The time is ripe for Internet content artisans. Authors disenchanted by the prospect of traditional publishing can produce work in e-book format through vendors such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Musicians neglected by mainstream channels can sell their work in Bandcamp. But writing novels and making music independently are relatively straightforward projects. Now, the democratization of Internet content has expanded to include the creation of bigger, more complicated projects that are supported directly by what the public wants to see and buy.
One recent example of such content democratization through crowd-funding is "Tangiers," a stealth game inspired by the 20th century avant-garde art movement specifically, the work of William Burroughs. While the game's high-brow and obscure inspiration would have prevented it from being pitched successfully to game developers looking for definite profit, the small production team was able to use Kickstarter to sell the idea directly to individuals who wanted to see the game produced.
The democratization of content creation enables individuals to express and distribute narratives that are marginalized by traditional mainstream producers and publishers. This can be seen through another successful project called "Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond," which raised over $21,000 through Indiegogo. The authors wanted to create an anthology of genre material by and for persons of color, due to their historically low representation in science-fiction and fantasy. The anthology will feature numerous contributors, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz.
Crowd-funding platforms have fostered the creation of more complex content by a larger number of people, and with the advent of distribution networks such as Amazon, Steam Greenlight, Google Play and the Apple App Store, creators can now pitch products beyond their initial support circle to consumers around the world. This way, the Internet has fostered a type of democratic, more direct, two-way consumerism. The content producers artists, writers, entrepreneurs are able to spend time making the things they want to make without being stymied by the exorbitant costs and logistics of traditional production and distribution networks, and through crowd-funding, consumers have a louder voice in creation.
Of course, established companies are far from obsolete. Larger game studios and publishing houses have the capital and talent to produce large and high-quality products, and can provide consumers with consistency and a sense of what to expect. Indie projects may lack professional polish or may fall through entirely. For instance, self-published books and e-books are often spotted with grammatical errors or unwieldy sentences, which would have likely been fixed by scrupulous editors in bigger houses. Indie games have failed due to disputes among production team members. "Fez II," a sequel to hit game "Fez," was canceled after a Twitter argument between creator Phil Fish and game blogger Marcus Beer. Organizational matters aside, democratizing content broadens the scope of publicly available products.
If we abide by Sturgeon's Law, which states that "90 percent of everything is crap," we expect lots of junk to accompany the gems produced through crowd-funding. The Internet has allowed for increased coverage and distribution of works that would have otherwise been left unnoticed by the public. We are at an unprecedented age. Through crowd-funding, the Internet can foster smaller, more streamlined, semi-professional projects where creative decisions need not be completely constrained by financial concerns.
We are uniquely suited to experience an era where everyone is free to express him or herself and distribute his or her work. While not every project will be a masterpiece, the Internet gives creators a chance to support themselves financially while bypassing traditional gatekeepers, and provides consumers with an opportunity to decide which products should be created for consumption.
