Ultimately, the most important upcoming innovation in the arts is one that will enable a multitude of others.

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Although any number of intriguing innovations in communication and the arts may be just over the horizon for us, ultimately the most significant of these is the one that will give producers of creative material the opportunity to connect with their natural audiences and markets. 

This is the innovation that will enable people to choose trusted "taste mavens" to take them to music, writing, or other forms of content that are most likely to appeal to their own individual tastes.

Our era is one of communications gigantism, in which a very limited number of mega-entities devote virtually all their resources to the quest for a few mega-hits and blockbusters.   When all other material is effectively brushed aside, consumers are deprived of options that would better express their tastes and their individuality, while the vast majority of creative producers are told they are superfluous and irrelevant.

Not only is this a poor way of matching producers with consumers, it is absolutely no way to foster innovation and creativity.  Insisting that every creative work be instantly recognizable as a likely mega-hit is like insisting that every book be pre-sold before it is produced.  It returns us to the economics of pre-Gutenberg times.

Expanding our supply of gatekeepers is the most effective way to move us past this blockage.  There are already enormous quantities of creative material available on the Internet.  What’s missing is just a way to put people in touch with the content that best suits their tastes.  Providing meaningful incentives for people to sift through  material and match it to tastes is the best way to ensure this function is performed.

Patents are pending on the key techniques required for this type of service, and much of the necessary software has already been developed. 

When the new service is finally launched, it will enable a structural reinvigoration of virtually every form of creative expression that can be rendered digitally.    The transformation will be profoundly democratic and liberating. 

If historical precedents can tell us anything, we can look forward to a wave of innovation and advancement.

© COPYRIGHT 2004 ROBERT WINTER.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.