When I lecture about the principles of disaggregation, I often use the example of digital photography to explain how "taking things apart" makes things better.
- Digital photography breaks the connection between photographs and media. Digital photographs are not "stuck" to a piece of paper or trapped on a slide.
- The quality of a photograph is no longer related to the "generation" of a photograph. A copy is just as good as the original.
- Cameras no longer require film; they have become small electronic components that appear inside other devices.
In an article [free content] called "The Internet Allows Consumers to Trim Wasteful Purchases," William M. Bulkeley points out an additional important disaggregation: the connection between individual photographs and the roll of film. Unlike a roll of film, which had to be developed all at once, digital photographs are almost always separate files that are easy to copy, save, and print individually. Mr. Bulkeley captured the reason why I purchased my first digital camera:
But customers are happy to pay for new digital cameras because the cameras let them pick the good pictures without having to pay to print out a roll of mostly mediocre shots.Better yet, from my perspective, was the notion that I could take as many photographs as I wanted and see them without having to pay for film and prints; I could take a half-dozen photographs of a person to make certain that at least one would be decent. I happen to believe that an ultimate benefit of digital photography will be, over time, better and better photographers, not just fewer unwanted photographs.
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