Sean Royall
Dr. Derek Stanovsky/IDS 3000
Media Convergence
Take a minute to think to yourself, “Where is it that I first go when I get online in the mornings?” It’s probably safe to say that for everyone it is a site based off of media convergence such as Facebook, Youtube, Email, and Weather. No matter where it is, from the time we log on to the internet we are consuming ourselves in some type of media convergence. Today’s internet has become so diverse and useful for so many random important/unimportant places to visit that the creators of the internet probably had no idea would ever happen. Each morning, or as soon as I can get online I go to WWW.PINKBIKE.COM. This site contains a very large assortment of information that deals with mountain biking. What makes this site very interesting is that although it has a large amount of followers; it is not for the average biker or hobbyist but for those who take biking serious. Pinkbike offers places to buy/sell products, open forum to talk about whatever you would like, a picture of the day and video of the day (which is a big attraction to most of its users). What is special about this site is that it brings people from all over the world together for one common interest. I know this is not the only site of this sort, but for the specific information and little things like converting all languages so that everyone can read it and being the first people to introduce new products or information before other biking websites and best of all it is free to all.
Pinkbike.com is made up of participatory culture, community and convergence. Participatory culture takes place by pictures, videos, and forum discussions are all posted by the users. The picture and video of the day are voted on every day by the body of followers Pinkbike has and at the end of the day whatever file has the most votes becomes the next day’s winner. Pinkbike is run by a small group of guys that started the site in 2002, but now they have it monitored but all information that it acquires is posted from its members. In just eight short years Pinkbike has gained almost 400,000 members from all across the globe. Pinkbike has helped many people get into mountain biking as well. Visitors see that stuff bikers are doing now and they get interested in the sport and then once they start biking they always refer back if there are questions they may have about products or how to do to something. In Zuckerman’s reading he discussed how public sites that are for user entertainment are starting to either be blocked in some countries or require paid membership such as Youtube in Pakistan. Pinkbike is a free site, however in the past year they have started a special membership in which the user will have to pay for. Many people were scared that this was a way to slowly make Pinkbike a paid membership site only, which if that were to happen of course there will be a huge decline with who uses their site.
The community in which makes up Pinkbike is unique, there are no age restrictions, users are from countries all over the world, each user has their specific style of mountain biking whether it is dirt jumping, downhill racing, cross country, everyone has their area of expertise. Community aspect of Pinkbike is interesting, seeing how all cultures however different can come together over this one common sport and share ideas/knowledge and almost anything biking related will be covered in the forums.
Convergence on Pinkbike is made up of both participatory culture and community. These two ideas are what make convergence possible, and with Pinkbike this is what the site is all about. I talked about how it was formed by a group of guys who had interest in mountain biking. That is the same today as it was when they formed the website. People from all across the world have converged together to enjoy biking and share with others whatever they please. This is exactly what Jenkins talked about in his article “Worship at the Alter of Convergence.” Jenkins says “Convergence occurs within the brains of individual consumers and through their social interactions with others.” This is exactly what Pinkbike was constructed for.
As long as we continue to use the internet, we will encompass ourselves with its useless websites that are of no importance and random information and as long as it is entertaining to someone those sites will continue to be successful. So get online and waste your time and enjoy the pictures of funny cute cats or whatever it may be that makes you smile.
