Today's Net Art News carried a poll on publishing frequency (i.e.
the current three days per week or five days per week.) As is often
the case with such polls, I found myself looking for the "None of the
above" option…
The problem, of course, is that Net Art News appears limited to a
single announcement per message. Thus, the quantity of information
provided is limited by the publication frequency – not by the quality
of information. Thus, one variable (quantity of information) is
controlled by a second (frequency of publication) rather than by
quality. This is unfortunate since very different factors rule one's
preferences re each of these variables.
Net Art News serves the editorial or curatorial function of
selecting, from a presumably large quantity of possible items, just
those that are of a high enough level of quality (however the editor
defines "quality") to be published. While it may be the case that
typically this means that only three or five items per week meet the
bar, I assume that from time to time there are more or less. In weeks
where five or six, even 15 items!, are good enough to be published, I
would like to see them all. In weeks when there is nothing to be
published, I would prefer not to be bothered. On the other hand, my
demand for this information isn't terribly time-sensitive and I would
prefer that my mailbox not be cluttered with Net Art News mailings. My
fear is that if the publishing frequency went to five days per week,
the result would be a lowering of the bar and Net Art News would start
publishing things that would not otherwise meet the three-per-week
level of quality. The fear here is, of course, that quality of
information would become even more dependent on publishing frequency
then it already is.
My desire for the information is independent of my desire
concerning the frequency with which it is published.
So, what I would suggest is: Continue with the publishing
frequency of three times per week, but in the *exceptional* cases when
there are more than three items that meet the standards for
publication, allow a single Net Art News message to carry more than
one announcement. (make quantity and quality of information
independent of publishing frequency)
bob wyman
Re: Poll Position (Quality and Quantity vs Frequency)
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Type: discussion
Comments
I think Bob makes a good point.
Knowing that it comes 5 days a week, diminishes the significance of the
news. I'm subscribed to CNN's news alert, and surprisingly they do not abuse
it. They only send me an email when there is a major news story. So,
whenever it comes in, I take it seriously, and I read it as soon as it comes
in. Some week, I might receive 5, other weeks, I might receive none.
The more frequently it comes in, the less significance it would have
psychologically. Beyond a certain number, I would want a service that
notifies me of the important ones out of all the Net Art News. If this
becomes necessary, it would be unfortunate. At that point, Net Art News
would be just another post on RAW.
I think Bob's suggestion is a sound one. It's a compromise of the two. You
keep the minimum, but can be increased depending on the number of
significant news items that comes up every week.
Best,
Dyske
Thanks for your input. The 'News' in Net Art News has a different
connotation from CNN News Alerts – two different uses of the word
'news.' It is true that Net Art News content can be time based or
timely – an art project that people can only participate with til the
end of the month, or a competition to be entered before some date, or
some such – but most of the time the projects are not 'news' in the
way CNN News is. Sometimes covered projects/events/books etc.,. are new
to the field, recently launched, but that isn't always important or why
they gets covered by Net Art News writers. I guess I was thinking we
should find out if people wanted to read them more often based on their
enjoyment of them and desire to read them, not on their
use-value/timeliness… See what I mean? Very best, Rachel
On Wednesday, October 22, 2003, at 05:32 PM, Dyske Suematsu wrote:
> I think Bob makes a good point.
>
> Knowing that it comes 5 days a week, diminishes the significance of the
> news. I'm subscribed to CNN's news alert, and surprisingly they do not
> abuse
> it. They only send me an email when there is a major news story. So,
> whenever it comes in, I take it seriously, and I read it as soon as it
> comes
> in. Some week, I might receive 5, other weeks, I might receive none.
>
> The more frequently it comes in, the less significance it would have
> psychologically. Beyond a certain number, I would want a service that
> notifies me of the important ones out of all the Net Art News. If this
> becomes necessary, it would be unfortunate. At that point, Net Art News
> would be just another post on RAW.
>
> I think Bob's suggestion is a sound one. It's a compromise of the two.
> You
> keep the minimum, but can be increased depending on the number of
> significant news items that comes up every week.
>
> Best,
> Dyske
>
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One of the things to keep in mind is that NAN doesn't stand alone as content that Rhizome offers; it's one of four different lists. Those lists – Raw, Rare, Digest, and Net Art News – are focused at people of differing levels of interest & experience w/ the new media arts community. If you're the sort of person who wants to get a lot more info than is in NAN, you'd be more well-served by subscribing to Rare or Digest. Or you could get your email filters ready and subscribe to Raw if you want the high volume.
I think of NAN more like a low-commitment sampler. It's less frequent than Rare and it's shorter than Digest, so it's probably best for somebody who has some interest in new media arts but isn't necessarily a curator, artist, or academic. I think the fact that it's short is important to its serving that purpose.
Rhizome offers a lot of different things, and we could probably do better at giving users an overall sense of how everything relates to everything else. As with everything else, we're working on it. But keeping the lines distinct is, to my mind, an important start.
F.