The SEC vs New Media, and how this is all going to end badly for some.
by oiler on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 11:55am
You want to read a fantastic article about the Southeastern Conference’s recent decision to ban fans (!) at games from facebooking and tweeting, then check out what Michael Kruse of the St Pete Times wrote on Sunday.
Here’s a quote, and when you’re done, come back here and finish reading this simple little blog post.
Many are saying this makes the bosses of the SEC look like fuddy-duddy technophobes — that they don’t “get” new media.
They get it. The language of the conference’s policy suggests they know all too well the high-stakes fight that’s just beginning.
Ok, welcome back. You’ve just witnessed – probably for the 103rd time today – the power of the hyperlink.
It’s the most basic, most fundamental value of the New Media world. And it’s just the beginning of a giant shift in the way news is distributed and how it will be paid for.
Inside that shift, there is a clear divide forming; the ‘those’ and the ‘those-nots’.
On one side, there are teams like the New York Jets – who are fast becoming the poster boys of social media (mostly because they are in NY, many pro sports teams are doing what they are doing.)
For another example, take this story from TechCrunch about a new startup called FanChatter. It has partnered with a few pro teams (Twins, Wild, and others) to set up a way for fans to take photos and video of themselves at a game and upload it to a place where people who work for the team can post the photo/video on the scoreboard (at best) or (at worst) on the web site. It’s basically the exact opposite to the idea as the SEC had.
So when I read about morons at the SEC, or like at the Associated Press, who think they’ll be able to figure out a way to control the flow of this tide, I just laugh at the level of Fear I see on display.
What all this does… the actions of the AP, the SEC, ESPN… is take regular everyday developers like me, and regular everyday users like the guy next to me, and turn us into an army of hackers. All ready to see the latest wall that is built for us to scale.
Their only weapon is enforcement.
And since technology is now the enemy of closed, the future is on the side of the open.