Since I won't be at C&W this year, I was glad to get a chance to view Dan Anderson's new media video presentation for the conference (thanks, Dan!). As Dan argues, and I think rightly so, the "lone author is better able to produce a new media instructional resource" than the "outsource production" model of new media instructional text production.

But I don't think it's that the "power of autonomy and individual authorship undermine[s] collaborative paradigms," but rather that the power of collaboration is undermined by attachment to individual authorship/ownership. Our society's acculturation to IP as something to be owned often acts as a set of blinders, one which overly privileges multi-individual projects without much collboration. To embrace collaboration is to understand that outsource production model Dan describes is not a production "team"; rather, it's more like a manufacturing process which outsources production of different components to other companies and then assembles them together. Not a creative process at all. Ugh!

But seriously, this is too neat a process, not messy enough. You can engineer a car, but engineering a creative text about producting creative new media works?

In my field--Computers and Writing, a subdiscipline of Rhetoric and Composition--there is much concern and scholarship about the digital divide and how limited access to computer technology will continue to wide the gap between the have and have not's. I don't disagree with that at all, but I am concerned about the fact that there is almost no concern about the digitial "knowledge divide" created by lack of access to information, a result of protectionist IP policies, practices, and legislation. Thus it was great to hear that speakers at Santa Clara University pointed out that access to computer technology may be of less importance than access to knowledge:

Speakers at the event, attended by about 200, talked about the importance of creating a ``digital commons'' -- a public, online space for knowledge that would help alleviate social and economic problems in poor countries, as well as inequities between the developed and developing worlds.

I would add that this digital knowledge divide is not just a problem for developing countries. Access to culture is locked up behind DRM and pay-for/pay-per use services: i.e., community colleges and private 4-year schools who cannot afford access to the expensive academic journal databases.

So I hope Computers and Writing will soon realize that lack of attention to OA and IP issues is not achieving their goals for promoting literacy. It's only through attention to both computer technology and knowledge access that we can increase opportunities for everyone. It's time to "pay attention."

Kairosnews is hosting this year's Computers and Writing Online. CFP follows:

CFP: Computers and Writing Online 2005

When Content Is No Longer King: Social Networking, Community, and Collaboration

David Reed explains that in the early stages of a network's formation and growth, that “content is king,” that there are a “a small number of sources (publishers or makers) of content that every user selects from" (qtd in Rheingold Smart Mobs 61). As the network scales, “group-forming networks” occur, and the value of the network increases exponentially in relationship of the number of users, otherwise known as Reed's Law, privileging the social interaction over content.

We can see this change in network valuation in today's Internet. The increased valuing of social interaction in large scale networks is reflected in the new technologies that place emphasis on social communication and community over content. These technologies, often dubbed “social software” are applications that, as Clay Shirky explains, “support group interaction.”

We invite proposals from scholars, graduate students and others who have an interest in computers and writing and social interactions and are working on projects in gestation, in progress, near completion, or at any stage in between, whether a thesis or dissertation, article, book project, or just want to preview and fine-tune your conference presentation for Computers and Writing Conference hosted by Stanford University. This is a unique opportunity for extended discussion of your ideas before heading to Palo Alto. Conference organizers are particularly interested in presentations that address, but are not limited to, the following concerns:

A Panel Presentation for the 2004 Computers and Writing Conference.

Alexander, Jonathan. (2002). Digital spins: The pedagogy and politics of student-centered e-zines. Computers and Composition, 19, 387-410.

Anson, Chris & Beach, Richard. (1995). Journals in the classroom: writing to learn. Norwood: Christopher-Gordon Publishers.

Ballenger, Bruce. (2004). The curious researcher: A guide to writing research papers. (4th ed.). New York: Pearson Longman.

In "Digital spins: The pedagogy and politics of student-centered e-zines," Jason Alexander's introduction talks about how "staged" audience is in first year composition. Alexander points out that even just sharing papers among students on the Internet is not enough, and goes on to problematize posting to the web, suggesting that students realize that their only real audience is fellow students and the teacher. However, we would say that by using weblogs in our classrooms, we've turned ownership over to students and given them a real audience. In life outside of the classroom, much like on the Internet, writers will not always know who their audiences are when they write. A report, memo, letter, or fax might cross the desks of numerous people that the writer has never met during the course of a workday. Risk is part of writing, and our students experience that risk within a very supportive community of writers. When we first began teaching with blogs, Charlie recalls being apprehensive himself about putting course syllabi, feedback on drafts, and other teacherly responses up on the web for everyone to see, even though he had been posting to an academic blog for almost six months. But we both feel now, that the shared meaning we and our students have gained from blogging our courses makes it all worthwhile. Imagine. Classes within and among institutions could interact through the use of weblogs as more institutions integrate student blogging into the curriculum, such as the University of South Florida's First-Year-Writing Program's Writing Blogs site.