The Pro-Am Revolution

[anotheranon]

Found through Slashdot: From astronomy to activism, from surfing to saving lives, Pro-Ams - people pursuing amateur activities to professional standards - are an increasingly important part of our society and economy.

Despite the tormented classification of "pro-am", I think the researchers might be on to something here. Though the press release seems to focus mainly on amateur astronomers and open source programmers (which are laudable efforts, don't get me wrong), but I also note there are numerous "pro-ams" in the historic costume "hobbyist" community - some of the best regarded researchers out there don't have the "official" training but out of love and fascination have done their work and ultimately lectured/published papers and otherwise been recognized by professional historians/academics.

I aspire to be a costuming/textile "pro-am"; I'm not there yet because there is so much left to learn. No one topic has obsessed me enough to really delve, but hope springs eternal that one day The One will come for me :)

Comments

Re: GO HOBBYISTS!!!!!!!

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

The arts (and perhaps the humanities to a lesser extent) seem more persistently egaltarian in that way. Great artworks and books, even today, are still mostly created by individuals or small groups, not large and well-funded research teams.

I think you may have a point here - most humanities studies don't require expensive, specialist equipment in quite the way the hard sciences do (hard to have one's own, say, nuclear reactor :P) Still, the article does make a point that some technology (telescopes, high-end cameras) are more available than they ever have been, making the field of amateurs in those disciplines better equipped.

One common factor, at least in high tech fields, is how many different disciplines need to be involved to make a breakthrough. If just one or 2, an amateur has more of a chance. On the other hand something that took 20 Ph.Ds, from different fields, 3 years and $15mil to develop will probably not be replicated by Joe in his garage.

An excellent point, but with all of the emphasis on specialization these days, I have to wonder if you don't need a few "generalists" in every field, someone capable of seeing how different sciences interrelate and getting those people all in the same room, as it were. An amateur might fill this niche nicely :)

Re: GO HOBBYISTS!!!!!!!

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Generalists are essential, in any field. Specialists are the dots and generalists join them up to make a recognizable picture.