The changing economy (thanks to blogging)
I was listening to the new radio program hosted by 梁文道 on RTHK last night (called 思潮作動 之 文明單位). The theme for that episode is about the influence of blogging to traditional printed media. But some of the points brought out in the discussion are quite insightful to other areas as well.
They talked about how blogging is creating democracy in the realm of information. Information used to be controlled by capatalists. Those who have the money to publish and advertise have the microphone. But now, due to the accessibility of blogs, everyone can say whatever they want on the web. And these include not only personal private sharings but also useful information. For example, if you want to check whether a movie was good, you'll now check the several blogs that you subscribe to rather than the critiques published on newspaper or magazine. That's because the people writting blogs are not influenced by any commercial considerations, so their opinions are intrisically more reliable. So, everyone can become content provider now. Powerless individuals now have their voice for the first time. (Implication to ministry: now is the opportunity to influence culture through blogging...)
This also points to another important insight. The whole blogging phenomenon is not motivated by profit. People who blog don't do it for profit but for expressing themselves. Yet the blogs are in fact influencing the economy (as in the example above on movie viewing). Or better yet, should the word "economy" be redefined? We used to mean only monetary activities when we use the word "economy". But the "economic" landscape now may also includes activities about human resources, relational assets, talent assets and many other. These things form the new interconnected network of economy. We have to grasp this concept of new economy in order to strive in the 21st century. (Implication: we don't work for money anymore...)
They talked about how blogging is creating democracy in the realm of information. Information used to be controlled by capatalists. Those who have the money to publish and advertise have the microphone. But now, due to the accessibility of blogs, everyone can say whatever they want on the web. And these include not only personal private sharings but also useful information. For example, if you want to check whether a movie was good, you'll now check the several blogs that you subscribe to rather than the critiques published on newspaper or magazine. That's because the people writting blogs are not influenced by any commercial considerations, so their opinions are intrisically more reliable. So, everyone can become content provider now. Powerless individuals now have their voice for the first time. (Implication to ministry: now is the opportunity to influence culture through blogging...)
This also points to another important insight. The whole blogging phenomenon is not motivated by profit. People who blog don't do it for profit but for expressing themselves. Yet the blogs are in fact influencing the economy (as in the example above on movie viewing). Or better yet, should the word "economy" be redefined? We used to mean only monetary activities when we use the word "economy". But the "economic" landscape now may also includes activities about human resources, relational assets, talent assets and many other. These things form the new interconnected network of economy. We have to grasp this concept of new economy in order to strive in the 21st century. (Implication: we don't work for money anymore...)
Labels: Reflection
