January 26, 2004
The Chain Will Keep Us Together
Quick show of hands... Who here used to use the computer BBS'es of the '80s and early '90s? How about the Compuserve message forums? How about the original AOL People Connection and Usenet gateway? What do these have in common? For the most part, they are all dead as fried chicken, replaced by other technologies and the Internet as a whole. This form of digital Darwinism is one of the reasons techology development still moves at a breakneck pace. Except of course, in the world of online pro audio sites. A recent study (pdf format) by Nielson//Netratings found 75% of all online connections were not using a browser.
As I've harped countless times on other forums, it's not so much about the software as it is about how the community is managed and respected by the members of the community. Over the years I've witnessed and even participated in the evolution and sometimes the demise of different communities in different forums, most of them not within the pro audio realm. BBSes, AOL groups, Usenet groups, Web forums have all fallen to the axe in a large part based on how the users acted and how those running the community acted or reacted. Or in the case of Usenet, the commericalization of the Internet. I rarely participate in audio forums other than the LAB or forums I happen to operating, though I do log a metric buttload of time in other forums. Over the last year or three a good part of my social life has migrated to a combination online/live format. Motorsports, dating, job search and several technology communities have replaced much of what I used to try to do offline. Some of it successful (motorsport, tech communities). Some not so successful (dating, job search). I think you'll find others in that same boat. I've met more people in the last few years this way that share my specific interests than I did the entire previous five year period.
This extrapolation of the boundries of a community allows persons to extend their social sphere well past what is available in the traditional network of social interaction. How many bars or social functions would one have to attend to gain this kind of critical mass? Even in the olden days trade show networking was hit and miss. You exchange cards, have dinner, discuss issues of the day perhaps and the occasional phone call and that was about it for most folks. The modern Internet facilitates the ability to keep in touch and foster these kinds of interaction with P2P chat, Webcams, email and the ages old at this point, traditional community forum. There is one slight drawback to this kind of online interaction, particularly when you've never met them in person. Who the hell are they and what are they REALLY like.
On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog. Or an audio professional, for that matter. In the days when the Internet was still for the most part "small" it wasn't too difficult to know who was who and if they indeed had a clue as to what they were talking about. This is particularly problematic when the community experiences either a transient population or increasing turnover of established members. That's just the nature of the beast. How do you know the guy that just posted to your distro question really knows anything about what he's talking about? How do you know the guy that just gave you the comparison between the PM1D and D5 has really even used one, or has he just read the stories in the trade mags and been to a demo or two? In many, if not most cases you can't tell and need to take the person's word for it. Enter social networking.
Traditional community forums do employ a sort of social network loosely based on a poster's perceived record and the biases of the person making the decision. In other words, current forum based communities are social networks in that people interact socially through them. Under this new model users would be rated or have "cred" based on the standing in the particular community using a combination of factors. It's more than just other users rating other users. Rankings are based on a combination of factors with the goal being to give others in the community what this particular person is all about. It's not so much like eBay's user feedback section, more like Slashdot's Karma indicator, based on a variety of factors determined by software not seen to the end user. They can include things such as number of posts, replies to posts, threads started and human factors such as post moderation ranking and user ranking. As with any system, it's possible to manipulate the technology but the lynch pin is having trust in the administering body. This sort of trust was one of the key components in what made the LAB the resource that it has become. Unfortunately, I see that trust currently eroding at the LAB. My friends and former colleagues are working on it, but I sadly feel all they are doing at this point is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
It doesn't just stop at the user, it also has to take into account the the quality and nature of the post. Post quality will require a human factor to rate. Posts can be scored by user and administrator moderation features and rated accordingly. Depending on the user's rank, they should be able to assign an arbitrary value as a moderation score. The more respected one is in the community, the more weight the user has in moderation. Not everyone likes everything so a filter system enabling users to chose a what level they will read the posts. For example, let's say we have an abitrary scale of -2 to +5 for a rating system. Users should be able to select a level for them to be able to read the posts. From everything to only what the community considers cream of the crop.
