And what’s next?

I’ve been reading Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky.  I haven’t finished it yet, and I haven’t processed it fully.  Maybe I don’t fully understand it.

But the idea that new technology has fostered new methods of collaboration is certainly something I’ve experienced for myself working on creative projects with people around the globe.

The idea that it has altered the way we market our creativity is also one I recognize.  One, too, that comes up frequently in the work of Seth Godin, one of my favorite bloggers.

Traditional publishing methods of the book and music industries, while still in existence, are losing ground to the tools available to all of us to get our work out ourselves.

Got a website?

Publish your novel, post your artwork, stream your movie or your music.

In addition, the accessibility of pretty much the sum of human knowledge and creative works is altering how audiences approach them.  If I can read this book for free, will I want, for very much longer, to pay for that one?

I think the answer is probably no.

And I wonder what’s going to happen?

The gatekeepers have less power than ever before.  They can no longer keep you from getting your work out to the public.  All they can do is curate.  Suggest one thing over another.  And the fact that they do it from behind a desk in a monolithic museum is becoming less relevant.

We don’t pay so much to go to a movie, anymore.  We pay a monthly fee for the right to watch all movies.  Curation by algorithm.  Because you liked this one, you might like that one.

So, what happens?

How does the model for how creative people get paid change in the face of this new paradigm?

Because it’s going to change, certainly.  It already is changing.

Sometimes I think, on some level, that the whole capitalist endeavor has reached the end of its sustainability and, possibly, usefulness.

I just don’t know what takes its place.

I wonder.