Pro-Ams or craftsmen and craftswomen for the 21st Century?

January 17th, 2009

They call them Pro-Ams – I call them the craftsmen and craftswomen of the 21st Century

So it is no surprise that we get a story like this one A galaxy of helpful people

Which tells the tale of Dr Chris Lintott a researcher in the department of physics at the University of Oxford – who set up a website to enable the public to classify photographs of 1m galaxies.

This approach has been described as Crowdsourcing, though I think I prefer the more elegant term harnessing collective intelligence, with technologies of cooperation.

Galaxy Zoo (galaxyzoo.org), launched in July 2007, was supposed to be a side project; instead it has turned into the biggest citizen-science experiment on the web.

and the Guardian article goes onto describe what evolved from that project. However I like this story

After Galaxy Zoo’s initial success, Lintott wanted to take a closer look at merging galaxies. At 5pm one Tuesday he posted a spreadsheet listing a selection to the forums and asked members to take a look and email him the best. Then he went to the pub.

One “Zooite”, Richard Proctor, a telecoms consultant, spotted the spreadsheet and thought: “I can build a webpage to do that!” By the time Lintott logged back in, the web interface was already in use.

And I thought this point was important

It’s not just the volume of research that can be done by collaborating with the public that’s important to Lintott, but also the opening up of scientific research to anyone with a browser and a little time.

“By making the data available to everyone,” he says, “whatever stage you are in your learning, you can do research.”

People have a fundamental need to belong, and in a post modern world where our indentities are more nebulous, and where we quest for meaning – something that allows me in to participate and create value makes me feel better and affirms my sense of self-worth in society.

This is what modern craftsmen and women bring to the world. Richard Sennet in the Craftsman develops a philosophy of how craftsmanship might be at the very heart of social good in modern society. It is Sennett’s contention that “nearly anyone can become a good craftsman” and that “learning to work well enables people to govern themselves and so become good citizens.” This line of thought depends, among other things, upon the Enlightenment assumption that craft abilities are innate and widely distributed, and that, when rightly stimulated and trained, they allow craftsmen to become knowledgeable public persons.”

Think about what Sennett is saying “nearly anyone can become a good craftsman”, I have often observed that people embrace what they create, and if more of us become part of doing more, engaging more, creating more, we are shaping civil society in a constructive way. We enrich society through or individual and collective actions, and in doing so it enriches us. Meaning we will contribute more, commit more, engage more, as there is more context, more meaning in what we do.

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