Besides the ambiguity and suspect nature of some of the info on open message forums another caveat is the stucture and presentation of the information in the first place. The user is tethered to a site and held to the terms and conditions of that site. It's generally a Good Thing (TM) but in many circumstances there are other issues that may relate in some way to the subject matter or things that a poster might wish to address. One thing it took me a while to fully understand was that posters are human and not everything that everyone thinks about is audio. There needs to be some other sort of interaction. All work and no play makes for a very dull "boy" indeed. Or a boring one. These include two of the "no no" subjects, politics and religion and other personal matters like "hey I got married" or "hey I had a(nother) kid". It's the cold hearted moderator that moderates the latter posts and a smart mod that moderates the former. Just something about politics and religion that seems to set many people off. That said, some do like to expound on subjects other than audio and even a more open format on a single message forum might not allow that or take that into account. Enter the blogsphere.
Blogging has become one of the latest tech fads, though is poised to enter the mainstream in the coming year. It's introduction was much like message forums, or even email. A few techie early adopters, then some non profits and activist organizations and now corporate and business entities are entering the blogging fray. For some fads, once the suits get ahold of it, it ceases to be trendy or even useful. But not in all cases. Blogging allows persons to take the self publishing to a new level. Just as with the advent of Web pages, there will be many, many dull, uninteresting and boring blogs, just like the "see my dog spot" pages in the late '90s, there will be, and already are, plenty of boring blogs. The upside is people that are respected and well known that wouldn't participate on a forum seem to be more inclined to host a blog. Many of the entries are short, often referencing another story or blog. Some are longer, like ABD though most at this point are snippets. So, if we have all these people creating their own content how the hell is it interactive and how the hell to we know where to go to read these earthshattering thoughts? Enter content aggregation, comments and trackback.
Content aggregation, trained search, comments and trackback are mechanisms which take different information sources, traditional sites, blogs, message forums, Usenet and even email and mailing lists and bring the reader info that they want to see. Some of these technologies are already in action here at A Barking Dog, others at iproaudio. See the columns of links to other sites? That's content syndication using a technology called RSS. When you group of bunch of syndicated content you have content aggregation. You subscribe to things that interest you and the info comes to you. You aren't going to need your own site to use it. Yahoo is offering content aggregation in MyYahoo and released a beta version last week. There are also tools being released to allow you to get feeds and manage them from your desktop and avatars that search for feeds of content that you like. These can be as easy as RSS search bots, or more encumbered like a user defined, regular search of the Web using something like Google APIs. I made a deal with myself last month that I wouldn't leak too much vaporware or talk about things I didn't have ready, but this one is pretty cool. I had planned to show a demo this weekend using the Google API in an app that could be handy for busy audio pros. You type in things you like to be informed of and it goes and gets them for you, new stuff on a regular basis (had that part) and eventually would learn your likes and dislikes and tailor the searches based on past behavior. (don't yet have that part) Anyway, it's been a rough couple of months at Roaddog Manor as far as servers are concerned and Sat night the drive controller on poor Tweak bid the world a horrific farewell, taking the latest couple weeks of the current Charlotte crawl (demoing the new search tools) and the dev environment for the next round of Web services. Oh well, hopefully I'll sort it in the next several days or so.
Now that many of us chuckleheads have blogs, personalized search, social networks and all this other technocrap, how do we interact? Pretty much the same way we do now, gather online using either email, P2P tools like IM, Web forum or portal sites or the good ol' desktop. The beauty of this new generation of tools is that we aren't teathered to a specific site (unless we want to be) and we are more or less free to use tools we feel more comfortable with, instead of a Newsclient, email reader or browser. I'm interesting in showing the potential of these new technologies at iproaudio. The hurdles are many, it won't be a quick fix, particularly in such a vertical market as pro audio. The technology and implementation, as well as getting others to see the benefits shouldn't be too difficult over time. Developing a business model, however, will be a ballbuster.
