Following my previous blog on Wikipedia I aim to address the ongoing debate on the role of Experts and Amateurs in relation to their contribution to online resources. The development of web 2.0 has clearly enhanced user contribution and networking on the internet and this has resulted in the rise of Amateurs or ‘Folks’ as online personalities.
In my first blog on produsage, I used an example of a short home made mocumentary by two sisters living in Brisbane, their situation is going to be brought up again. Georgia Cranstoun can be considered an online amateur; she has no formal qualifications yet has created an online presence for herself that is constantly gaining popularity. Her website www.wheresgeorgie.com, contains all her comedy skits and home made videos and while written in informally the site has a professional air about it. Georgia also has a youtube channel that has 88 subscribers and 190 friends, and while this may not seem like great figures in the big picture I’ll just let you know that I noticed one of her subscribers currently lives in Greece (http://www.youtube.com/user/imfar2busybeingdelic), clearly her creative product is already reaching an international audience. However, her online activity doesn’t stop there, she also has facebook and myspace fan pages, again solidifying her role as a perfect example of an amateur creating an online personality for themselves, through video production and networking.
In a podcast given by Axel Bruns regarding the pro/am relationship, he states that “Amateurs are challenging expert knowledge and becoming increasingly prominent in online communities” (Folks and Experts KCB202, 2008). This quote applies to the given example, but can also address the idea of ‘online communities’. When Brun’s mentioned this I took it to mean sites such as fan pages, and as embarrassing as it is, I immediately thought of the Harry Potter fan site: Mugglenet.com. Mugglenet was started by Emerson Sparks at the age of 12, he started it as a leisurely project, but it has now developed into his own business. On the website Emerson states that “MuggleNet was born a month after I began homeschooling as a 12-year-old in the fall of 1999. I had too much time on my hands and I thought it would be fun to make a website. I had no idea what I was getting in to.”(Mugglenet, About us. ND) Mugglenet now has approximately 20 paid staff, is visited by millions each year and has therefore made a successful transition from an amateur online community to a professional one. This perfectly outlines the idea of how amateurs can utilize new media in order to create a career for themselves as Emerson has done through his creation of Mugglnet.
Regarding the debate on the developing online relationship between folks and experts Axel states that “Media experts need to cooperate with an audience and their users” (. As it has been made clear that amateurs can easily break into the online media industry with the proper circumstances and networking skills, so I have to agree with Axel, experts need to accept that this is happening and to not ignore it. While I still agree that there will always be a place for experts online, as there will always be people who want traditionally ‘reliable’ sources. But people also want information that they can relate to and understand, which is also where amateurs come in as the content created is usually an easier standard of vocabulary and easier to understand (mugglenet is a good example of this).
I am pointing out once again that it is easy for amateurs to become professionals these days, this seems to be a recurring theme in all my blogs, probably because it is the central idea of produsage.
References
Mugglenet, About Us. ND. http://www.mugglenet.com/aboutus.shtml. (accessed on the 27.05.09)
Folks and Experts. 2008. http://www.slideshare.net/Snurb/folks-and-experts-kcb202-week-7-podcast-presentation (accessed on the 17.05.09)
