Technology, empowerment and power

In the 1820's and 30s much radical protest took place though radical newspapers and pamphlets aimed at the nascent workers movement and an emerging middle class of radicals. Much outrage was caused at the time by a tax on newspapers - which by 1815 stood at 4p - about the same as the cost of a large loaf of bread. A tax on knowledge was seen as preventing workers becoming more aware and agitating for the right to vote - one of the major demands of papers such as The Poor Man’s Guardian.

What's this got to do with anything today? Well I was thinking of this as Kindles, Kobos and iPads proliferate around me. As pundits begin to speculate about the end of newspapers and books as we know them, because of the growth of these new platforms for reading and newspaper distribution, I worry about the commercial model that is driving this switchover and if we are creating a new tax on knowledge.

Take the Kindle, with over 13 million sold worldwide last quarter and iPads beginning to do similar business.  Both bring great advantages of convenience and access. Great, of course, if you can afford one and that’s the start of the problem. As someone once said, follow the money.

Just look at how this new technology works. First, you have to buy the device. It looks cool, is portable and does the job of displaying print on a screen well, but you now have to buy this before you can access, copy and read content. We don’t know yet how long the average device will last but once you have all your content on this platform you will then have to keep buying readers or tablets when they fail or the new must-have model comes out. They also cost significantly more than the equivalent of a loaf of bread, creating much greater barriers to access.

Great for publishers wanting you all to purchase your own copy of everything, but not great for the distribution of knowledge.  Libraries are already struggling with the lending rights issues around digital content.

When you purchase an eBook or newspaper, it’s yours in the sense that you are now granted access to a work which sits on your device. However, it cannot be shared, except through lending the device on which it’s embedded. Gone is the chance to simply lend a book or read the newspaper by passing it on - it’s locked into the device.

The device has become an instant cash register you take with you – convenient as it may be - but for future purchases you are hooked into using the distributor’s network and pricing structure. All this would have some justification if prices fell, as with electronic storage and distribution no trees need to be felled – it all comes electronically and directly to you. However, many offerings are as expensive as or more so than the hard copy. Where books are cheaper they are only marginally so. This is the result of restrictive agreements between publishers and distributors to enhance current markets and increase profits after the industry was caught out previously in the growth of online bookselling. Yet authors complain about being squeezed on royalties for digital content. 
It is, of course, possible to point to the environmental benefits of electronic distribution but are we just shifting the problem. Take account of the precious metals, manufacturing  process, waste and lack of recycling and the Ereader does not look like such an environmentally friendly model - particularly considering that the majority of the scarce minerals used in their production are from politically sensitive  areas. But this topic would need the focus of another blog another time and I would be interested if anyone knows the answer?

There has been some good news, of course, with some niche authors being able to launch themselves directly online by bypassing traditional publishing houses but its impact, so far, has been much overhyped. It might be possible to see an explosion of easily publishable and shared campaign resources but only for those with the devices and if distribution issues can be addressed.

I do not want to turn back the clock but as with other technologies, how they are introduced, controlled and accessed makes all the difference to how far these are an empowering tool for citizens in the future. There is already a known digital divide. The danger is that if we let the current economic model of the development of the eBook readers and tablets this effect will only be enhanced. 

Why this really matters to campaigners is that the growth of this model of knowledge and news distribution may soon become the norm, not the exception. The financial requirement this new model of consumption creates limits access to only those that can afford it. 

As yet there seems to be little thinking about how we turn this platform to our advantage and make it more accessible. We cannot just wait in the hope that commercial pressures bring down costs and access in a more mature market - this is about the control and distribution of knowledge and as the old school radical’s knew - knowledge is power.