The Internet Diaspora is changing content as we know it. Some call it piracy while others claim it's fair use, but the free and easy dissemination of content over the Internet is leading to a radical rethinking of both how we consume it and how media companies present it. In the wake of the Rolling Stone debacle last week, industry insiders and critics alike have begun to consider more than ever how the cultural habits of curation, social publishing, online community sharing, and even the multi-trillion-dollar fair use industry are irrevocably changing the publishing game in terms of brand, publicity, and, of course, economics.
We all tend to resist change in some way or other. Sometimes it's simply fear of the unknown that prevents us from seeing opportunities; other times it's stubborn tradition ("But that's the way we've always done it!") that gets in the way of recognizing innovation. However, as the writers we have assembled here note, Internet culture has become a diaspora, that is, the dispersion of content from its original source across the entire web through aggregation, blogging, email, and social media. As much as publishing and media companies want to resist this phenomenon—even with new tools that ensure trackbacks, traffic, and attribution, engaging with and embracing consumer habit and behavior will breathe new life into the industry. That's what diaspora has always been about - new life, elsewhere.
"What happens to news organizations as we know them if this atomization of content is so thorough and irreversible that no publication can pull its discrete articles into a coherent whole? "
"As readers, we understand that publications have been atomized — our own habits increasingly show us that every day. But publishers need to face the consequences of what that means. And that won’t be easy: Their entire world, from planning to production to distribution to promotion to how to get people to pay for it, is built around a fundamentally different set of organizing principles. What if those organizing principles are already obsolete?"
"The internet has split each and every story from every outlet into its own discrete item. Unless your publication is consistent enough to somehow pull all of these separate links into a coherent whole, you'll never be a destination, per se. You're just hosting writers and writing checks."
"Judging by the way other industries, like casual gaming, have handled this new type of economy, the solution may very well be to shift focus from preventing the spread of content to developing the tools and accompanying business models that will allow news content creators to profit off of its wide distribution via external platforms. Because if you're not ok with your content living elsewhere, you're no longer ok. "
"The challenge for big media companies is not just financial. They have to find a way to embrace the power of their users and change their thought process and attitude towards their customers, while not alienating the creator-centric model that currently pays the bills. "
"Internet Culture, however, creates value via remixing and twisting popular out of content—extending the definition of fair use. "
