Homebloging… it’s the only world I have found to qualify what I’m doing right now that is to say posting my homework on the internet. You might wonder what would I do such a thing ? Actually, it’s not because I’m extremely proud of my work and that I want to share it with the entire blogosphere.
The reason is simple: more than 450 miles are separating me and my class from our teacher of e-communication Bob Spaulding. Internet is therefore a virtual place thanks to which we try to overcome the geographical distance in order to communicate, learn and work together. Thanks to social networks, email boxes and blogs, we become e-students and Bob Spaulding our e-teacher.
Fifty years before, this scenario would have been technically impossible. Bob Spaulding would not have been able to work for the CELSA, the school of communication where I study and we would have had an other teacher in the flesh. Traditional methods of learning and teaching seem to be shaked by new technologies which have crepted in the classroom. In front of that phenomenon, the educational system is far from being an isolated case.
WE ARE ALL PIRATES IN SLIPPERS
Today, the impact of the internet on the world of music is the center of international debates which are, unfortunately, especially focused on illegal downloading. This new way of consuming music is considered as the responsible of the great crisis which currently damages music industry. But reducing on-line consumption of music to piracy would be lying. In France, the recording industry has lost 50% of its value from 2002 to 2009. On the other hand, numeric sales have increased in 50% in 2007, offering 76 millions of euros to the music industry.
It is impossible to deny the perverse effects of illegal downloading which prevent musicians from taking advantage of their copyrights and enables millions of anonymous to benefit from a costly work production whithout giving a penny. To tackle on-line thefts, each country has tried to find its own solution. In Taïwan, a brand new law forces internet suppliers to deprive net surfers of their connexion when they use illegal downloading twice. France has just adopted the Hadopi law so as to settle a progressive counterstroke against cyber-pirates while the United States have chosen to drag swindlers off to the court of justice, demanding them to make good the damage.
But why does this war against on-line piracy so much taste like defeat?
In 2007, the rock band Radiohead took the bold decision to enable a free downloading of their new album In Rainbows. According to a study launched by the British company MCPS-PRS, more than 2,3 millions of people prefered to download it illegally. Today, defending those 2,3 net surfers means choosing to be the Devil’s advocate. Illegal downloading has made the debate about the impact of internet on music deeply manichean. In France, illegal downloaders have been described by the upholders of the Hadopi law as fould and routhless stealers when they actually more look like the average citizen. This video, produced at the Austalian government’s request is quite representative of the current diabolisation of illegal downloaders :
(I know the music of the ad is terrifying and I really feel like being a terrorist while listening to it - even if I do not download music illegaly, I promise !)
JE T’AIME MOI NON PLUS
The current situation is way more complex than what the ad is made to show. Many studies have testified to the fact that e-pirates are often at the same time great consumers of CDs and DVDs. Moreover, illegal downloading does contribute to boost the sales of one album by creating a buzz on the internet.
Therefore, more than a war, musicians seem to have a kind of je-t’aime-moi-non-plus relationship with the internet and their criminal fans. Internet has offered to them new spaces to conquer so as to increase their visibility. It has enable them to use their creativity to launch new forms of marketing strategy. The rock band Muse has for instance chosen to put its new album on www.deezer.com before it was put in stores. Musicians can also take benefit from viral videos in order to promote their shows. Thanks to platforms such as Myspace.com or Youtube.com, internet has also enable many artists to become well-known such as Colbie Caillat who has recently recorded a song with the famous Jason Mraz.
More than changing our way of consuming music, internet has chattered all types of music including the most old-fashioned and elitist one. If the world of classic music needed time to adapt itself to the internet, it seems to have taken the right direction. Many websites are day after day promoting opera shows, concerts and so on, by broadcasting them in direct live. www.medici.tv is a very good example of this new phenomenon. The quality of the sound and of the images is amazing. Of course, it’s different from having your sit in the Metropolitan Opera of New York but at least it’s less expansive and you can watch it from your bed.
Because that’s precisely what internet means to me: giving to everybody the opportunity to discover what reality has forgot to put on your road !
Stay tunned !
P.S : Next time I’ll try to make shorter 
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