Pro-Am Movement

The 20th century was shaped by the rise of professionals. But now a new breed of amateurs has emerged...

It's from Andrew Lih (@fuzheado)'s presentation on Wikisym conference. www.slideshare.net/fuzheado/what-hath-wikipedia-wrought-c... What Hath Wikipedia Wrought: Crowds Remaking the News by Andrew Lih Closing keynote at Wikisym 2010 in Gdansk, Poland. An update on the health of Wikipedia, its implications on the news industry and a description of a new project: Wikifactcheck.

Mass creativity is being driven in part by the resurgence of a new kind of amateur. The Pro Ams love what they do; they are not primarily motivated by money but they want their work judged by high professional standards.

Rap infects all popular culture. The Jubilee campaign led to billions of dollars of developing world debt being written off. Linux is one of the biggest challengers to Microsoft. The Sims is one of the most popular computer games ever. These developments have one thing in common: they were all driven by Pro-Ams, innovative, committed and networked amateurs working to professional standards...

In this deceptively casual talk, Charles Leadbeater weaves a tight argument that innovation isn't just for professionals anymore. Passionate amateurs, using new tools, are creating products and paradigms that companies can't. He describes the rising role of serious amateurs ("Pro-Ams," as he calls them) through the story of the mountain bike.

Amateur professionalism or professional amateurism (shortened to am pro, AmPro, Am-Pro, pro am, ProAm, Pro-Am, etc.) is a socioeconomic concept that describes a blurring of the distinction between professional and amateur within any endeavour or attainable skill that could be labelled professional, whether it is in the field of writing, computer programming, music, film, etc. When speaking of persons, the terms amateur professionals, amateur pros, am pros, professional amateurs, professional ams or pro ams may be used. The idea is distinct from the sports term "pro–am" (professional–amateur), though related to and ultimately derived from it.

The pro-am revolution has reached astronomy! There is a very large crowd that is very enthusiastic about astronomy. GalaxyZoo gives these people the opportunity to put their passion to use. Moreover their input is now scientifically proven to be very valuable. Not only are human eyes much better able to classify galaxies than computers: there seems to be no significant difference in the classification of professional astronomers and the crowds

Charles Leadbeater is a leading thinker on innovation and new leadership thinking. Here he talks to the CMI National Conference about how managers and leaders can develop an innovative and creative company.

Pro-Am activity will continue to expand. Longer healthy life spans will allow people in their forties and fifties to start taking up Pro-Am activities as second careers. Rising participation in education will give people skills to pursue those activities. New media and technology enable Pro-Ams to organize.

The distinction between "professional" producers and "amateurs" is blurring and may in fact be ultimately irrelevant. We make not just what we're paid to make, but also what we want to make. Both can have value. Once, with high barriers to marketplace entry, only the professional work found an audience. But now those barriers are dropping.