Acsess and Validation of Digital Media

It seems, that if we, as a society, as Jay Bolter notes in Writing Space, move towards digital media as the primary medium that there are possible detriments that undercut the ethos of the open and democratic forum of online publication. The blog, the wiki, the list-serve, the discussion board will need validation and this will happen by some form of governance.

Information is the most valuable commodity in our society. The valuation of any commodity causes systems of governance and oversight to be created to validate that commodity. Information, in the form of online publications, will by its very nature be censored and restricted in both its publication and access by its commodification. Systems of peer-review, or worse, systems controlled by government or corporate entities, will restrict the nature of writing and media on the web, in order to better catalog and sort the information being posted in online arenas. The restriction of digital production, necessitates a lack of access to writing on the web by valuing certain forms of information, causing users to have screen names and passwords to gain entry to information posted in these forums, which will be controlled by whatever entity is in control.

This may seem alarmist, but the value and power of the Internet comes from the ability of its users to go where they want and produce what they want. Unlike books, whose information is valued because of the material nature of production, publication in digital forms is easy and cheap. Because of this nature, in combination with a move towards "valid" forms of digital publication, it seems only certain that someone--or something--will step to valide the media published in digital environments.