As we delve into another energy-filled quarter at the MCDM, I am reflecting on a question that came up in multiple classes: How valuable is peer-produced – or “collectively produced” — content in this new age of Internet-based communication?

Many of us in the MCDM have taken on the challenge of reading through Yochai Benkler’s masterwork, The Wealth of Networks, a foundational text for any media program. Benkler makes the case that social production (collaborative content produced by widely distributed individuals, sometimes numbering in the thousands) is more effective and economically efficient than a centralized information production and distribution system that is controlled by a small number of organizations. Benkler backs up his arguments with several examples, such as the highly successful GNU/Linux open-source Web server software; Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia created and edited by thousands of Internet users; and the scientific experiment of NASA Clickworkers in which more than 80,000 public volunteers replaced a handful of scientists and graduate students to mark and classify Mars craters.

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I came across Robert Darnton’s beautifully articulated essay collection, The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future (2009), while looking for a book to review for class. Darnton’s book intrigued me from the first glance. Aside from the effective title, its warmly designed, aptly metaphorical cover drew me in, inviting me to flip through its pages. This is an experience that is unlikely to be matched by a digitized copy downloaded via the Internet, to be read on an electronic device.

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