Anodyne
Saturday, January 12, 2008
 

Note to JWV

I don't have any problem with aestheticized labor -- you could comfortably site my "art practice" in that category and I wouldn't whisper a word of complaint. But I do have a problem with so-called "knowledge workers" conceptualizing structures which they then expect to be built by other people out of the goodness of their collective hearts. Eg., social networking sites, "e-magazines," etc., which endlessly advertise for "content" (free, natch!), for "interns," & the like. I've never had "interns" at the bookstore, because it never seemed to me that someone's working for free was making their life, or the culture at large, visibly better. If I couldn't afford to pay for someone's work -- eg., better than minimum wage, with the prospect of further increases -- I always did the work myself, or put it off until I could afford to pay. There's a whiff of arrogance to a (even fairly well established) website's claim that it can't pay all its contributors. Even twenty-five bucks for five hundred words is preferable to the inflated claim that publication on Site X really constitutes "getting your name out there." Sure, to lots of other sites as proof that they don't have to pay for content, either.
- posted by cjb @ 7:47 PM


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