cjboffoli
JoB:
You wrote:
“Patrick and Tracey are stretched to their limits delivering the quality product they are putting out now…”
I responded:
“I also don’t agree that Patrick and Tracy are “stretched to their limits.” You must have some information that I don’t. From my perspective they seem to be constantly expanding and doing new things with the blog.”
What gives you the impression that I thought you were demeaning them? Nowhere did I accuse you of calling them incompetent.
You said they are stretched to their limits. I think that the way they are constantly adding new features and value to the WSB indicates that they have bandwidth to spare. That’s all.
Take a breath.
Once again, I think the the end of printing news on paper is overdue. I don’t think the sky is falling. I think we will get through this and will have something different and better as a result. Journalism and investigative reporting will not only survive but will realize new heights, unburdened with the task of distributing printed news on paper.
To date much of the coverage of the decline of newspapers has been from old media itself. And that’s about as unbiased as the Darth Vader telling us how likely it will be that the Rebels succeed.
And while your syllogisms are stunning, you were the one who tried to reframe this argument as depriving the poor of their news which I think is one of the weakest I have heard yet for “saving” newspapers, especially when you start splitting hairs about which poor we should care about first. But bringing it back to the issue at hand, so far I think you’ve covered the people who are too busy working or who can’t afford the bus fare to go to the library and access the news online. And you’ve covered the credit deprived and homeless. But what about the blind? And what about those without arms who cannot even lift a newspaper to read it? Surely you can plumb greater depths to find an even more obscure marginalized demographic who will suffer from the disappearance of newspapers by which to make your point.
BTW, you said the OLPC $150 laptops were not available in the USA. I simply said they were indeed available here as I saw them on Amazon last fall. I did not say that was the only way to purchase them or the only place they were available. But you fallaciously launched into how that excludes those without credit and the homeless. This is the logic of JoB.
Who was it that wrote in these Forums that engaging in discussions here was as useful as banging two bricks together? Was it The House? Well he was absolutely right.
I think it would be fairly easy to look at any kind of innovation and demonstrate ways that someone suffered as a result of change. But I think it is always myopic to do this as at the time something is changing it is not always obvious what future opportunities may emerge from new systems and methods. It is easy to say we need to preserve the system we have now because it is all we know. It is difficult to be enthusiastic for the new things we will have simply because they have not yet been realized.
I think it is extremely short-sighted and way off the mark to look at this present situation and frame it as a movement from cheap paper news for the masses in favor of computerized news for only those who can afford computers. I see limitless potential in the new opportunities that will emerge from divesting ourselves of the limits of printing news on paper, in much the same way that the prevalence of high-quality digital cameras has broadened access to filmmaking, a realm once controlled by a handful of big film studios. Or the way that musicians can now produce and distribute their music directly without the interference from a label.
Technology grows increasingly more powerful at the same time that it gets less expensive. It doesn’t require much imagination or facility with math to conjure a time in the near future when new technologies for the delivery of news will be cheaper and more accessible (not to mention more dynamic) than news on paper is or ever was. I just cannot understand why so many people are having trouble seeing these changes for the huge opportunities they present. After witnessing what Patrick and Tracy have done with the WSB in only a few short years, I for one am excited about the future.