So I’m reading this article about how the long tail theroy is bunk because some one drew some charts that show otherwise. I have not read the article with the charts and I have not read The Long Tail, but I think that the theroy has been explained very well, “If given a choice people will choose what they really want over what they are told to want”. Ok I get it, I think that’s true, but you also have to remember that THIS IS A DRASTIC PARADIGM SHIFT and it will not just flip overnight.
You have to take in to account that the masses are still pelted with ads all over the place about what they are being told is cool, they have social groups that tell them what is cool, there’s an entire echo chamber built up to support the existing model of mass advertising, and that’s not going away any time soon. The most painful thing about this article is that the entire premiss is built on that there was some expectation that in 2008 there would be some HUGE flip and everyone would say “fuck whats popular this thing that no one heard about is awesome.”
Well Mr. Lee Gomes, your last paragraph I think completely supports the idea that the long tail IS working. The important bit about the long tail is ownership of decision. The ‘OLD’ way was that some one other then you got to decide what your options were going to be, the ‘NEW’ way is that you have that ability. As you clearly point out though, we do not have sole and complete power over everything but it’s vastly improved in the past few years with no data to show a slow-down any time soon. So by this logic, yes the book might have been over-zelious in it’s predictions, but it’s not a complete lie.
–
benh~

So I’m not convinced that this will have the best picture, but it sure will beat the running around to find a projector at FreeGeek. It makes me really wish that I had a few bucks to throw at this thing for research reasons.