Have to say i’ve been flummoxed by two new book purchases off Amazon (web 1.0), both by Henry Jenkins of MIT. CONVERGENCE CULTURE and FANS, BLOGGERS, AND GAMERS. Doug turned me on to him, and I have been tracking him ever since (see post below). Jenkins bedazzles, his mind working through those pages in a hybrid style of rigor and ease. His references are far-ranging and his insights drill very deep. An intimidating combination to encounter. One idea echoes with the characterization of curriculum theorists,Ralph Tyler and Hilda Taba: Tyler is characterized as a top-down model of education and curriculum design, and Taba is depicted more as a bottom-up model.
This depiction echoes Jenkins’s idea of Convergence: Corporate Convergence (top-down) and grass-roots convergence, (bottom-up). Where the two meet is the floating needle of our culture. The tipping point meets the long tail.
Is the idea of convergence culture distinct from emergent culture? Or do we have another hybridization of terms? The application of these terms to 21 century media (web 2.0 and 3.0) fascinates and continues to compel.
Jenkins will be a guide for some time. So very much he has digested and recast as perspective on this churning churn we are all trying to stir. The blend of lazer intellect and humanity is pretty much irresistable. Yielding the field to him. And signing off…
Entries (RSS)
June 14th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Great post, Bob! Jenkins does bedazzle. I never made it through most of Convergence Culture, but not for lack of wanting to…I renewed it three times from my campus library! I’ve just been too busy with my own ongoing studies and masters research project, for which I’ve been building out a website based on Spiro et al.’s Cognitive Flexibility Theory. I’m hoping to bring Jenkins to UNC for a fall keynote speaking engagement. I think he’d be amazing in person.