This is the wiki of the Participatory Media Lab, a small team of researchers in Singapore utilizing our limited local resources and a virtually unlimited global network of academics, new media artists and open-source developers to track and analyze the global production, reuse and consumption of digital media content.
We can think of the object of our research as a global digital media ecosystem, consisting of several smaller, regional or media-specific ecosystems. Why do we talk about digital media 'eco-systems' and not just 'systems'?
From Wikipedia:
An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning together with all the non-living physical factors of the environment.
Yes, we know that Wikipedia is not authoritative, but it is very informative, in a probabilistic sense (if the meaning of this is unclear, do read Chris Anderson's take on Wikipedia in The Long Tail book).
Similarly, a digital media ecosystem consists of producers, consumers and intermediaries functioning together with all the non-living factors of the environment, i.e. the systems, software, networks, economic and legal frameworks necessary for the efficient and effective production and dissemination of our modern culture.
Our aim in life is to produce tools for the quantitative analysis of such eco-systems using microeconomic theory and network science, computer simulation, and the analysis of very large 'cultural' data sets. We are especially interested in how the interplay of Law, IT and economics is shaping the future of media This space is a wiki for the communication of our findings and for lab members to share noteworthy bits of information. You can learn more about our aims in the About Us section.
