The Next Wave of Format

•Conclusion

Key to Links:
* Green links link to other sites used as examples
* Red links link to parenthetical points by this author
* Yellow links link to general reference
* Orange links link to documents on other websites

Conclusion

I have been circulating an earlier version of this piece among friends, acquaintances and strangers (using the partially-adequate formats that exist on the web for doing so.) Of the many criticisms that I’ve gratefully thought through, three seemed particularly important.

First, am I looking forward far enough? The formats I’ve described here hardly represent cutting-edge technology. No doubt, there will need to be formats for brainwave scanners, virtual-reality devices, and web-interfaced nanotechnology lathes; but those are not the formats we need first. Until we create the kinds of formats I’ve described here, we won’t have much truly meaningful content on the Web. At best, we’ll have what we have now: the rehashing of meaningful content from other media. The New York Times website and Cbsnews.com will chug along, cribbing text from their existing computer files. The greatest potential of the Web — fostering new formats for human expression and opening up understanding of the complexities of the world today — will remain unrealized.

Second, by glorifying formats, am I not simply making it easier for the unimaginative producers of film, music and books to hamstring creative artists by demanding more of the same stuff that sold last time? Writer/director Daniel Minahan originally pitched his movie Series 7 (itself a satire of the format of reality TV) as a TV show. He switched it to a film when network executives demanded that he make it more like Ally McBeal. Any creative artist has dealt with similar requests and yes, formats can be abusive. But a fast moving medium like the web, with increasingly inexpensive production and distribution, formats will (I believe) be more liberating than stultifying. It's probably easier than it has ever been, these days, to find someone willing to take the chance on a truly creative effort to do something original (especially if that original item looks likely to spawn new formats of its own).

Third, I have only talked about public media. What about environments for learning, and learning organizations

is there a business model for the kinds of news environments that I think will take place? What makes me think they will actually acquire an audience, let alone advertisers? Much of my feeling about this stems from observing reactions to the conventional news — my own disinterest in much of it, particularly well-hyped "journalism pack" stories, along with the distaste voiced by many people I know, and the increasingly harsh commentary about the conventional news media. It’s no coincidence, in my view, that as people have grown accustomed to the far more customizable, diverse, and experiment-friendly medium of the Web, we recognize what we’re missing in the mainstream news. I don’t know if this translates directly into a business model, and I don’t necessarily think it matters much right now. As Phil Agre wrote recently in his newsletter:

"Large numbers of .com companies are trading for well under $1 a share. It wouldn’t cost much to buy them all and shut them down. But it’s okay: every important new technology goes through this stock-bubble phase, transferring wealth from the dumb to the quick. The point is to get back to the democratic vision of the Internet that was common sense before the failed experiment with the advertiser-supported Web got started. There’s nothing wrong with someone making an honest buck on the Internet, of course. What’s wrong is identifying the making of bucks as the essence of the medium."

There are still a few old-timers around, like Ben Bagdhikian, who say the same thing about conventional media. Formats won’t be created because a venture capitalist funds them; they will emerge as web media makers learn to streamline their work, and as audiences gravitate toward them.

Which brings us to the third question. As critic put it: "How does such a system come to be? Your answer seems to be: ‘Trial-and-error among many institutions.’ That seems nearly no answer at all." But to me, that’s the most significant and long-lasting way to build a quality, democratic internet. I would love to see experimentation in formats; I would love to be part of it. But whether I want to or not, I know that experimentation in formats will continue. It does not require a reliable theory of forms or formats to take place (though with the richness of experimentation on the web, there may be enough data available for the first time to construct such a theory.) For a person like me, who produces creative and journalistic work for a living, it is very exciting to be alive at a time when one can see (and maybe take part in) this evolution.

The Next Wave of Format

back

•Introduction

•The nature of formats

•How new formats come to be

•The state of creative formats on the web today