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Saturday, July 29, 2017

Gate Keepers for the Digital Nomads



Youtube is in a lot of turmoil. Sites have been banned or demonetized. There have been problems with vloggers getting their videos ripped off. It's turned into a mess. For a lot of people, making videos is not a hobby, but the way they earn their daily bread. Some have managed to move their work to other video platforms, but it's hard.

Youtube is just one example. If you want to self-publish a book, Amazon is the way to go. There are only so many blogging platforms. Digital outlets have a few big players that dominate everything.

In one way that's good, especially for the consumer. It's terribly convenient if you want to find a particular type of content. With dominate players, searching for what you want is pretty quick and easy.

The problem is that those handful of big players can pretty much set the rates everyone gets paid. Their owners become exceedingly wealthy. The poor slobs who actually provide the content have very little leverage when it comes to getting paid. The big boys can make or break them.

For those of us who like to travel, being a digital nomad seemed like the way to go. As long as you could get a decent Internet connection, you could work. While it's easier than ever to work on-line, getting paid well hasn't gotten easier.

I'm not sure how this will all shake out. Maybe digital freelancers will form associations to protect their common interests? Perhaps real competition between platforms will provide more opportunities? All I know is that the business of the Internet is in flux.

Fortunately, most of my income is from other sources than on-line. Good thing. While the occasional deposit in my account is nice, it wouldn't keep me in rice in beans. Of course, we are all just one massive solar flare from everyone going non electronic. Wouldn't that be interesting?

-Sixbears

6 comments:

  1. The Amish would be fine, if the heathen hordes from the cities didn't come and attack them.

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    1. The Amish use a surprisingly large amount of technology. They are very dependent on petroleum products. Also, they use cell phones all the time now. Even they don't stand still in the 19th century.

      However, they have strong community bonds and that's their main strength.

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  2. I facetiously asked the question, "Whatever shall we do if the grid goes down?' at a meeting not long ago and everyone looked at me like I have two heads.

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    Replies
    1. Absolutely nobody wants to think ahead about very real dangers.

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  3. We have one cell tower six miles down the road which is fine with me. However, I've had to stand out on the porch and point to make a call. We have Hughes Net satellite for the computer and it has gone down several times lately for an hour or two. It does make one think . . .

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    Replies
    1. I'm on the wrong side of the mountain for cell service. Had wildblue satelite for a few years, but lucked out when a small company put in cable Internet. Even landline service is subpar here. Would hate to lose my decent Internet connection as I've become used to it.

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