tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15644559.post113302315434720409..comments2024-03-21T03:55:51.565-07:00Comments on Omniorthogonal: Google vs. printmtravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02356162954308418556noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15644559.post-1133033509335466412005-11-26T11:31:00.000-08:002005-11-26T11:31:00.000-08:00Excellent post.A while ago, in my travels in high-...Excellent post.<BR/><BR/>A while ago, in my travels in high-tech marketing and in the printing business (and on the periphery of the music business), I found that technology not only eliminates middlemen by dramatically reducing the cost of infrastructure, but this cost reduction also removes the economic basis of the *producers* as well... it seems your publisher friend (and employer) are discovering that too.<BR/><BR/>In the long run this means the infrastructure providers are economically well-rewarded for their innovation, but it also is a huge boon for amateurs and those who want to become producers but don't have the capital which used to be required in order to do so. We are rewarded in a non-economic way: we are allowed to play without having to pay.<BR/><BR/>Hence, home studio gear, digital photography, Xerox machines, MP3's, Free Software, and blogging, just to name a few. An explosion of amateurs producing indy CD's, 'zines, art, movies, a "cambrian explosion" of software, and blogs of an increasingly high quality.<BR/><BR/>The old middlemen get whacked (print shops large and small, publishers, record companies and movie studios, "brick and mortar" distributors and retailers), and, with them, a lot of smaller "content producers" as well. Profits accrue to the companies delivering the new, cheap infrastructure: Roland, Yamaha, Google, Xerox, Canon, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, etc. Everyone else sees reduced costs, but also reduced profits. Only the innovative new entrants into the middleman space (iTunes?) find some way to turn those low costs into profits. Alas, all but the very largest of the old-skool operators are toast.<BR/><BR/>The howls of pain are the same ones made by 1980's-era software engineers at Stallman, by Metallica at Napster, by 1970's-era print shops at Xerox, by recording studios at Roland and Yamaha, by professional photographers at Canon, by 1990's symphony musicians at samplers, by 1970's rock bands at disco, etc.<BR/><BR/>Professionals lose, hobbyists and amateurs win, and middlemen and smaller producers are flushed out and replaced with a much smaller number of those who eagerly leverage the new technology.<BR/><BR/>Obviously it's not healthy to have a few large corporations end up with a stranglehold over, well, anything. Are technology infrastructure monster-corporations themselves exposed to the threat of being replaced with something new, lower-cost, and more available? I'm not sure. But looking at Microshaft running scared from Linux and Open Source gives me hope.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com