology is a temporary surrogate for life technology. As we improve our machines they will become more organic, more biological, more like life, because life is the best technology for living.

Noting the attention economy:

The only factor becoming scarce in a world of abundance is human attention.

Describing the mission of every system (restatement of survival goal):

Each system is trying to anticipate change in the environment.

A simple definition of singularity:

Singularity is the point at which “all the change in the last million years will be superseded by the change in the next five minutes.”

Evolution as a dynamic – constrained process: 

When you are embodied in a location, in a physical plant, in a set of people, and in a common history, that constrains your evolution and your ability to evolve in certain directions.

One of his few motivational statements:

In the context of your dreams, knowledge will always give you enough reasons not to act. Act regardless and execute exceptionally.

On the distributed intelligence:

And they discovered something very interesting: when it comes to walking, most of the ant’s thinking and decision-making is not in its brain at all. It’s distributed. It’s in its legs.

On evolution and the meaning:

Evolution doesn’t care about what makes sense; it cares about what works

Further quotes and excerpts

Here you can find a list of some other quotes and excerpts from his works:

• Everything is a remix
• Digital socialism
• Immediacy is something people are willing to pay for

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The statement mentioned above is part of the Bloom’s argument in defending his notion of mastery education and his position on the weakness of the classic approaches followed by education professionals. Regardless of the interview’s subject, there’s a very delicate point about his statement.

Bloom regards the above statement so clear and evident that uses it as a basis for proving that the same impotence can happen to other fields as well.

I’m sure that Morozov would enjoy reading Bloom, even though I believe that he hasn’t read him yet.

Morozov escalates Bloom’s war against professionals to a higher level:

Professionals can survive for thousands of years with so many good solutions without being successful in finding the relevant problems.

P.S.: I love the Douglas Adams’ brilliant book The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. Especially chapter 28 where the computer (Deep Thought) after a couple of million years of calculation reaches to the answer 42. But when it is asked about the question, confidently says:

I checked it very thoroughly, and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you’ve never actually known what the question is.”

The post Benjamin Bloom and the medicine appeared first on webmindset.

Against Solutionism

I believe that not everything that could be fixed should be fixed – even if the latest technologies make the fixes easier, cheaper and harder to resist.

Evgeny Morozov – To Save Everything Click Here

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It’s rather the result of limitation in understanding physics.

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Years ago, he started to talk about the end of TV-Industrial Complex. An era in which TV governed every minute of our life and even aspect of our attention.

Being broadcasted on TV meant a powerful commercializing and leaving the TV channels, meant losing public attention.

As he mentions in his article published in FastCompany, TV-Industrial Complex is not limited to the flat-big-box mounted on the walls of our homes and offices. It’s about an idea he calls television thinking.

Television thinking has several characteristics. But here’s the core idea (in my words):

Trying to reach everyone by any means at any time with your message. Even if they don’t buy your product, the least result would be product or brand awareness. By the way, you show them how powerful you are as it’s not cheap to reach everyone.

Television thinking was based on a clear idea: Interruption. It has just one commandment: Try to interrupt audience and grab their attention whenever there’s a chance.

When they are watching TV, interrupt them with a TV ad. When they are listening to the radio, interrupt them with a commercial. When they are checking the emails, interrupt them with a spam message. Interrupt them. Some will care and some will curse and the business runs!

TV Industrial Complex or television thinking as Seth Godin calls is already dead. Although the death will not be announced for years. Just like an old emperor who is dead by the courtiers try to hide the fact just to govern the people for some more time and collect the last collectable taxes!

The old style advertising agencies and media resellers are courtiers of this dead emperor and there are still so many advertisers who are happily in the queue for buying the old interruption tools.

The end of the television mindset is where the permission marketing starts. Nothing clarifies the idea of permission marketing better than the definition he has stated in his personal blog:

Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.

Seth Godin’s idea of permission marketing can be a basis for devising content strategy. As one of the goals are content strategy is building and nurturing an audience group who are ready to grant you the privilege of delivering more contents and even promotional materials.

P.S: You may be interested to take a look at my review of his book titled Tribes: Part 1, Part2

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Longform’s last week suggestion was an article from Scientific American. The article is an excerpt from Michael Tennesen’s last book called: The Next Species.

Sure the book is centered around sustainability and evolution. But it was appealing to me because of the title and style of writing.

Whoever knows Vegas, is familiar with its famous slogan: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. The title of the article is a creative variation of the original slogan: What will happen in Vegas, Won’t stay in Vegas. It tempts you to take a look at the body of the article.

But what I fell in love with, was Tennesen’s magical style in painting a picture of Vegas after the drought:

Sure the Mother Nature would have a smile on her face reading this artwork of words. This famous city once rebelled against her and grown in the heart of the desert, now called a sin city taking a final bow.

But may she also laugh aloud, as we have called her the card holder and not the table owner!

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