roundtable: Re: Is the problem content production or access to carriage?

roundtable: Re: Is the problem content production or access to carriage?

Re: Is the problem content production or access to carriage?

Rob Kling (kling@ics.uci.edu)
Mon, 28 Mar 1994 17:25:57 -0800 

To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Re: Is the problem content production or access to carriage? 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 28 Mar 1994 19:22:05 EST."
             <199403281557.AA02183@access1.digex.net> 
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 17:25:57 -0800
From: Rob Kling <kling@ics.uci.edu>
Message-Id:  <9403281726.aa27980@q2.ics.uci.edu>

Hi Brad,

Thanks for bringing up the issue of incentives for producing X.  The 
'socio-economics" of production are not simple. For example, none of 
us are paid directly to send notes to roundtable@cni.org, but some 
professionals will contribute for a variety of psych & interest-related 
incentives.  However, few of us who would spend 10 mins on a response 
would spend, say, 200 hours writing a position paper than thoughtfully 
develops that comment in an engaging way.  Many of the materials on the 
Internet have devloped as a byproduct of  professional incentives/motives 
that are not *too* costly for individuals to produce.

In constrast, production quality (versus home quality) video content can 
cost $10,000/minute to $50,000/min.  That cost includes scripts, sets, 
lighting, costumes, camera work of all kinds, on-set-support, and 
post-production.  That does not include  typical commercial acting fees 
for actors (paid at scale).
---------------
There are skilled people who will  donate professional time when they
believe in a cause or who are professionally
involved in the issues ... as we are on this list 

.... but unless we're talking about
productions that are based on personal commitment, the costs and 
incentives have to come from the occupational worlds/prices of many
paid-for-hire participants  rather than the personal to have competitive 
production quality to attract viewers, certeris paribus.
  
[While there are inexpensive home cameras,  the prod cost of video bears
as little relation to the base equipment cost as does the cost of 
industrial grade software development to the cost of a programming 
environment.]


/Rob Kling

------------------------

> Michael Chui <mchui@cs.indiana.edu> wrote:
> > 
> >could you say more about why you believe the production
> >of high-quality content is likely to be a greater problem than obtaining
> >access to carriage?  From a technical and economic standpoint, it seems
> >to me that the means of producing high quality content have been become
> >increasingly available with advances in digital technology
> 
> Because means of production is such a small part of the problem. The big
> problem is *incentive* for production.
> 
> I'm not talking rocket science here. Even high school dropouts (or Tibetan
> salt traders) understand the incentive for production in hauling salt,
> milking cows, growing beans, torquing screws, or flipping burgers. But
> where's the incentive for producing high-quality content for internet
> distribution?
> 
> Lessee now, as Joe Citizen, what can I download today? Presidential
> speeches, bureaucratic memos, government proclamations, nerdy FAQs,
> flamewars, email chitchat, ...
> 
> Wouldn't Joe Citizen's rational choice be to watch TV, where the 
> incentive problem has been addressed, tho in a fashion I'd hope we can 
> vastly improve on for Internet?
> 
> Get my drift?
> 
>         Brad
> 
> --
> Brad Cox; bcox@gmu.edu; 703 968 8229 Voice 703 968 8798 Fax
> George Mason Program on Social and Organizational Learning

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