Saviour of the balance

There is a school of thought gradually teaching students that user generated content is the saviour of balance, equality and objectivity in the pit of modern consumerism and bias. The lesson being taught goes something like this:

As 200 million people log onto their blogs and write their opinion pieces, 200 million voices add themselves to the choir of global understanding.

Each album uploaded to Flickr is like a flourish in the fresco on the ceiling of the Cathedral of Life, painting a picture of the world as it really is.

Every user who logs on to Wikipedia to contribute pours forth a stream of enlightenment, filling the cup of knowledge from which the world loves to drink.

And finally, as we, the consumers of this content, log on to Blogger, Flickr, MySpace, Wikipedia and Current TV and are exposed to this myriad of alternative thoughts, ideas and opinions, a new dawn of understanding breaks and the sun rises on a world that is informed and has a balanced, reasonable and fair consideration of the issues at hand.

Does that sound like the world you woke up in this morning, or should I just roll over and go back to sleep?

I acknowledge that the picture I paint is perhaps somewhat sarcastic and very narrow minded in its position, but there does seem to be an aura of reverence surrounding user generated content and it’s ability to re-educate the world one blog reader at a time. But I have two key problems with our newfound saviour of the balance.

1. The voices being added to ‘the choir of global understanding’ are the voices of those privileged enough to be living in a free society with access to an Internet connection. Developing nations in Africa and throughout Asia cannot provide this avenue of expression to their population to allow their voices to be heard. A simple Google search reveals the furor of discussion surrounding the access and freedom of speech granted to those living in China. And although America may be considered to be the home of free speech, it appears that it is not that simple for those serving in their armed forces . We may be getting masses of opinions, but we are not getting the opinions of the masses.


2. Consumers do not actively seek or retain information or opinions that are contrary to their own. We have a tendency to engage with content that either supports or reinforces the views we hold, or further extends the understanding we have of our opinions. The theory of selective retention holds that

... people remember more accurately messages that are closer to their interests, views and beliefs than those that are in contrast with their values and beliefs. We are selecting what to keep in the memory, narrowing the informational flow once again.

There is a limit to people’s openness to change. Creating behavioural and attitudinal shifts is not as simple as posting an entry on Blogger. If it was, advertisers, marketers, market researchers and public relations professionals would be out of a job.

So while user generated content definitely makes positive steps towards a more enlightened society, and undoubtedly provides a broader range of opinions and ideas than was previously accessible, there remains within me an element of doubt as to the potential for ‘restoring of the balance’ through the current model of user generated content.

What is your address?

A simple question, but gone are the days of a simple answer.

An address directs you to a particular space - to meet a friend, colleague or rarely seen aunt, where you can have a cup of coffee and discuss the latest boyfriend or girlfriend, the crashing stock market or the exploits of strange Uncle Stan. But we are now seeing a trend where this address begins with a ‘www’, not 15, 24 or 2/317, and ends with ‘.com’ instead of Rd, St or Cres. We are not being directed to a coffee shop, boardroom or a kitchen with red checked curtains, but to a virtual space where we assume an identity and engage in discussion.

Participation and engagement in online communities is seen as nothing special to us so called ‘digital natives’. When we wake up we check our MySpace and Facebook, and when writing an assignment our first port of call (whether we admit it or not) is generally Wikipedia. Our peers are no longer just those we are studying with, play sport with or live in the same city as. They are those who post on the same blogs and forums as us and those who tag things that interest us on del.icio.us.

It is easy to identify how we, digital natives, are travelling around new media landscapes in our personal lives, but as we mature and begin to engage in our professional communities, how do our personal habits and experiences impact on practices in our professional lives?

In a recent edition of UK graphic design magazine, Computer Arts, there was strong debate on the issue of online collaboration. In the design community, the words ‘design collective’ were generally synonymous with vague, directionless projects mounted by artists who were lacking in motivation and commitment. However, we are now beginning to see a change. Commercially viable collectives are now beginning to form around, and be facilitated by, online communities. Consisting of between 3 to 300 designers from all around the world, these groups collaborate to share skills, techniques, ideas and expertise, produce material of outstanding quality and originality and make their efforts financially rewarding. For example, the recent success of some international collectives:

PSYOP - produced campaigns for Coca-Cola and MTV
Peepshow - artwork displayed in London office of Saatchi & Saatchi
Rinzen - recently exhibited at the Louvre

Progressively, more professionals, even those in careers traditionally unpressured by technological advances, cannot escape the need to engage on new platforms. Recently, Queensland Minister for Youth, Lindy Nelson-Carr, conducted a discussion forum with six Queensland youths as a part of National Youth Week. The forum was conducted not in her office or even around a boardroom table, but on an island purchased by the Queensland Government in virtual world, Second Life. This was not a typical day at work for Lindy Nelson- Carr, but it clearly demonstrates how professionals are either being forced to or are willingly exploring the potential applications for online communities.

So as I begin to explore the realms of my professional life, I rarely stop to ponder how my actions are different to those in my position five, ten or fifteen years before. In my first job, as a teaching assistant, I plan the daily discussion topic for my class, whose responses are presented on our online forum. I email them all their logins and passwords, assess them on their abilities to demonstrate a balanced view point when writing a blog entry and converse with my colleagues to organise video link-ups between our students. In my second job as a research assistant I sit in my office, talking with my boss over Skype about a document we are collaborating on through Google Documents regarding the best ways to format an interactive online survey. I don’t think twice when she asks me my address. It starts with a www and ends with a .com.