At the recent Cadillac CTS-V Challenge there was plenty of time during the day to network and visit with other attendees. Even for an introvert like me, this was a bonus of the day, and I met several interesting people.
Normally the conversation would go “Introduction / Reason for being here? / Discussion”. So, my side of the conversation might be
“Hi, I’m Bruce Nunnally from Caddyinfo.com”.
“Yes, we’re a Cadillac enthusiast website that provides information and discussion about Cadillacs”.
One Gentleman asked me, “So you’re Media?”
to which I haltingly replied, “Well, I don’t think of myself as Media”
Gentleman: “But you are.”
Which of course, got me to thinking about the whole Media issue. The entire Cadillac CTS-V Challenge was a ‘new media’ event. This was not a Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Road & Track Event. This was Jalopnik and TTAC and Bloggers and Twitter event. Lots of us were Tweating along the way, and shooting photos right out to a website or right to a twitter photo service so that readers could see the event happenings close to real time. This was a Media 2.0 Event. TV, Speed Channel and CNN is the exception — they were the classic Media at the event.
Not only could I get info out to the web, I could also keep up with what the other participants were commenting about the event in real time. So the Event definitely had the beginnings of augmented reality.
Media. I don’t think I WANT to be Media. To me Media represents a paradigm of unilateral communication. The town cryer yelling out the news, with no participation from the crowd. I want a dialog with my readers. Just as I enjoyed the networking opportunity at the CTS-V Challenge event, I want to have a chat with other Cadillac enthusiasts or other car nuts just because we share a love for the automobile. Interactivity and conversation, not publishing via whatever media and a mute audience with no means to respond.
But maybe that is Media 2.0 — commentary that invites access, discussion, and interactivity.
I know what you mean about not wanting to be media.
I like this paradigm from lawrence lessig about sharing culture:
old media was read only, but new media is read/write.
I always want to be read/write.