After doing the readings I noticed that both were published in 2008 and thus where somewhat outdated. The technology of the Net moves so fast that that they where probably outdated a year after they where written. For example; all of the suggestions that Pavlik made concerning the use of GPS and handheld communication devices are old news. I was particularly interested in the Harris and Meade report. Just what is the Arts Council England anyway?
“Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a government-funded body dedicated to promoting the performing, visual and literary arts in England. Since 1994, Arts Council England has been responsible for distributing lottery funding. This investment has helped to transform the building stock of arts organisations and to create lots of additional high quality arts activity.” (Wikpedia)
The Arts Council England is what we would call a gatekeeper. Protector of the faith and defender of the written word, the mighty ACE stood watch over the realm, until the mighty horde cometh! The horde of course being the millions of users on the World Wide Web. I believe that the commission the this report arose out of fear and misunderstanding of the WWW and truly free information for all. The ACE needed to know just what was the WWW? Who uses it and why? and Just how the hell do they fit into all this? At the end of their report Harrington and Meade pose three questions:
Will ‘literary’ writing survive online?
Will e-readers play a significant role in our future?
Will digital publishing ever sell its products directly?
Since we have the advantage of hind sight we can say, at least for now, that the answers to all three would be yes. So what does this mean for gatekeepers such as the ACE? Are their days numbered and they’ll soon go the way of the spokeshave and the blacksmith? Will they attempt a coop and try to leash what the web has unleashed? Maybe they’ll integrate in an attempt to simply survive. HMMMMMMM?