Posted by Dave at 11:36 AM
January 20, 2004
I Can't Drive 55
Those of you that have been following my adventures or misadventures as it turns out to be know that I have a penchant for high performance kart racing. I'm going to blog this season, however abbreviated if nothing else for my own enjoyment. These aren't the karts found at Putt-Putt or powered by tater digger engines enjoying use as a yard kart. These are finely tuned race machines capable of speeds in excess of 115 mph. Even with a middle aged fat guy like me at the wheel.
Karting for me started in 2001 at the Champ Car race at Portland International Raceway. I'd been a race fan for years, since elementry school when during the weekly book club session, I bought Thirty Days in May, The Indy 500 Story. For the better part of the last decade and a half or so I've been attending at least a couple of Champ Car races a season. That year in Portland they were running karts as an exhibition class as a support race. I'd been wanting to start karting for a few years but didn't realize there was a significant karting community in the Northwest. As I toured the karting paddock at the race I was instantly hooked. Being entrenched at the time comfortably as a faux dot com weenie boy, the next Monday I called the karting school and set out to find out as much about karting as I could. Within a month I had a coach and had ordered my first kart. I jumped right into the deep end with a 125 cc two cycle shifter kart. Within two months, I was racing in my first race, sucessfully completing several days of driver training and miles of learning and testing. I was still sans clue.
Front view of the Team Roaddog/Carlson Audio KGB SpyMax Swedetech Honda CR125.
A season and a half later I was named Most Improved road racer of 2002 at the Portland Karting Club. Road race is a style of karting done on big car tracks. I've raced Portland, California Speedway, Thunderhill Park, Mid Ohio Sports Car Course and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, to name a few. My first two and a half seasons I logged more than 60,000 tow miles pulling to and from testing and events. In 2002 I logged several wins in the Formula 125 Ltd Heavy class, though the competition that season was light. We ran in the back of the Formula 125 class which is basically the pro level class for this style of kart. In 2003 I moved to Formula 125. In 2002 I logged as much track time as I could. From Oct 2001 until Nov 2002 I was at the track nearly every weekend, traveling to any race I could. Most weekends I logged a 100 miles or so testing in the kart, which is a great deal. The 2003 season was abbreviated due to my return to touring but I still managed a trio of top five finishes in the Northwest Gold Cup Series for 11th in the series with only three races, a 19th and a 23rd (out of 68 and 64 respectively) at the World Karting Dunlop Tires Road Race Nationals at Mid Ohio after experiencing mechanical failure about 3/4 of the way through each race.
From the seat. Notice the dash and comprehensive data logging facilities.
I had a bitterly miserable experience at the inaugural California Karting Festival at California Speedway suffering a pair of substantial engine failures, repairing them in haste for the final heat only to suffer brake failure in the first turn of the first lap. I'd passed about 30 karts on the start, went to brake into turn one, a sharp left coming off the tri oval and found I had no brakes. I'd developed a leak on the parade lap, air had gotten into the system causing front brake failure. Fortunately, the guy in front of me loaned me his brakes as I barrelled into him at about 60 mph and spun off course stalling the kart and ending what at the time was my most frustrating race weekend. I didn't fare any better in Las Vegas a couple of months prior. In third place during my best run to date, I spun on the exit of turn one, traveling backwards at high speed while about 20 other karts passed me at race speed, finally flipping the kart and sustaining a concusion after landing on my head. Instead of the mandatory trip to the emergency room, I signed the waiver and loaded up, pointing the Escape and trailer back to Seattle. A promising season was heading into the crapper.
