From the "Network Cultures" Category
Grassroots Creativity: The Present and Future
Date: November 5, 2008
The Internet has become what I am sure very few imagined ultimately. As a decentralized, global platform that now has well over a billion people using it in some form or fashion, our mass communications and creativity have become an important part of daily life for many. Like all computer technology before it, computers and the Internet are evolving rapidly. The works and communications made possible through sites like YouTube or deviantART will eventually be enhanced or replaced. Already, we see larger creative grassroots projects taking place online, creating more fantastic productions at every step. Take a look at the following links and videos to see just what is getting done online today.
Grassroots Creativity: Art at War
Date: October 20, 2008
Throughout the entries in this series, I have not spoken about many limitations outside of the technological ones that once and sometimes still do exist. However, technological limitations are not the only limitation to grassroots creativity online. As polished as tools have become, politics are as stubborn and slow-changing as ever. The limitation I speak of is that of copyright law. While copyright is arguably a worthy cause and is perhaps even necessary for a market to function well, the Internet has changed the speed at which creations are created and how things are shared. Archaic and over-powerful copyright laws that last as long as 70 years after an artist’s death in some countries do not mesh well with new technologies that enable the creation, sharing and downloading of content within very small amounts of time, all over the world. In a way, this has created a divide between those in support of existing copyright law, those looking for reform and those entirely against the concept. While concepts of fair use soften the edges, they rarely solve the problem entirely, to date.
Grassroots Creativity: Polished Tools Enable More Creativity
Date: October 15, 2008
At the end of my previous entry on grassroots creativity online, I mentioned that the adoption of technical developments, like cascading style sheets, was vital in making Web applications more usable. Another important development that was gaining in popularity by 2004 was broadband Internet, which offered much higher speeds than dialup. Internet Explorer 6’s dominance in the browser wars, while not seriously harmed by any means, did begin to meet some competition in the 2004-launched Firefox (which was more standards compliant at the time) and Opera. These and other similar, technical changes presented users with better tools with which to browse the Web, higher download speeds to browse with and more usable designs to work on in Web applications. The result gave users more choices and more to do.
Grassroots Creativity: Early 21st Century
Date: October 10, 2008
When it comes to grassroots creativity, reliable tools are necessary for accomplishing some things online. It was not until this century that many online tools have even been created, much less made usable and reliable for the average user. Comparing the Internet of the 90s to that of the early 21st century is very nearly [...]
Grassroots Creativity: Welcome to the 90s
Date: October 5, 2008
In Grassroots Creativity: A Very Brief History, I mentioned that the historical nature of computers and the Internet has led to and encouraged an abundance of individual and group-based creativity online. The 90s–particularly the mid to late 90s–furthered this as the World Wide Web became more popular and affordable to the everyday public; in 1998, the AT&T company of the United States released research showing online traffic was increasing over 100% annually (Coffman & Odlyzko 1998). Desktops and browsers became more user-friendly as well, partially due to browser wars, increasing the size of both the participating group and audience in many cases.
Grassroots Creativity: A Very Brief History
Date: August 25, 2008
In writing about grassroots creativity, one must first have an understanding of what the term “grassroots creativity” encompasses. Grassroots initiatives, which are often political in nature, are those started by everyday, common people, rather than by the status quo. Creativity is a more ambiguous term, but for the purpose of this series of posts, it will be associated with anything artistically created—visual, written or auditory—or any (probably open source) tool that may aid in these artistic creations. Though grassroots creativity has existed for a long time through more traditional and physical means, such as bulletin boards, letter writing and newspaper ads that brought groups together for creative purposes, the existence of the personal computer has fueled creative projects from its inception. In more recent years, the Internet’s breakdown of geographical barriers and social nature has encouraged more obscure and abstract creative projects to blossom all around the world.
