Taylor Davidson - Latest Comments

Re: Can nuanced discourse compete against “strategy by soundbite”?

CarlNelson — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:33:50 -0000

Before I get into looking at comments and reading the bevy of blog links and arguments back and forth I wanted to say thank you Taylor for this blog post. Here's my first response.

"Can a shift in demand reshape the economics of media?
When easy answers sell, polarized positions become good business strategies and nuanced thought loses out."

Easy answers sell because of peoples reluctance to spend time investigating. It comes off cynical or pessimistic but the majority of people don't have the time, or don't want to bother spending the time, to investigate answers more deeply. Curiosity to investigate takes time and energy.

Polarized positions and easy answers are built into the structures of power currently in place in politics, religion, education, and media (list could go on).

Even in free or open models there are always structures of power with authority figures or tribe leaders or experts who possess more power even if the underlying platform is built on equality.

Re: Can nuanced discourse compete against “strategy by soundbite”?

tdavidson — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:33:56 -0000

To continue to add a layer, add mass-market v. niche appeal; in today's culture, it makes financial sense (because of audience and revenue) for media outlets to adopt polarized positions because they are easier and simpler to spread.

Niches are where the web shows its true power, aggregating people across boundaries impossible in different media economic structures.

Free isn't a ubiquitous strategy (for example, Twitter and Facebook have vastly different cost structures [think pictures, video and expensive, rich media] and thus "free" should be applied very differently), nor is it the right strategy for all industry cycles or product growth / maturation curves; the real need right now is less theory. Debating whether it's right or wrong kinda misses the point about what to do about it (thus Maltoni's and Masnik's posts).

But some part of me hopes that culture adopts to new economic opportunities to allow mass-market media to take a more nuanced approach. Yes, call me naive and optimistic, but I have hope. Until then, I would advise to avoid my methods of thought and communication :)

Re: Can nuanced discourse compete against “strategy by soundbite”?

fschlegel — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:36:38 -0000

As simple answers continue to disappoint one can only hope that the pendulum will swing to allow fuller discourse. This is a nicer layer to add to the 'Free' debate, since the impact of blogs and other web communication devices are having such a devastating effect on traditional journalistic enterprises. The ability of web sites to to dig deeper into subjects, debate, and inform seems to be an antidote for what passes for debate on cable for those who chose to be cured. At some point I have to hope the world would grow tired of watching folks yell past each other, though Jerry Springer might be proof of the opposite.

Re: Transcript, Penny For Your Thoughts with Umair Haque

tdavidson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:22:32 -0000

Thanks; done...

Re: Transcript, Penny For Your Thoughts with Umair Haque

twitter-1489581 — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:27:22 -0000

Hi, Taylor. You should be able to embed the video. Good transcript! Thx.

Re: The best camera is the one that’s with you.

jtnt — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:33:44 -0000

We emphasized to the kids at Photo Camp that no matter if the camera you're holding is a top of the line DSLR or a cell phone, you are holding a powerful tool.

Re: “You never want to be an agenda item at a meeting to which you’re not invited.”

tdavidson — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:39:17 -0000

Whenever I find the paranoia creeping in, I repeat my mantra: "I'm
exactly where I need to be", physically, mentally, emotionally.

It's impossible to attend all "meetings", and I know that if the
meeting / conversation is particularly important it will come to my
attention at some point; I just hope I'm not an agenda on too many
meetings I miss :)

Re: “You never want to be an agenda item at a meeting to which you’re not invited.”

fschlegel — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:20:17 -0000

What a great quote from Craig. Plays right into my natural paranoia.

Re: In a world beyond the massconomy, humanity wins.

EthanBauley — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:00:51 -0000

did you email this to umair?

Re: Hire nobody, hire everybody.

tdavidson — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:29:17 -0000

Set expectations accordingly, provide the right platform to create the right interactions for the people that will help, promote their help, and give something back to them. It's less about maximising total attention and action, but maximising the attention and action from the "addressable market" of people that will help.

Re: Hire nobody, hire everybody.

sambr — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:17:59 -0000

Fascinating story about how the Guardian was able to sort through all that data. Now, the question is, how do you harness the power of the web masses when you don't have the current event attention that the Guardian was able to utilize? Not all of us have front page news scandals driving attention to our data sorting.

