I'll turn 30 this year.
All things being equal, I haven't been on the planet that long.
But I've seen a lot of changes in a very short amount of time.
One big fascination for me has been to watch "old" media's response to "new" media.
Examples of it abound, but a couple of prominent examples include
- The Recording Industry Association vs. Napster (and music on the Internet in general)
- The decline of major newspapers around the world (particularly in the US)
The "old" guard wants to sue to make things right, and get back what's "rightfully theirs".
HELLO?
It was never really yours.
You built an amazing centralized system which allowed all of us to find out about music and movies and news, and etc. etc. etc.
Here's a great post that explains a lot about why old media is having such a hard time with things.
http://www.remarkable-communication.com/transparency-and-the-meatball-sundae/
Newspapers are a great example of "old" media which is dying out/changing form because of disruptive technology.
Reading the above led me to this post, asking the question "Should news be free?"
Should news be free?
I think it's beside the point.
Maybe it's because I went through the first part of my life with no Internet, and have had the opportunity to watch and participate in it's growth through my teens and twenties.
But the question itself kind of baffles me.
News, by it's very nature, is free. It always has been.
People have paid for the distribution and the quality of the writing, but news is free.