Posts Tagged: Read Write

1. In the beginning of the book, the Lessig introduces us to RO (Read Only) and RW (Read Write) cultures. He explains the latter to be the traditional idea of participation in the creation and recreation of content while the former (and now the most common) to be where people consume creative content without being a creator using new technologies. However, at the end of the first chapter the author states he believes the technologies of the RO culture could benefit and revive the somewhat forgotten RW way of life. How is this so? Do you think that both RO and RW can work together?

2. In the book, Lessig states that RO cultures are driven by professionals while RW cultures are driven by professionals and amateurs. How have both RO and RW been critical to the development of pop culture?

3. In the second part of the book, Lessig discusses how Wikipedia is considered a “sharing economy.” He also goes into detail about why the website decided to forgo selling advertising space and, thus, miss out on over 100 million dollars in revenue each year. Do you think this was the right decision for an informational-based website? If there were advertisements on Wikipedia, would this affect how you read and interpreted the information?