Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Can you Digg It?

I have just recently joined a system called Digg. Digg.com is a site where Internet media consumers may suggest certain web pages throughout the internet for consumption by other websurfers. People basically bookmark stories, pictures, anything on the internet so that others may share in what people find interesting or funny. These stories are put on Digg.com's web page (http://www.digg.com/) along with a number of people who suggested to specific website.
One of the reasons I find this website fascinating is because it is an example of collective intelligence as well as the collaboration of individuals as put forward by Henry Jenkins in Convergence Culture (description of book may be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Convergence-Culture-Where-Media-Collide/dp/0814742815). I feel it is an example of Jenkin's idea of collective intelligence not because of the information within each web page that is suggested to digg.com, but because the website that was recommended is presumably only a small part of the media consumer/digg.com member's repertoire. This is the collective intelligence of information sources, not only the information within them. This is where the individual collaboration comes in. The site is presumably based with the fundamental assertion that people will suggest stories that people will want to read. This builds a reading base which gives digg.com not only legitimacy but also some weight as to which topics get read. However, this is a self-propagating cycle in that the more digg.com members who read the suggested stories, and, in turn, put their mark of approval on them as well, make even more readers come to the story. I know that I personally gravitate more towards the stories that have a large number of people who approve of the webpage. This is interesting because this makes digg.com a perfect example of how the media is changing, with the power coming into the hands of the individuals.

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