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Making Things | Digital vs Non-digital Creation?


Digital vs non-digital making. creating things. Archive Robin

Last week, I wrote about different types of creation, and why it matters who created something. (It matters because: Ownership).

I want to follow this up by brainstorming different types of creation in the digital world. Mainly because I'm curious to see how big of a difference there is between digital and non-digital.

Hit me with your ideas, because I will certainly have missed some!

Making Things

A person makes a thing.

A person makes a thing, and someone else pretends its theirs.

A person makes a thing, on behalf of someone else (say, a ghostwriter or a company's employee).

Two or more people collaborate to make a thing together.

One person starts a thing, and hands it to another person to finish.

One person makes a thing. Someone else edits it.

One person makes a thing. Someone has the bright idea of editing it. Then tons of people also edit it (think: memes).

One person makes a thing, and then shares it amongst people they know.

One person makes a thing, and then someone else shares it amongst people they (both?) know.

One person makes a thing and shares it publicly.

One person makes a thing, and someone else shares it publicly.

A person makes a thing and shares it. Other people make copies. Then the first person wants to take down the thing, but can't do anything about the copies.

Is there actually a difference between digital and non-digital?

On the one hand: yes.

The difference is the speed that this editing/copying/sharing happens with digital stuff. And the potentially enormous audience that is the internet.

But on the other hand, though....

Are the crazy speed and enormous audience enough to change the nature of creation? All the things on the list can happen just as much for non-digital, as for the digital. Is a digital creation different in essence from a non-digital thing? I'm not so sure...

What do you think?

What different types of creation did I miss? And do you think that the difference between digital and non-digital things is important?

Thank you so much for reading - you're the best!

To catch up on the Deep Dive into Personal Archiving Series:

Previous Article: Who makes collections?

And if you don't want to miss future articles, pop me your email, and I'll send them to you in my monthly message.

Have a great week!

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