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Archives
Looking back |
You're a pioneer and you might not even know it. You're participating in a revolution. You're on the leading edge, and I don't care if you got online for the first time just yesterday. It's easy for those of us that have been participating in shaping of the Web since it's early days, and especially for those of us that have been working with the Internet since well before that, to think of ourselves as the wizened old silverbacks that brought the Web to maturity. Well, we aren't, and we haven't. We're all just tadpoles here. It's all still that new. I know, you think I'm blowing sunshine up your skirt. You came here for a little music news, a concert from the archive, or maybe my brilliant insights. But in so doing, you're endorsing this endeavor by spending your most valuable resource here...your time. Time is the only zero-sum game. You can always figure out a way to make another buck but there's nothing you can do to add another hour to your day. Whether you've decided that over the long haul, my column, or JAMTV in general is worthy of your time, you've made a commitment to the idea that the Web is a place you'll spend that invaluable temporal currency. How you respond to this medium is profoundly significant in shaping it. And believe me, it's got a lot of shaping in its future. The Web is only the present. It's going to morph so many times in the next decade that those that even remember Netscape, Yahoo, and Realaudio will look back on it like the telegraph, ticker tape, and hand-cranked telephones. Networked multimedia will find it's way to you through increasingly more convenient hardware, and increasingly less through a one-user/one-desktop-computer model. A big part of what's to come, beyond delivery through Dick Tracy wrist radios and HDTV, will be delivery of customized information in response to the reader/viewer's request, both on demand and automatically, on a schedule determined by the reader. Both the organization and delivery schedule of content will be fluid and to the degree this will be possible, under the control of the consumer of the information. In my day job, I work for a major publisher of daily newspapers with a reach from Alaska to Florida. My job is to help these papers greet this brave new world head on and take no prisoners and I believe in what I do. It's an incredible industry to be a part of. At the same time the Web presents new opportunities, it also presents daunting competitive challenges. Just as it's breaking down traditional distinctions between 'zines, newspapers and, magazines, it's also breaking down the distinction between and publishers and broadcasters. Eventually, it will eliminate the dominance of established information providers altogether. A decade from now it won't matter that once upon a time, Rolling Stone used to be a paper magazine and JAMTV never was. In the future, publishing periodicals will in large measure cease to involve the manufacture and distribution of a tangible good. This eliminating of the inventorying of material, the ownership and maintenance of printing facilities and distribution networks will (and to a significant degree, already has) lower the to barriers to publishing for a mass audience that anyone with enough capital to present information well will be able to play. On the Web, content is king. My day job charges me with the responsibility of helping to maintain the commanding position of a traditional publishing enterprise as the entire world of information providing is changing. In my role at JAMTV, I'm working with a team of upstarts that means to kick a little print-media butt. It's as simple as this; the dominant music Web site will be the dominant music publication, perhaps not tomorrow, or next year, but soon enough. Concentrate on succeeding online, and you succeed. The technology available to JAMTV is somewhat more flexible than ink on paper. I'm confident that the presence of audio, video, up-to-the-minute music news, the ability to respond directly and immediately to me and the other writers, and the fact that JAMTV is accessible to you on any Web browser, take this beyond the scope of any music magazine in print.
The corporation I work for wants me to read the tea leaves and engineer solutions to further their strategic aims. At JAMTV, I create content. I'm lucky to work on both content and engineering, as I'm lucky to work for both a traditional information provider and be associated with one of an army of creative start-ups staking out turf in this new frontier. Perhaps I'm just hedging my bets four ways. In any case, the diversity of information that results is a great thing because it raises the standards for us all. And whether you get your information online from the brand-named news organization that's been a rock in your home town for 100 years, or from a sharply focused, specialist like JAMTV, it beats the hell out of letting Bill Gates pick up all the marbles. Fight the power.
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