The three major points that Henry Jenkins outlines in the introduction of his book are convergence, collective intelligence, and participation (p. 22). When Jenkins says convergence, he is referring to three ideas: “the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want.” Rather a lot of meanings for one term, I can see why he added a glossary. The other terms are a little more self explanatory; by participation he means to contrast current user participation in media as compared to previous more passive audiences, and by collective intelligence he is referring to the action whereby a multitude of people each contribute a small piece of information to create a greater body of knowledge. Jenkins’ focus seems to be on how the creation and consumption of media is changing (due to the key points he mentions) and what the larger ramifications of these shifts might be.
When comparing Jenkins’ key points with the major ideas found in Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous we can see a couple areas of overlap, if not necessarily agreement. For starters, they both seem to be largely focused on the shift in the roles and abilities of the user, or consumer. Weinberger says many times in his book that it is the user rather than the authority figures that will shape the new “digital disorder”, through mechanisms such as tagging, reviews and other user created content. Jenkins expresses a similar sentiment when he states that “Audiences, empowered by these new technologies, occupying a space at the intersection between old and new media, are demanding the right to participate within the culture. Producers who fail to make their peace with this new participatory culture will face declining goodwill and diminished revenues.” I would say however that Jenkins takes a slightly more moderate view of the power of the user, as he acknowledges the power that large companies still possess, a fact that he explores in various settings, the relation of the “Star Wars” franchise to its fandom for example.
Jenkins and Weinberger also discuss the idea of collective intelligence. Weinberger calls this idea “social knowing” and describes it as a process of many people working together towards a deeper understanding of information (p. 147). Jenkins describes it as a natural outcome of human limitations; no one can know everything, so if everyone contributes a part we can combine knowledge and skills (p.4).
There are also a couple of other concepts that both mention. Weinberger discusses the concept of gatekeepers and how the ease of digital publishing can free us of them (p. 102-3), Jenkins also touches on this, though he suggests that we are not necessarily free of the gatekeepers (p. 18). Lastly, both Weinberger mention how the difference between physical and digital data storage have allowed for vastly different ways of connecting and organizing information. Jenkins briefly comments on this “digitization” and includes a quote from Nicholas Negroponte “the transformation of “atoms into bytes.”
To wrap up I would guess (since I have not read the whole of Jenkins’ book) that Weinberger and Jenkins both discuss very similar ideas; although I suspect that they approach them from rather different viewpoints and come to different conclusions.
Great post (and it's ok it's long, it's good!). You say, "Weinberger says many times in his book that it is the user rather than the authority figures that will shape the new “digital disorder”, through mechanisms such as tagging, reviews and other user created content." First, great summary of one of W's main arguments. Second, this is a great springboard to make the connections with Jenkins. J does come to a similar conclusion as W, in that he essentially says "convergence, awesome, democratic, etc!" Although the focus on media studies versus knowledge management is a clear delineation between them. Thanks.
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