Huntingdon College | Political Science | FOIA | FRAMP project | Internet Effect | Terrorism Index | What's New?

Outline by Patrick Dean, April 2005

The change in the economy from mass-production to mass-customization increases the demand for data. The current wave of innovation is due to the expanding of Internet related technologies, the upgrading of the wireline and wireless telecommunication networks, and the enhancement of cable systems to broadband. (pg.277)

The decline of mass-media industries has resulted in customized media relying on use-sensitive payment schemes. These systems rely on the collection transaction-generated information (TGI).

The new economy allows for flexible production which results in greater differentiation of products. In order to sell products, producers rely on information-communication technologies to reach target audiences.

The pay-per-use system is a concept that says the consumer pays for usage not product.

"Audience is defined as the persons attending to a specific message." (pg.287)

Meso-audiences attend to a class of messages.

Meta-audiences are what audiences and meso-audiences are produced from.

The economy focuses on relationships within the production chain and between producers and consumers. To understand the relationships that occur, trust must be understood as the lack of full knowledge pertaining to a system. Trust therefore can only exist as privacy exist.
 
 

However, with the system of coercive surveillance, mistrust and conflict are likely to appear. Customer mistrust will lead to reduction in provided information. The consumer must have the ability to exit the system, to avoid mistrust.

Customer surveillance and information is known as the surveillance imperative.
 
 

Western society has the "right and duty of partial display."(pg.283)

Attention is scarce and but not necessarily hard to obtain. Once attention is obtain, it can be used for various forms of persuasion. Attention must be produced and reproduced to form audiences.

Producers struggle to hold audiences, while audience struggle to deal with the overwhelming amount of objects competing for their attention.

System Example: A television network uses flat rate pricing of packages to develop meso-audiences in its region. It then sells the meso-audiences to producers who try to develop their own audiences from the meso-audiences. The meta-audience gives TGI based on the packages individuals choose to buy.