My Fontana or Vegas experience paled in comparision to my appearance at the International Karting Federation Grand Nationals in Sept 2003. An event I'd looked forward to for the better part of two years. Due to my rookie status the previous year, I was not able to compete in the Grand National, arguably the most pretigious event of it's kind for this type of karting. It's a five day karting lovefest that determines the National Champions for the IKF sanction. For someone like me a top 10 is fantasic, a top 5 monumental, a podium nearly unheard of. On the first practice day, I was turning some pretty competitive times and felt good for my first couple of sessions, about a dozen laps total on the 2.6 mile course at Thunderhill Park in Willows CA. I then changed to the mandatory spec fuel and oil after lunch. At this type of event it's not typical for the promoter to dictate the fuel mixture, but this promoter seemed to think it necessary. I had lodged a formal protest two weeks prior to the event and had been very vocal about it on eKartingnews.com, the primary karting forum on the Web. It didn't win me any friends and IKF HQ didn't even consider the protest.
Highly customized Swedetech Honda CR125. A 44 horsepower monster.
About a lap and a half into my first afternoon session, I seized an engine in a high speed part of the track. The internal damage was substaintial. I rebuilt the engine, missing several sessions. In my haste to get back up to speed, I didn't properly break in the new engine and imploded it as well. On the second turn of my first lap. I forgot I needed to break in and gunned it. I was out of spares. Normally, I would have had to call it a week. I use perhaps the most respected engine builder in the biz, Swedetech Racing. The Swedetech crew provides most of the front runners in the pro class with outstanding packages and trackside support. This is one series and style they don't do trackside support. Fortunately for me, they are located in Elk Grove, about an hour and a half south of the track. The next morning I spent in the Swedetech shop, gaining pointers and getting my engine fixed. Had they not had World Finals the next weekend, one of the mechanics would have been able to be at the track on race day. They confirmed what I thought that the fuel/oil mixture wasn't right and lead to the failures. I was pissed and decided to run my own oil anyway, though it passed the fuel test I was still obligated to use the spec oil. I already had spent a couple grand at that point in tires, travel and entry fees, not counting the three pistons and two cylinder and head combos. My woes were nothing though, compared to what I would witness that afternoon.
The first two event days are practice, with the final session on the second day being the first class to run at around 3:00 pm. The last race had just started as I was feverishly working on my fresh parts from the engine shop. On the first lap of the first race the race was red flagged, meaning a serious incident on track. I didn't think much of it until I heard a low flying helicopter. It was a Life Flight chopper. I went to the track crossing bridge some 200 feet or so from the wreck. I saw the body of a racer, laying motionless on the pavement, his helmet about 50 feet from his body. He was with the paramedics and EMTs that are present at the track for the events, as well as the wife of a racer who happened to be a trauma surgeon. I couldn't watch anymore. I left the track and decided to finish my work in the morning. I still had one full day until my event. The racer, a well respected local named Jeff Edwards would die two days later as a result of injuries sustained in the crash. He never came out of the coma. I wouldn't find this out until three days later when I returned to Seattle.
I thrashed until just before engine curfew time on Day 3 and was able to rebuild and start it. I went back to the hotel to rest for my race the following morning. The morning of my race, Day 4, I warmed the kart up and headed to the pre grid. I had 30 mins to do a break in and get up to speed, making sure everything was good and tight. As I rolled off the pre grid, I stalled. It seemed to be flooding. Fine under light load, then when throttle applied, it started missing and died. I almost got it started a few times as others that I raced with in the club took time to help me get it right. They knew I had a bad week and wanted to help. That's one of the great things about karting, the people. As the session clock ticked down, I saw my season disappear before my eyes. I almost gave up at the ten minute mark, but worked until they checkered the session. I was done, angry and dejected. The others could see it as I stared at the kart, not saying a word. They offered assistance and condolences. I'd already tanked two engines and didn't want to risk a third. I was way over budget and way under on fun factor. I returned to my pit, wiped down the kart and went to the hotel to make an 11:00 check out so I wasn't charged another day. I returned a bit later, packed the kart and said my goodbyes. Others were well into the race day and it hurt to see them still in the hunt and me sidelined. I had to fight to hold back the tears. I couldn't remember the last time I was this disappointed. I contemplated selling the kart during my 12 hour ride back to Seattle. When I returned and checked my mail, I got word Jeff had died. They announced it about an hour after I left. I knew if nothing else I needed to take a break and my nearly month long tour of Mexico would allow just that.
