The Database and the Essay

Johndan Johnson-Eiola's utterly fascinating and complicated article "The Database and the Essay" explores the notions of information collection and connectivity as they occur in the economic sphere and the academic classroom. She argues that "we can't separate writing from the economic sphere" (212). Increasingly even the smallest pieces of information have monetary value attached to them. Many of us no longer buy music, for example, in collections, opting instead to purchase music by the song. Many academic publishers are cracking down on reprints of their intellectual property, even if these reprints are intended for educational purposes. According to Eiola, some publishers have even gone so far as to say "'you need to seek permission to quote even a single word from one of our texts'" (204).

This value associated with the smallest bits of information has huge implications for those of use in the business of writing - teaching, practicing, or otherwise. I think Eiola is right on the mark as she argues that we really do need bring the issue of economic value of intellectual property to the forefront in writing classrooms. The pervasive flow of information in our day-to-day lives makes it increasingly important for citizens to have a keen understanding of managing it all. A knowledge of the value attached to individual pieces of information will play an essential role in the in collections of information that emerge in our daily lives - Web sites, News, Databases, etc. As, Eiola notes, while the creation of original knowledge will continue to have value, the manipulation and collection of existing information towards useful ends will warrant increasing value, perhaps to the point of outshining the creation of original information.

If it seems like I am wandering here towards no particular point, it's because I don't quite have a lucid understanding of this "information" yet. All I know is that when I read this essay, all kinds of lights lit up in my head, all kinds of interesting connections to other cultural phenomena sprung to the forefront of my mind like random electrical sparks. I know that Eiola is on to something, but I struggle to hold that "something" firmly enough to have a good look at it. Perhaps the real value of here essay is in the little details that spark flashes of understanding in my mind as I read.

Perhaps I'll read more and gather more of these lucid flashes so that I might generate a larger dataset to arrange, rearrange and interpret, reinterpret, etc.