John Menick

No (American) movie buff would be complete without IMDb, and the Times today gives a glimpse of the site’s founder, Col Needham. Although the writer of the article finds Needham’s work situation enviable (he works from home, wow), what is more enviable is that his site is still useful and relatively add-free after more than a decade of existence. Even taking into account the Amazon purchase, the ‘IMDb pro’ version, and the bells and whistles, IMDb still feels like a fan site. Following a pattern that Google also enjoys, IMDb nailed one service really well, and has been trying to add something reasonably as good ever since. What the article fails to mentioned is how exactly the site is maintained, because, after all, it wouldn’t be anything without accurate info.

But how accurate is IMDb? And does its ‘populist’ rating system work? The site has become notorious for its ludicrous flame wars among what seem to be two camps: those that would murder for the movie in question, and those that would murder those people in the first camp. Perhaps it’s a problem of fandom rather than technology, but wouldn’t it be impossible to institute a more accurate karma system at IMDb? After all, look at its parent company, Amazon. Reviews are often informative, and are somewhat objective as well. (Forgetting for a moment that the authors themselves usually write the rest of the rather glowing reviews.)

From sites like IMDb to Alternative Reality Gaming, online fan cultism has created a new, more energized form of audience participation, one severely lacking in the visual arts. It’s probable that the bar has been raised in general, and what, two decades ago, would have inspired a quarterly fanzine, now inspires thousands of hours devoted to puzzle deconstruction or amateur fan films. The gap between the relatively staid world of the arts and the frenzy of truly public culture widens even further.

Fine print: What is the most intriguing part of the article is the insinuation that Amazon might be moving to sell downloadable and burnable DVDs in the near future. Will they beat Apple to the punch and finally make DVD-quality films digitally distributable? (Albeit with some ludicrous, and instantly hackable DRM?)