First test of the 2004 season. Looking forward to racing again after a miserable 2003.
Here it is, January and I'd been craving some track time, but between the intermittent dates, a couple of one offs and bad weather, I couldn't make it happen. It had been nearly 14 weeks since I'd been in the kart. The longest since I started. It took me only a short while to decide not to quit. The shock of Jeff's death and the frustration of the season disappeared and my love for racing was again apparent. This season I'm hoping that Jamie Harris, an audio compadre and now my tuner will be able to assist me throughout the season. He'd helped a few times the previous season and I'm pleased he'll be helping this year. We did a full teardown in the shop the second week in January, prior to our first test session of the year.
Jamie hard at work in the shop.
We took advantage of the third round of the Seattle Karting Club winter series to do some testing. It was raining and cold, but we made the trek to Evergreen Fairgrounds race track for a dose of much needed seat time and to find the elusive gremlin that haunted me at Grand Nationals. There were some fuel delivery issues due to a pump rebuild I botched a few days before, but this time we also had no spark. Some testing revealed the issue a broken electrical harness. The harness was intermittent and seemed to be open circuit under revs or when it was bumped. My problem in Willows was that I wasn't getting good spark after the rebuild. We set up, did a break in and a light rain set up. We did some fuel testing, confirming that there were fuel issues as well at Willows, and tested the rebuilt brake system. Even with missing most of the morning session, we logged nearly 40 miles of testing. Pretty good for fixing so many things. I was able to gather a ton of data. We log water temp, exhaust gas temp, rpm and speed, and lateral and vertical Gs, as well as ambient temp and through another gauge, relative air density.
Race trailer and paddock at Monroe.
We're hitting the track again this weekend for some dry testing. We'll primarily do tires and handling. The program is on a limited budget this year and there are also some conflicts with planned races. The season opener for the Northwest Gold Cup is March 20, with Grand Nationals this year in Portland in July. I just missed Fontana due to gigs but plan on making more larger races. We haven't invested into a sponsor program yet and will work on that through the season.
Hope to see you at the track!
'til next time...
Dave
Posted by Dave at 11:46 AM | Comments (1)
January 08, 2004
In God We Trust. All Others Pay Cash
Over the last couple of days there's been one of these religious debate threads that pop up every now and again on the LAB. Well, not exactly a debate but some posts where someone feels compelled to share their religion with you. It happens when an over zealous "believer" feels the need to impart his or her vision of morality and belief system on the rest of us poor unwashed souls. It started when what I presume to be a secular person posted that he had applied for job at a church and they asked him about his religious beliefs. Well of course they did. To make a long story short, he didn't come clean with them and doesn't think he'll get the gig. Most of you know the story, though there are some that read ABD that don't do sound or hang at the LAB.
A discussion then ensued and like these things do sometimes, a couple of folks that think they know better than everyone else showed up to try to "save some sinners". I like to think I'm tolerant of other's belief and value systems and try not comment on them. As long as you don't bother anyone else, knock yourself out. Except of course when one of those persons attempts to ram their particular flavor of religion down my throat. Early in my career I had a day job as an assistant district manager for adult newspaper carriers. The persons delivering the papers were adults, not adult newpapers. Right after my gig, if I had one that night, I'd head to the regional depot to work my 2:00 AM to 10:00 AM shift. There were two districts in my building and coincidently the other ADM was named Mark. In total there were about 30 carriers. On my side there was a carrier named Jack. Jack, his brother Dan and his sister and brother in-law has about six routes between them and were quite industrious. They were also very devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Mark was a full on born again Christian. And he was obnoxious about it. Quoting scripture, trying to save souls and making very inappropriate comments in the work area. Jack and the rest of his family pretty much kept to themselves. Until Mark started what I thought was relentlessly badgering them and engaging them in religous debates.
