On Neff... the specturm and the grey area

In her papers, Neff talks about the social lives of the information labor, which is a unstable, high- stake, only-the-few-take-the-fame (and food) job. In Entrepreneurial Labor among Cultural Producers: “Cool” Jobs in “Hot” Industries, she and her collegues even compare the new media jobs to fashion models. The portfolio-centered nature of the jobs (which is made possible by communication networks as we have learned earlier in the semester with discussions on Castells) make the individual workers as the nodes, rather than placing them into a stable work organization. Also in the The Changing Place of Cultural Production: Locating Social Networks in a Digital Media Industry piece, the importance on social networks is further emphasized. Even the physical/local concentration are considered to be important to strengthen the network.

But one thing that keeps coming back to me is, whether this model can be applied to a wide array of information and new media labor rather than a small portion of elite(?) programmers dedicated to 'creative tasks'. Sure, there are the top portion geek heroes who can actually jump from here to there by each project they pursue. But for many others who are not on the creator but only on the 'administrative' level or below, it isn't the case. For them, the whole idea of the 'cool' job only threatens the job security they need. I think more focus should be shed on the fine spectrum of jobs and their interests inside the scope of new media jobs.

In a similar vein, I also couldn't agree with the dichotomy between 'participant' permanent beta model and 'consumer' traditional model in the Permanently Beta: Responsive Organization in the Internet Era article. Because I see everyday a vast grey area between them. For example, the product itself may be in a permanently beta status, but for the average user it is simply the 'most current version' (moreover, Microsoft has already proven that even an "end product" intended solely to be consumed can be in a permanent beta stage by releasing crappy OS' and making you download endless patches). I think the spectrum of the various jobs, and the loss they would suffer if the discursive focus was fixed on only one side should be explored more in detail.