September 20, 2010
So I was reading this article in the NY Times and started thinking about the future world when authors, like musicians in the current music industry, will face a different paradigm to break into the market. This situation would be analogous to the situation the freelance journalist (Amy) faced in the article:
Can Digg Find Its Way in the Crowd?
By Todd Wasserman Published: September 18, 2010 NY Times
In order to get her material to the front page of Digg, this journalist actively sought out and built a social network in the Digg community. She nurtured them by recommending their material to befriend them and to, in turn, have them eventually recommend her writings. Once her material was visible, it got “voted” by the masses to the front page of Digg. Yet we believe that the articles are selected by the masses of Digg readers, not by a few judges, managers or editors. As the article states, “there is no handful of editors [at Digg] … deciding which articles will get to the front page… the masses are deciding.” But a closer examination reveals that there is an elite group of writers who have emerged or established themselves as the “gatekeepers” and who have the power to place material in front of these masses for them to vote. They have usurped the power of editors and have the power to initiate the potential viral effect of the marketing by placing material in front of the masses with their endorsement.
This appears to be much the same as marketing to the leading faculty or established publishers to get content (chapter, case study, book, etc.) into the future classroom. Does someone have to do the marketing or to engage the social forces for the first look at new material so it can at least be considered by the masses? We talk about crowd approving or voting for most popular articles or items on social media.
Will we see the same result in the future for textbook content and authors? Will communities emerge of authors who are known for various subject areas, who are succinct, knowledgeable, or otherwise desirable? Who will determine which new authors emerge to have their material more widely disseminated than their own classroom?
The overwhelming amount of new material being produced implies that there must be some mechanism or process for the initial visibility of the material, i.e. to get into the media for the masses to vote. Will new authors be like free agents, working without a publisher? Will there be an elite group of authors who dominate the landscape of textbooks, each with a major publisher behind them? Who will fill this role in the future textbook publishing environment?
Mitch