Over the course of a month or so Mark and Dan started debating more and more intensely. Dan was actually pretty good at it. At no time did he try to evangelise his religious preference, even though his son was currently on a mission doing just that. At first it was playful, insightful even. Entertaining at times. They'd show up at 4:00 AM or so and pick up their papers, bag 'em, load them into the cars and head out. For about 15 minutes every morning, Mark would be sure to instigate some debate about values, the afterlife, anything he could find. Pretty much everytime Dan had a response and Jack and their sister soon joined in. Mark couldn't fathom his evangelising was having no effect on the persons he was debating. It grew to the point where Mark starting proclaiming boldly that they were all going to hell and not to blame him because he was trying to save them. Mark was angry. As his taunts grew more direct, a few in the warehouse had enough and complained about his behavior. Mark was given a warning. A few months later, I left suddenly when I had returned home and picked up a message for the first real tour offer I had. I have no idea what happened to Mark.
Other than me wanting to tell a story, the point is that a person's belief system is a personal thing, not one that should be judged by others. I'm no stranger to working in a worship related field. In fact, the last PA company that I help build was well know for regional church gigs and I've done what I consider my fill. For the most part, the folks I worked with from the youth centers or churches are fine folks, many of them I'd have no problem hanging with. Like anything else though, there are some bad apples. Some of these folks seem to have so little confidence in a belief system that they feel the need to compel you to join them, stating some sort of biblical mandate. In a word, I think that's rude. It's nobody's business what another person's belief structure is, and to publically try to evangelize to someone you don't know is not only rude, but bordering on sociopathic. I'm by no means a biblical scholar but I'm pretty sure there's a bit in there about tolerance and respect of others. Then there's that "do unto others" thing. I like to call that manners.
I don't know what it is, but most of the obnoxious evangelical types are modern Christians, prodominately from North America. It's funny to me, because this particular brand of religion was late to the party in terms of world religions. Perhaps the most ironic thing is the person considered Jesus himself was not a "Christian". That came well after he was executed. I think if a person wishes to practice whatever religion or belief system they like, more power to them. I'm certainly in no position to judge. However, some of these obnoxious evangelists don't seem to have the same respect and manners on this matter as they may with others. Many of these folks are arrogant, to the point where no one outside their social sphere wants to deal with them. Who are they to judge what is best for another person? People are different and that is reflected in the cultures and belief systems people have around the world. It's none of their business what anyone else's belief structure is. It's one thing to assist those seeking information or so called salvation. It's quite another to attempt to justify one belief system as being better than another. In my opinion, people that do that don't need a savior. They need a therapist.
Fuck it, who wants pie?
Dave
Posted by Dave at 11:50 AM
January 05, 2004
In the Shadow of the Season
I purposely held this column until after the New Year. With all the media hype around this time of year, it's easy to get lost in the noise. Around the holidays every year pundits line up to offer predictions of what they think may happen in the coming year. Or worse yet, the year in review or "highlights" of the previous year.
The potential for interactivity in the professional audio realm remains largely untapped. Sure, there are great forums, the LAB and Gearsluts and of course, the home of the Shit Brigade, the RecPit. With the exception of PSW, the sucessful communities are operated by the participants or benevolent persons from within the industry, donating time and services to make the communities happen. The dot com crash of past few years has either bankrupted or in the case of the two media giants that control the pro audio trade mag biz (Intertec and Primedia) caused them to retreat, not being able to find a sustainable business model for an online operation. It's difficult enough to operate a narrow vertical market media company, though the behemoths have the advantage of scale in that they also operate publications in other industries. That though, doesn't necessarily transfer to a medium like the modern Internet.
