Pros vs Ams?
by Duncan O'Leary
If you enjoyed our publication last year The Pro-Am Revolution then the discussion taking place on Joi Ito's blog at the moment is worth a read. He raises a few interesting questions including:
- whether 'amateur' is a helpful term in this context, given the level of competence of some people who may have other day jobs are in fact experts in particular areas
- what this means for the current raging debate about wikipedia (merits vs demerits)
- whether amateurs have more fun (he gives the example of amateur sex vs professional sex)
- what this means for creativity, enthusiasm and professionalism
- what all of the above might mean for copyright, patents, and large corporations.
Hmmm.