[iDC] introduction: The Internet as Playground and Factory

[Scott Rosenberg]

Hi, everyone --

Trebor asked me to introduce myself here. I'm a writer, critic,
website builder, author of SAY EVERYTHING: How Blogging Began, What
It's Becoming, and Why It Matters; and, before that, DREAMING IN CODE.
I was one of Salon's cofounders and worked there for 11 years. Before
that I spent a decade at the San Francisco Examiner as theater and
movie critic and "digital culture" columnist.

I'm fascinated by the issues this conference raises. I feel like I've
been living them in my own work over the past 15 years in my migration
from print to the web. Journalism is one field where we can see the
very concrete impact of the declining market value of information
labor. We also see a distinct split in responses: on the one hand, a
reactionary effort (on the part of both "workers" and business owners)
to reverse the process of change and restore the orderly arrangements
of the past; on the other, an enthusiastic but sometimes blind charge
into the future.

I'm hoping to bring some perspective based both on my research for SAY
EVERYTHING and my own experiences in the trenches.
-- 
Scott Rosenberg
scottr at wordyard.com
Blog: http://www.wordyard.com