Re: In a world beyond the massconomy, humanity wins.

NicolasGabard — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:12:30 -0000

"Start asking questions rather than just looking for answers; start imaginating, make a mess, start hacking, and above all, have fun"

That's a PERFECT roadmap !

Re: Waited and Viewed, Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival

tdavidson — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:18:14 -0000

but you missed the best part :)

Re: Waited and Viewed, Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival

tdavidson — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:04:26 -0000

well worth it; I loved it.

Re: Waited and Viewed, Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival

kari — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:34:49 -0000

i feel like i'm there..

Re: Waited and Viewed, Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival

ericajoh — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:33:58 -0000

I saw your tweet on Philosopher Kings on Twitter earlier today and watched the trailer. Definitely want to see the whole documentary.

Re: Thanks for the reminder, Facebook.

Anil — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:08:13 -0000

haha, is taunting you. Sounds like high school bully.

Re: Do people demand truly great photography?

tdavidson — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:29:40 -0000

Great photography always stands out; it just doesn't stand out to everyone :)

Quantity segments quality more than it dilutes; it's unfair to expect everybody to be able to judge greatness. Any widely available cultural activity will always encounter this dynamic: it's impossible for *most* of the participants to judge greatness; and that's neither bad nor unexpected.

For example, we all wear clothes, but how many of us have great fashion sense, or can identify and understand great fashion? How many of us can truly appreciate great cooking? Or music?

The point is that "great" is a matter of personal perspective; the real question for any industry is to identify the preferences and taste within segments of the population and create content that fits the segment.

The real issue (& opportunity) is for both sides (business & art) to develop and use better data around the marginal benefit & cost of art and it's impact on sales / marketing / business value. This isn't a question of right or wrong, but about finding the right equilibrium for different media, mediums and environments.

Re: Waste, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

glenn84 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:39:06 -0000

The Mesa Verde National Park is quiet an old park in Colorado. Its fantastic. It is most visited by tourists. Don't forget to visit the Cliff Palace in this park. For more details refer http://www.journeyidea.com/mesa-verde-ruins-the...

Re: The best camera is the one that’s with you.

tdavidson — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:10:19 -0000

It's a common (yet often forgotten) refrain, one of my favorites; to add to the notion, as David says, "Gear is Good, Vision is Better."

Re: The best camera is the one that’s with you.

ericajoh — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:06:27 -0000

Amazing photos. This reminds me of something I read at Chase Jarvis' blog about always using whatever camera you have with you, whether it's an iPhone or a cellphone camera, that you don't need any fancy camera equipment to create good pictures.

Re: Lost and Found, Charlottesville, Virginia

tdavidson — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:50:59 -0000

David couches it as "planned serendipity"; meaning, scout and plan a
bit to put yourself in the right area, then once you're there, wander
and explore, comfortable with the knowledge you've put yourself in a
situation to succeed as long as you're alive in the moment.

Re: Lost and Found, Charlottesville, Virginia

ericajoh — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:41:20 -0000

Love the quote by David. Walking through a city without any particular destination in mind does open a lot of doors, partly because you're not 'distracted' by needing/wanting to be somewhere else.

Re: Do people demand truly great photography?

fschlegel — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:28:03 -0000

Quantity dilutes quality. And as taste makers loose the ability to elevate the best of the best the general public looses what ability they had to recognize greatness.

You can see this happening with HD TV. Picture quality issues increase to support the platform, but many users are perfectly happy moving to a tiny pic on their computer screen through Hulu. All this ends up distorting what folks will pay for the high end content, since low end gets the job done.

What passes for product photography nowadays for the majority of mfgs. would never have left the darkroom 20 years ago. Folks who used to use line drawings improved their quality with digital pics, but that lowered the bar for the higher end folks who had been using photography all along.

All that said, a great picture can attract attention depending on the environment it is presented in. It is just harder than ever.

Re: Inside, outside, photography all around

tdavidson — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:21:12 -0000

Silence is easy: just turn everything off. Finding the control to get
that silence is hard.