Banky For President

Henry Jenkins of MIT and author Steven Johnson treated the geeks at SxSW to a garden of insight about our culture and our future.

The Web is a growing reflection of our society and for the geekerati, the waft of change is palpable to those who seek to change it. Collaboration and “user-generated” content merely reflects what is natural about all of us . . . we are, in truth, all dependent upon one another. Think of the shirt you’re wearing: who sold it to you? Who stocked that shirt on the shelf for you to buy it? Who unpacked that shirt from the box it was shipped in? Who drove the truck that contained that box? Buddhists would call this Dependent Origination. Our speakers might refer to this as a natural reflection of our social community. Platforms like Facebook and Myspace merely allow us to do what comes naturally . . . and that is to be connected or feel a belonging.

There are two models of this collaboration. One, an aggregated model, where the majority rules. For instance, on the front page of YouTube, you’ll see the videos generating the most views. Should we ignore the fact that the majority of people selecting those videos for us are typically young white males? The other model would be one of diversity. Wikipedia, for example, tries to let all diverse viewpoints of a given topic shine through. No one viewpoint is more important than another. All views are represented and, in fact, if you have diverse knowledge of a subject, it is your duty in the community to come forth and share.