While the trade pubs have a vast archive which should be published online, it's not the only thing that will enhance the user experience. Even with all this info online, it's still damn hard to find what the info you need to make decisions or gain bit of knowledge, unfettered from the propganda machines of those hawking the wares. It's easy enough to find gear specs, even prices. Most manufacturers have done a pretty good job at getting basic product info online. There are some glaring mistakes, however. These include all Flash sites, unable to be indexed by search engines and not viewable to those that for whatever reason don't want to or aren't using Flash. Not having basic search functionality on the site or poor navigation is another. It's great you have the info online, now help us find it. Basic info buried in large PDF or other non html files is another hinderance. Sometimes we just need basic info. Don't make us download a MB or two of PDF to get info on a few basic features. There are some really well laid out sites that offer a great deal of info with minimal effort. Unfortunately, they aren't in the majority.
My suggestion is to either train your marketing people in new information technology, or better yet, separate the online presence and put specialists in the role to work with marketing, engineering and corporate to get your message out. The folks that have done this are able to turn their Internet presence from a passive medium to a profit center by providing better info to promote the product line. I can hear some execs proclaiming they can't afford it. The truth is, they can't afford NOT to do this. With many if not most pro audio products becoming commodity items, the difference between you and the other guy is going to be service, availability and how easy it is to deal with your company.
On the community front, not much has happened in the last couple of years. My last year at PSW was spent playing catchup and dealing with a dwindling resource pool, unable to explore or deploy many of the nanescent technologies that now are pervasive in the tech industry realm as a whole. Things like social networks, P2P chat, blogging and other community driven tools are largely absent in the pro audio realm. In fact, most of them don't exist. Just like email lists of the '90's and Usenet, forum centric message boards may not be long for this world. They won't fall off the face of the earth completely, but already the importance of these kind of communities are waning in the general public eye. A general rule of message forums is that the majority of the particpants are passive, that is they don't contribute. At the LAB this was in the neighborhood of 90% passive. Other communities I work with have similar rates of participation.
One of the reasons for slim participation is that most folks aren't comfortable participating or don't have the basic knowledge or experience to contibute in a positive manner. We see this all the time in the LAB and in the LAB Lounge as well. The resource has turned from an active community of audio professionals to a well for questions for those not versed in the applications of sound reinforcement. That's not bad in and of itself but as I've stated on numerous occasions, it tends to lower the bar in terms of the level of knowledge and participation on the site. On a closed site, such as SynAudCon, which BTW, is still a mailing list, particpation is limited to those that a) find the resource in the first place and b) are willing to pony up the thirty five bucks to join. I think it's a deal, considering the company that one keeps though I still have issues with communities that are that closed. Granted, it does keep some of the riff-raff out, but it also excludes some that could offer significant contributions. The SAC list works because it's still a fairly limited community, less than 5000 persons last I knew, compared to 20,000 plus of the LAB and the nearly 100k of PSW in total.
One of the caveats of the current forum sturcture, not just in the pro audio sphere but in all community based forums is many times you never know who you are talking to. In the olden days it was standard issue to lurk for a while and learn the community, who the players were and who the trolls were. The bar has been lowered and this is no longer the case. Many just cruise in these days, ignorant or unwilling to learn even a minimal bit about how the particular community functions. I've beat this dead horse many times in LAB posts but thought I'd put it here. There are ways to combat this, however.
One of the first things I thought when I saw so called social networks like Friendster or Tribe, is who the hell would use this kind of thing. After following it for a while, and reading others that know much more about this kind of thing than I, I've concluded this is not an ends to a means in and of itself, rather a tool, or even mechanism to be used in other areas. eBay, dating, and forum communities are but a few of the potential applications.
In the next column we'll talk about some things that may make traditional message forum communities obsolete.
'til next time...
Dave
Posted by Dave at 11:54 AM