Top Highlights

• observations—“genres of participation”—that
• it is clear to even technology enthusiasts like me that our enhanced abilities to create and consume digital media will certainly mislead those who haven’t learned how to exert mental control over our use of always-on
• But I do recognize that powers eventually emerge that try to close gates, meter resources, and lock down liberties. I’m enough of an optimist to persist in believing that this hasn’t happened quite yet, despite real advances in the direction of control by governments and corporations around the world.
• Right now (and for a limited time), we who use the Web have an opportunity to wield the architecture of participation to defend our freedom to create and consume digital media according to our own agendas. Or by not acting in our own interests, we can let others shape our future.
• We’re in a period where the cutting edge of change has moved from the technology to the literacies made possible by the technology.