Spreadability and Guidance vs Governance

I had a great chat with Sam Ford from MIT about spreadability. Turns out he and Henry Jenkins are writing a book about it, with ideas that overlap significantly with what I’ve been developing over the last six months – and we didn’t know about each other until recently. Funny to see how that happens.

One of the things we talked about is that for something to be spreadable, it has to be guided, not governed.

If a piece of content is governed – heavily guarded and restricted – it can’t be taken into new channels or filter into new areas beyond its original reach.

Ben Huh, who runs ICanHasCheezburger, talks about what makes media spreadable: lower barriers to entry and the lifting of restrictions. He’d know.

The lesson: if you want things to spread, you have to let go.