Two notions that can help us as photographers:
‘Crowd-sourcing’ and ‘wisdom of the crowds’.
But what is missing? A ‘double blind’ component (the primary innovation in arsbeta.com).
The basic notion of crowdsourcing: leveraging the ‘wisdom of crowds‘ for some sort of beneficial utility.
For example the biggest problem I see in photography:
No way to get real feedback on your photos.
When I say ‘real feedback’, I mean to say meaningful feedback. Not to just get a ‘like’, but to get a constructive critique:
How you can improve your photos in a substantive and meaningful way.
What makes ARS great?
My ideal of a social media network for photographers:
- Double blind: You don’t know who the photos belong to, and the people you critique don’t know who you are. My thought is that ‘double blind anonymity’ on the internet fosters honesty.
- Wisdom of the crowds: I believe every photographer (regardless of how experienced or inexperienced they are) has valuable feedback and input to give.
- Crowd-sourcing: Instead of using our valuable energy to just watch silly YouTube videos or mindlessly scroll through Facebook or Instagram, why not use your energy to help empower others (while also benefitting yourself)? By giving critiques on arsbeta.com, you actually improve your photographic intelligence, which ultimately helps you!
Mandatory critiques
A big new change on arsbeta.com was to make giving critiques mandatory. My thought:
Critiques is what makes photography feedback so great. Giving a critique adds a lot of ‘friction’, but I still think it is a ‘net positive’ for photography.
Try it out! Start uploading your photos to arsbeta.com and also start giving constructive critiques to others. The simple rule:
Give others critiques how you would like to be critiqued!
ERIC