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I don't think you ever saw ordinary people let loose with the power of "Print Shop" in the 1980s or Microsoft Word in the 1990s. People made greeting cards, fa
by dkarl 16y ago
I don't think you ever saw ordinary people let loose with the power of "Print Shop" in the 1980s or Microsoft Word in the 1990s. People made greeting cards, family newsletters, notices, party decorations....
In the visual arts, a lot of the people who do amusing Photoshop work are not professionals. Also consider MySpace in the 2000s. You might argue that MySpace isn't a good illustration of the value of giving people creative freedom, but you can't deny that a lot of people were eager to take advantage of it.
Then there are the people who get into sound editing or musical arrangement. These days a kid might start with making a ringtone and then escalate. Personally, I'm the least "creative" and least musical person you'll ever meet, but even I spent a whole day trying to arrange a decent-sounding version of "Walk Like an Egyptian" using a digital music program on my Apple IIgs. Why "Walk Like an Egyptian?" I have no idea. When I was thirteen I recorded myself belching, reversed it, dropped the tone an octave or two, added an echo and made it the shutdown sound for Windows 3.1. I told my parents it was the sound of a WWII submarine preparing to submerge. (Eventually, I figured out that code was my preferred way of expressing myself. I had fun writing computer programs that made pretty mathematical patterns on the screen, among other things.)
Putting content creation tools in the hands of everyone is key because you never know who's going to use them. Some kid decides to make something cute or awesome or badass or smartass and the next thing you know s/he's hooked on sound editing or what-not. Unfortunately, the model of commercial software development is to give someone a free taste, then frustrate them with limitations, and then take their credit card and charge them for the pro version. Kids are easily frustrated, may not have access to a credit card, and even if they have a card, may not be able to spend $100 or more for professional-quality software.
However, I think the answer to that concern is that non-professional content creation needs will be served by free web apps.
- svjunkie 16y agoNon-professional content creation apps are already available in the Chrome web store. Aviary has a suite of audio-visual tools it offers, including vector image editing (I don't work for them or anything).
- lachenmayer 16y agoHowever, for most kids in that category, piracy is a very viable alternative. And such access to tools which would otherwise cost hundreds of dollars can, and does, foster huge amounts of creativity in kids.
- ugh 16y agoI do not understand this worry or whatever it is at all. I’m always completely baffled when someone brings it up. Content creation has never been as cheap as today. To suggest that tablets or netbooks will somehow limit that ability seems crazy to me. Just because the software isn’t yet written? Because that’s what’s happening, the software is written and perfected (Have you seen GarageBand? Google Docs? The list goes on.) and meanwhile we are all in transition anyway. All those PCs won’t disappear overnight. This is one of those crazy way-too-premature worries.
- eftpotrm 16y agoWould you like to try creating extensive content on a touchscreen? I love my netbook, it goes almost everywhere with me. I can touch type on it fast enough to take notes in meetings or from church sermons, I can write music on it, I can even run Visual Studio 2010 and SQL Server 2008 well enough to be productive with them. I can't for one minute imagine how I'd be able to do anything like that without a hardware keyboard and I'm yet to see the add-on keyboard that's as stable for typing on my knees, in the back of a car, held in one hand while standing (or whatever) as any netbook. I've got no problem with tablets as devices but they still seem to be firmly consumption devices to me.
- ugh 16y agoYou mistakenly seem to have equated typing with creating. Typing is a subset of creating. Tablets are not so great for typing, sure, but PCs and tablets are both cheap. There is no reason to believe that they won't co-exist, both making it easier for everyone to create.
- eftpotrm 16y agoNo, but a better input device than a touchscreen can certainly make creating easier. When I'm creating text content, a keyboard is a fast and efficient means of data entry. When I'm creating images or doing graphic design work, I want precision of control. A touchscreen isn't fine enough. When I'm creating music, there are a range of input options but I'd still take some persuading that a touchscreen is quite there.